Dear SHEAR Friends and Colleagues,

We are writing to let you know about some exciting changes to take place with the Journal of the Early Republic editorial team and to thank some truly wonderful editorial teammates and friends for their extraordinary service.  We are delighted to announce that Lindsay Schakenbach Regele, Associate Professor of History at Miami University, will be joining us in July as the new Book Reviews Editor!  In addition to numerous excellent essays, Lindsay is the author of Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776-1848 (Johns Hopkins, 2019).  All of that is well known by any SHEAR member with the good sense to keep up with Lindsay’s important and trenchant scholarship.  Not as noticeable, but well known to your editors, is that Lindsay has been an extraordinary supporter of the JER and an exemplary SHEAR member.  Never saying no, Lindsay has provided thoughtful and incisive book reviews and pointed and valuable peer reviews of manuscripts showing that she is as good a reviewer and editor as she is a scholar.  We are delighted to have this opportunity to recognize Lindsay and to work with her.  Lindsay, welcome aboard!

Lindsay’s appointment will start gradually beginning in July and she will take on the position fully in January 2022.  Lindsay’s staggered start is due to a blessed and joyful event to take place at the end of this summer in the Schakenbach Regele household, an event that also provides an opportunity to extol the efforts and talents of current Co-Book Reviews Editor Whitney Martinko.  Partnering with Jess Roney, Whitney has maintained and expanded the excellence for which the journal’s reviews section is justly known.  Whitney has also been a crucial collaborator and contributor to sections of the journal beyond the Reviews and has played an essential role in the conception of our new features “Critical Engagements” and “Engaging Historiography,” which will debut in the upcoming Summer and Fall issues respectively.  Whitney is one of the most generous people we have worked with, and one proof of that is that she has readily agreed to remain past her appointment and to continue to serve as Book Reviews Editor from July through January.  Whitney’s generosity will allow Lindsay the time she needs to fully take on her new duties as part of the editorial team and will ensure a smooth and seamless transition.  Thank you Whitney!

The only sad note in this announcement would be having to say goodbye to Jess Roney, who has already voluntarily served one year longer than her appointment as Co-Book Reviews Editor, but who will be leaving that position this July.  And yet, there are no sad notes (and how is that for a refreshing change).  For Jess is moving only a very short distance and in July will take up her new position at the JER as Associate Editor for “Critical Engagements.”  We will be announcing and advertising this exciting new feature to the Journal in the coming weeks.  We could not ask for a better person to head up this new feature, which will bring scholarly and historical perspective and engagement to a range of contemporary concerns and questions.  “Critical Engagements” will also see the JER doing much more to regularly interact with its online platform Panorama, so expertly edited and produced by Will Mackintosh, and with our digital media presence, so effectively overseen and “voiced” by Nora Slominsky.  As Associate Editor, Jess will work closely and coordinate with Will and Nora as she also works with the editors to develop and bring to print scholarly work for the journal.  Please join us in welcoming Lindsay, thanking Whitney and Jess for all they have done and are doing, and thanking Will and Nora, the longest serving members of our team (including the editors), who provide the most constant reminder of the vital and important work done by the JER and the SHEAR members who make it possible.

Johann Neem, Co-Editor, Journal of the Early Republic

Andy Shankman, Co-Editor, Journal of the Early Republic