The editorial staff is pleased to present the premier issue of the Madison Historical Review. The Review was created in order to allow graduate students from throughout the nation to present their ideas and to receive criticism and encouragement from their peers, as well as from scholars in various fields of inquiry. Since June of the past year, we have been working to design a format that is both easily accessible and conducive to interaction and dialogue from our readers. Therefore, we encourage your responses, concerning both the papers within, and the comments and criticism of those papers.

The current issue features three articles by authors attending the University of South Carolina and Clemson University, and a graduate of the Masters program at Ohio State University. We on the editorial staff hope that you enjoy our new publication, and we hope that you allow the authors presented herein the benefit of your critique.