Here is AHA Executive Director Jim Grossman: The Florida Board of Education approved new standards of instruction in African American history on July 19, 2023. A firestorm of protest erupted immediately from a range of public figures (including the vice president of...
Over at The Atlantic, David Frum revisits James Sweet’s column at the Perspectives on History. I covered this controversy about history and presentism in a way that was favorable to Sweet’s position. See these posts: The James Sweet/AHA blowup What...
Read the full list here. Here are a few that caught my eye: The Albert J. Beveridge Award in the history of the United States, Latin America, or Canada, from 1492 to the present: Roberto Saba (Wesleyan Univ.) for American Mirror: The United...
Back in 2002 I met Larry Schweikart. He was a professor of history at the University of Dayton. I was interviewing for a job in the history department at the University of Dayton. He may have even been on the...
Not familiar with this controversy? Get up to speed here. Here is a taste of Will’s Washington Post column: “In the sandbox also known as academic, it’s the golden age of the grovel“: Today, many academic historians, writing history “that...
In the wake of AHA president’s James Sweet’s “controversial” column in Historical Perspectives, David Bell of Princeton and Joan Scott of the Institute of Advanced Study have responded at The Chronicle of Higher Education. (See our coverage here and here...
Historian Thomas Mackaman, writing at the publication of the world Trotskyist movement, has some pointed words for the American Historical Association president James Sweet and his critics. Get up to speed on the controversy here and here. Here is a...
I wanted to get these tweets on record here at the blog. Also, some readers of the blog are not Twitter. I’m not going to go into background, but I encourage you to get up to speed here. Again, I...
I commented on Sweet’s piece here and here (including a long comment below the post). I thought it was well-done and a necessary reminder that the American Historical Association is made up of many historians, including those who are not...
James H. Sweet is correct. Historians these days seem more interested in interpreting the past through the lens of the present. Here is a taste of his piece at Perspectives: Twenty years ago, in these pages, Lynn Hunt argued “against...
In this episode, our 100th, host John Fea redelivers his 2022 Conference on Faith and History presidential address. Listen at: Apple Podcasts Stitcher iHeartRadio Spotify Podchaser Podbean The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast is a product of Current. If you...
Here is more from the American Historical Association website: To date, at least 14 states have passed legislation prohibiting the teaching of concepts associated with race and slavery in the United States. At least another 16 states have similar bills...
From the AHA website: The American Historical Association condemns in the strongest terms former President Donald J. Trump’s reported extensive and repeated violations of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978. The PRA requires that: Through the implementation of records...
Here is the latest on the AHA meeting in New Orleans. I received this in my inbox yesterday: The AHA is carefully monitoring the news about the Omicron variant, particularly in the New Orleans area, as COVID-19 numbers spiral around...
I currently serve as Vice President of the Conference and Faith and History. (I become president in the Fall). I am proud to say that the Conference is one of the scholarly organizations who are condemning laws limiting teaching on...
Our culture war is rooted in competing perceptions of the American past. Here is Peter Burkholder of Fairleigh Dickinson University and Dana Schaffer of the American Historical Association at Time: Our recent national survey of people’s understandings and uses of...
Here are a few that might be of interest to readers of The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Award for Scholarly Distinction: David Levering Lewis, New York University. Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award: Robert D. Johnson, University of Illinois at...
Here it is: On September 17, the White House announced, “In commemoration of Constitution Day, President Trump will travel to the National Archives to participate in a discussion on the liberal indoctrination of America’s youth through the 1619 Project, Critical...
If you are teaching history online this semester, the AHA has gathered a lot of excellent resources here....
No, it is really cancelled, as in “not taking place.” 🙂 It looks like I am not going to Seattle in January. Here is the AHA letter sent today to its affiliate societies: Dear Colleagues After careful deliberation, the American...
