Dr. History

Cheating - How to Not Take It Personally

2011-12-15T10:42:00.004-05:00

I caught 3 cheaters this semester and I had to remind myself not to take it personally. Let's face it, cheaters typically aren't trying 'one up' their professors by cheating. They are usually just looking for the easy way out of doing the work, trying to get more favorable odds for doing well on an assignment, or chronic procrastinators who feel like the don't have time to do the assignment without cheating. Nevertheless, when most professors catch someone cheating they see it as a sign of personal disrespect or harm done to them. Instead, you probably need to take a step back - take a deep breath - and remember that the cheated has not just metaphorically 'flipped you the bird.'

This isn't to say cheating shouldn't be taken seriously. It should be. However, it is serious not because of what it has DONE to the professor, it is serious because of the harm it can do to those classmates who didn't cheat and might get a lower grade because of it. It also harms the cheater himself/herself since they are not getting the full benefit of the education they are paying for.

Cheaters can not be ignored, they must be dealt with, they must face the serious consequences of their actions, but not so you can retaliate for them hurting you. It must be dealt with so that those who do the hard work on acquiring an education benefit from that work more than those who attempt to avoid the work.

Some Standards Please

2011-11-22T09:42:00.002-05:00

An open letter to my fellow faculty members:

I am sick of students complaining that I am holding a class the day before a holiday, because YOU cancelled class.

I am sick of students wanting to know why my final isn’t ‘voluntary’ because YOU made your final ‘voluntary’.

I am sick of students complaining that there is too much reading for my class because YOU don’t assign much reading.

I am sick of students not doing the reading for my class because YOU didn’t hold them accountable for what you assigned.

I am sick of students complaining about their papers being graded for grammar because YOU don’t require high standards.

I am sick of students coming by my office with questions about your classes because YOU never manage to make it to office hours.

I am sick of students dropping my course when they learn about the 12-15 page research paper because YOU never assign anything longer than 3-5 pages.

I am sick of students not knowing how to write an essay exam because YOU only give multiple choice and short answer questions.

I am sick of students begging to watch a film in my class because YOU always show movies.

I am sick of students shopping around for the easiest courses because YOU give out all As.

I am sick of students texting in class and surfing the internet on their laptops because YOU don’t require them to put their phones/computers away before lecture starts.

I am sick of students thinking plagiarizing and cheating is no big deal, because YOU can’t be bothered to report them to the Provost.

I am sick of students not knowing what a scholarly source is because YOU never assign research papers.

Is it too much to expect a little help from my fellow faculty in maintaining some high standards for students?

Semester's Over

2011-05-10T15:24:00.003-04:00

The semester is over and now it is time to clean up. I'm giving myself a week for clean-up tasks (putting away old notes, clearing out emails, returning overdue library books, etc.). So far things aren't going super fast. But I do have some excuses: Yesterday, I wasn't finished with grading drama until 11:00 a.m. and it was faculty/staff appreciation lunch. Then today I had to sit in on a Promotion and Tenure workshop from 10:30-2.

Nevertheless, things are starting to slowly get put away. So far I've managed to:

1. Put final exams in a drawer to be shredded 6 months from now.
2. Pulled out the final of a kid who wants to know why he got a C on the final.
3. Made new folders for info on department web page/department report that I still need to write.
4. Sent out some departmental emails of things we need to clear up before summer is in full swing.
5. Lots more to do tomorrow.

AHA Memories

2011-01-07T10:24:00.002-05:00

I'm not at the AHA Conference this year - woot! Ur... not that going to the AHA conference is painful - but it usually is. I'm sort of at the meeting in spirit, however, since I had to write a report to be presented at the board meeting of one of my organizations. Hopefully, there won't be big questions about it.

I am glad that HNN does great little updates about what is going on at the meeting. It's nice to see what I am/not missing. Unfortunately, the news on day one sounds particularly painful with a horrible market awaiting those people who are job hunting. It does give me high hopes that we'll be successful in our search and maybe get someone so good that we can make a pitch to the administration to turn it into a tenure track job.

The other thing that not being at the AHA Conference allows me to do is reflect back on some of my (least) favorite conference memories:

1. Skipping sessions one day to try and get into the debates being held in about Clinton's impeachment. (I was unsuccessful.)
2. Being 15 minutes late to my first EVER job interview at the AHA. :(
3. Being on a panel with some great but oblivious guys while being 8.5 months pregnant.
4. Running into that jerk from grad school and having him admit that he was a jerk in grad school.
5. Hanging out at a bar with my advisor from grad school and another of her former students and gossiping about department politics while slowly getting drunk.
6. Hanging out with old grad school friends to watch our ph.d. institution get trounced in a bowl game.
7. Attending an anti-war sing-a-long hosted by the peace history society.

I'm still trying to decide whether to apply to present a paper at the conference in 2012. Chicago in the winter really isn't much fun, but it is close to my old stomping grounds so there is a chance of running into lots of former friends.

You Want Me to Chair the Search Committee - Seriously?!

2011-01-05T11:04:00.004-05:00

For the first time in WAY TOO long, my department gets to conduct a search. I was very psyched about it at first. After all what better indication of my accomplishments as chair than attaining this 'plum' for the department. My joy, unfortunately, quickly faded. Just as I was getting ready to ask one of my senior colleagues to run the search, the Dean informed me that I should be the chair of the committee. *Sigh*

So, like any good academic, I started my preparations for this new task by doing research about what makes a good search and what pitfalls I should avoid. I talked to the Dean, talked to the last person in our department who chaired a search, talked to the Human Resources staff, and talked to the department secretary. That got me through writing and posting the ad. Now, however, I face a big list of deadlines that have to be set, schedules that have to be worked around, and a host of other details to take care of. Luckily, the Chronicle has a few articles that might help.

1. Attention Search Committees
2. The Slip Ups of Search Committees
3. How to Conduct a Successful Search
4. How to Conduct a Successful Search II

All this information has at least given some things to think about, including two things I never considered before. 1. Having some sort of committee-wide 'grading rubric' for candidates (3 points if you are from a top 20 institution, 2 if you are from a top 50, 1 if you are in the top 100). I'm not sure about this, but I'm at least going to look into it more. And 2. Wiki Jobs for History. Very cool for candidates and not so bad for me. I can at least see where in the process other institutions are and how our position/search stacks up against others being conducted this year.

Semester Goals

2010-08-27T23:53:00.001-04:00

In an effort to live a more balanced and well-ordered life this semester I set some goals for myself. I'll try and do a update on Fridays to see how well I'm living up to these goals.

1. Get an hour of research done a day. I've set aside an hour a day to focus on my research/writing. I've also recruited a research buddy who is going to check in with me each day so that we can encourage each other to focus on our writing.
2. Work out for at least 30 minutes every day. I've recruited two work out partners. One for Tuesday/Thursday and one for Monday/Wednesday/Friday.
3. Leave the house by 7:40 each morning. If I can drop the kids off early enough, I can get to school by 8 and start gettign work done.
4. Get to bed by midnight each night. If I don't I won't be able to get up early enough to leave the house by 7:40.
5. Clean up the kitchen before I got to bed. Otherwise, I'll be depressed when I get up in the morning.
6. Put away lecture notes immediately after class finishes. Otherwise I'll have a pile to deal with later.
7. Update attendance same day that class is held. Otherwise, I'll have a pile to deal with later.
8. Answer or delete all email before leaving for the day.
9. Add any 'tasks' that come through email to TASK LIST then delete email by end of the day.
10. Immediately add meetings, etc. to calendar. So that if I 'forget' a meeting, it will be on purpose.
11. Devote at least one hour a day to grading whenever there is work to be graded. Maybe this way I won't always feel guilty and desperate. Besides most of my post-midnight evenings have occured because of trying to complete my grading.

How did I do this first week of school at meeting my goals??

1. Research: Mostly Fail. I only got in 1.5 of my 5 hours of research.
2. Work-out: WIN!
3. Leave House on Time: WIN!
4. In bed by midnight: Mostly win. I think one night it was about 12:30.
5. Clean Kitchen: FAIL - there is still a pan in the sink from dinner Monday.
6. Put away notes: WIN!
7. Attendance: Mostly win. Still have to enter two classes from today.
8. Email: Mostly win.
9. Task Lists: FAIL - I need to add a new tasks program to my iphone for this to work.
10. Meetings: WIN!
11. Grading: N/A :)

I'm giving myself 7 out of 10 for this week or a C-.

Circles Versus Rows

2010-08-23T14:13:00.002-04:00

A new fall semester begins and so does the debate of whether circles or rows is the default position for desks in the classroom. The row adherents argue that rows are the standard position so if you want to use circles you must have your students move their desks back into rows before they leave the room.

The circle fans argue that circles provide a better educational environment. They also argue that no one sets the room up in circles for their students, so they shouldn't be forced to move them back to rows when they leave.

The row contingent has just now fired back with a NEW arguement for rows. They claim that it is easier for the cleaning staff to clean if the classroom is in rows. Therefore, circle faculty, even if they don't care about their fellow pro-row faculty, should put the classroom into rows when they finish class since it is more curteous toward the staff.

I'm in the middle of the row/circle debate - literally. The person who teaches before me is a circle fan. The person who teaches after me is a row fan. Being flexible, I can teach to a circle or a row. However, I'm going to get glared at by my row colleague for the circle even though I didn't have a hand in creating the circle. It also doesn't seem FAIR to require my students to re-establish the room into rows when we did not 'circle-ize it' to begin with.

It almost makes me long for the days when desks were bolted down to the floor.

History T-Shirts

2010-02-16T20:59:00.006-05:00

I love clever people who come up with history inspired t-shirts.

1. Lincoln Shot First!

2. Ben Franklin and the Dead Presidents

3. History is Very Serious!

4. Historical Preenactment Society

Finals Done

2009-12-14T16:15:00.002-05:00

Turned my grades in only 2 hours late today! Woot!! Some special angel must have been watching over me because the registrar's office didn't turn off the electronic grade entry portal the way they typically do if you are late. So I didn't even have to make the walk of shame from my office to the administrative building to submit them.

I do, however, already have my first grade email from a student. She was making an A in the class before the final and ended up with an A-. She got A's in all her other courses even her HARDEST course. How in the world did she end up with an A- in mine - she asks. I'm quite certain she'll turn up in January demanding to see her final... I wonder if I should write comments on it now to save myself the trouble next semester?? I probably won't because I don't want to touch anything resembling student papers until mid-January.

Paranoid?! Who me?

2009-12-04T13:00:00.003-05:00

We are in our current dean's third year. For the last two years he has hosted a December event at his home the day grades are turned in. It's usually a pretty nice spread with decent food and nice wine, etc. There hasn't been anything said about it this year, however, so I asked him at the school meeting if there was going to be party this December.

He got a little flustered, explained that because of the economic situation, etc. there would be no party.

Okay, fine. Seems reasonable. I saw him in the hall about 5 minutes later with a group of people and gave a off-handed apology since I'd put him on the spot. He just kind of smiled, but didn't say anything.

So now I'm worried that I really DID offend him. And right before we find out about raises, too! Ugh. One of my colleagues, with whom I discussed my fear, said I should write an apology email making it clear that I only asked because I really LOVED his parties. That seems overly creepy to me. It's time like this that I wish there was a clip system for faculty members like there is at my son's school. His 'clip' gets moved every time he does something bad, until he eventually ends up in the Principal's office. A ton of probably unnecessary stress could be relieved if I could just go look and see if the dean has moved my clip.

Negotiations with the Dean

2009-11-20T08:28:00.003-05:00

I'm finding my first year as department chair to be a mixed bag. Some things have been fun - like getting to meet all the new history majors. Other parts are not so fun, especially dealing with my Dean. He's a decent guy, but his first response to whatever I ask is to be contrary. I understand sometimes being contrary is necessary - but it is annoying to have it as the default position.

Of course now that I KNOW he likes to go against everything I ask for, I'm just going to reverse the way I ask for things.

Instead of asking: "Hey can so-and-so get a course off in the fall to finish his book?", I'll say: "So-and-so wants a course off in the fall to finish his book, but I don't think he deserves it. What do you think?"

Instead of asking: "Could so-and-so get some extra travel money to present a paper overseas?" I'll say: "I don't think so-and-so should get extra money for his overseas conference. What do you think?"

Instead of saying: "Hey, it's not fair that history has a smaller budget per faculty member than all other departments!" I'll ask: "Hey isn't it great that history has been able to prosper so well with just an inequitable budget? I bet if you cut it, we could ever do better next year!"

Okay... maybe the last one wouldn't work.

It is really only the end of week four?

2009-09-18T08:40:00.002-04:00

My return from sabbatical has been both refreshing and draining. I am enjoying being back in front of the classroom. There is really nothing better for one's ego than having a class of 30 students writing down every word that comes out of your mouth. At the same time, however, I don't have the stamina I had before sabbatical. By the time my last class of the day is finished I am ready to crawl back to my office and collapse.

Of course it doesn't help that I've taken over as department chair this year AND am on the executive committee of our faculty governing system. I thought I would be flush with power inherent in my new positions, instead I'm just overworked.

I would be looking forward to the weekend if it didn't contain the first REAL batch of grading for me to accomplish.

You Can't Cover Everything

2009-07-10T12:16:00.000-04:00

There is a story in Education Week about the committee that is determining the history standards to be taught in Texas over the next 10 years. A couple of the committee members have recommended that less time be devoted to discussing historical figures like Chavez and Marshall. They suggest that historically these men aren't as important as founding fathers like Benjamin Franklin.

My initial response is to jump on a soap box and talk about the relevance of Marshall and Chavez to not only African American and Latino history, but to more general political history of the 1960s and 1970s. But if I take a step back and look at my own syllabus, well I need to be a bit more forgiving. Because let's face it, you can't cover everything. I think I mention Marshall during one paragraph of one lecture when I talk about the Civil Rights Movement and Chavez never comes up at all. Is this because I don't think they are important? Absolutely not. I do think they are important - but I'd rather talk more about the movements they led/worked in - then about the individuals. Indeed, I think Ben Franklin only gets a paragraph or two, as well, in spite of the fact that I spend several days talking about the American Revolution.

In part, I think my approach is inspired by what I expect teaching history to demonstrate. What I want to show is NOT hey look at these great men and what they were able to do, but rather hey look at these fundamental changes that occurred in our political and social system and the role that activists played in accomplishing them.

Another Famous History Major

2009-05-28T10:15:00.002-04:00

Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, was an undergraduate history major at Princeton.

A New York Times' story had this to say about Sotomayor's undergraduate education.

She was the history major and Puerto Rican student activist at Princeton who spent her first year at that bastion of the Ivy League “too intimidated to ask questions.”

…In 1976, she wrote her senior thesis at Princeton on Luis Muñoz Marín, the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico, and dedicated it in part “to the people of my island — for the rich history that is mine.”

Ugliest Presidents in History

2009-05-25T21:15:00.010-04:00

5. William McKinnley - jowls like a bulldog, eyebrows like shag rug from the 1970s.

4. John Tyler – anorexic before it was fashionable.

3. James Madison – if he HAD hair on top, he’d have a mullet. At least he had his height to fall back on… oh wait, no he didn’t.

2. Lyndon Johnson – big nose, big ears, and deep set eyes - a hulking figure with no respect for other people’s personal space.

1. Martin Van Buren – picture speaks for itself. What scares me though is that if THIS is how he looked on ‘picture day’ imagine what he must have looked like every other day of his life.

Student Rights

2009-03-11T12:03:00.001-04:00

"The only right a student has as a student is the right to receive the best possible education that the college can give." - Dean Virginia Gildersleeve

Governor Blagojevich - Joins the History Major Wall of Shame

2008-12-10T11:10:00.001-05:00

I like to keep track of the famous history majors - I figure it can be a recruiting tool for undergrads. It is a way of demonstrating that history majors can do more than teach. Someone with a major in history can go on to be a diplomat, business person, lawyer, sports star, or politician.

Of course, some history majors I'd rather not claim. Like the coach in my last post, who really misunderstood his professors' lectures on historical significance.

Even more shameful, however, is the fact that current Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was a history major. I think trying to 'auction' off a U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder is enough to earn him a spot of the 'History Major Wall of Shame', especially because his actions don't indicate that he learned much from his historical studies.

Some of you may want to quibble with me on this point. After all, Illinois and Chicago (in particular) has a long history of corrupt politicians and aldermen being bought by men like Al Capone. Many of these politicians, moreover, escaped justice. So it wouldn't be unimaginable for a student of history to assume that he too could get away with accepting and even soliciting bribes. But to demonstrate the importance continual revision of our historical knowledge and how paradigms shift in historiography, one of the more recent Governors of Illinois, George Ryan (who was a pharmacist - not a history major), was brought down by a corruption scandal.

So maybe, Blagojevich's problem was not that he didn't learn anything as a history major at Northwestern University, but rather that he stopped reading 20th century history after he got his B.A.

Basketball Coach blames his history major for his team's loss!

2008-11-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

Jimmy Patsos the coach of Loyola, MD's men's basketball team lost to Davidson College yesterday because he had his players double team the leading scorer in the nation, Stephen Curry. While the strategy prevented Curry from scoring a single point, Loyola lost because the rest of the team had to play 3 on 4.

When asked why he stuck to a strategy that was obviously not going to win his team the game, coach Patsos replied: “We had to play against an NBA player tonight,” Patsos explained. “Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I’m a history major. They’re going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?”

I think Coach Patsos maybe didn't quite understand what his history profs were trying to teach him. I suspect that people will remember BOTH that Patsos held Curry to 0, but that Loyola STILL lost. There is a lesson to be learned here, and I doubt it's the one Patsos hoped it would be.

Curry gets 0, Davidson routs Loyola (Md.) 78-48 - College Basketball - Rivals.com

Christmas Shopping for the Historian

2008-11-06T23:13:00.004-05:00

Tired of buying the historian in your life some heavy book that no on else in the family would ever be tempted to read? Perhaps you'd be tempted to purchase a present that can be enjoyed by young and old, historian and people who like interesting things, alike. I am, of course, referring to the Forgotten Presidents Puppet Set.

The present that is not only educational, but also hours of fun for the entire family.

Professorial Influence

2008-11-05T11:19:00.000-05:00

Damn. Academics already don't have any influence over public policy, popular culture, or even educational matters. Now you are telling me - we don't even impact our students' political choices?!?

Actually, I'm not that surprised. I try to keep my students guessing about my political leanings - so even if they wanted to vote like me they might not be able to figure out my choices. Besides by teaching American foreign policy, I'm always critizing Republicans and Democrats alike. If anything, my classes probably think I'm unAmerican, as opposed to an adherent of one political party over another. Still it is kind of depressing to see how little impact we have on impressional young minds. Perhaps the only thing we are good far is teaching critical thinking skills.

You can read the NYT story here: Professors’ Liberalism Contagious? Maybe Not - NYTimes.com

The Last Barrier

2008-11-04T23:07:00.004-05:00

I am excited to see the U.S. take a historic stance and break down the racial barrier to the presidency. It was in 1870 that the 15th Amendment to the Constitution was passed - the amendment that made it illegal to bar someone from voting based on their race.

Now only one barrier is left - the gender barrier. It took fifty years after the passage of the 15th Amendment for the 19th Amendment to be passed. This was the amendment that allowed women to vote -- black and white women. I don't want to turn my eyes to the future too soon, but I sure hope it doesn't take another fifty years before the first woman attains the presidency.

Why we vote on Tuesday... and other election fun facts

2008-11-04T08:03:00.001-05:00

Hint: It has to do with farmers

I voted last week... but I saved my sticker for today. Can't wait to watch the returns tonight.

How I Know This Isn't the Next Great Depression

2008-09-19T08:24:00.002-04:00

If I read another news story referring to the current financial mess as the next Great Depression I am seriously going to throw something -- perhaps my copy of David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear. Just this morning I read "A Lesson Rooted in the Great Depression" in the International Herald Tribune, which starts out with the line - "Will future historians write about the Great Depression of the 2000s as they did about the one in the 1930s?" In the last hour 36 news stories referencing the Great Depression have been posted online.

If all these news analysts are suggesting that the current market crisis could lead us into another Great Depression it must be true, right?

Maybe... 1. if the Great Depression was only about the 1929 Stock Market Crash and 2. if a little something know as the 'New Deal' hadn't occurred.

However, the Great Depression was much more than the collapse of the stock market and the banking crisis that followed it. It also was a time of fundamental weakness in the agriculture sector and the loss of job and pay/hours cut-backs in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, since there was no 'safety net' provided for the American government to protect Americans who fell on hard economic times, people began to lose their homes and go hungry.

While the current financial situation might lead to a general meltdown of the economy, there won't be the same social disruption for families that Americans faced in the 1930s because the New Deal put some protections in place for U.S. citizens. Protections like government insurance of saving deposits, unemployment insurance, the welfare system, and farm subsidies all prevent the American people from fall as far as they did in the 1930s.

So no matter how bad the U.S. economy becomes, at least we can take comfort in the fact that it will not turn into another Great Depression.

10 Tips for Taking Excellent Lecture Notes

2008-09-10T21:21:00.001-04:00

Great article in U.S. News about note taking. I really think this is a lost art. Even though I warn my students ever semester that they need to take notes and that I don't lecture straight from the textbook (so they shouldn't try to just read it before exams), I still have kids in class who don't take notes. They just sit there and listen. The listening is good, but it is not enough on its own. At some point people are going to need to review. Moreover, reviewing what I've lectured on in class is going to be helpful when students are trying to figure out what I expect to see come exam time.

10 Tips for Taking Excellent Lecture Notes - Professors' Guide (usnews.com)

The Evolution of the College Dorm

2008-09-09T14:24:00.001-04:00

Time Magazine has an interesting photo essay on the history of dorm life. I remember in undergrad how great I thought my dorm room was because it had a bathroom that only 3 other girls had to share, especially because the other dorm on campus had a only one large bathroom on every floor of the building.

Things are even sweeter for students today. The most recent dorm built on my campus is like a mini apartments where the students get their own room and share a living room/kitchen/bath with 2 other people. Not surprisingly there is a waiting list to get into the new dorm.

I can't help but wonder, however, if giving students so much privacy is good for the college community. Part of being a college student is learning about to co-exist with others, even those with radically different viewpoints, lifestyles. Isn't making dorm life so non-interactive really doing a disserve to students? Will have to figure out on the job site how to get along with others? Could there be a surge in the divorce rate among college graduates if they don't share a room with another human being until marriage?

I do hope that college's are creating a generation of self-centered and ego-driven people by making dorm life so comfortable for them.

The Evolution of the College Dorm - Photo Essays - TIME

We have to catch up to history...

2008-09-04T22:54:00.005-04:00

In John McCain's acceptance speech tonight, he was talking about the need for change throughout the country because so many of our economic, educational, and health care policies had been developed during the post-World War II era. Therefore, what we need to do according to McCain is to "catch up to history."

Huh?

How the heck is the present supposed to catch up to past?! Does he have an unregistered time-turner? I understand what he is trying to say, but isn't there a better way to state this?

Things did look up toward the end of the speech, when McCain stated: "I don't believe that history has anointed me to save our country in our hour of need..." I only wish, he'd ended that statement by saying: "because history isn't a person and therefore can't 'appoint' anybody."

Tuition Hikes and Federal Oversight

2008-09-04T10:00:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty much against all federal interference with colleges. I'd hate to see some kind of 'no child left behind policy' forced onto institutions of higher education. However, I do like the idea of access to information about colleges - especially tuition hikes - being made easily accessible.

Prospective students and their parents should know the average rate that college tuition increases each year and they should also know whether or not the tuition increases at their college is above average. Let's face it the only thing that makes colleges behave tuition-wise is if it hits their enrollment/retention numbers and there is a better chance of that happening if there is easily accessible information about this online.

Less affordable colleges may get 'F,' land on Wall of Shame - USATODAY.com

Famous History Majors

2008-09-02T22:54:00.004-04:00

Add Chelsea Clinton to your list of famous history majors.

Apparently, she started out at Stanford as a Chemistry Major and then switched to history. Ah... if I had a dollar for every failed science major at my school who ended up switching to history I'd probably be able to buy a really nice pair of sneakers.

Funniest Onion Article of All Time??

2008-09-01T23:13:00.003-04:00

Cheney Waits Until Last Minute Again To Buy Sept. 11 Gifts

My favorite line in the article is: "Although Cheney himself has never received any Sept. 11 gifts, with the exception of a pair of silk pajamas from his wife and a second term in office..."

Obama falls into the history trap

2008-08-29T14:39:00.006-04:00

I enjoyed Obama's speech last night up until he fell into the trap so common for politicians -- that of personifying 'history' and suggesting that it has the ability to teach or judge.

Obama said in his acceptance speech: "You have shown what history teaches us, that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington."

No, no, no! Historians teach us. History just is.

Who did Harding endorse?

2008-08-19T21:56:00.002-04:00

Can't wait to see how often the "history card" get played in this presidential election.

To Apply or Not To Apply

2008-07-14T08:34:00.004-04:00

So my undergraduate university is hiring a historian. It is a position I could apply for. In fact I did apply for it 3 years ago and got a phone interview - but the position ended up getting cancelled. But I'm in a slightly different place in my life now.

1. Have gotten tenure.
2. Bought a house.
3. Divorce is finalized (and I've realized I can do all the parenting-type things alone without having my parents nearby).
4. Took on a small administrative role, which has lowered my teaching load a bit.
5. The job description does not EXACTLY fit what I've been doing/teaching for the 9 years. About 1/2 the job is teaching in my minor area, which I've done before but it was a LONG time ago.

I guess this is all reasons for NOT applying.

On the pro-applying side. I'm a bit worried about where my current institution is headed. Some of the decisions they've made lately were ill-advised and I haven't seen much effort to fix it. I would be in the same town as my extended family - and although I don't NEED to be that close, it would be nice for the kids to be around their cousins and grandparents. And well, who hasn't dreamed about teaching at the ol' alma mater?

Any advice?

2008 History AP Exams

2008-07-02T13:55:00.003-04:00

I graded history ap exams last month and the document question was on the war in Vietnam. Some of the amusing answers that I read include:

The men sent to Vietnam had no intention of succeeding or returning home. This was a major strategy problem for the U.S. military.
Before the Gulf of Tonkin resolution there was an incident known as the sinking of the Lusitania.
The Vietnam War followed great foreign policy traditions such as Manifest Destiny, the Monroe Doctrine, and Eisenhower's Annex to the Monroe Doctrine.

Fun stuff!

Professors Who Assign Their Own Books

2008-05-29T09:07:00.001-04:00

The University of Utah has just come up with a policy passed by both the faculty and the administration that prohibits its faculty from collecting royalties if they assign their own books to the classes they are teaching. This policy is supposed to help assure students that s professor has assigned a book because it is the best in the field or covers a topic in a particularly important way, rather than because the prof. can make money from it. Utah Policy Would Restrict Profs' Royalties From Books - The Paper Trail (usnews.com)

During all my time in graduate school, only one professor ever assigned his own books to the class. I never suspected he was doing it for the royalties, but at the same time I never thought the books were particularly ground-breaking. One of my other graduate school professors argued against profs assigning their own books stating that you should be getting the professor's view on subject of the book from lectures/discussion and reading the books written by that same instructor did not expose students enough to varying viewpoints of a topic.

I probably lean toward the profs shouldn't assign their own books camp, but I don't think it is that much of an issues. I do, however, believe that the University of Utah's policy overlooks the fact that profs can make $$ off of their classes without assigning their own books. I remember several years ago a publisher offered some history faculty members around $1500 if they would 'review' a textbook and assign it to their classes so they could get student input as well. So even though the Utah policy cuts down the ability of profs to earn a little more money, at the same time it leaves untouched an entirely different method for profs to each cash off the backs of their students.

I'd Like to Exchange My Liberal Arts Degree for Something Useful

2008-05-28T11:20:00.006-04:00

Just read a letter (probably fake - but still funny) from an Arizona State University alumni with a B.A. in English, who wanted either a refund for his defective product - which has failed to get him respect or a job - or wanted to exchange his B.A. for a useful degree like a B.S. in science or an MBA.

I quite often get asked what our history majors do with their degrees. Old stand-bys like: go into public history, teach h.s., go to graduate school or law school, work in media/journalism are easy enough to discuss. However, most of our graduates probably end up in the business world and they soon discover that they aren't so unique because many of their colleagues also have B.A. degrees.

In fact, my department chair just did a survey of Fortune 500 Companies and discovered that at least six of the Top 100 CEOs of had been a history major as an undergraduate. This far surpassed the number of humanities/social science majors represented in the study. So while I don't know exactly how useful a B.A. is in English, I think that the B.A. in history can provide a firm foundation for a career in many different areas of employment.

Here are the six Top CEOs with history majors:

Samuel Palmisano, IBM
John Mack, Morgan Stanley
Alan Lafley, Procter & Gamble
Richard Parsons, Time Warner
Kenneth Chenault, American Express
John Faraci, International Paper

Chris Rock and American History

2008-01-06T22:12:00.000-05:00

So I'm watching the Chris Rock comedy special (apparently first out in 2004) and he is telling jokes about the lasting consequences of slavery, but all I can think about is how many questions I'm going to get in my survey class next semester about whether or not slaves who could read got killed.

Watch the Chris Rock history lesson on youtube.com.

Is it good or bad when popular actors/comedians, etc. talk about American history?

Funny Student Mistake

2007-09-27T23:32:00.000-04:00

Ugh... I've been so busy this semester I haven't had time to blog at all. However, while grading papers I ran across this student mistake that made me chuckle so I had to share.

Here is the line: "Even after the truth is known, she is still used as the escape goat."

Historical Sports Movies

2007-07-29T23:35:00.000-04:00

One of my colleagues teaches a class on movies and history. He has an entire list of genres - good war movie, bad war movie, biography, etc. The one category he leaves out, however, are movies based on real-life sporting events. I personally get a big kick out of historical sporting movies, but perhaps that is because I like sports.

I also do have a favorite historical sporting film - Hoosiers. I mean how much better can a film be? A small rural team overcomes tremendous odds to become state champions. It also helps that the film focuses on the best sport EVER invented - basketball. But in the interest of fairness, I provide the list below of other historically based sporting films.

Remember the Titans
Cool Runnings
Seabiscuit
Rudy
Miracle
Cinderella Man
Friday Night Lights
The Rookie
A League of their Own
Chariots of Fire
Eight Men Out
Hoosiers
Offside

Did I miss any? Anyone want to argue about the vast superiority of Hoosiers over these other films?

Rain in DC

2007-07-24T19:36:00.000-04:00

So it is raining in DC today, no big deal except that this guy in the subway was selling umbrellas for $5. I was like $5?! That is cheap! You can't even get an umbrella at a Wal-mart for less than $7. Who is this guy's wholesaler?

The Buzz in DC

2007-07-24T09:13:00.000-04:00

I'm in Washington, DC this week to do some research at the Library of Congress and to go to a conference. What is everyone talking about? On the subway? In the Library? Coming out of the House office building?

Harry Potter

The congressional interns were bitching cuz the staffer in their office took an hour and a half lunch break to read Potter. At the LOC, the staff was abuzz with how long they had waited in line for the book and how late they stayed up reading it. On the subway, it was about what had happened in the book, whether or not they were surprised, and how it did or didn't live up to expectations.

I've always thought of DC as a city apart. It's kind of the graduate school of the nation - they worry about different things than everyone else, get caught up in things the rest of the citizens don't think is all that important, but today proved me wrong. DC really is like the rest of country - at least for a weekend.

The Berks

2007-07-17T08:29:00.000-04:00

Well, I got my rejection email from the Berkshire Conference of Women's Historians yesterday. This was the third time I had submitted a panel and the third time it has been rejected. It is a good thing that I don't evaluate my entire career on whether or not I am accepted by women's historians - because I am quite certain I would have given up and become computer programmer if I did.

I am sure there are some historians out there who are thinking 'buck up- maybe your proposals are just not that good.' Okay, MAYBE, but similar proposals were good enough for me to present at other national conferences. I've been to the AHA three times, they love me at SHAFR, at PHS conferences there is standing-room only available at my sessions (this last one is a lie - about the standing room only - but my proposals have been accepted at PHS conferences regularly since 2000).

So what is the problem with me and the Berks? As far as I can tell, it is that I'm not 'edgy' enough. I write traditional history about women, women who are involved in politics and foreign policy. I can just imagine how my proposals have been viewed by the program committee.

Committee member 1: Oh, another proposal for a session on the historical importance of the clitoris.

Committee member 2: Haven't we already accepted proposals about 'The History of the Vagina' and 'The Origins of Foreplay?'

Committee member 3: Yes, but a scholarly discussion of the clitoris is so much different than those other panels.

Committee member 1: Very true. Are we all agreed it is in? (general nodding ensues) Good. Next?

Committee member 2: I have a proposal about women's involvement in U.S. diplomacy prior to the 1960s.

Committee member 3: Political history? How very 1970s! (everyone laughs and then my proposal gets thrown in the trash can without further discussion.)

This must be how military historians feel.

Of course to add insult to injury, the form rejection letter the Berkshire Program Committee sent was from 2005 - first line reads: Thank you for your submission to the 2005 Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

I think I'll write back and let them know that luckily I didn't apply for the 2005 Conference, but to let me know when they get around to rejecting my 2008 proposal.

Liberal Arts and ROTC

2007-06-30T21:53:00.001-04:00

Like many liberal arts colleges, my school has many more women enrolled on campus than men. Every now and then, some of my colleagues and I sit around at lunch and attempt to 'solve' the college's problems. One day in the Spring the problem we were focused on was how to recruit more men - some tried and true methods were thrown around, add football, add wrestling, add engineering, etc. I suggested adding ROTC. My colleagues looked at me like I had grown an extra head. Like I was proposing shipping students off to Iraq immediately or had proclaimed my support for the current military activities in the Middle East. Comments like, 'It would cause too much conflict on campus' to 'We aren't in the business of educating soldiers' were thrown around.

One of my colleagues, however, a former enlisted man in navy argued that those unhappy with the current state of affairs in the military should be the ones who push the hardest to get ROTC offered at liberal arts colleges. Why wouldn't you want officers to have the best kind of critical thinking skills and have been exposed to different viewpoints, international theories, and read widely on many different topics? This type of military official is able to problem solve, think for him/herself, and maybe someday direct the future of the military in a way that takes into account the history and cultures of other nations.

I couldn't agree more. I'd love to see more ROTC offered at more liberal arts colleges. I'd love to see more Harvard or Stanford or Berkley men and women joining the military. I'm not advocating militarizing higher education, but rather finding a way to provide future military leaders with the broadest and best learning opportunities possible.

Lost AP Gems

2007-06-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

I was going through my notes from grading the AP U.S. history exam and found these last few gems that I wanted to share. The question I was grading had to do with the impact of the Second Great Awakening on temperance, abolition, Utopian communities, and the cult of domesticity.

Abraham Lincoln responded to John Brown's actions by writing the Emancipation Proclamation.
In the North two very important commodities were beer and slaves. Without these two commodities the North's economy would have a tough time getting by.
There were many great abolitionists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Fredrick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant.
The Brook Farm experiment proved to be ineffective because people died from not having sexual pleasure.
The Shriners did not believe in procreation.
It was safer to face an angry Southerner than an angry lion.
The only lasting impact of the Oneidas was their silverware. I myself have a rubber Oneida spatula purchased five years ago at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
Actually none of this is probably true. I don't know what I'm talking about.

Wouldn't My Provost Be Proud

2007-06-26T14:41:00.000-04:00

Apparently, the words kill, crap, and crack make this blog inappropriate for those under 13.

Eight Random Facts Meme

2007-06-25T20:46:00.001-04:00

I got tagged for the 8 Random Facts Meme by David Parker over at Another History Blog. Here are the rules:

Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

1. I was always good at history in school, but choose it as my major because of how few hours you were required to take.

2. I'm very proud of my writing, but it takes me forever to write something decent. It takes even longer if it has to be decent and original/insightful.

3. I've never had a crush on any of my professors or students. I'm much more of a 'crush on my peers' sort of gal.

4. When I told my dad I wanted to go to graduate school in history, I got several lectures on 'how so-and-so was a Ph.D. bagging groceries' and 'why couldn't I get a good job with 4 years of college'.

5. I'm a sucker for students with a hard-luck tale (as long as there aren't repetitive hard-luck tales).

6. I believe that most of the people I work with are smarter than me. I just work hard.

7. I've never owned a brand new car and am proud of it.

8. I don't understand why so many academic historians look down on public history, historical reenactors, genealogists, etc. Isn't there room for all different types of history lovers in the world?

I'm tagging the following five people (if they haven't already been tagged) - I'm suppose to tag 8, but it's the summer and I'm lazy. Tim Lacy, Another Damned Medievalist, Jennie W, Progressive Historians, and Nerdgasms.

When Will My Zombie Obsession End?

2007-06-24T00:15:00.000-04:00

36%

Could you survive? Find out here.

Productive Summer Anyone?

2007-06-21T15:09:00.000-04:00

I read an article by Mary McKinney, an Academic Career Coach, about how to have a productive summer.

She recommended:

1. Come up with your number one priority

Instead of working on several projects over the summer, none of which get enough time devoted to them, focus on completing one of them. Once that one is finished, perhaps you'll have time to move on to the next project.

2. Carve out time

Set aside time that is typically not available when school is in session to work on your project. Don't let other responsibilities that aren't your number one priority infringe on that time.

3. Increase your motivation

Let your partner, colleagues, friends, etc. know what you plan to accomplish during the summer. This will help motivate you since you'll want to avoid the embarrassment of not finishing.

Since my own summer has been horribly, unproductive so far I am going to try and do this. I have like three things I really need to finish, but instead of stressing over them all at once and not getting any of them done. I'll set my priorities and work on them one at a time, during a certain part of my day, and I won't let anything interfere with it.

IWW Recruitment Flyer

2007-06-20T11:32:00.000-04:00

The rumor was true. The wobblies were trying to organize AP readers in Lexington. However, the only evidence I have of that is flyer that was passed around my table on the last day of grading.

All-in-all, it is a pretty weak effort at organization. I like their demands, but surely you need more than a flyer to get workers united - especially workers from all around the country who have little in common except that they grade AP exams.

Of course this is all just speculation on my part, I've never attempted to unionize anyone. I was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electronics Workers for about 6 months and from that experience (as limited as it was), I think the IWW has a long way to go with organizing AP readers.

The Wobblies Are Back and They Are in Lexington

2007-06-17T22:05:00.000-04:00

So rumor has it that the IWW is trying to unionize AP graders. They want us to ask for things like more money (apparently there has not been a pay raise in the last 8 years - has ETS not heard about INFLATION?!?), private hotel rooms, better food, etc.

I thought they would be asking for us to overthrow the system and try to implement socialism, but apparently they've adapted their ideology since the Great War. I also haven't heard any talks about bombs or the use of violence to attain graders demands. I guess tactics have had to change too.

The Difference Between the AHA Conference and AP Grading

2007-06-15T22:32:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have ever wondered about the differences between attending the AHA Conference and AP Grading here is a handy little sheet. There are probably other differences too, but these are the only ones I could come up with before dinner.

Some of the best lines from the AP papers I graded in the last two days about the Great Awakening:

Also during the Great Awakening people started changing their way of life. People started listening to different kinds of music like jazz.
When Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick was drafted to play football for Atlanta Falcons he brought a whole new style with him. This is much like the Second Great Awakening.
When Tom Sawyer wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin it created excitement around the world.
Before the Second Great Awakening Puritans and Muslims were trying to make themselves fit into society.
Alcohol and religion just seem to go together.
I suck at history, why can't this be a math test?

These are some lines from a question on the Shay's Rebellion and the Whiskey Rebellion.

Nothing can come between a man and his whiskey except maybe 13,000 troops.
Shay's Rebellion was an important even remembered by many people. Unfortunately, I am not one of them.

Grading U.S. History AP Exams - Day 2

2007-06-13T21:59:00.000-04:00

So today was a little rough. 8 hours of grading essays on the Second Great Awakening. At first I had a bunch of okay and a little better than okay essays. So I spent way too much time figuring out if the essay was just okay or not. My second big group of essays were much much worse. They fell into two categories, complete crap and mostly crap. I actually started getting mad at the students. I mean what the Fux?! You are in an AP class and this is all you got? Give me a break!

Here are the gems from today:

As a result of the Second Great Awakening many state governments passed laws banning the teaching of evolution.
A woman working a job during the Second Great Awakening would be considered a flapper.

Where are all the history teachers this week?

2007-06-12T21:18:00.000-04:00

If you guessed Lexington, KY you were right.

Why are there 1000+ history teachers in Lexington? We are grading the U.S. History A.P. Exams. It is my first time as a grader, but so far it hasn't been so bad. Apparently almost 200,000 students took the exam and there are close to 1 million essays that need to graded over the next seven days.

It was described by a colleague as a grading gulag, but I haven't felt that pain yet. Of course, being the first day we spent 1/2 the time trying to learn how to grade consistently with everyone else. We'll see how mind-numbing it becomes tomorrow.

I'm grading a question about the Second Great Awakening and it's connection to things like abolition and temperance. Best line from a paper I've seen today: "Drinking makes people feel good, and the Puritans weren't down with that."

A Little Knowledge of History is a Dangerous Thing

2007-06-06T15:13:00.000-04:00

Found this on McSweeney's. It is pretty hillarious.

CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN FAMOUS PEOPLE AS IMAGINED BY SOMEONE WITH AN AMERICAN PUBLIC-SCHOOL EDUCATION WHO DIDN'T PAY TOO MUCH ATTENTION IN SCHOOL BUT WHO DID JUST ENOUGH TO PASS THE EXAMS

Richard Nixon and Winston Churchill
NIXON: Hello, I see you're smoking a cigar and wearing a large hat.
CHURCHILL: So I am, young chap. Could I interest you in a cigar?
NIXON: Sure, I think I smoke cigars ... maybe ... I don't know.
(CHURCHILL hands a cigar to NIXON, who bites off the tip and lights it.)
NIXON: We were probably alive at the same time.
CHURCHILL: Indeed, my boy, indeed. I had something to do with World War II and I think maybe you fought in it.
NIXON: I'm not sure if I did.
CHURCHILL: There's not that much more about me that everyone knows.
NIXON: I once held up my hands and formed two peace signs. I was either about to get onto a plane or get off of one.
CHURCHILL: I have seen the photo, because I think there were cameras when I was alive.
NIXON: And what about Watergate? I did that.
CHURCHILL: Margaret Thatcher is someone else from England. She was leader after me.
NIXON: People can buy masks of my face.

Abraham Lincoln and Hitler
HITLER: Kill the Jews.
ABE: Free the slaves.
HITLER: Kill everyone, especially the Jews. Nazis are the best.
ABE: Emancipation Proclamation.
HITLER: Mein Kampf.
ABE: Four score and seven years ago.
HITLER: Kill all Jews!
ABE: I was shot in the head at a play, because the Civil War made people from the South angry.
HITLER: I created Nazis.

Funny Student Exam Answers

2007-06-01T21:29:00.000-04:00

Found a post about funny student exam answers that professors had gotten. Most of them are math related, but still hilarious.

Most of my students don't even try the funny stuff, their answers are just funny because of misspellings or misunderstandings, etc. Here is an example of what I am talking about from Funny Exam Answers:

Later, the Pilgrims crossed the ocean, and this was called Pilgrim's Progress. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.

Of course, when I read these types of answers I have to wonder if I really wasn't clear enough, or if something else was going on that day that distracted the student. The student answer that really made me question what I was doing in the classroom however - was the student that claimed France had bombed Pearl Harbor starting World War II. FRANCE?!?!

*sigh* I am glad it is summer.

History is a Weapon

2007-05-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

I stumbled across an online site today titled: History is a Weapon. The introduction to the site makes a statement with which most historians would agree.

It claims: History isn't what happened, but a story of what happened. And there are always different versions, different stories, about the same events. One version might revolve mainly around a specific set of facts while another version might minimize them or not include them at all.

Things get a little bit more uncomfortable for those of us who teach history a couple of paragraphs later, when the site's editors maintain: The very selection of which histories to teach in a society shapes our view of how what is came to be and, in turn, what we understand as possible. This choice of which history to teach can never be "neutral" or "objective." Those who choose, either following a set agenda or guided by hidden prejudices, serve their interests. Their interests could be to continue this world as it now stands or to make a new world.

Okay, yes what someone decides to lecture about and how they present that material is a bit subjective and it can benefit or hinder certain ideologies. But at the same time history that is published by university presses and taught on college campuses around the nation is not essentially an ideological basketball that gets passed back and forth between two teams. There is a little something called the historical paradigm, which does limit or constrain the dialogue that historians can engage. For example, you are not going to get taken seriously by colleagues, get a book deal with a university press, or even get hired in the first place if you are a holocaust denier.

If the historical paradigm isn't enough to ensure that history is more than just a 'story', there is a community of scholars in the discipline, who try to keep each other honest. Should one's interpretation not line up with the historical evidence this community, in book reviews, blogs, and at conferences, does not hesitate to challenge others' presentations.

While History is a Weapon is correct about history being a story and I even agree with them that people should examine the past for themselves by reading primary sources and seeing what opinions or stories might have been left out of their historical educations, at the same time, history is more than just a story and more than just twisted or ideologically driven interpretation. In fact, I would argue that history is a weapon because of its very real relationship to what actually occurred in the past. Something that literature or philosophy or fine arts can't claim.

Student Calls Police After Instructor Confiscates Cell Phone That Rung during Class

2007-05-30T08:58:00.001-04:00

Apparently, the police in West Lafayette, IN showed up at a business law class after a student reported the instructor for stealing his cell phone. The instructor (who is also a judge in Lafayette) confiscated the phone for ringing during class, but refused to return it immediately after the class ended. He said he was going to give it to the Dean of Students and that it could be picked up there. (Sounds good to me - inconvenience the student the same way he inconvenienced the entire class for letting his cell phone ring.) This idea didn't sit well with the student (I'm guessing a business major), who called the police. The complaint was turned over to a Lafayette prosecutor who dismissed the charges. You can read the story here.

I am left with several impressions after reading this news article.

1. The instructor showed great nerve in not only taking the phone, but also not giving it back immediately. I do hope he had the cell phone policy in his syllabus, however, since that seems to be the end-all-be-all of classroom disputes.

2. The student showed great nerve in calling the cops on his instructor. It must have been quite a sight to see the student's righteous indignation. Although, I think the student probably went too far and should have sucked it up and gone to the Dean of Students to retrieve his phone. I am kind of proud that s/he handled it himself and didn't call mommy or daddy to save him.

3. I imagine that next class session was pretty awkward. Do you drop the class after accusing the instructor of stealing and trying to get him arrested? Or do you sit tight knowing that you got a perfect claim for retaliation if you don't get the grade you wanted in class.

4. Where did the student get the phone to call the cops? Did s/he borrow it from a fellow classmate? Did the person who loaned the phone know what it was going to be used for? How awkward is it for this classmate to stay in the business law course?

Personally, I don't have a policy on cell phones in class. Inevitably a few go off every semester, but I just ignore them or wait until they have stopped ringing (maybe do a little dance if the tune is particularly good) before continuing with my lecture. I have a colleague, however, who takes 1% off a student's final class grade every time his or her cell phone rings in class. That is pretty hard core, but effective. I think he's only had 1 cell phone ring in the 3+ years he's had the policy.

Disney Promotes War and Safe Sex

2007-05-10T00:40:00.000-04:00

It is fairly common knowledge that during World War II, Walt Disney worked with different government agencies to make war-propaganda films, including one for the Treasury on the importance of paying taxes and four anti-Hitler films. He also allowed Disney characters to be used to support the purchase of war bonds and rationing.

Perhaps, less well-known is that some Disney characters in the interest of winning the war also encouraged soldiers to use condoms. It is now possible to purchase your own World War II Anti-VD poster of Donald Duck despairing that he can't shag a woman because he is without a prophylactic.

I can't help but wonder about the success of this campaign. I mean why Donald and not Mickey or Goofy? It is some sort of slam on Donald's morals? Or could it be that no one can imagine Goofy remembering to use condom in such a situation?

Did hearing such wise words from a cartoon duck work better than the posters that warned that "You can't beat the Axis if you get VD" or tried to scare soldiers into worrying about what diseases the women they picked up off duty might have?

Each year I make my classes read Walt Disney's testimony before HUAC where he talks about the use of propaganda in Hollywood during the war. I never shown them examples of that propaganda before -but I would be interested in hearing their thoughts on why the government thought such campaigns would be effective. Although if I decide to present an example, I'll probably stick with the rationing poster - just to be safe.

First Day of Summer Break

2007-05-07T20:20:00.000-04:00

Well it as officially the first day of my summer break today. I spent the first 3 hours grading - was only 1 hour and 15 minutes late turning in grades this semester. Didn't prevent from having to do the 'walk of shame' but at least I avoided a visit from the Dean.

I spent the last 6 hours of the work day at a 'studies' conference. Some of the information was SOOO boring and I doubt will be of any use at all. However, other information was fascinating - although I probably will never use it either. Still how often any more do I get fascinated by something? Not often enough.

Now, I'm going to spend the rest of the evening on my couch - watching bad movies and surfing online. Then I'm going to go to bed at a decent hour, sleep well, and then wake up and start to plan so ambitious a summer of research, etc. that I won't get half of it done.

The Past in 3-D

2007-04-23T17:10:00.000-04:00

Interesting post on metafilter about stereographs and the ability to view the past in 3-D. Nice set of links to historical stereographic images too.

Most Peaceful Time In History

2007-04-15T08:10:00.000-04:00

According to the New Republic we are living in the most peaceful time in history. I have my doubts about that. Sure attitudes about violence and death have changed dramatically over time, yet there were periods in the not too distant past when people were much more optimistic about the possibilities of living in a truly peaceful world. Think about the international peace conferences at The Hague in 1899 and then again 1907.

I guess the real question is what makes for a more peaceful world? The growing abhorrence of violence or a genuine belief that world peace is attainable?

Senate Historians Don't Know Their Strom from Their Quayle

2007-03-22T20:24:00.000-04:00

Wonkette picked up this little goof.

Taking Over the World Though a Meticulous Analysis of History

2007-03-05T09:38:00.000-05:00

Pinky and Brain cartoon that explains why it is important to study history.

Presidents and Ipods

2007-02-18T21:46:00.000-05:00

Audible.com is having a president's day sale and as part of their promotion that having lists of what they think some of the big name presidents would have listened to had they had ipods.

George Washington apparently would been interested in books about war and self-help books on how to influence people and be an effective leader.

William Henry Harrison has a list that includes a number of men's health books and ways to get more done faster - like inauguration speeches.

Harry Truman's lists contains a bunch of spy novels.

Bill Clinton has a list that includes everything from the importance of truth, jazz, fast food, sex, and a tome about Hillary's upcoming run for president.

As relatively pointless as these lists are, it could be a fun party/Phi Alpha Theta game to come up with lists of what TV shows, books, music former presidents would enjoy and why.

Walk on the Dark Side

2007-01-29T22:29:00.000-05:00

I just accepted a part-time administrator position in exchange for a course release. Why do I suddenly feel dirty?

It is an administrator position that gets to work primarily with bright and hard-working students - so maybe it isn't really like taking the "Dark Mark" and becoming a Death Eater. But I still feel a little weird/guilty about it, especially when I had to decide which of my upper-level classes I would have to stop offering.

Wikipedia Book Summaries - Will It Ever End?

2007-01-20T22:20:00.000-05:00

So do you think if professors assigned students to read book summaries, rather than entire books, the students would find some why to avoid reading summaries too?

According to the web site: WikiSummaries.org will provide free book summaries that anyone can edit, including information on character profiles, detailed chapter summaries, study questions, important quotes, analysis of metaphor and symbolism, etc.

The Spanish American War is Over, Time to Stop Being Taxed for It

2007-01-20T07:55:00.000-05:00

MSN.com has a nice article about how Americans have been paying on the phone bills for a tax instituted to pay for the Spanish-American war in 1898.

If you have access to the Historical New York Times you can read about the debate over the bill to fund the war. Apparently, members of the House agreed that a new tax would be required to pay for the war (what a concept), but debated over what form the tax should take. The Republican Party favored the a tax on consumption and business transactions, while the Democrats and Populists favored an income tax. The Democrats ended up being out-voted.

Public-Domain Image Links

2007-01-20T07:40:00.000-05:00

Progressive Historians has a nice list of sites where one you can find public-domain images online.

Excuses for Missing Class

2007-01-15T10:52:00.000-05:00

Three days into the semester I've already gotten two excuses from students about why they had to miss class. One of them had some sort of retreat connected to their job and the other was going to visit a graduate school. I just *love* hearing about what students consider to be more important than coming to my class. I especially liked the kid who told me he was going to miss class because the 5 year-olds at the Child Development Center were getting married and he was going to video tape it.

Thank goodness I don't have night classes, I would hate to know how many shows (House, Desperate Housewives, etc.) were more important than learning about the Industrial Revolution. If you think that no student who thought a TV show was more important than class would be silly enough to actually tell that to the teacher than you probably haven't had your idealism crushed out of you by hundreds of general education students. I remember years ago T.A.ing for a U.S. Women's History class at the the same time the O.J. Verdict was announced, I probably received a half dozen emails from students informing me that they wouldn't be making it to class in order to find out he was convicted or not.

I hate listening to student excuses so much, that I specifically give my students a number of *free* absences. They can skip class for whatever reason they want and it won't affect their grades. I do this primarily to save my own sanity and so I don't have to know just how far down on their list of priorities history class ranks.

Despite this fairly permissive attitude, I still get a ton of stories about why students had to miss class - especially on a test days. Car wrecks, flat tires, illness are all common place excuses. An old favorite is the death of a grandparent. It is likely, hard to disprove (bring me a copy of death certificate -seems a bit cold), and only a heartless professor would refuse a make-up exam to a student who just lost his grandpa. One year, I swore that someone must have put a curse on me because almost a 1/3 of my students grandparents passed away in a single semester.

Although Joseph Palladino's and Mitchell Handelsman's contention that "There is no relationship between the validity of an excuse and its apparent creativity/outrageousness" is probably true, I do hold a soft spot in my heart for those student's who have the wildest/weirdest excuses for missing class. Like the the kid who couldn't make it because he had to go to court because he was going 50-miles-per-hour over the speed limit on I-75 (I was surprised that anyone even noticed). Or the student whose dad was being evicted from his apartment and had to help him move all the stuff out before it ended up on the sidewalk. Of course, my all time personal favorite is the girl who couldn't make it to the exam because she had gotten her first pap-smear that day and was traumatized by the experience (I am certain this crossed some sort of line).

If I didn't teach at a small college, where we are supposed to notice if the students aren't in class, I would probably not have an attendance policy at all - just to avoid the excuses.

Note: A colleague just sent me a link to an article at The Chronicle on professors' favorite student excuses.

Post-World War II Newsreel

2007-01-14T21:30:00.000-05:00

There is an interesting newsreel on google video show how the War Assets Administration disposed of drums of Sodium in 1947. Did they bury it? Nope. Did they store it in a warehouse for the next 60 years? Nope. Instead they threw it into a lake in Washington State. See the spectacular results here.

AHA - Sunday Notes

2007-01-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

Despite my good intention to go to a session today (because I've presented on Sunday's before and it sucks when just 3 people show up in the audience), instead I went down to the book exhibit to see what I could snag cheap or free.

I ended up bringing home (for a total of $11):

1. Laskin - The Children's Blizzard
2. White - Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
3. Millard - The River of Doubt: TR's Darkest Journey
4. Stole - Advertising on Trial
5. Flood - Grant and Sherman
6. Walker - Shockwave
7. Ambrose - D-Day
8. Ambrose - Citizen Soldiers
9. Ware - Title IX
10. Moran - The Scopes Trial

AHA - Saturday Notes

2007-01-06T20:29:00.000-05:00

I *love* a southern breakfast. I've noticed that everyone north of Virginia and west of Louisiana thinks of breakfast as a danish or bagel or cold cereal type of affair. At the 'Le Cafe' in Atlanta's Hilton hotel, however, they were serving a southern breakfast buffet that included bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, grits, and potatoes. I was in heaven, until I got the $15.00 breakfast bill.

There are way too few chairs in the lobby of Hilton and Marriott. I saw a ton of people leaning all day. People leaned against walls, against big planters, on pillars, and anything else that wasn't moving. I finally scouted out a couch on the fourth floor hidden behind the elevators where I could sit and read in between sessions.

There should be some sort of warning in the Marriott that there are at least 2 lobbies. I was suppose to meet my major professor at 11 a.m. and she never showed. I found out later that the little lobby area on the ground level across from the Hilton WAS NOT the main lobby of the hotel, instead the main lobby was two stories higher!

I participated in a focus group about textbooks and basically argued for a textbook that worked like Wikipedia, but with accurate information. I don't think anyone was very impressed with my suggestion.

The only session I attended today was one on balancing work and family. The panelists made a big deal about trying to go beyond stories or anecdotes about the difficulties of raising children, etc. while being a full-time faculty member and instead tried to present some concrete suggestions for ways that individuals could build coalitions on their campuses and organize for family friendly policies. Most of the suggestions were ideas that would make it easier for women and men to meet their family responsibilities and their work responsibilities. What I didn't hear was any demand for a reconceptionalization of what it means to be a productive faculty member. Why is there never any discussion about the norm of a faculty member is a 60 hour work week for the 15+ weeks of the semester and then spending an unpaid summers doing research so that he or she can get tenure, promoted, or raises?

Is it just me or is alcohol in Atlanta extremely expensive? I had to pay 6.00 for a draft mug of Bud Light! Pitchers (of slightly better beer) cost $17.00! It almost made me want to go back to grad. school where for a $3 cover, I could get a pitcher for $5. I think we should demand that the AHA start planning to hold its conventions in college towns so that cheap beer is easily attainable.

AHA - Friday Notes

2007-01-05T01:22:00.000-05:00

Some of the most interesting quotes heard at the AHA today.

The last Republican National Convention was more diverse than the history profession.
75% of all history teachers listed in the AHA directory of history departments are not members of the AHA.
On average each attendee at the AHA goes to one session (so if you go to 2 you are just paving the way for someone else to not go to any).
There are 5 times as many brunettes as blonds in the AHA.

Atlanta irony - the restaurant named 'Max Lagers' doesn't have a liquor license.

Biggest disappointment of the day - one of my undergraduate students went to the Careers in History Workshop and walked out of there thinking she had to go to graduate school to get a job doing history. The session was suppose to be for high school students, undergraduate students, and beginning graduate students to find out what opportunities there were for history majors on the job market. I had hoped that it would demonstrate the wide variety of things history majors can do with just their B.A. I didn't want to send my students to a graduate school recruitment forum.

13 Photographs that Changed the World

2007-01-02T22:21:00.000-05:00

Ransom Riggs posted 13 photographs that he believes changed the world in the January - February 2007 issue of Mental_Floss Magazine. Many of the one's he chose, I would also argue helped change American history - including the Migrant Mother photo, the Brady photo of the dead at Gettysburg, and the photo showing the killing of a Vietcong in a Saigon street during the Tet Offensive.

I was trying to think of other photos that were important to the direction of American history and the first one that sprang to mind was the photo of the bodies of the women who jumped from the Triangle Shirtwaist Company to avoid being burned alive inside the factory

This photo and the incident it represented not only led to improved fire safety laws, but also strengthened the labor union movement and the desire of middle class progressive women to protect the safety and health of working class women.

I think there is something powerful about images that burns some incidents into our memory that the story or explanation of a situation by itself fails to do.

War Debts

2007-01-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

Great Britain has made the final of its World War II war debt payments. The U.S. loaned England 4.33 billion in 1945 at 2% for 50 years (apparently there were 5 years that Great Britain had to defer payments because of economic hardships). World War I war debts have still not been repaid.

I wonder how long it will take for the U.S. to repay the money it is borrowing to fight the insurgency in Iraq?

Historians are the Best Teachers

2006-12-30T09:16:00.000-05:00

A study done by E Solutions Data recently showed that most students find historians to be the best teachers. I don't find this surprising at all, especially since I made up the numbers for the survey.

If you would like to make up your own statistics to prove something, go here.

Airport History Lesson

2006-12-30T00:44:00.000-05:00

So have you ever been minding your own business at the airport, when you over-hear a father trying to explain to his son why Gerald Ford is the only president to never be elected. But instead of feeling good that someone is actually discussing history in a more or less social situation, you are getting pissed off because the father is getting the history part all wrong. And you want to jump in and correct him. You want to make sure the kid understands that the reason Ford is different than the other vice-presidents who took over for a president in the midst of his term and then never got elected on their own (ie Andrew Johnson & Chester Arthur), is because Ford never even got elected VICE-PRESIDENT. He was appointed after Nixon's first Vice-President, Spiro Agnew, had to resign because of corruption charges. However, because it would be completely rude to jump on the historical soap box and point out to the kid that his father doesn't really know his history, you bite your tongue, shake your head and, offer up a little apology to whatever American history teacher eventually gets that kid in class and has to try to dissuade him of 10+ years of historical misunderstanding.

History Major Makes History

2006-12-24T15:38:00.000-05:00

Ohio State history major, Bobby Knight, made history last night when he tied Dean Smith's record of 879 wins as a basketball coach. Knight currently coaches at Texas Tech University, but he also had successful tenures as a coach at Indiana University and the United States Military Academy. I'm not sure how much his study of history helped him succeed on the basketball court, but it is another great example of how history majors can do well at so many different careers.

I remember hearing while I was in graduate school that Knight actually taught a history class while he coached at IU. I haven't located any evidence to support this memory - but if it is true, I would sure love to see his syllabus. Something tells me it would be pretty hard-core political/economic/social history. I also bet he didn't get 10+ emails at the end of the semester from students begging to get their grades raised or have kids walking into class 10 minutes late. Who would dare? He might fling a chair at you.

Avoiding the Walk of Shame

2006-12-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

If I graded like Daniel Solove, I'd never have to do the Walk of Shame again.

The Walk of Shame

2006-12-18T12:47:00.000-05:00

Well, I just completed the faculty equivalent of the "Walk of Shame." (For the uninitiated, the Walk of Shame is what my friends from undergrad called the morning walk from a frat house back to the girls' dorms after a night of debauchery.) The faculty Walk of Shame is what happens at my current institution when you fail to get your grades in on time. The registrar in some sick little mind game, turns off the computerized grade entry, forces you to print off a hard-copy of your grades, and then maks you walk them across campus and hand-deliver them to the registrar's office.

Unfortunately, the Walk of Shame is only one part of the whole ritual of humiliation that the registrar's office puts you through if your grades are late. Today, for example, grades were due at 10 a.m. By 10:15, the registrar's office had call the Dean's secretary to give her a list of offending faculty members who were late turning in grades. The Dean's secretary then sent an email to the Dean, my chair, and me informing me that the registrar was waiting for me grades. At noon, the Dean then showed up at my office door telling me that the registrar was waiting for my grades and what could he tell her about when they would be finished. I don't know what happens if you don't get your grades turned in after the Dean shows up at your door (maybe hired goons?), because I finished by 12:30 and walked the grades over the registrar's office. Of course, the coup de gras is the disapproving look you receive from the registrar's secretary for making their jobs more difficult (because everyone knows that the difficult part of the end of the semester is not grading your 100+ exams in under a week, but compiling the grades and posting them for the students to see).

Historians Will Judge

2006-12-15T08:35:00.000-05:00

I heard it again this morning on NPR - the phrase I despise the most - "History Will Judge." The story was focused on Donald Rumsfeld's last day in office and the commentator argued that despite the fact that Rumsfeld is the second longest serving Secretary of Defense in history, how history will judge him depends a lot on the outcome of the war in Iraq.

As I've mentioned before HISTORY DOES NOT JUDGE - HISTORIANS DO!

I understand why many people (including some historians) find comfort in the phrase "History will judge", because it suggests that there is no interpretation involved, that the facts will just reveal the truth to future generations. It suggests that you can't argue with or appeal the judgement of history. History is Omnipotent.

However, we all know better. Historians will decide how to portray Rumsfeld in the future. And most likely the portrayal of him will change over time. There won't be ONE historical judgement but many.

Moreover, even the facts will change, or at least the facts that historians have access to will change. Government documents will become available, Rumsfeld's and Bush's papers will be opened, records in Iraq will be searchable and all these things will change how historians will judge the soon-to-be former Secretary of Defense.

Historians shouldn't be embarrassed by this, we shouldn't be scared of letting people know this, we should embrace it and shout it from the rooftops. History does not judge - Historians do!

I am thinking about walking around with this bag at the AHA just to get my point across.

Pinochet - The Human Rights Debate

2006-12-12T22:37:00.000-05:00

In 1975, Richard Bloomfield, an analyst for the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs suggested that if the United States stood up for Human Rights in Chile it would not be acting out of the "emotionalism of a bleeding heart", but rather out of hard-headed realism.

Bloomfield argued that instead of worrying about whether Chile "the dagger-pointed-at-the-heart-of-Antarctica" had a government hostile to "the globe's greatest superpower", the Ford Administration should worry primarily about gaining the support of Congress, which was needed "for other aspects of our Latin American policy (e.g. Panama) and, indeed, for our foreign policy in general." Bloomfield also speculated that U.S. support for Human Rights might prevent further alienation of American young people with their government.

Despite Bloomfield's attempt to turn traditional Cold War understandings of what was in the best interest of the U.S. on its head, Henry Kissinger and Gerald Ford continued to support the Pinochet regime. The Secretary of State even assured Chile's leader that when the administration did speak out about "human rights in general terms, and human rights in a world context" that "[t]he speech is not aimed a Chile." And while U.S. Intelligence Agencies estimated that over 1,600 civilians had been killed and 13,500 had been imprisoned during the coup that brought Pinochet to power, Kissinger believed that in the minds of Pinochet's American critics his "greatest sin was that" he "overthrew a government which was going Communist."

I think Bloomfield's main point is a good one to remember. The U.S. needs to constantly reevaluate its priorities and its understanding of what is in the country's best interest, even if that means thinking out-of-the-box when it comes to issues of national security, democracy, and stability. In the light of the Baker report and the resignation of Rumsfeld, I hope that even basic political assumptions are now being questioned.

(For more information on the relationship between the State Department and Pinochet's government, go to The National Security Archive.)

Acting Smarter Than You Really Are - The Academic Edition

2006-12-11T22:49:00.000-05:00

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has come up with a list of how to act smarter than your really are. He offers some good general advice, like not talking much, agreeing with what other people say, learning some big words and using them in sentences, etc. While this might be good enough for the typical person to convince their friends and family that they are smart, an academic needs an entire different list of ploys to convince his or her colleagues that they are smarter than they really are.

Here are some options.

Teach an honors class. - Even if you weren't in honors yourself in college, just teaching a class of really bright kids makes you seem smarter than them.
Keep lots of obscure theoretical books on your shelf. Used copies are best, because it they look like they been read diligently even if you've never bothered to open it up.
Learn all the different ways to call something "pedantic" and use these terms when discussing works by popular scholars.
Be cynical. For some reason, most academics equate cynical with worldly and smart. So look for the negative and hidden agenda in everything some other department, the college's administration, or the government suggests.
Wear glasses. Tell people that you used to have 20/20 eyesight until graduate school. They will think you've read your way to being near-sighted.
Hang some obscure Bizzaro comic on your office door. People won't get it and they'll be too embarrassed to ask you what it means.
Get your news from some alternative news source (not NPR or CNN or the New York Times) this way you will always have an opinion on things, but people won't recognize that you stole it from someone else.
Adopt an absent-minded professor persona. If you forget little things like meeting times, where you parked your car, how to use the internet, etc. it suggests its because you have bigger and more important theories on your mind.

Adopt these behaviors and before you know it your colleagues and students will think you have an impressive IQ.

Timeline Games

2006-12-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

I found a site that has a couple of games that allows you place historical events in their correct timeline. One game is about the U.S. Presidents and there is another about Rome.

Even better than just playing the games, however, it lets you add in your own historical timeline game. I added the Cold War game. Sorry about the cruddy colors, don't know what I was thinking!

How New Is Government Tracking of Risky Americans?

2006-12-01T23:36:00.000-05:00

One of the big news stories today is about how the U.S. government is assigning risk scores to Americans who travel internationally. If your risk score is high enough you get flagged as a possible terrorist or criminal.

Barry Steinhardt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, is quoted in most of these stories as saying: "Never before in American history has our government gotten into the business of creating mass 'risk assessment' ratings of its own citizens."

I'm not sure that Mr. Steinhardt is correct about this. While the current program is probably the most massive example of government tracking its citizens as risks, my own research on U.S. women peace activists during World War I suggests that the government has a long history of deciding that certain behaviors by its citizens are indications of possible threats and then tracking/monitoring those people who fit the profile.

I think if the ACLU wants to challenge this international traveler risk assessment program, the way to go about it is not to argue that it is unprecedented. Rather, they should look at similar programs in the past and whether they were successful or instead diverted resources from pursuing real risks. I know that the time and money spent tracking female peace activists turned out to be fruitless to maintaining American security during WWI. Although it did provide a secondary benefit to postwar administrations since information had been gathered which could be then be used to discredit those who opposed American defense policies after the war.

Question of the Day

2006-11-28T13:01:00.000-05:00

If FDR came back as zombie would he still have polio? Or is there something about being undead that would give him back the use of his legs?

* Max Brooks has written World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which is describe on Amazon as a"future history." It sounds like all the future oral interviews were done with non-zombies. I hope Brooks realizes that future graduate students will critize him in their seminars for not taken into account the Zombie perspective in his work.

Every Administration I've Ever Worked For

2006-11-26T13:07:00.000-05:00

It would be funny if it wasn't so true. See the original cartoon here.

History Takes Over at the Movies

2006-11-25T20:51:00.000-05:00

I went to see Stranger than Fiction* today (which has nothing to do with history) and was surprised that every single preview featured an upcoming film based on a true story or set in a historical time period.

First was We Are Marshall. This film follows the rebuilding of the Marshall football team after most of its players and coaching staff were killed in a plane crash.

Second was a preview for Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, which is about the decline of the Mayan civilization.

Then they showed a preview of The Pursuit of Happyness. This movie is based on the true story of Christopher Gardener, a successful stock broker who worked his way up from the bottom of the industry while raising his toddler son and being homeless for a time.

They also showed a preview for Night at the Museum. This one is a bit of a stretch, but it is about the exhibits at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History coming alive at night. Apparently, Robin Williams has a fairly big role in the film as Theodore Roosevelt.

Add these to the currently playing Bobby (about the assassination of Robert Kennedy) and The History Boys and it seems like Hollywood is in love with history.

Why is this important?

I think it serves as a great reminder that what historians do - tell stories - explain why people's lives are significant - contextualize the past so that it makes sense to present - is interesting to a number of people. Film makers wouldn't produce these pictures if people didn't care about them. A lot more people are drawn to history than we see in our classes or who buy our books. I think historians can take some comfort from this - or be really depressed about it.

(* In Stranger Than Fiction a English professor plays a major role in the film. This professor says at one point in the film that he is teaching 5 classes and directing 2 graduate theses. What I want to know is what college with Ph.D. students has professors who teaching more than a 2/2 load? I mean come on!)

Cold War Toys

2006-11-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

I found these photos while surfing around the internet. I never really thought about the relationship between children's play things and cultural attitudes of the time period they were produced until I saw them. Of course like movies or TV shows or other popular cultural artifacts, it is not surprising that the concerns and worries of society make their way into what gets marketed to the youngest and most impressionable.

Given this understanding, what makes more sense during the Cold War years - as public fears about the development of atomic bombs sweeps the nation - than to sell kids Chutes Away a airplane toy that allows children to drop yellow plastic bombs into targets. What a great toy for Santa to leave under the Christmas Tree. The entire family can come back from Christmas mass and pretend to destroy the world. (As I reexamine the box - maybe the kids are dropping parachutes and not bombs. Although it doesn't make any sense to drop parachutes to people on the ground - what are they going to do with them? Maybe this is a Berlin Airlift type of game.)

Of course, should your family fail to annihilate communism through atomic bombing and the red hordes infiltrate the U.S. government, then you might need to purge American society of undesirable socialist influences. Apparently, Milton Bradley did not think that HUAC committee action figures would be a big seller, so instead kids in the fifties were provided with an example of how the French got rid of their trouble makers.

I wonder who is in charge of developing inappropriate historical toys for children? In the politically correct times we live in, should I worry about my local ToysRUs selling a Tar and Feather the Loyalists Goo Machine or a Rosenberg Espionage Easy-Bake Electric Chair. At least someone else thinks it is a real threat - since on YouTube.com there is a spoof commercial for Jihad Joe.

All joking aside, I do think "Cold War Era Children's Toys" is a cultural history project just waiting to be embraced.

Naughty American History

2006-11-22T22:28:00.000-05:00

Apparently, www.naughtyamerica.com is a online sex(uality?) site that is promoting its services through a game called "Naughty American History." In this game for every American history question you answer correctly the 'professor' removes one item of clothing.

I am embarassed to say that I only got my professor down to being shirtless, before I stumbled on a 'Whig' question.

I can't imagine such incentives ever catching on with either current history students or professors. In all my years of taking history classes, with the vast majority of my professors, I would more likely study to make sure they kept their clothes on - rather than take them off.

Big Increases In the Starting Salaries of History Majors

2006-11-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

Never thought I'd see history listed as one of majors that experienced big increases in average starting salaries -- but according to CNNMoney.com that is exactly what happened last year. The starting salary for new history majors rose by 4.2% the same as the percentage increase for business administration/management majors.

I can just picture the line outside of my door on the Monday after Thanksgiving as everyone wants to now sign up to be a history major. I just won't mention that fact that although history majors and business administration majors saw the same percentage increases in starting salaries that the average salary for history majors (33,071) is a little over $8,000 less than the average salary for those in business (41,155).

Historian in the News

2006-11-15T20:50:00.000-05:00

While some of my students have probably compared sitting through my lecture on the creation of the Second Party System to being in hell, I have never actually warned any of my students that they were headed for the nether regions if they didn't accept J.C. as their personal savior.

There is at least one historian in New Jersey, however, who apparently spends his time "lecturing students more about Heaven and Hell than the colonies and Constitution."

He got caught because one of his students taped his class lectures.

I have nothing more to say about this New Jersey historian, except that this makes me even more wary of podcasting. Who knows how what I might consider to be just a cute little analogy (like comparing the Bay of Pigs Invasion to a naked man getting beaten to death at a party) might get taken out of context if heard on a podcast.

Grading Exams

2006-11-11T19:40:00.000-05:00

I am usually pretty laid-back when it comes to grammar while grading exams. I tell my students that as long as they write sentences that make sense and put them in something that looks like a paragraph, I'll be satisfied. I never bother with misspellings or fragments during timed exams because I'd rather they concentrate on demonstrating that they know and understand the material.

Usually, this works out fine and I have no trouble recognizing FDR, WWI, or even the symbol for 'women'. However, I do think New Zealand is taking things a bit too far. The year New Zealand students are going to allowed to use text-speak to answer questions on the national exam. So instead of spelling out complete words they can use U for you, txt for text, and D-bag for Douche-Bag (see this post if you don't think a student would never use that in an exam).

I think this is going a bit too far. Not because I think that text-speak is going to bring down civilization as we know it, but because how the heck are the graders/professors going to know for certain what the student is trying to convey? Does everyone but me recognize these terms? Is there even a standard interpretation of them?

I propose we all stand up to the text messengers and demand that our students continue to use vowels appropriately and if you don't like it -- FU.

Academic Leadership in the Department of Defense

2006-11-09T13:59:00.000-05:00

While I realize it is stretching it a bit to refer to Secretary of Defense nominee Robert Gates as an 'academic', he does qualify in some ways since he is as a history Ph.D. and the president of a university. After a little checking, I discovered that previous Secretaries of Defense fit the mold of an academic even better than Gates.

First was James Schlesinger, a Ph.D. in economics who taught at the University of Virginia, before serving as Secretary of Defense under Nixon from 1973-1975.

Second, Harold Brown, a Physics Ph.D., who had only a short teaching stint, but eventually ended up as Jimmy Carter's Secretary of Defense from 1977-1981.

Third was Les Aspin, a Ph.D. in economics (and a BA in history), who taught for several years at Marquette. He was Clinton's Secretary of Defense from 1993-1994.

William Perry, Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense from 1994-1997, had a Ph.D. in math. However, as far as I could tell, he never had an academic appointment.

A Historian for Secretary of Defense

2006-11-09T08:21:00.000-05:00

I was pretty shocked by the news that Donald Rumsfeld is resigning as Secretary of Defense, but that doesn't come close to matching my shock that his replacement could be current Texas A&M president and historian Robert M. Gates.

Gates received a master's in history from Indiana University in 1966 and his Ph.D. in Russian and Soviet history from Georgetown University in 1974. These are two high ranking history programs so I couldn't help but be a little impressed at these credentials.

His dissertation - SOVIET SINOLOGY: AN UNTAPPED SOURCE FOR KREMLIN VIEWS AND DISPUTES RELATING TO CONTEMPORARY EVENTS IN CHINA - is a weighty 306 pages long.

Although it doesn't look like he ever spent any real time in the classroom behind the lectern, I wonder if he will be the first 'academic' to serve as Secretary of Defense? There have been lots of academics who have held the Secretary of State job, but I can't think of any who have served in this capacity [although I'm going to go research it ASAP]. It should be interesting to see how someone like Gates can combine his practical experience from the CIA and other government positions, with his historical understanding of how the world operates.

Looks like I'll have to add another name to my list of famous historians if Gates is confirmed.

Presidential Celebrity Doppelgangers

2006-11-04T15:51:00.000-05:00

Okay... this is what happens when you have too much time on your hands. I ran George Washington's picture through a face recognition program that claims to match pictures up to their celebrity look-alikes. The results were surprising. Apparently the celebrity that most looks like Washington is Takeshi Kitano - the 5' 5" Japanese actor and director. Who would have guessed?

Of course, once I got started down this path I couldn't just stop with Washington. Therefore, I loaded up a picture of Abraham Lincoln into the face recognition program and what do you know - out popped Jean-Michel Jarre - the French composer and music producer. Yuck.

I decided to give it one more shot and put in a picture of Warren G. Harding - reputedly one of America's best looking presidents - and imagine my surprise to discover that if Yitzhak Rabin and Madonna had ever had a child, he would look a lot like Harding.

I would also like to know what Bill Clinton and John Ashcroft would think about being 68% celebrity matches for Harding.

Happy Birthday Warren!

2006-11-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

It is Warren G. Harding's birthday today. He was born Nov. 2, 1865 and died while in office in 1923. Although the country deeply mourned Harding, soon after his death tales of corruption in his administration began making newspaper headlines. Ever since, historians have ranked Harding as the worst president in history.

Dr. History, however, has a prescription to get Harding out of the historical basement. It is time for a bit of revisionism.

Let us take the main charges against Harding and see if we can spin them:

1. Unable to stand up to his corrupt friends

Loyal man, who remember those who got him to the top.

2. Stupid

Not an intellectual snob

3. Took too much of a laissez-faire attitude about running the country

Able to delegate authority to experts

4. Too fond of big business

Valued private enterprise

5. Unfaithful

Open to new experiences

6. A drinker (during Prohibition no less)

Far-sighted

Now how can any man you can describe as far-sighted, open and loyal ever be voted America's worst president?

Hot Library Smut

2006-10-29T00:10:00.000-04:00

OMG... You'll never look at the stacks the same way again.

Am I sick to be a little turned on by this?

History Graduate Students Less Likely to Cheat

2006-10-28T15:11:00.000-04:00

I just read a news story that suggested that humanities and social science graduate students were less likely to cheat than students in other degree programs. The numbers of each discipline that admitted to cheating are as follows:

39% humanities and social science graduate students
43% arts graduate students
49% medical and other health-care graduate students
50% physical sciences graduate students
54% engineering graduate students, and
56% business graduate students

Although I am surprised by how high these numbers are (even for the humanities students), I can't help but wonder why humanities graduate students are less likely to cheat than MBA students. I really doubt that people with higher ethical or moral values are drawn into the humanities than into business.

I suspect that there might be three other reasons for these results.

1. It is easier to get into a MBA program than a humanities graduate program. While it is not ONLY weak students who cheat, in my experience it is often those students who are struggling or feel like they can't make it without cheating who give into the temptation. So perhaps because MBA students are weaker in general than humanities graduate students, they are more likely to feel the pressure to cheat to get through with their programs.

2. Perhaps the type of assignments given to humanities students makes it less likely that they will cheat. I mean how are you going to cheat in a reading seminar? Ever try to participate in discussion having only read the book reviews about a book and not the book? It feels a little like walking into seminar wearing a swimming suit and hoping that no else in the room notices. I suppose plagiarizing on a paper is more likely, but even then why bother plagiarizing a few paragraphs of a 25 page paper. You might as well just write the entire thing. Maybe the typical assignments given to MBA students are easier to cheat on.

3. Cheating breeds cheating. If there is a culture in place among students that hold that it is okay to cheat, it is easier for students coming into that environment to cheat as well. I had dinner at the AHA a couple of years back with some of my friends who had just graduated out of our Ph.D. program and they could recall in disgusted detail a fellow graduate student who was caught cheating. There was definitely an attitude among these students that it was unacceptable to cheat and they wanted the professors to take a hard line on any caught cheating. Anyone coming into that program would soon discover what the acceptable behaviors were in regards to academic integrity.

The Phrase I Never Want to Hear Again

2006-10-27T09:05:00.000-04:00

I hope never to hear or read again the phrase: "History will judge." It seems like every time I turn on the t.v. or listen to news on the radio there is someone else spouting off about the judgment of history. Listen people: HISTORY DOES NOT JUDGE - HISTORIANS DO!

Why do I care?

I care because by suggesting that history is the judge, rather than historians, you are undermining the place of the historian in society. I have 65 undergraduate history majors running around campus thinking that they aren't as important to society as the majors in business or chemistry or what have you because those other majors that "do" something - they might one day be influential and change the direction of society.

Well, historians do something too. We can put the actions of past political leaders in context, we can tease out the short- and long-term consequences of those actions, and we can JUDGE the significance and rightness of those actions. Moreover, the view of historians on events like the Vietnam War or Social Security or the Civil Rights Movement can impact policy makers. So how about we start giving historians some credit for what they do.

Nazi Home Movies

2006-10-26T08:12:00.000-04:00

Home movies made by Nazi officers during the German invasion of Russia have been found in a church in Devon. You can watch the film here.

I show my 1877-present survey students part of the documentary "The Democrat and the Dictator" which compares and contrasts the childhoods and political styles of Roosevelt and Hitler. Students continually come away from that film with a bit more understanding about how Hitler could have been found appeal by German civilians - especially given his rhetoric, speaking style, and the mass response he got from crowds. It would be interesting to compare that public view portrayed by the Nazi's - fiery words and eerie symbolism - to the private and personal view seen in this film.