Traditional history courses have long since vanished, which is why so few people recognize 0bama’s Treasury Department enacting Fascist economics.
Even worse is the decrepit state of history education in the secondary schools, where it is usually taught by some idiot athletic coach and/or lumped into the amorphous glop known as "social studies." Thank the NEA for that one.
I challenge any parent of college age kids to attend classes just to see what is happening to their kids.
I agree with the article. Having graduated from university in 2005, all of my knowledge of history beyond “Honest Abe and George and the Cherry Tree” all comes fom my own reading outside the classroom.
Our own Freeper, LS, author of “A Patriot’s History of the United States” might have an opinion to share about this article.
Objectivity in historical studies went out the window a long time ago. History departments of universities are one of the few remaining places where Marxism is considered relevant. That’s because many of the professors learned Marxism on their way up to their present positions.
Patricia is late to the dance isn’t she?
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I had to struggle to keep "Civil War and Reconstruction" on our teaching schedule, and we only teach it in the summer. Most schools no longer have "Age of Jackson" or "Revolution/Constitution/Early Republic." Everything is "social history this," "minority/women that." Just look at the dissertations that are coming out of the grad schools. Now, that is not to say that there aren't some real gems out there (we got one recently, whose cover I won't blow), or that all the work that these students are doing is meaningless. But it's mostly what I call "supportive" evidence to larger historical questions that they refrain from engaging. You can see this in the reviews of the books, in which "so-and-so offers us a new insights into the world of antebellum urban slaves," etc. Because so little genuine NEW, SIGNIFICANT research is turned out, virtually all of it is "nibbling around the edges." And since it is nearly verboten to write about "great men," or simply do a new biography of Lincoln or Washington unless you "out" them as homosexuals or fraternal twins to a wildebeest, well, you're not going to get anywhere.
I'd bet Military History gets taught intensively at the service academies, but unfortunately, there aren't any institutions which bring the same focus to diplomatic history.
Students just don't think history is important enough. At university's today, history is a dessert, not a main course, because there's no career track associated with it.
The curious thing is that political and military history books sell quite well to the general public -- much better than social history.
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Whomever controls the present controls the past. -- George OrwellJob openings on the nation's college campuses are scarce, while bread-and-butter courses like the Origins of War and American Foreign Policy are dropping from history department postings. And now, in what seems an almost gratuitous insult, Diplomatic History, the sole journal devoted to the subject, has proposed changing its title. For many in the field this latest suggestion is emblematic of a broader problem: the shrinking importance not only of diplomatic history but also of traditional specialties like economic, military and constitutional history.To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
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Traditional students are also vanishing. I had a graduate history class where a young lady who taught high school said, “Professor you keep talking about WWII. Does that mean there was a WWI?”
It was an uncomfortable moment for the professor and some of the students who actually understood the implications of her remark.
I’m a little late to this one, but...
I teach six sections a semester of modern Western Civ and classes on World War II. In the fall, I pick up a section on the War Between the States, which I’m very much looking forward to.
My approach to all this is very straightforward, with papers and two “reaction sheets” due for each class, where the students THINK about a topic, and then give me their opinions. We require lots of thinking from our students; but, then, we are considered an elite school and I’d estimate half of my students are looking towards law or graduate school.
I am a Reagan Republican, now an Independent, as are half of my coworkers. The loons who see a commie in every classroom have never been to college, it’s obvious.