Participant Info
- First Name
- Cassandra
- Last Name
- Good
- Country
- United States
- State
- shu@marymount.edu
- Affiliation
- Marymount University
- Website URL
- https://cassandragoodhistorian.com/
- Keywords
- early republic, founding era, gender, family, friendship, politics, material culture, George Washington, public history
- Availability
- Media Contact
- Additional Contact Information
- Note that email goes to my department, not personal, address.
- PhD
- PhD
Personal Info
- Photo
- About Me
Cassandra Good serves as an Associate Professor of History at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She was formerly the Associate Editor of the Papers of James Monroe at the University of Mary Washington. She received her PhD in history from the University of Pennsylvania and her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in American Studies from George Washington University. Her area of expertise is late eighteenth through nineteenth century America with particular focus on politics, gender and cultural history. She also has experience in museums, new media, and public history through her work at the Smithsonian Institution. Her first book, Founding Friendships, is now available from Oxford University Press. It received the Organization of American Historians’ Mary Jurich Nickliss Prize in U.S. women’s and/or gender history in 2016.
Her latest book, First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America, is now available from Hanover Square Press (an imprint of Harper Collins). The book tells the story of Washington’s step-grandchildren, the Custises, who achieved fame as the nation’s first “first family.” The Custis family story – long overlooked – parallels America’s story in its first century: military triumph and tragedy; democracy and old aristocratic ties; visions of liberty alongside the horrors of slavery. The book was named a finalist for the 2024 George Washington Prize.
She is currently at work on a study of women and politics in antebellum America.
- Recent Publications
First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America (Hanover Square, an imprint of Harper Collins, 2023)
“Defining the Family of Washington: Meaning, Blood, and Power in the New American Nation,” Journal of Social History, Summer 2022
“Washington Family Fortune: Lineage and Capital in Nineteenth Century America,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Winter 2020
Founding Friendships: Friendships between Men and Women in the Early American Republic (Oxford University Press, 2015; paper, 2017)
Papers of James Monroe, Volume 6: 1811-1814, edited with Daniel Preston (ABC-Clio, 2017)
“What Did George Washington Think About Nepotism?,” History News Network, April 16, 2017
“The Sole American Killed in the 1814 Burning of DC was Related to George Washington,” Smithsonian.com, December 8, 2016
“Hair Jewelry Celebrating a Presidential Friendship,” Mental Floss Show & Tell, July 22, 2016
“How Early-19th-Century Students Cemented Their Bonds Through Friendship Albums,” Slate Vault, May 6, 2016
“Comb Through This Framed Collection of Presidential Hair,” Smithsonian.com, February 9, 2016
“The Flirtatious Friendship of Alexander Hamilton and Angelica Church Hits Broadway,” OUP Blog, November 17, 2015
- Media Coverage
- https://cassandragoodhistorian.com/press/
- Social Media
- @cgoodhistorian
- Country Focus
- United States
- Expertise by Geography
- United States
- Expertise by Chronology
- 18th century, 19th century
- Expertise by Topic
- American Founding Era, Family, Gender, Politics, Public History, Women
