Author Archives: admin
History of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project
Since early 2022, I have been at work on a sequel to The Great Society Subway, covering the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project. This post will feature updates on my research.
Tom Roussey, “Dulles Airport, Metro Officials Celebrate One Millionth Station Customer,” WJLA, October 4, 2023, featuring an interview with me.
Draft comments on January 2023 Draft History and Social Science Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools
[March 14, 2023, 1pm. I may continue to tinker with these before tonight’s public hearing]
Update, March 15, 2023.
Here are my remarks as delivered, just within the 2 minute limit:
And here are the comments I submitted to the online form:
2023-03-15-Zachary-Schrag-Comments-on-January-2023-Draft-History-and-Social-Science-Standards-of-Learning-for-Virginia-Public-SchoolsDownload
Continue reading Comments on Chain Bridge Road-Eaton Place Intersection Improvements
On February 27, 2023, I posted the following comments to the City of Fairfax page soliciting comments comments on proposed Chain Bridge Road/Eaton Place Intersection Improvements
Thank you for hosting the open house on February 22.
I submitted handwritten comments on the paper feedback form, but I would like to elaborate on them here, so others may see them. I wish to emphasize the importance of this intersection to a much larger bicycle network, and to ask for changes to the design that would make it more useful to cyclists.
Continue readingFires of Philadelphia correction: John Colahan’s marriage
On this July 7 (the anniversary of the Battle of Southwark, 1844), I confess to an error on page 222 of The Fires of Philadelphia.
Introducing Captain John Colahan, I wrote that in 1844 he “had connections to Protestant circles, having married Mary Dorothea Zell, daughter of a prominent Quaker merchant.” I based this claim on Charles Morris, ed., Makers of Philadelphia, an Historical Work Giving Sketches of the Most Eminent Citizens of Philadelphia from the Time of William Penn to the Present Day (Philadelphia: L. R. Hamersley, 1894), 70. Morris writes, “Soon after his advent to this city [Colahan] he married Mary Dorothea, daughter of Thomas Zell,” and I took “soon after” to mean less two years after Colahan shows up in Philadelphia in 1842.
Soon after the book was published, Professor Andrew Dinan of Ave Maria University, who is writing about the Kenrick brothers, alerted me to a letter from Francis Patrick Kenrick to his brother Peter, written on July 10, 1844, and noting that Colahan was considering studying for the priesthood. This dates his marriage to some time after July 1844, though I have not pinned down the date.
I am grateful to Professor Dinan for noting this error, and I ask that if anyone else spots a mistake they alert me as he did.
Comments on City of Fairfax, University Drive Bike Facilities Project
September 14, 2021
As a long-time bicycle commuter through the City of Fairfax, I appreciate the intentions behind the proposed University Drive Bike Facilities Project. But I fear that the proposal would do little to improve bicycle travel on University Drive, would create new hazards for bicyclists, and would absorb resources best spent elsewhere in the City.
Continue readingCadwalader at Bull Run—A Counterfactual
For the 160th anniversary of First Bull Run, I offer a not wholly facetious counterfactual, explaining how two Pennsylvania Militia officers, perhaps mere lieutenants, could have shortened the Civil War by nearly four years.
Continue readingUpcoming events
Mon, July 12, 2021
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM EDT at Lost City Books (virtual)
The Fires of Philadelphia by Zachary M. Schrag with guest Tyler Anbinder
Tuesday, August 3, 2021
6:00pm – 7:30pm EDT at A Novel Idea (virtual) The Fires of Philadelphia by Zachary M. Schrag, in conversation with Carly Goodman
Thursday, December 9, 2021
7pm EDT. Library Company of Philadelphia, Fireside Chats (online) Historians’ Methods and Philadelphia’s Nativist Riots
New in 2021: The Princeton Guide to Historical Research and The Fires of Philadelphia
I have two books scheduled for publication in 2021.
In April, Princeton University Press published my book, The Princeton Guide to Historical Research, a manual for writing history in the twenty-first century. Through August 31, 2021, use the code ZS30 to get a 30 percent discount. The book is also available as an ebook or an audiobook.
In June, Pegasus Books will publish The Fires of Philadelphia: Citizen-Soldiers, Nativists, and the 1844 Riots Over the Soul of a Nation, a narrative history of America’s first great urban riot.
I am grateful to all who helped bring these books into the world.
The Genealogy of Lewis C. Levin
I didn’t want to spend a lot of space in my book explaining why I believe that Lewis C. Levin was the son of the Lewis Levin Sr. buried in the Coming Street Cemetery, but here is my evidence and reasoning for those who are interested.
