This body of work began as a series of 'New Approaches to History' courses taught at SUNY Plattsburgh between 1986 and 1993. Taught mainly as honors seminars, these courses provided undergraduates with valuable experience in basic research methods, encouraged them to make use of local primary sources, and inspired them to write scholarly essays. Their works, collected here, explore the social, economic, and ethnic currents that characterized northeastern New York in the late 19th to early 20th centuries.