I've Been Waiting For This Review

Jim Cullen, blogger and author of Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition, reviews The Promise. He basically concludes that this is Springsteen's Italian album.

Here is a taste of the review:

More specifically, though, there was an east coast, urban -- and, more specifically still, an Italian -- strain in Springsteen's music of the seventies. Ethnically, he's pure American mutt; "Springsteen" is a Dutch name, but his father was mostly Irish. His mother Adele's maiden name was Zirilli -- Irish/Italian marriages where what passed for multiculturalism in the mid-twentieth century -- and it's his Zirilli side that that decisively shaped his persona. That may be why one influence that hovers over many of the songs in this collection is Dion (as in DiMucci), who enjoyed a string of hits in the late fifties with the Belmonts and as a solo act in the early sixties with songs like "Runaround Sue" and "The Wanderer." The Promise evokes another Jersey Boy, Frankie Valli, whose work with the Four Seasons is discernible in tracks such as "Gotta Get that Feeling," even if Springsteen is smart enough not to even try emulating Valli's unforgettable falsetto.

What is a Writer?

Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. . . .Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like. You, ladies and gentleman, may regard this as a whimsical definition of a writer.

Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library," in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections, ed. Hannah Arendt (New York: Schocken, 1968), 61. 

HT: David Sehat at US Intellectual History

How Does the Big East Define "East?"

Very loosely.

Texas Christian University will be joining the Big East Conference in 2012.  Read about it here and here.

I Like Your Tattoo of St. Athanasius

I am serious...and please don't call me Shirley

Leslie Nielson, R.I.P.

America's Empathy Problem and Why We Need More History in Schools

Inside Higher Education reports on a study showing that college students today are 40 percent less empathetic than those who graduated two or three decades ago.  Here is a taste:

Are you often quite touched by things you see happen? Do you try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before you make a decision? When you see people being taken advantage of, do you feel protective of them?

If you are a college student or recent graduate, you are more likely to answer “no” to the above questions, which are excerpts from a University of Michigan test designed to measure the presence of empathy in people of different ages. What they found was disconcerting: College students today are 40 percent less empathetic than those who graduated two or three decades ago.

This is sad.  Empathy is at the heart of civil society. Without empathy and its sister virtue, understanding, we are left with culture warriors screaming at one another in two-minute soundbites on cable television. 

Empathy is also a virtue that is essential to the Judeo-Christian tradition.  If we understand all human beings as being created in the image of God, with inherent dignity and value, then such a belief should influence how we treat one another, even those with whom we disagree.

As I have argued elsewhere on this blog, and will be arguing in greater detail in a forthcoming book entitled "The Power to Transform: A Christian Reflection on the Study of the Past," empathy is something that is best taught through the study of history.

Now some might say empathy is a dangerous thing.  Those who learn to empathize are in danger of embracing the views in which they are trying to empathize with.  For example, if a person tries to empathize with Hitler, he or she will become a Nazi.  Empathy, according to this view, is just too risky.

While I understand this concern, I still think it is important to take the risk.  Indeed , risk and wisdom are at the heart of liberal learning.

The Rise of American Exceptionalism

Today's Washington Post has a very interesting article on the idea of "American exceptionalism."  Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Mike Pence, Sarah Palin, New Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum have recently argued, in one way or another, that America is "inherently superior to the world's other nations."

These conservatives are particularly upset by remarks made by Barack Obama at a news conference over a year ago in Strasbourg, France.  Obama said: "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."  He went on to say that the United States must work together with other nations in order to solve the world's problems.

What makes the United States exceptional?  The Post article cites the late sociologist Seymour Lipset who wrote that the ideology of the United States can be described in five words:  liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism, and laissez-faire."  I can't disagree with Lipset, although I would probably add adjectives to a few of his descriptive terms.  How about unfettered liberty, narcissistic individualism, and a social Darwinian brand of laissez-faire that destroys local economies.  In this sense, perhaps the United States is indeed exceptional.

Newt Gingrich has suggested that American exceptionalism is directly related to the the "rights asserted in the Declaration of Independence"--rights that have been "granted by God."  The problem with this statement is that no one living in the eighteenth-century, Thomas Jefferson included, would have seen the inalienable rights promised by the Declaration of Independence as uniquely American.  These were longstanding British ideas (even the idea that God is the creator of human rights).  Jefferson took these ideas and applied them to the cause of the American Revolution.

Yet, instead of arguing that Gingrich's exceptionalist reading of the Declaration of Independence is wrong, the Obama administration has tried to show that indeed the president has, in numerous speeches, connected American exceptionalism to the Declaration.

For an interesting commentary on this article, especially as it relates to American historians, check out Mike O'Connor's remarks at U.S. Intellectual History.

Job Opening at Texas Freedom Network

Deputy Communications Director

The Texas Freedom Network, a statewide, nonprofit organization located in Austin, seeks a full-time deputy communications director. The Texas Freedom Network promotes religious freedom, civil liberties and strong public schools and serves as a watchdog on the religious right in Texas. The deputy communications director helps develop and manage the organization’s messaging and communications strategies in the mainstream media, member communications and online.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
• Work collaboratively with the communications director and other staff to develop, write and edit membership and public communications across various media, including the TFN Insider blog, TFN News Clips, member newsletter (three a year), research and fact sheets, public policy reports, brochures, and other materials.
• Work with the communications director to direct TFN’s media relations, including advancing press events, writing press materials, developing relationships with reporters and occasionally serving as a public spokesperson.
• Expand and maintain TFN’s electronic and printed research files on issues related to TFN’s mission.
• Edit and on occasion help write development materials, including fund-raising letters and e-mail communications with donors.
• Edit and on occasion help write periodic communications with TFN members, including action alerts.
• Respond to requests for information and assistance from the public, the media, elected officials, government agencies, and activists.
• Assist staff in overall office responsibilities including correspondence, answering phones and working with volunteers. Travel and working long and/or irregular hours is required on occasion.

QUALIFICATIONS:
• Outstanding written and verbal communications skills, including writing to deadline and for a variety of audiences. A demonstrated competence in writing and editing, including a writing-related degree (preferably in journalism/communications), is a top priority.
• At least one year of communications experience (news reporting, political campaign press work or public relations).
• An articulated belief in TFN’s mission.
• Demonstrated interest in politics.
• Applicants must be personable, well-organized, resourceful and persistent and possess a sense of humor.
• Note: The interview process will include an in-house writing test.

SALARY: Salary will be commensurate with experience. Benefits include employer-paid health and dental insurance, a 401k program and generous paid vacation and personal time off.

TO APPLY: Send resume, three writing samples and at least three references to PO Box 1624, Austin, 78767, e-mail to dan@tfn.org or fax to 512-322-0550, no later than December 17, 2010.

TFN is an equal opportunity employer. Minority candidates are encouraged to apply.

A British Soldier at Lexington and Concord

Over at First Thoughts, Russell E. Saltzman has a nice reflection on his experience visiting Lexington and Concord and his encounter with the grave of an unknown British soldier.  Here is a taste:

I cannot say what affected me so deeply. Perhaps the recent experience of having a son-in-law sent to advise Filipino marines in a combat zone nobody knows about, or a nephew deployed for combat in Afghanistan made me wonder of soldiers fighting 3,000 long miles from home. I found myself with questions, most keenly, who mourned his death and did they find that ever elusive “closure”? The British listed twenty-six missing from the battle that stretched from Concord back to Boston that day. There is a report of one British soldier of the 10th Light Infantry wounded at Lexington. Perhaps it is he who lies here....

Dispatches from Graduate School--Part 9

Cali Pitchel McCullough is a Ph.D student in American history at Arizona State University.  For earlier posts in this series click here. --JF

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can….One more week. 60 pages to write. 115 Blue Books to grade.

It’s at that point in the semester when I purposely do not allow the fact that I have just about ten days to finish three written finals to sink into my mind. It’s a weird game I play. The very thought of what needs to be done in the little time I have creates a wave of anxiety in my chest—so I don’t think about it. I just do.

I’ve spent the past two days at my favorite coffee shop. I arrive early enough to stake claim to a large table in the corner close to an outlet. I open my laptop, spread my books across the desk, and then proceed to the counter for the usual: a chai tea latte and a freshly baked blueberry scone.

Then, I write. I page through the texts, searching for that one mention of patriarchy or that paragraph on the politics of suburban growth. Occasionally the person next to me strikes up a conversation. Most people do a double take when they notice my stack of books and are interested in what I’m doing. This inevitably leads to a discussion about his or her own history education, which was, of course, boring.

I suppose I am part of a rare breed. But I like it. As I enter the final days of this semester, I feel more committed to this pursuit than when it started. How many people get to spend their days people-watching and sipping premium loose-leaf tea? There is obviously more to what I am doing than my coffee shop rituals, but I feel content in the space—reading, writing, engaging in dialogue. I was meant to be here. This feeling makes the deadlines, red pens, and track changes worth it.

(Will someone please remind me of this post when I’m studying for Qualifying Exams? Thanks.)

Sunday Night Odds and Ends

A few things online that caught my attention this past week:

Good bibliography on history education

Nathan Schneider on the "memory theater" that the bookshelf provides.

Peter Lawler defends the Puritans.

Michael Kazin: Obama needs stronger unions.

A very brief history of the beard.

Michael Sean Winters on Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

National Humanities Advocacy Day.

Pursuits of Happiness.

Picturing Eisenhower's religion.

Richard Hughes on the Christian Right.

William Cheever's diary is online.

Pilgrims and the political agenda.

Thomas Friedman on nation-building in America.

Fred Kaplan reviews Eric Foner, The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

The Backstory guys on Thanksgiving.

2010 Rhodes Scholars.

The end of the coin toss?

A short history of information overload.

Ronald Sider on evangelicals and gay marriage.

Michael O'Donnell reviews Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies.

Most Popular Posts of the Last Week

Here are the most visited posts of the past week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.

1. The Top Ten Most Religious Cities in America (November 2010)
2.  Yawn Outside (November 2010)
3.  Super-Sizing DaVinci's Last Supper (March 2010)
4.  The Antidote to Black Friday Consumerism (November 2010)
5.  Do You Produce Enough Scholarship to Merit a 2-2 Teaching Load? (November 2010)
6.  Does Sarah Palin Speak in Tongues? (August 2008)
7.  Joe Posnanski on Springsteen's The Promise (November 2010)
8.  Religion in Jamestown (July 2009)
9.  This is Why We Need More History Majors in Newsrooms (November 2010)
10. How to Cite Facebook and Twitter? (January 2010)

Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson Conversation

Recently agrarian writer Scott Russell Sanders hosted a conversation with fellow agrarians Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson.  You can listen to the discussion at the Englewood Review of Books.  Part one of the discussion is here.  Part two is here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here is a piece on gratitude that I wrote a couple of years ago for Inside Higher Ed.

The Forgotten Virtue of Gratitude

November 26, 2008

By John Fea

It was a typical 1970s weekday evening. The sky was growing dark and I, an elementary school student, was sitting at the kitchen table of a modest North Jersey cape cod putting the finishing touches on the day’s homework. The back door opened -- a telltale sign that my father was home from work. As he did every day, Dad stopped in the laundry room to take off his muddied work boots. As usual, he was tired. He could have been covered with any number of substances, from dirt to paint to dried spackle. His hands were rough and gnarled. I kissed him hello, he went to the bathroom to “wash up,” and my family sat down to eat dinner.

I always knew how hard my father worked each day in his job as a general contractor. When I got older I spent summers working with him. I learned the virtues of this kind of working class life, but I also experienced the drudgery that came with laying concrete footings or loading a dumpster with refuse. I worked enough with my father to know that I did not want to do this for the rest of my life. Though he never told me so, I am sure that Dad probably didn't want that for me, either.

I eventually became only the second person in my extended family to receive a college degree. I went on to earn a Ph.D. (a “post-hole digger” to my relatives) in history and settled into an academic life. As I enter my post-tenure years, I am grateful for what I learned from my upbringing and for the academic vocation I now pursue. My gratitude inevitably stems from my life story. The lives that my parents and brothers (one is a general contract and the other is a plumber) lead are daily reminders of my roots.

It is not easy being a college professor from a working-class family. Over the years I have had to explain the geographic mobility that comes with an academic life. I have had to invent creative ways to make my research understandable to aunts and uncles. My parents read my scholarly articles, but rarely finish them. My father is amazed that some semesters I go into the office only three days a week. As I write this I am coming off of my first sabbatical from teaching. My family never quite fathomed what I possibly did with so much time off. (My father made sense of it all by offering to help me remodel my home office, for which I am thankful!) “You have the life,” my brother tells me. How can I disagree with him?

Gratitude is a virtue that is hard to find in the modern academy, even at Thanksgiving time. In my field of American history, Thanksgiving provides an opportunity to set the record straight, usually in op-ed pieces, about what really happened in autumn 1621. (I know because I have done it myself!). Granted, as public intellectuals we do have a responsibility to debunk the popular myths that often pass for history, but I wonder why we can’t also use the holiday, as contrived and invented and nostalgic and misunderstood as it is, to stop and be grateful for the academic lives we get to lead.

Thanksgiving is as good a time as any to do this. We get a Thursday off from work to take a few moments to reflect on our lives. And since so many academics despise the shopping orgy known as “Black Friday,” the day following Thanksgiving presents a wonderful opportunity to not only reject consumer self-gratification, but practice a virtue that requires us to forget ourselves.

I am not sure why we are such an unthankful bunch. When we stop and think about it we enjoy a very good life. I can reference the usual perks of the job -- summer vacation, the freedom to make one’s own schedule, a relatively small amount of teaching (even those with the dreaded 4-4 load are in the classroom less than the normal high school teacher). Though we complain about students, we often fail to remember that our teaching, when we do it well, makes a contribution to society that usually extends far beyond the dozens of people who have read our recent monograph. And speaking of scholarship, academics get paid to spend a good portion of their time devoted to the world of ideas. No gnarled hands here.

Inside Higher Ed recently reported that seventy-eight percent of all American professors express “overall job satisfaction.” Yet we remain cranky. As Immanuel Kant put it, “ingratitude is the essence of vileness.” I cannot tell you how many times I have wandered into a colleague’s office to whine about all the work my college expects of me. 

Most college and university professors live in a constant state of discontentment, looking for the fast track to a better job and making excuses as to why they have not landed one yet. Academia can be a cutthroat and shallow place to spend one’s life. We are too often judged by what is written on our conference name badges. We say things about people behind their backs that we would never say to their faces. We become masters of self-promotion. To exhibit gratefulness in this kind of a world is countercultural.



This Thanksgiving take some time to express gratitude. In a recent study the Harvard University sociologist Neil Gross concluded that more college and university professors believe in God than most academics ever realized. If this is true, then for some of us gratitude might come in the form of a prayer. For others it may be a handwritten note of appreciation to a senior scholar whom we normally contact only when we need a letter of recommendation. Or, as the semester closes, it might be a kind word to a student whose academic performance and earnest pursuit of the subject at hand has enriched our classroom or our intellectual life. Or perhaps a word of thanks to the secretary or assistant who makes our academic life a whole lot easier.

As the German theologian and Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained, “gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.”

The Most Awkward Family Photos Ever

Check out the Daily Beast.  Hilarious.

Get Your Copy of Confessing History Today at 40% Off

University of Notre Dame Press is running a huge holiday sale between today and Christmas Eve.  They are offering all of their titles at 40% off the retail price.

Now is the time to get your copy of Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation.  What a great gift for the historian in your life!  Here is the table of contents:

Preface


Introduction
A Tradition Renewed? The Challenge of a Generation
Eric Miller, Geneva College 

Part One: Identity

Faith Seeking Historical Understanding
Mark R. Schwehn, Valparaiso University 

Not All Autobiography Is Scholarship: Thinking, as a Catholic, about History
Una M. Cadegan, University of Dayton 

Seeing Things: Knowledge and Love in History
Beth Barton Schweiger, University of Arkansas 

Part Two: Theory and Method

Virtue Ethics and Historical Inquiry: The Case of Prudence
Thomas Albert Howard, Gordon College 

The “Objectivity Question” and the Historian’s Vocation
William Katerberg, Calvin College

Enlightenment History, Objectivity, and the Moral Imagination
Michael Kugler, Northwestern College

On Assimilating the Moral Insights of the Secular Academy
Bradley J. Gundlach, Trinity College 

After Monographs: A Critique of Christian Scholarship as Professional Practice
Christopher Shannon, Christendom College 

The Problem of Preaching Through History
James B. LaGrand. Messiah College 

Part Three: Communities

Coming to Terms with Lincoln: Christian Faith and Moral Reflection in the History Classroom
John Fea. Messiah College 

For Teachers to Live, Professors Must Die: A Sermon on the Mount
Lendol Calder, Augustana College 

The Historian as Conscience and Servant of Human Society: A Christian Response to Public Reasoning by Historical Analogy
Jay Green, Covenant College 

Don’t Forget the Church: Reflections on the Forgotten Dimension of our Dual Calling
Robert Tracy McKenzie, University of Washington 

On the Vocation of Historians to the Priesthood of Believers: A Plea to Christians in the Academy
Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 

Afterword

Revisiting the Idea of Progress in History: Perspectives of Herbert Butterfield, Christopher Dawson, and Reinhold Niebuhr
Wilfred M. McClay, University of Tennessee--Chattanooga

The Antidote to Black Friday Consumerism

This Week's Patheos Column: A Moment of Celebration Worth Remembering

Last week I was in Georgia leading a workshop on colonial American history for a group of forty elementary school social studies teachers from the Savannah Public School District.  During the question and answer session one of the teachers, clearly with this week's lesson plan in mind, asked for advice on how to teach her students about Thanksgiving. History professors are critics by nature, so my initial reaction was to tell this teacher to make sure that she spent the class period debunking all the popular myths about Thanksgiving....

Read the rest of the column at Patheos.

Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln

Stephen Spielberg is planning a new movie about Abraham Lincoln.  It was recently announced that the title role in Lincoln will be played by actor Daniel Day Lewis. (Apparently Liam Neeson was Spielberg's first choice).  The movie is based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals.

For more on Daniel Day-Lewis check out this series of posts by Jim Cullen over at American History Now.

Were the Pilgrims Socialists?

In recent years the Tea Party has put forth their own version of the Thanksgiving story.  It goes something like this:

The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth and established a policy of communal land ownership, something akin to socialism.  When this did not work, William Bradford, the colonial governor, decided to institute a system of private property.  This move from socialism to capitalism saved the colony and ultimately saved America.  The real lesson of Thanksgiving is that socialism always fails and capitalism always succeeds.

This view of Thanksgiving is thoroughly debunked by this New York Times article, which includes commentary from Richard Pickering (the deputy director of Plimoth Plantation), author William Hogeland, and NYU professor Karen Kupperman.

I will let the article do the heavy lifting.

David D. Hall Defends The Puritans

David D. Hall, one of the deans of Puritan studies in America today, has an op-ed in today's New York Times that attempts to rescue the real Puritans from the myths propagated by 19th century authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne.  He notes that the Puritans advocated participatory government, rejected church hierarchy, sought to create a community of love and mutual obligation, opposed theocracy, and upheld the rule of law.

Hall concludes:

Why does it matter whether we get the Puritans right or not? The simple answer is that it matters because our civil society depends, as theirs did, on linking an ethics of the common good with the uses of power. In our society, liberty has become deeply problematic: more a matter of entitlement than of obligation to the whole. Everywhere, we see power abused, the common good scanted. Getting the Puritans right won’t change what we eat on Thanksgiving, but it might change what we can be thankful for and how we imagine a better America.

Growing Up Digital

Is it possible to have a conversation with the person standing next to you while you are texting?  How does one listen to music and watch something on YouTube at the same time?  Is it possible to write 27,000 texts in one month and still function as a human being?

Apparently the answer to all of these questions is yes.  As Matt Richtel reports at The New York Times, high school kids do it all the time.  Here is a taste:

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.

Researchers say the lure of these technologies, while it affects adults too, is particularly powerful for young people. The risk, they say, is that developing brains can become more easily habituated than adult brains to constantly switching tasks — and less able to sustain attention.

“Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”

But even as some parents and educators express unease about students’ digital diets, they are intensifying efforts to use technology in the classroom, seeing it as a way to connect with students and give them essential skills. Across the country, schools are equipping themselves with computers, Internet access and mobile devices so they can teach on the students’ technological territory.

See Thomas Friedman's commentary on this piece in today's Times.

Hannah Coulter on Diane Rehm

Tomorrow morning Diane Rehm will be devoting her show (11:00EST) to a discussion of Wendell Berry's novel Hannah Coulter.

Diane invites listeners to join a discussion of "Hannah Coulter" by Wendell Berry. Hannah is an old woman who has experienced much loss but has never been defeated. Hannah is a twice-widowed mother of three. She finds herself reflecting on her childhood, her loves and loss, her children, and her beloved Kentucky farm life. Wendell berry is a renowned poet, author, essayist and farmer. He has set many of his stories, including this one, in the fictional town of Port William. "Hannah Coulter" is the story of the ties that bind a community.

High Praise for Darren Dochuk's From Bible Belt to Sunbelt

Over at Religion and American History, Paul Harvey is singing the praise of Darren Dochuk's long awaited, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain Folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism.

Harvey writes: "Buy it! Read it! Assign it! This is the book of the year, no question; using in my grad. class this spring."

Here is the blurb from Amazon:

A sweeping, five-decade history of the evangelical movement in southern California that explains an epochal realignment of American politics. From Bible Belt to Sun Belt tells the dramatic and largely unknown story of “plain-folk” religious migrants: hardworking men and women from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas who fled the Depression and came to California for military jobs during World War II. Investigating this fiercely pious community at a grassroots level, Darren Dochuk uses the stories of religious leaders, including Billy Graham, as well as many colorful, lesser-known figures to explain how evangelicals organized a powerful political machine. This machine made its mark with Barry Goldwater, inspired Richard Nixon’s “Southern Solution,” and achieved its greatest triumph with the victories of Ronald Reagan. Based on entirely new research, the manuscript has already won the prestigious Allan Nevins Prize from the Society of American Historians. The judges wrote, “Dochuk offers a rich and multidimensional perspective on the origins of one of the most far-ranging developments of the second half of the twentieth century: the rise of the New Right and modern conservatism.” 

I too am looking forward to this one.

Early Glimpse of This Week's Patheos Column

My Patheos column usually appears on Wednesday, but the powers-that-be at Patheos have decided to post it a day early over at the Washington Post.

Here is a taste:

Last week I was in Georgia leading a workshop on colonial American history for a group of forty elementary school social studies teachers from the Savannah Public School District. During the question and answer session one of the teachers, clearly with this week's lesson plan in mind, asked for advice on how to teach her students about Thanksgiving. History professors are critics by nature, so my initial reaction was to tell this teacher to make sure that she spent the class period debunking all the popular myths about Thanksgiving....

Read the rest here.

Lendol Calder: Illinois Professor of the Year

My friend and friend of the blog Lendol Calder was recently named 2010 Illinois Professor of the Year.  This is a well-deserved honor for a guy who for several years has been on the cutting edge of historical pedagogy.

Lendol is best known for his book Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer Credit and his innovative approach to teaching the United States Survey class, which he calls "Uncoverage."  I should also add that his essay "For Teachers to Live, Professors Must Die" appears in our co-edited book Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation.  Congratulations, Lendol!

Here is a taste of an article on Lendol's award from the Quad City Times:

The news release said Calder is among those leading a movement to bring scholarly inquiry to teaching and learning in higher education. In 1999, he was invited by the Carnegie Foundation to join other distinguished academicians to invent and share new models to enhance student learning.

Calder’s research findings were published in the March 2006 issue of The Journal of American History and examined the problem of “coverage” in introductory history courses — an effort to forge a new way of teaching and learning college history.
“The kind of professor I’ve worked to be is the kind who approaches teaching with both the trained eye of a scholar and the wild eye of a poet or mystic or comic,” Calder said in the news release. “Teaching for me is both scholarly work and soul work.”

Augustana president Steve Bahls said Calder excels at leading students to a deeper, more effective understanding of history.
“This is a very special day for Augustana College, and it’s a great honor to join Dr. Calder’s colleagues and students in offering congratulations on this outstanding recognition,” Bahls said.

According to the college, Calder’s American history class covering 1945 to the present takes no exams and receives no lengthy lectures.

Students in Calder’s class read two competing histories and dozens of documents from the past. Their grades are based on seven essays in which they must construct sound historical arguments on the basis of document analysis, the news release said.

In class, students take part in lively discussions where they formulate questions, analyze evidence, construct claims, dispute inferences, correct initial conclusions, recognize what can’t be known and debate what story best makes sense of the American past, the release states.

“If you don’t have a story that makes sense of the world, then you don’t know what to do or how to live,” Calder stated.

Calder is a native of Texas, who received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1980. He received his master’s and doctorate from the University of Chicago and joined Augustana in 1996, after teaching at Colby-Sawyer College, the University of Washington, Seattle, and the University of Chicago.

Benjamin Rush on Education

In my "Age of the American Revolution" course today I began teaching Benjamin Rush's, "Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic."  Two things always strike me about this text.

First, Rush believes that "the only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in RELIGION."  Religion, he argues, is the only source of virtue.

Rush explicitly notes that the "religion of Jesus Christ" is the best form of religion and he believes it should be taught in schools.  But he would rather see "the opinions of Confucius or Mohammed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles."

As I read these lines I was struck by just how much Rush worshiped on the altar of republican virtue.  While a Christian republicanism was best, he was also willing to allow other religions to be taught in schools as long as they contributed to virtue.

Second, I was struck by Rush's commitment to the civic humanist idea of sacrificing for the common good or the good of the nation.  For example:

Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property.  Let him be taught to love his family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even forget them when the welfare of his country requires it.

Such republicanism rejected, to an extent, a commitment to world citizenship. Rush argued that one must "be taught to love his fellow creatures in every part of the world, but he must cherish with a more intense and peculiar affection the citizens of Pennsylvania and of the United States."

And Rush goes on. Children should be taught to "amass wealth, but it must be only to increase his power of contributing to the wants and demands of the state.  They should be taught that this life "is not his own," but it belongs to one's country.

Some of this stuff, written by one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, might be a cause of concern for today's libertarians, tea partiers, or anyone else with a high view of Lockean rights.

The Top Ten Most Religious Cities in America

According to Men's Health, that great authority on all things religious, here are the ten most religious cities in America:

HT:  Paul Harvey

1. Colorado Springs, CO
2. Greensboro, NC
3. Oklahoma City, OK
4. Wichita, KS
5. Indianapolis, IN
6. Jacksonville, FL
7. Portland, OR
8. Birmingham, AL
9. Charlotte, NC
10. Little Rock, AR

Interesting to note that the first northeast city on the list is Washington D.C. at #44.

Here are the 10 LEAST religious cities:

91. Miami, FL
92. Newark, NJ
93. Manchester, NH
94. Fargo, ND
95. Jersey City, NJ
96. Portland, ME
97. Hartford, CT
98. Boston, MA
99. Providence, RI
100. Burlington, VT

Abner Doubleday Did Not Event Baseball

Baseball historian George B. Kirsch has a great piece over at HNN about why so many people still believe that Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball.  Here is his take on why this myth has survived for so long.

The first is baseball’s continuing association with American nationalism.  Doubleday’s fame as a hero of the Battle of Gettysburg and the enormous power of the Civil War in American memory explain why Albert G. Spalding and Major League Baseball endorsed him as the inventor of the sport over a century ago.  Selig’s comment continues this tradition of connecting American patriotism with our national pastime.  The Doubleday myth perfectly suits that purpose, despite all the critical attacks by both academic and popular historians.

The second reason for the enduring power of the Doubleday tale is that it is simply a very appealing story. Most Americans (wrongly) think of baseball as a pastoral game that originated in rural America.  (Actually in its modern form it is an urban export of antebellum and Civil War-era New York City).  The founders of the Hall of Fame and Museum recognized the power of the story when they selected its first class of inductees in 1936 and opened its building in 1939.  Over the past seventy years the institution has used the Doubleday tale to market itself to millions of baseball fans, with stunningly successful results.  As Craig Muder, an official of the Hall of Fame, explained: “`The Myth’ has grown so strong that the facts will never deter the spirit of Cooperstown.”

Dispatches from Graduate School--Part 8

Cali Pitchel McCullough is a Ph.D student in American history at Arizona State University.  For earlier posts in this series click here. --JF

I write this short and sorry missive in the midst of dangling wires, copper pipes, freshly hung drywall, and 5-gallon tubs of paint. Did I mention that when I'm not grading papers or waxing philosophical about historiography I'm stripping four layers of paint off of 42 year old cabinets? We're projected to move into our condo in less than two weeks--right in the middle of finals. Yes. I'm crazy. So it's appropriate that the only dispatches I'm doing this week are last minute trips to Home Depot and Lowe's.

Sunday Night Odds and Ends

A few things online that caught my attention this week:

George Washington and his maps.

The case against starting Christmas music in November.

Patrick Deneen defends culture.

Jonathan Jones on Robert Nisbet's The Quest for Community.

Why Glenn Beck is not Father Coughlin.

Thanksgiving dinner--circa 1887.

Visualizing Emancipation.

Happy Birthday to The Search for Piety and Obedience.

Creepiest book cover awards.

More on Washington's potty mouth.

Randall Stephens compares Billy James Hargis and John F. Kennedy.

Adam Goodheart on Major Robert Anderson.

Kicking God out of Gettysburg?

Jessica Hopper reviews Springsteen's The Promise.

Drew Gilpin Faust's books.

What if Lee hadn't surrendered at Appomattox?

Michael Kenney reviews Benjamin Carp, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America

Stephan Salisbury reviews Jill Lepore's The White of Their Eyes: The Tea Party's Revolution and the Battle Over American History.

New Jersey Forum

I spent the better part of the day in Monmouth, New Jersey at the 3rd Biennial New Jersey Forum, a one-day conference on New Jersey history sponsored by several historical agencies in the Garden State.

The conference was held in beautiful Wilson Hall (see picture) on the campus of Monmouth University in West Long Branch. (It was good to be back in Jersey Shore country).

After listening to historian W. Barksdale Maynard's very interesting plenary address on Woodrow Wilson's Princeton years, I had the privilege of chairing a session on the American Revolution in New Jersey.

The panel included three great papers on the social impact of the Revolution and the Revolutionary War in New Jersey.  Michael Adelberg, an independent historian, gave a talk on the leadership of the Revolution in Monmouth County.  Greg Walsh, a Ph.D candidate at Boston College, presented a paper on estate seizures and the Revolution in Essex County.  James Gigantino, a professor at the University of Arkansas, presented material from his Driscoll Prize-winning University of Georgia dissertation on  the abolition (or lack thereof) of slavery in New Jersey.

These papers, especially those by Adelberg and Walsh, got me thinking more deeply about some of my ongoing work on Presbyterians in the revolutionary New Jersey and the kinds of local research needed to bring this project to completion.  More on that later...

Abraham Lincoln's Conversion to Orthodox Christian Faith

November 19 was the 147th anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address.  Mark Herringshaw, a blogger at the Beliefnet blog "Prayer Plain and Simple" wants us to think about the Gettysburg Address as Lincoln's public declaration of Christian orthodox faith.

After reprinting the text of the address Herringshaw writes:

Ponder again Lincoln's words. What strikes you? Is it his reaffirmation of Jefferson's Declaration of Independence language, "that all men are created equal?"  Is it Lincoln's somber statement of purpose: "It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work?"  Or is it his humble submission to sovereign God's purpose, his Enlightenment-man conversion to orthodox Christian faith, that "this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom?" 

Ponder and respond...

OK--I have pondered and now I am going to respond.  One reference to God does not a conversion make.

Athletes, Graduation Rates, and Catholic Schools

Writing at The Wall Street Journal, Mark Yosts calls attention to the fact that Catholic schools do a better job of graduating student athletes.  His article features programs at Xavier, LaSalle, and Holy Cross.

Here is a taste:

I've written much on these pages about the often problematic nexus of collegiate academics and athletics. Over the years, I've pilloried Kentucky and Memphis and their 30% graduation rates. By contrast, I've held up Catholic colleges like Notre Dame—one of the few schools where athletes have a higher graduation rate than the general student body—as examples of schools that refuse to accept academically unqualified students simply because they have good jump shots.

My faith was shaken earlier this year when the New York Times interviewed Sister Rose Ann Fleming. She's the feisty 5- foot-4-inch, 78-year-old nun who makes sure that the basketball players at Xavier University, a Jesuit Catholic college in Cincinnati, spend as much time in class as they do in the gym. Terrell Holloway, a sophomore guard at Xavier, praised Sister Rose in the Times article for keeping on him when he fell behind in a reading class during summer school.

Reading? Summer school?

It forced me to ask myself: Are the Catholic schools, after all, the same as Michigan or Temple when it comes to what kind of athletes they admit? The short answer seems to be yes. The critical difference is that schools like Xavier are making sure that their players receive diplomas.

Xavier's graduation rate for its men's basketball team is 82%, compared with an NCAA average of about 60%. And, on average, the graduation rate of athletes at Catholic schools is higher than at their secular counterparts.

"They may have been attracted to Xavier by a coach," Sister Rose told me, "but from the very start we make it fundamentally clear to them that they are here to receive an education."
She admitted that Xavier does accept students who don't meet its minimum standards in terms of grades or test scores, but pointed out that not all of them are athletes. All come recommended by a guidance counselor, teacher or mentor as a kid who "deserves a break."

"We place a great deal of emphasis on educating the individual," she said. "That's very much a Christian ideal." For those kids who deserve a break, Xavier has a special freshman curriculum that restricts them to 12 credit hours in core courses such as math and English. There's also a 13th credit hour they can take that teaches study skills, writing and note-taking.

To be sure, many universities have athlete tutoring centers. These million-dollar facilities are part of the façade that these kids are students first and athletes second. The difference is that many Catholic schools seem to actually try to make it the reality....

Did George Washington Have a Potty Mouth?

"Readers Almanac," the official blog of the Library of America, asks:  "Did George Washington Swear During the Battle of Monmouth?"

As most historians of the Revolutionary War know, George Washington and Charles Lee, a general in the Continental Army who led the attack at the Battle of Monmouth, did not always see eye to eye on military strategy.  But did Washington, who prohibited profanity among his soldiers, curse him out? Washington was not happy when Lee abandoned the field at Monmouth and may have called him a "damned poltroon," followed by some other choice comments.

Read all about it and then head over to Boston 1775 (hat tip) and read more.

More From ?uestlove on the Springsteen Appearance on Fallon

Here is more from ?uestlove, the bandleader and drummer of The Roots, on what it was like to back-up Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Van Zandt, and Roy Bittan on last Tuesday's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon:

Before the show, the band rehearsed for 90 minutes, running through "Because the Night" six times and "Save My Love" four times. "[Bruce] was just like, 'Hey, you do what you do,'" ?uestlove says. "'I don't want you to be Max Weinberg. I want you to be you.'"

But soon, during a take of "Because the Night," the drummer got found himself in one of Max Weinberg's familiar dilemmas. "Bruce and Little Steven were giving me the exact opposite instructions — It was kind of like good cop, bad cop," he says.

Before the show, the band rehearsed for 90 minutes, running through "Because the Night" six times and "Save My Love" four times. "[Bruce] was just like, 'Hey, you do what you do,'" ?uestlove says. "'I don't want you to be Max Weinberg. I want you to be you.'"

But soon, during a take of "Because the Night," the drummer got found himself in one of Max Weinberg's familiar dilemmas. "Bruce and Little Steven were giving me the exact opposite instructions — It was kind of like good cop, bad cop," he says.

"There's a moment on the bridge where Bruce said, 'You got to watch Steven's body language. He will come over, bend his knees — that means to bring the dynamics down. Play to a whisper," he adds. "But then two seconds later during the song Springsteen's looking at me like, 'Yo man,' jumping up and down and Steven is like on his knees. My band's laughing at me because they know exactly, you know, the type of quagmire I'm in right now. One guy is telling me he wants to see blood drawn because he wants me to play real powerful and the other one wants me to bring it down a little bit."

He met them in the middle. But on TV, nothing was brought to a whisper. And just as Springsteen has been known to do in arenas, the band went over their allotted set time. "If you look at the last 20 seconds [of "Because the Night"], all of us are literally in a circle. It's like no one else is in that room except Little Steven, the Professor, Bruce, and all seven of my guys," says ?uestlove. "We're totally disregarding the minute mark and the deadline. I'm surprised they got it all on there 'cause Lord knows we went 32 bars over. We were supposed to end after the end of the bridge, but we just kept going. None of that stuff was expected — the guitar solo."

The Messiah College Juggernaut Rolls On

It was a big day for Messiah College athletics, one of the finest athletic programs in NCAA Division III.

Women's Field Hockey (Ranked #1 in the nation):  Advanced to the national championship game with a 4-0 win over Ursinus College (who were ranked #2 in the nation).  A win tomorrow against Bowdoin gives them their first national championship after they have come up empty in 14 Final Four appearances.

Men's Soccer (Ranked #1 in the nation):  Advanced to the Elite 8 with a 2-0 win over Medaille College.  A win tomorrow against the Merchant Marine Academy puts them in the Final Four.

Women's Soccer (Ranked #1 in the nation): Advanced to the Elite 8 with a 3-0 win over Dickinson College.  A win tomorrow against either The College of New Jersey or Johns Hopkins will put them in the Final Four.

Women's Basketball (ranked 15th in the nation):  Won the Hampton Inn Tip-Off Classic with convincing wins over Pitt-Greensburg and Rowan College.

Be Countercultural: Get Married

According to this study by the Pew Research Center, the institution of marriage is in trouble.  The study concludes that:

Marriage remains the norm among the college educated, but is declining among those on the "lower rungs of the socio-economic ladder."

In 1960, 68% of all "twenty-somethings" were married.  In 2008, just 26% of all "twenty-somethings" were married.

The "young" are more inclined to cohabitate without marriage and view same-sex and interracial marriages favorably.

"Family" remains important to most Americans, even though the definition of "family" is changing.

39% of Americans believe that marriage is "becoming obsolete."

Americans are more "upbeat" about the future of marriage than they are about the future of the country's educational system, economic system, and morality.

70% say that single women having children is bad for society and 61% say that a child needs a mother and a father "to grow up happily."

In 1969, 68% of Americans believed premarital sex was wrong.  In 2009, 60% of Americans believe premarital sex is wrong.

94% of Americans believe that when compared to their parents their relationship with their spouse is either closer or the same.

86% of Americans believe that a single parent and a child constitute a family.  80% say that an unmarried couple living together with a child is a family.  63% say that a gay or lesbian couple living together with a child is a family.  The majority believe that a couple living together without a child is not a family.

Anyone want to interpret these statistics for me?

Religion and the 2010 Elections

The Brookings Institute has released a revealing report about the role of religion in the 2010 elections.  The report is co-authored by E.J. Dionne and William A. Galston and can be read here.  In case you do not have time to read the entire report, here is a summary of the findings:

Economic convulsions have a way of changing the priorities of voters. Although concerns for their own and their families’ well-being are never far from citizens’ minds, these matters are less pressing in prosperous times. At such moments, voters feel freer to use elections as ways of registering their views on matters related to religion, culture, values and foreign policy.
 
But when times turn harsh, the politics of jobs, wealth, and income can overwhelm everything else. Thus did the focus of the country’s politics change radically between 1928, a classic culture war contest dominated by arguments over prohibition and presidential candidate Al Smith’s religious faith, and 1932, when the Great Depression ushered in a new political alignment and created what became Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition.
 
The Great Recession has had a similar effect in concentrating the electorate’s mind on economics. But the evidence of the 2010 election is that it has not—up to now, at least—fundamentally altered the cultural and religious contours of American political life. Religion and issues related to recent cultural conflicts, notably abortion and same-sex marriage, played a very limited role in the Republicans’ electoral victory. Overwhelmingly, voters cast their ballots on the basis of economic issues, while the religious alignments that took root well before the economic downturn remained intact. Democrats lost votes among religiously conservative constituencies, but also among religious liberals and secular voters. They did not, however, lose ground among African-Americans of various religious creeds and held their own among Latino voters. To see issues related to religious or cultural issues as central to the 2010 outcome is, we believe, a mistake.
 
But there is a new constellation of issues related to religion that looms as a troubling and potentially divisive element in American political life. The attack of September 11, 2001 has left the country divided in its view of Islam and Muslims, and these divisions reinforce the cleavages between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives. Americans are also sharply divided in their perceptions of President Obama’s own religious faith.

It also suggests that American Muslims are in a situation similar to that of Catholics, who in earlier periods of our history were seen by a significant share of America’s population as representing principles at odds with equality and democracy. There may be lessons for American Muslims in the experience of the Catholic community and its ultimate success in breaking down barriers and entering the mainstream of American political life.
 
Finally (and related to these findings): while there is considerable overlap between the Tea Party movement and religious conservatism, there is evidence that the Tea Party may represent not so much a more libertarian alternative to the Christian Right as an embodiment of a more critical or even hostile attitude toward multiculturalism, immigration and the idea of compassionate conservatism put forward by former President George W. Bush. We offer this conclusion tentatively. The Tea Party is a diverse movement with a core commitment to a smaller federal government. Measures of its size have varied considerably. And many in the Tea Party also identify with Christian conservatism—an alliance embodied in the word “Teavangelical,” coined by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody. But to the extent that the two movements are distinctive, they are likely to split less around issues such as abortion or same-sex marriage than in their attitudes toward minority groups, immigrants and social programs for the poor. We will offer evidence for this distinction from both the PRRI survey and from exit polling in the 2010 Colorado Governor’s race, which featured the candidacy of Tom Tancredo, one of the country’s most vocal and extreme opponents of illegal immigration.

Five Things Your Students Think You Need to Know

Over at Brainstorm, Gina Barreca is asking students to list five things that professors need to know about how their students perceive them.  This batch comes from a recent University of Connecticut graduate.  Here is a taste:

You might not believe it, but most of the time we don’t think you are funny and we don’t even understand most of the references you make in terms of your attempts at humor. Only a few people still watch Monty Python and we’re not going to start just so we can understand what you mean by “silly walks” and we don’t know all the Simpsons episodes as well as you do. Please don’t get us started on Seinfeld. Our parents think that’s funny. We don’t. We laugh when you pause because you clearly expect it and we want to make you happy and/or get a good grade by getting into your good graces....

You might be puzzled, but yeah, we talk about you because we see you several times a week. We tell our friends whether or not you are a good teacher and we tell our parents and their friends the same. You are a big part of our lives and so if you see yourself mentioned on those teaching sites or Facebook or wherever, you should not assume we are weird. It would be strange if we didn’t discuss you. This loops back to the first point in this note, which is that we notice whether you give a damn about your teaching and about your students. You can make us feel like we have a chance at grasping a subject or understanding an idea or else make us feel like we’re as ridiculous, pathetic, and useless as we’ve always suspected we might be. It’s easy to make us feel bad and we talk highly of those professors who don’t take the easy way out....

Giving Blood Looks Good on Your CV

Frank Furedi, a professor of sociology at the University of Kent, rails on the way political and intellectual elites think about "public engagement."  Here are three snippets:

There has been considerable discussion in recent years about the lack of public engagement in civic and political life. But this discussion suffers from the fact that it’s conducted from the perspective of a political elite that is itself socially isolated. This elite therefore has a perception of the public as an object with which one engages. That itself tells me straightaway that when we use the word ‘public’, we’re almost invariably not talking about the public in the way that it’s been historically understood....

This displacement of public virtue happens in all sorts of ways. Just this morning, for instance, I heard yet another plea for volunteering – I almost felt like throwing up, I’ve heard it so many times. Now call me old-fashioned, but when I was young you volunteered because you believed in something. You wanted to help people; you wanted, for instance, to give blood. You didn’t do volunteering because it looked good on your CV. So, while volunteering certainly has a virtuous potential, it has been turned into a process that you adhere to much in the way that you clock on to a job.... 

An example of this stigmatisation of virtue relates to something I feel strongly about, namely, devotion and care. During the course of writing a book a few years ago called Therapy Culture, I noticed that aspects of devotion and care had become increasingly stigmatised, often being expressed and defined as a marker of a disease. In fact, any manifestation of love, friendship, loyalty or altruism was potentially labelled as a form of addictive behaviour. Altruistic behaviour – which hardly seems a bad thing – is actually diagnosed as compulsive helping. According to this definition, compulsive helpers disregard their own needs and feelings and focus on helping another person. That kind of sums up our current situation with regards to public virtue: in a different era, in a different society, this so-called disease would be seen as a positive thing....

Most Popular Posts of the Last Week

Here are the most visited post of the past week at The Way of Improvement Leads Home.

1. Attack Ads, Circa 1800 (October 2010)
2. Super-Sizing DaVinci's Last Supper (March 2010)
3. Does Sarah Palin Speak in Tongues? (August 2008)
4. Calvinist Revival (March 2010)
5. Religion in Jamestown (July 2009)
6. I'm Leaving: True Confessions of a Professor Who Has Had Enough (October 2008)
7. Yawn Outside (November 2010)
8. Joe Posnanski on Springsteen's The Promise (November 2010)
9. The Tea Party and the Constitution (October 2010)
10. How to Cite Facebook and Twitter (January 2010)

Do You Produce Enough Scholarship to Merit a 2-2 Teaching Load?

Here is a post for my academic readers.  Warning: It is long.

As we all know, faculty are evaluated for tenure and promotion based on three categories:  teaching, service, and scholarship.  Colleges weigh the "scholarship" category differently, depending on the nature of the institution.  History departments at research universities usually require a book (sometimes more) for tenure and another one for promotion to full professor.  Other departments are less demanding. But how does one measure what counts as "scholarship" in the field of history?  I think we might all agree that an academic monograph or scholarly book should carry more weight than a published article or a conference paper.  But how much more weight should it carry?

This morning I discovered a great answer to these questions in a post on the American Historical Society's listserv for department chairs.  The post was by Timothy Gilfoyle, the chair of the history department at Loyola-Chicago.  Gilfoyle has designed a system to measure the weight of faculty scholarship in his department.  Based on his metric (which I have posted in full below), a faculty is entitled to a 2-2 teaching load (two courses a semester) if over the course of seven years he or she are able to accumulate 140 research units.  Faculty who accumulate between 40 and 139 research units are given a 3-2 load.  Anyone under 40 research units will teach a 3-3 load.  There are a host of exceptions and caveats, but you get the general idea.  Here is the metric (please forgive some of the formatting errors).

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY: LOYOLA-CHICAGO

STANDARDS FOR RESEARCH-INTENSIVE AND

RESEARCH-ACTIVE FACULTY

 (adopted February 2010; revised July 2010)

In compliance with a request by the Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the History Department revises and recommends the following guidelines for evaluating (a) which members of the Department of History are "research intensive" (for the purposes of qualifying for a two-course per semester teaching load),  (b) which members are “research active” (for a three-two teaching load), and (c) which members fall below the “research active” status (as required for a three-two load).  The system outlined below is based on appropriate benchmarks for the evaluation of historical scholarship as developed by the American Historical Association.[1]  The specific criteria incorporate a broad definition of scholarship and acknowledge the importance of creative collaboration, the interdisciplinarity of knowledge, and the wide variety of scholarly research made by historians and other scholars. The criteria emphasize the process of scholarship rather than simply the final product, thus covering a greater range of intensive research activity than simply scholarly monographs or journal articles.  The point values imperfectly measure and assess the originality and degree of innovation manifested in the research activity, the difficulty of the research task accomplished, and the scope and importance of the research activity.

To qualify as "research intensive," a faculty member must accumulate 140 points or “research units” over a seven year period.  At least 120 research units must originate from publications in scholarly or history-related venues (designated by * below).  To qualify as “research active, a faculty member must accumulate between 40 and 139 research units over a seven year period.  At least 40 research units must originate from publications in scholarly peer-reviewed venues (designated by * below). Faculty who accumulate less than 40 research units will typically teach a 3-3 load, given that (a) one’s averaging below an article every 3.5 years is a sign of considerable inactivity in the area of research over seven years, and (b) such inactivity will leave considerable time for one’s making a larger contribution to the important area of undergraduate teaching.

As a general rule, faculty should average approximately 25 students per class.  Research-intensive faculty with a 2-2 load should teach at least 100 students per year; research-active faculty with a 3-2 load should teach at least 125 students per year.  Faculty with 3-3 teaching loads should teach at least 150 students per year; those with 4-4 loads, 200 students per year.  Exceptions are granted with the approval of the chair and/or dean. 

Upon evaluation a faculty member designated research-intensive or research-active will hold that privilege for three years, at which time they will be re-evaluated for research-intensive or research-active status.  If a faculty member loses research-intensive or research-active status and then accumulates requisite number of research units before their periodic three-year review, they may petition the chair for evaluation to regain research-intensive or research-active status. 

Advancement of Knowledge                                Research Units

*Scholarly books                                                           100 (110 with dean’s approval)[2]

*Co-authored scholarly books                                        75 (85 with dean’s approval)

*Critical editions, translations                                        60-100 (with dean’s approval)

*Published oral history compilations                              60

*Annotated published or on-line bibliographies or

databases                                                                 35

*Published institutional and other histories;

digital media products; exhibition scripts;

documentary film projects (based on primary research)

100,000 words or more[3]                                    100
50,000-99,000 words                                          75
25,000-49,999 words                                          50
17,000-24,999 words                                          35 
10,000-16,999 words                                          25
5,000-9,999 words                                              20
2,000-4,999 words                                              15

*Co-authored published institutional and other histories;

digital media products; exhibition scripts;

documentary film projects (based on primary research)

100,000 words or more[4]                                    75
50,000-99,000 words                                          50
25,000-49,999 words                                          35
17,000-24,999 words                                          25 
10,000-16,999 words                                          20
5,000-9,999 words                                              15
2,000-4,999 words                                              10

Recipient of a national grant or one in excess of

$50,000[5]                                                                    25

Recipient of a state or local grant, or one less than   

$50,000                                                                        15

*Articles in refereed journals and vetted essay

collections[6]     

            (10,000 words or more)                                      25

            (5,000-9,999 words)                                           20

            (4,999 words or less)                                          15

*Co-authored articles in refereed journals and

vetted essay collections         

            (10,000 words or more)                                      20

            (5,000-9,999 words)                                           15

            (4,999 words or less)                                          10

*Articles by invitation in non-refereed journals/

essay collections/encyclopedias

            (10,000 words or more)                                     20

            (5,000-9,999 words)                                          15

            (2,000-4,999 words)                                          10

*Co-authored articles by invitation in non-refereed

journals/essay collections/encyclopedias

            (10,000 words or more)                                     15

            (5,000-9,999 words)                                          10

            (2,000-4,999 words)                                            5

*Revised or translated editions of previously 

            published books                                                 15

Presenting a scholarly paper at workshop or

academic conference (counts one time)[7]                       5

Reprinted articles                                                             2

Application of Knowledge                                    Research Units

*Public history research products, including:

cultural resource management reports,

expert reports to courts and judicial bodies,

contract research, exhibition reports, media

scripts, museum reports, curricula reports,

published teaching reports[8]

100,000 words or more                                     100
50,000-99,000 words                                          75
25,000-49,999 words                                          50
17,000-24,999 words                                          35
10,000-16,999 words                                          25
5,000-9,999 words                                              20
2,000-4,999 words                                              15

*Co-authored public history research products,

including: cultural resource management reports,

expert reports to courts and judicial bodies,

contract research, exhibition reports, media

scripts, museum reports, curricula reports,

published teaching reports[9]

100,000 words or more                                       75
50,000-99,000 words                                          50
25,000-49,999 words                                          35
17,000-24,999 words                                          25
10,000-16,999 words                                          20
5,000-9,999 words                                              15
2,000-4,999 words                                              10

Administration and management of

historical organizations and institutions                          5-20 (with dean’s approval)

Unpublished oral history compilations                           5-20 (with dean’s approval)  

Scholarship presented to public; community service      

drawing from scholarship

            Keynote  or Plenary Addresses                         6

Consulting and providing expert testimony

on public policy and other matters                        6

Contract research on policy formulation and

policy outcomes                                                    6

            Invited Lectures (longer than a conf. paper)    5

Public lectures                                                       3

Editor of an academic/scholarly journal                       25  (per 3-year term of service)

Associate Editor of an academic/scholarly journal       20  (per 3-year term of service)

Service on governing boards of  scholarly

organizations or cultural institutions                      10 (counts once per evaluation)

Service on editorial board of academic journal             10 (counts once per evaluation)

            Article edited or peer reviewed                            5

Guest editor of a special issue of an academic/

scholarly journal                                                              25

Editor of a book series for an academic press                 10

Peer review of a book manuscript for an academic

or other press                                                                     5

Peer review of an article manuscript for an academic

journal or publication                                                         2

Peer review of a scholarly grant proposal                          2

Integration of Knowledge                                     Research Units

*Textbooks and surveys                                                  60

*Edited collected articles or essays                                 40

*Edited textbook anthology                                             30

*Article in newspaper, magazine or other media

            5,000 words or more                                           15

            2,500-4,999 words or less                                   10

            2,499 words or less                                               5

*Reviews, notes                                                                5

Organizing an academic conference                                5-10 (with dean’s approval)

Service on a program committee for a national,

international, regional, or field-related conference

or annual meeting                                                               5

Organizing workshops or panels at academic

conferences; serving as a commentator                              3

Confidential or public evaluation of a candidate

for tenure or promotion at another university                     3

The above point allocations may be revised in special circumstances for an individual faculty member who petitions the Chair and Department Advisory Committee and provides evidence of research-intensive activity that may exceed the allocated point value.

A faculty member with research intensive status who assumes extensive administrative duties as Dean, Associate Dean, Chair, Graduate Program Director, or Undergraduate Program Director (or an equally demanding administrative position) will have the periodic review of their status extended by the length of their service.

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[1]  American Historical Association, Redefining Historical Scholarship: Report of the American Historical Association Ad Hoc Committee on Redefining Historical Scholarship (December 1993), available at: http://www.historians.org/PUBS/Free/RedefiningScholarship.htm

[2]  Books that attract extraordinary attention – reviews in national media such as the New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, Wall Street Journal, or similar outlets, or win a significant prize – can earn 110 research units with approval of the Dean of CAS.

[3] This standard assumes journal and other publications have approximately 750 words per journal page, or 250-275 per typewritten manuscript page.  A 10,000 word article is approximately 13-15 pages in a journal or other publication.

[4] This standard assumes journal and other publications have approximately 750 words per journal page, or 250-275 per typewritten manuscript page.  A 10,000 word article is approximately 13-15 pages in a journal or other publication.

[5]  National grants include (but are not limited to) monetary awards from: NEH, NEA, NIH, NSF, Fulbright, grants from other federal departments or agencies, Social Science Research Council, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, National Humanities Center, National History Center, international and national research libraries (i.e. Library of Congress, Folger Shakespeare Library, Huntington Library, American Antiquarian Society, Newberry Library, New York Public Library).  “National” is defined here on the basis of the applicant pool and recipients.

[6] “Refereed” is defined to include journals, presses, and other publications with a general policy of submitting manuscripts to external readers for peer-review evaluation, even if they publish some articles, special issues, or books by invitation.

[7]  The same paper or essay may be delivered at more than one conference or lecture, but can only count one time.

[8] Such products should include some form of independent review in order to insure quality control, i.e. rebuttle reports in court and judicial proceedings; or internal peer or staff reports for work submitted to government agencies, cultural institutions or non-profit organizations.  Faculty members should be prepared to submit such external documentation.  If no independent review is available, the research product cannot receive more than 20 points, irrespective of length.

[9] Such products should include some form of independent review in order to insure quality control, i.e. rebuttle reports in court and judicial proceedings; or internal peer or staff reports for work submitted to government agencies, cultural institutions or non-profit organizations.  Faculty members should be prepared to submit such external documentation.  If no independent review is available, the research product cannot receive more than 20 points, irrespective of length.

**Posted with the permission of Dr. Timothy Gilfoyle.