Paul Escott is Reynolds Professor of History Emeritus at Wake Forest University. This interview is based on his new book, Black Suffrage: Lincoln’s Last Goal (University of Virginia Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write Black Suffrage? PE: My two […]
Search Results for: So What Can You Do With a History major
The roots of our school wars
Over at Politico, historian Joshua Zeitz traces the roots of our school battles to the 1925 Scopes Trial. Here is a taste: At first glance, today’s school wars seem like a cut and dried case of modernity versus tradition, secularism […]
The Author’s Corner with Josiah Rector
Josiah Rector is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Houston. This interview is based on his new book, Toxic Debt: An Environmental Justice History of Detroit (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write […]
Consumer Capture
Our rights don’t come from companies. They come from being citizens.
The Author’s Corner with Brendan J. J. Payne
Brendan J. J. Payne is Assistant Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at North Greenville University. This interview is based on his new book, Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow: Prohibition and the Transformation of Racial and […]
Christian Nationalisms, Easter Risings
Early visions for Catholic Ireland provide a counterpoint to today’s rhetoric about “Christian America”
DC DISPATCH: Dare to Discipline
The sorry case of Madison Cawthorn raises a question: Exactly what line did he cross?
Party Like It’s 1789
The Founders’ fears of political parties seem more than justified today
The Author’s Corner with Sam Redman
Sam Redman is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Public History Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This interview is based on his new book, The Museum: A Short History of Crisis and Resilience (NYU Press, 2022). […]
The Author’s Corner with Edward Pompeian
Edward Pompeian is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Tampa. This interview is based on his new book, Sustaining Empire: Venezuela’s Trade with the United States during the Age of Revolutions, 1797–1828 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022). JF: […]
Why the McCarthy anti-Trump audio won’t hurt him politically
In case you missed it, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said some negative things about his supreme commander, Donald Trump, in the immediate wake of the January 6, 2022 insurrection. To quote the New Republic e-mail blast I received yesterday, […]
Are humanities scholars engaged in too much activism?
Today I recorded Episode 100 of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast. It will drop on Sunday with the title “Christian Historians as Activists?” I have no guest for this episode. Instead, I use the episode to redeliver my […]
The Author’s Corner with Sarah Purcell
Sarah Purcell is L.F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College. This interview is based on her new book, Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2022). JF: What led […]
The Author’s Corner with Mark Noll
Mark Noll is retired Professor of History at Wheaton College and the University of Notre Dame. This interview is based on his new book, America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911 (Oxford University Press, 2022). JF: What […]
The return of Ben Franklin
Historian Joseph Adelman calls our attention to a small Ben Franklin revival. Here is his piece at Slate: Benjamin Franklin is having a moment. For decades he has hovered on the periphery of popular representations of the American founding. This […]
If I stop blogging, it will be because of what Elizabeth Corey says in this piece
I am not planning on shutting down The Way of Improvement Leads Home anytime soon, but I admit that I have been tempted, and yielded to the temptations, of everything Elizabeth Corey writes about in her recent piece at National […]
Wiebe Boer will be the new president of Calvin University. He is a historian.
What can you do with a history major? Become the CEO of a renewal energy investment company in Nigeria and be the 11th president of Calvin University. Boer has a Ph.D in history from Yale where he studied West African […]
Salon covers Hillsdale College’s outsized influence on K-12 education
Yesterday the left-leaning Salon stated a three-part series on Hillsdale College’s influence on local school boards. Here is a taste of Part 1: The mood in Costa Mesa on Feb. 2 was more love bomb than fire bomb: yet another […]
The Author’s Corner with Gene Zubovich
Gene Zubovich is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Buffalo. This interview is based on his new book, Before the Religious Right: Liberal Protestants, Human Rights, and the Polarization of the United States (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). JF: […]
The Author’s Corner with David Sehat
David Sehat is Professor of History at Georgia State University. This interview is based on his new book, This Earthly Frame: The Making of American Secularism (Yale University Press, 2022). JF: What led you to write This Earthly Frame? DS: […]