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History

Why don’t more theology students take history courses?

John Fea   |  April 18, 2023

At the school where I teach there are ample opportunities for students to shape their intellectual experience through a double “major” or a “minor” or two. Just the other day, for example, I was talking to one of my academic...

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On the “fuzzy border” between history and journalism

John Fea   |  March 17, 2023

As a trained historian who serves as the co-founder and executive editor of an online website of opinion, I resonated with New York Times reporter Clay Risen’s recent piece at Perspctives on History: “Professional Crafts: The Fuzzy Border between History...

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Mintz: History should be relevant, but not at the expense of nuance and complexity.

John Fea   |  January 26, 2023

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...

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History in crisis

John Fea   |  January 3, 2023

Historian Jon Lauck‘s editorial at Middle West Review has been making the rounds on social media. The piece is behind a paywall, but here are the first couple of paragraphs: You can see it in the empty chairs. History conferences...

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Roots

John Fea   |  December 7, 2022

Every year in my United States history survey course we spend three or four class periods talking about the meaning of democracy in antebellum America. During a small seminar I introduce students to Alexis De Tocqueville, the author of Democracy...

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The American Historical Association announces 2022 prize winners

John Fea   |  October 26, 2022

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...

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Jelani Cobb: “I would like to see our graduates walking out the door with 50 years of contextual knowledge on the beats they cover”

John Fea   |  October 14, 2022

This is what you get when you hire an American historian to run a school of journalism. Historian and New Yorker writer Jelani Cobb is the new dean of Columbia School of Journalism. What a great pick! Here is a...

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Eric Foner: “We can’t accept the principle that the way to judge a course of study is by how much money you will make.”

John Fea   |  September 19, 2022

Eric Foner reflects on his life as a historian in this interview with Nawal Arjini at New York Review of Books. A taste: Nawal Arjini: How did you come to specialize in Civil War history? Eric Foner: When I was in college in...

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Do you need help with history grant writing?

John Fea   |  August 16, 2022

Check out this webinar sponsored by the Organization of American Historians: This webinar will help historians connect their existing aptitudes and skills to the process of institutional grant writing. Historians already engage in most of the common doings of the...

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Abortion, the Supreme Court, and the uses of history

John Fea   |  July 5, 2022

Below is a taste of Carlos Lozado’s piece at The Washington Post. It is one of the better things I have read on Dobbs. …One of the sharpest divides in the Supreme Court’s abortion rulings is over history — what...

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Why history matters

John Fea   |  May 31, 2022

Over at Inside Higher Ed, historian Steven Mintz reflects on Richard Cohen’s Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past. The entire piece is definitely worth your time. Here is a taste: In 1879, Albion W. Tourgée anonymously published a...

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Why do we HAVE to study history?

John Fea   |  July 30, 2021

I love this:...

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Is revisionist history “fiction”? Yes, if you are a Texas conservative.

John Fea   |  July 3, 2021

Kevin Roberts is the Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He has a Ph.D in American history from the University of Texas. His 2003 dissertation was titled “Slaves and slavery in Louisiana: The Evolution of Atlantic World...

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Class of 2021: What’s in your toolbox?

John Fea   |  May 27, 2021

Historian David Perry offers some advice to the class of 2021: We understand more or less the science of viruses, of germ theory, of infection. We know how to quarantine and that it works, and with modern telecommunications, quarantine didn’t...

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The Tampa Bay Times rejects “just the facts” history

John Fea   |  May 22, 2021

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...

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“84% of Republicans believe history should celebrate our nation’s past, while 70% of Democrats think history should question it”

John Fea   |  April 30, 2021

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...

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How will Wheaton College remember that Jim Elliott used the word “savage” to describe the Auca tribe?

John Fea   |  March 23, 2021

I understand Wheaton College’s decision to change this plaque. It is probably the right move. Here is Megan Fowler at Christianity Today; More than 65 years after two of its alumni were killed in what became the most famous example...

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When a school board ignores history

John Fea   |  January 29, 2021

The San Francisco Unified School District will change the name of 44 schools that honor historical figures, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere, Winfield Scott, Edward Everett, Thomas Edison, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Francis Scott Key, Diane...

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Did you pick-up the “Hamilton” reference in Amanda Gorman’s inauguration poem?

John Fea   |  January 21, 2021

Watch: I saw Gorman on CNN last night talking about the Hamilton reference. It comes at the 3:20 mark. Hint. Technically, there was one more Hamilton reference. Hint: Micah 4:4....

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Gordon-Reed: “There are far more dangerous threats to history” than the removal of monuments

John Fea   |  June 23, 2020

What should we do with Confederate monuments? Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed offers her thoughts at The Harvard Gazette: Gordon-Reed on whether the removal of Confederate statues dishonors the memory of those who died fighting for the Confederacy: I would...

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