I am teaching my history course on the “Age of Hamilton” this semester. In between the first and second class periods I asked the students to watch Lin Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical Hamilton. On the second day of class we […]
complexity
“I began to feel like there’s a lot that not’s being said and a lot that’s not being written”
The one thing that I did start doing that year (2020) was talk on the phone. I’ve never been a phone talker, but, of course, that’s all you had for a while. And I would have long conversations on the […]
What is an intellectual? Some thoughts on Ibram X. Kendi’s piece in The Atlantic
In his recent piece at The Atlantic, Ibram X. Kendi describes how he has “struggled over what it means to be an intellectual.” Kendi is a National Book Award winner and a leading proponent of anti-racism from his perch aa […]
Mintz: History should be relevant, but not at the expense of nuance and complexity.
Check out Steven Mintz’s piece at Inside Higher Ed. Anyone who reads this blog will know that I agree with him. I’ve staked a lot on Mintz’s claim in the title of this post A taste: I understand that at […]
The “Umbrella Man” is back
Tonight is the first night of content in my “Introduction to History” course. I love using this video to teach historical thinking, especially causality, complexity, and contingency: I discuss how I use this video on page 10-11 in Why Study […]
The Tampa Bay Times rejects “just the facts” history
History teaching begins with facts. But history teaching that stops with “just the facts” is not history teaching. Historians think about “what happened” in context. They think about facts in relations to other facts, leading them to tell complex stories […]