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 […]
#whystudyhistory
Is the world getting more dangerous?
Jonathan Last, the editor of the The Bulwark, thinks so. In his recent piece he focuses on anti-mask violence and a potential coup in Brazil. Is Last right? Is the world indeed getting more dangerous? I am not sure how […]
Erin Bartram does history
Longtime listeners of The Way of Improvement Leads Home Podcast may remember our interview with historian Erin Bartram in Episode 37: “Should You Go Grad School?” In that episode we discussed Bartram’s February 2018 blog post “The Sublimated Grief of […]
Why do we HAVE to study history?
I love this:
Snyder: “The war on history is a war on democracy”
Yale historian Timothy Snyder sees a lot of similarities between the discussion of race happening right now in American schools and the 20th-century European totalitarianism regimes thought about the past. Here is a taste of his piece The New York […]
Marjorie Taylor Greene apologizes for comparing mask mandates to Holocaust
Watch: I don’t know what is really going on here, but I will give Greene the benefit of the doubt. I am encouraged that she changed her mind after visiting the Holocaust Museum. She learned some history today, and that […]
Historian Steven Mintz reimagines the U.S. survey
There is a lot in this piece at Inside Higher Ed. Here is a small taste: What should we do? The first step is to clarify, in our own minds, what students ought to get out of these survey courses. […]
Jim Grossman: “If people are fighting about history, that shows that it’s important.”
Over at NBC News, Kelly Fields wonders if critical race theory and patriotism can co-exist in classrooms. I would argue that they can co-exist. But the piece also makes a good case for the study of history and civics. Here […]
Out of the Zoo: American Girls
Annie Thorn is senior 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 a […]
Recruiting humanities majors
Here is an e-mail I received today about a wonderful resource from the National Humanities Alliance: The National Humanities Alliance is pleased to announce the release of Strategies for Recruiting Students to the Humanities: A Comprehensive Resource! This resource, grounded in […]
Should historians provide comfort in troubled times?
Ashley Bowen, the editor of Perspectives in History, raises some good points about the role of historians in public life. Here is a taste of her piece at Inside Higher Ed: Historians have been in the position of providing context […]
The San Francisco Board of Education and the “Just-the-Facts-Fallacy”
Last week we called your attention to a decision by the San Francisco Board of Education’s decision to rename forty-four schools. I titled that post “When a school board ignores history.” Now Jonathan Zimmerman of the University of Pennsylvania has […]
When historians on the Left and the Right engage in “the pleasures of condemnation”
Yesterday I wrote about the White House’s conference on American history. Read that post here. Conservatives are cheering the event. Those on the Left–particularly academic historians–are trashing the event. There are a lot of reasons to be critical about what […]
What is historical contingency?
Parts of this post are based on my book Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past. In a recent piece at The Atlantic, Yale historian Joanne Freeman writes about Hamilton: The Musical: It has also gained new relevance over time, promoting […]
Moral reflection in the doing and teaching of history (part two). Or is *Believe Me* a work of history?
Read part one here. This post is adapted from Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past. Here are five suggestions for those who want to pursue Robert Gleason’s idea that the historian should always ask whether or not […]
Moral reflection in the doing and teaching of history (part one)
This post is adapted from Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past. Should historians cast judgment on the past? Is this part of their vocation? Some believe that the past must be critiqued from the perspective of Christian […]
How does a historian think about the past?
Adapted from Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past: The past is everywhere. Take some time to think about the many ways you have encountered the past today. Perhaps you shared a memory with a family member or […]
Christian historians and sin
A lot of people in the media today, especially those in the Trump camp, are talking about American greatness. Many evangelical Christians, who last time I checked believed in the existence of human sin, want to ignore their country’s past […]
Christian historians and the “imago Dei”
Earlier today I posted on the politicization of the Judeo-Christian belief that human beings are created in the image of God. In this post, I want to cover how a belief in the imago Dei informs how I do history. […]
When the Supreme Court engages in bad history
Willamette University law professor and historian Steven K. Green makes a compelling case that the Supreme Court was “sloppy” in its use of history in the recent Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue decision. Here is a taste of his […]