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...
complexity
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...
Teaching the complexity of the past
Providence (RI) Journal is running a short op-ed from historian Erik Chaput on the teaching of history in these difficult times in the history of our country. It’s worth a read. A taste: It is precisely because we are living...
Thinking historically about Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech
A lot of conservatives liked Trump’s speech on Friday night. I am told that The Wall Street Journal gave it a positive review. I commented on the speech here, but I thought I would say a few more things about Trump’s...
On complexity and revisionism in the doing of history
From Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past: On complexity: Historians realize that the past is complex. Human behavior does not easily conform to our present-day social, cultural, political, religious, or economic categories. Take Thomas Jefferson for example....
Wilfred McClay on Historical Monuments
Whether you agree or disagree with him, Wilfred McClay is always thoughtful. If I see his byline at First Things or another conservative outlet, I will always read the article. As one of America’s best conservative historians (not a historian...
Obama on Being Woke: “That’s not activism. That’s not bringing about change”
Watch: HT...
Out of the Zoo: The 5 C’s of Christianity
Annie Thorn is a sophomore history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan and our intern here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. As part of her internship she is writing a weekly column titled “Out of the Zoo.” It focuses on life as...
24 Hours With Kansas History Educators
This weekend (Sunday and Monday) I made my first visit to Wichita, Kansas. The Kansas Council of History Education (KCHE) invited me to deliver the keynote address at their annual meeting. It was held this year on the campus of...
Are Conservatives Unable to Deal with the Complexity of American History?
The responses to the 1619 Project sure make it look that way. Complexity, of course, is one of the 5 Cs of historical thinking. Over at Slate, Rebecca Onion traces the conservative backlash to The New York Times project back to...
*Why Study History*-Inspired Bulletin Boards
I love it! High school and middle school history teachers are reading Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past and finding bulletin board material. Matt, a seventh-grade history teaching in Illinois, posts this (with additional inspiration from Stanford...
How is David Garrow’s MLK Article Faring Today?
We are starting to hear from historians and others on today’s David Garrow’s Standpoint piece on Martin Luther’s King’s moral indiscretions. I linked to the article here and blogged about it last night. Here is some news/commentary on Garrow’s piece that we...
Historian: When it Comes to Monuments, “Nuance” and “Complexity” Connects Us All
Carey Latimore is a scholar of African-American history who chairs the Department of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Over at the website of the San Antonio Express-News, Latimore explains why it may not be a good idea to pull down...
Utah Senator Mike Lee’s Failed Attempt at American History
Over at Politico, Utah Senator Mike Lee, the author of a new book on the Anti-Federalists titled Written Out of History: The Forgotten Founders Who Fought Big Government, warns against using history to “seek out confirmation for our pre-existing beliefs.” He...
Michael Roth on What the U.S. Would Look Like Without Liberal Education
Michael Roth, the president of Wesleyan College (and a historian, I might add), is the author of the brand new book, Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters. In his recent piece at Inside Higher Ed he tries to imagine a...