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#whystudyhistory

Studying history with nuance and context: some advice to graduate students

Daniel K. Williams   |  February 16, 2023

Last weekend I gave a keynote address at a graduate history conference on power and struggle that was organized by students at the University of Alabama. I encouraged the graduate students to embrace complexity and nuance in their historical study,...

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What I love about James Sweet’s piece on presentism

John Fea   |  August 22, 2022

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...

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The James Sweet/AHA blowup

John Fea   |  August 21, 2022

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...

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A guy on TikTok explains why history degrees aren’t useless

John Fea   |  April 5, 2022

He goes by the handle @Scootcork and his TikTok post is apparently going viral. Watch: @scootcork #stitch with @education.forum dude is just salty that there isn’t an NFT major #history #usa #college #teacher #ushistory ♬ Love You So – The...

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The House select committee on January 6th would do well to have some historians on its staff

John Fea   |  January 21, 2022

Earlier this week the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s request to stop the January 6th committee from obtaining access to White House records related to the insurrection. The National Archives has sent the material to the House and the committee...

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The editors of The Christian Century ask: “Why do we need to teach history?”

John Fea   |  November 3, 2021

The Christian Century tackles a Texas bill that forbids the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 Project. Here is a taste of its editorial: How should the story of our country be told? It says that schools should...

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The “Umbrella Man” is back

John Fea   |  September 13, 2021

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...

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Is the world getting more dangerous?

John Fea   |  September 9, 2021

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...

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Erin Bartram does history

John Fea   |  September 7, 2021

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...

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Why do we HAVE to study history?

John Fea   |  July 30, 2021

I love this:...

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Snyder: “The war on history is a war on democracy”

John Fea   |  June 30, 2021

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...

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Marjorie Taylor Greene apologizes for comparing mask mandates to Holocaust

John Fea   |  June 14, 2021

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...

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Historian Steven Mintz reimagines the U.S. survey

John Fea   |  June 8, 2021

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....

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Jim Grossman: “If people are fighting about history, that shows that it’s important.”

John Fea   |  June 1, 2021

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...

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Out of the Zoo: American Girls

Annie Thorn   |  March 10, 2021

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...

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Recruiting humanities majors

John Fea   |  March 8, 2021

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...

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Should historians provide comfort in troubled times?

John Fea   |  February 4, 2021

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...

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The San Francisco Board of Education and the “Just-the-Facts-Fallacy”

John Fea   |  February 2, 2021

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...

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When historians on the Left and the Right engage in “the pleasures of condemnation”

John Fea   |  September 22, 2020

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...

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What is historical contingency?

John Fea   |  August 18, 2020

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...

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