Well, the semester is officially ending here in San Diego. We’ve had a run ride this academic year – reading insights from wonderful scholars like Matthew Bowman, Jennifer Graber, Thomas Kidd, Amy Murrell Taylor (who, by the way, is on her way to the great state and university of Kentucky), Anthony Kaye, Linford Fisher (who, by the way, had his book published last month andinitial reactions have been “WOW”), Rebecca Goetz, and James Merrell. We’ve enjoyed our new co-editor Nina McCune’s thoughts on teaching the twentieth century, and we’ve endured the blah, blah, blahs of Blum and Schultz (excuse me, Kevin, Schultz and Blum).

For the summer months, we plan on having one post a week as we prepare for teaching in the fall. I’ll be teaching the mammoth, 500 person U.S. survey from the colonial period through Reconstruction. With 8 teaching associates by my side, we’ll be making a nation, breaking it, and putting it back together again. Along with another round of “the scholars speak,” I plan on incorporating a section “from the back row” where students chime in with their likes and dislikes and a section “are the 99%” from graduate students discussing their experiences as TAs.

I hope everyone has safe, fun, exciting, and stress-free summers. Thanks for joining us here these two semesters.