Eric Foner walks into a bar…

My partner told me this joke: how do you know you are at a conference of dorky history professors? Answer: Eric Foner walks into the hotel lobby and a quiet hush descends upon the crowd, as hundreds of bespectacled people (young folks in square hip glasses, old folks in bizarrely gigantic ones) begin to whisper…

History in the Classroom

I just stumbled on this webpage out of New York University about teaching American history, called, funnily enough, History in the Classroom.  It’s got some great links, some wonderful videos, and an image of Jesse Lemisch speaking at an anti-Vietnam rally in 1966 (see left).  What could be better? Historian Robert Cohen direct “The Classroom…

Teaching Topics at the AHA

Did you know that history professors spend about four times as many hours teaching as opposed to researching? There was a panel at the AHA in New Orleans on Teaching US History (TUSH!), and, in light of President William Cronon’s presidential address asking us all to make ourselves relevant by becoming better teachers and recognizing…

False capitlization is a national epidemic

Grading is fun.  Grading is fun.  Grading is fun.  And if you say it loud enough, you’ll always sound precocious. In addition to learning about “bottomless opportunity” and a “delusion of honesty,” I’m also now about to burst into anti-retardant grading flames with the epidemic that is affecting our nation: incorrect and even implausible capitalization.…

teaching “Lincoln”

So I saw “Lincoln” last night.  I typically hate the saccharine sweetness of Steven Speilberg and the everything’s-gonna-be-alright history lessons.  ET phone home already.  It makes teaching his movies–Amistad, Schindler’s List–difficult without having to do a lot of unteaching.  But hey, it’s Hollywood. Toward that end, I’ve found a few sources helpful for those of…

Ed and Terry Gross…Fresh Air!

TUSH.0 is going big time. Blog co-creator Ed Blum has been called up to the bigs.  He’s appearing tomorrow (Monday) on Terry Gross’s wildly popular show, “Fresh Air.”  He’s going to talk about The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America, which, I should add is getting great…

Jon Stewart as American historian…

Jon Stewart is very smart, but he’s no historian.  He got little traction when he challenged David Barton on the history of Christian nationalism, and he messed up in describing the scenario wherein Mitt Romney could have become president and Joe Biden vice president (an electoral tie), thus potentially provoking a huge casting problem for…

Call for papers: CASA

The California American Studies Association annual conference is coming to sunny San Diego. It will be incredible; we will eat street tacos, over-analyze everything, and ride the famous trolley. Hope to hear from you (and please share with your students, graduate students, and colleagues): CALL FOR PAPERS California American Studies Association 2013 Annual Meeting San…

Update! The final version

Yesterday I put out a call for help, both here and on Facebook.  I needed help with the concluding paragraphs of the next edition of my American history textbook, HIST, and I had until noon after election day to summarize the results.  Thanks for your help with my first draft.  I unfortunately couldn’t fit in…