Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: This Week

A few things are in the works this week for Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction

Tomorrow, March 1, I will on KFUO in St. Louis discussing the book with host Roland Lettner.  The interview is scheduled for 6:30EST.  You can listen online by clicking here.

On Thursday morning, March 3, I will be a guest on Brian Patrick's Show on KNOP--Cincinnati (Catholic radio).  The interview is scheduled for 9:45 EST.  You can listen online here.

On Thursday night I will be doing a private book talk and signing at one of my favorite places to speak--Bethany Village in Mechanicsburg, PA.

On Friday, March 4 I will be in Doylestown, PA at the Doylestown Book Shop from 8pm to 9pm.  If you are in the Bucks County area feel free to stop by.

And I am still teaching Sunday School at West Shore Evangelical Free Church in Mechanicsburg.  If you are in the area, stop by the Becomers Class at 9am.  We have two weeks left.  On Sunday, March 6 I will be talking about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  The following Sunday (March 13) I will be discussing the religious beliefs of the Founding Fathers.

ADDENDUM:  I will be on the Andy Caldwell Show out of Santa Barbara, CA (KUHL--AM 1440) on March 1 at 7:00pm.  You can listen here.

How Mount Vernon Slaves Shaped Our Image of Washington

Scott Casper has written an excellent book about slaves at Mount Vernon called Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine.  We have mentioned his book at The Way of Improvement Leads Home before.

Last week he had an op-ed in The New York Times discussing slave life at Mount Vernon after Washington's death.  Here is a taste:

Today, of course, Washington is again at the center of the presidential pantheon. For that he can thank an unlikely group of allies: former slaves who worked at Mount Vernon in the late 19th century and who helped shape our modern beliefs about him — but only by hiding his complicated views on slavery behind the illusion of an Old South plantation.

Everything about the restored Mount Vernon was designed to render Washington a noble but approachable figure. Visitors could wander through his dining room and peer into the second-story bedchamber where he died. Another floor up, they saw the room where Martha Washington supposedly spent the rest of her life after his death, gazing out the window at her beloved husband’s gravesite.

The estate was governed by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, but much of the daily work was performed by African-Americans who had been owned by Washington’s descendants. They guarded the premises, sold souvenirs and refreshments and spoke with visitors about bygone days. 

Read the entire piece here. 

Should Christians Go Into Politics?

Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, two veterans of the George W. Bush White House, have a written a book on this topic entitled City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era.  They argue that politics is a good thing for Christian to get involved in and offer some ideas about Christian political involvement that run counter to James Davison Hunter's argument in To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.

Over at Evangel blog, Gayle Trotter interviews Peter Wehner about the book.  (There is also a recorded version of the interview here).  Here is a taste:

GT: In the book you quote James Davison Hunter, who says, “No real political solutions to absence of decency or to the spread of vulgarity exist.” You disagree with Professor Hunter, right?

PW: Yeah, I mean, in a broad sense he makes an argument for sabbatical from politics that Christians, because they have not executed their involvement in politics very well, have hurt their faith and not produced very much in politics. But Mike and I disagree with that. I should say I am sympathetic to much of what Hunter writes, I think his book is good and it’s an impressive book. But on that particular issue I think that he underplays the significance of politics. To simplify things, I think he is of the school that culture is upstream of politics. Culture is key and if you can fix the culture then that in fact will trickle down into politics and then politics is very limited in its capacity to change the life, including the moral life, of a country. Now, there are limitations to it but on the other hand, the law is an expression of certain moral beliefs and indeed the law itself can shape certain moral beliefs because when you have the imprimatur of law, it carries a lot of weight. Take, for example, drug use. If we were to legalize drug use, you would see an explosion in the use of drugs, not simply because they would be more available but because it would be sending a signal to people, particularly young people, which is that this society has made the determination that this is not problematic and it’s fine if you use it. In addition, the Civil Rights Era is an example of how laws, the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act in ‘64-‘65 helped change people’s moral attitudes and sentiments toward the issue of segregation. Now these things are complicated; they’re mutually reinforcing. There’s no question that culture can influence politics, and there’s no question that politics can also influence culture. And Mike and I make the argument that a lot of people who downplay the importance of politics tend to be Christians in a pretty comfortable situation but if you’re a young inner city kid in New York City in the early 1990s then public policy and politics would make a heck of a lot of difference and you would actually see examples of how the social, cultural and moral life of the nation has shifted because of public policy. Welfare is one example. Crime and the transformation of New York City by Mayor Giuliani is another. So while these things are complicated, it’s not as if one has complete dominance over the other. But Mike and I believe that Hunter, for all the virtues of his book, overshot in this particular case and underplays the importance of politics.

Finalists for the George Washington Book Prize Announced

The finalists are:

Pauline Maier, Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788.

Jack Rakove, Revolutionaries: A New History History of the Invention of America

Alan Taylor, The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies.

My money is on Taylor.

For more about the George Washington Book Prize and the finalists check out the press release at the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience. 

Dispatches from Graduate School--Part 21

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 had my first official PhD meltdown on Thursday night. My family requested to take Quinn and I out for dinner on Thursday night. We settled on The Mission, a Latin restaurant situated in the bustle of Old Town Scottsdale, and within walking distance from our condo. My parents and brother were seated when we arrived, so Quinn and I took the empty seats across the table. I was about to dig a hot corn chip into the made-to-order guacamole when my brother nudged his head to his left, my right. Barry Zito and five friends were seated directly next to our table. The tables were positioned rather close, so it felt a little like we were actually sitting with their party. So basically, I had dinner with a Cy Young Award-winning Major League Baseball pitcher. Kind of. Anyway, on to the meltdown.

We finished our meals as we discussed our upcoming family cruise to the eastern Caribbean—what to pack, what not to pack, etc. The waitress brought the check to our table and my mom, in typically fashion, proceeded to leave a 30% tip—roughly $40. Then I thought to myself, Barry Zito will likely leave an equally, if not more, generous tip for our energetic, cute waitress.  Then I started to do a little math. We were two of her three or four tables. And we were a 7:00 reservation. So if you figure she does about 3 tables per 2 hours in three successive waves making on average $50/hour, she walks with at least $300 at the end of the night. I make a little more than $300 in a week. One full week. 7 days. She makes $300 in six hours.  

All of this went through my head in a matter of moments, and I interrupted whatever conversation was going on with my rather upsetting epiphany. This lament led to another, and to another, and to another, until tears were streaming down my cheeks. I felt a little embarrassed that this was happening in front of a major league baseball player, but then I remembered that Zito and I both have reason to cry—he might not make the rotation this year. That offered consolation for but a minute before I started on a rambling list of the difficulties of graduate school.

We closed our bill and walked outside to avoid further embarrassment for my younger brother. My mom gave me a kiss, told me I was her hero, and we parted ways. As soon as I got home I opened Indeed.com in my web browser and searched for jobs. Even after six years of college education under my belt, there is little for which I am qualified. That led to further depression and to a lengthy yellow notepad cost-benefit analysis. It makes no sense and isn’t the least bit helpful to try and conduct a cost-benefit analysis for a PhD program, because frankly, time, money, and security cannot and should not be factors in pursuing such a path. That’s not what this is about.

On Friday I had lunch with one of my classmates (who has become a dear friend). I shared with her my meltdown experience and she lauded me for making it this far before my first lapse into weepiness and irrational thoughts. I told her that it had happened before, but only in my mind and never led to an actual public hullabaloo. We decided that because we’re at a Research 1 university, we have few examples of what a balanced academic life might look like. The faculty are largely single, or on multiple marriages, and have moved from place to place to place, all consequences of climbing their way up the ivory tower. Feeling as if I had to conform to that image (and the realization that I will subsist on rice and beans for many years to come) caused me a great amount of distress (e.g., crying like a baby in front of Barry Zito).

Neither my classmate nor I aspire to such a lifestyle, but when that is modeled for us, it’s hard to imagine anything different. So we resolved to not live that life, to always seek to find balance, and to think about what is best for our families before we think about what is best for our careers. I doubt that Thursday night’s meltdown will be my last. But hopefully each time I will gain a new perspective on this journey.

My takeaway(s) this time around: 1. It’s not about the money. I’m doing this because I love to learn and I want to share that passion with others. 2. I need to forge my own way.  I cannot always look to others to define my experience—this is not a value judgment, just a realization that my life doesn’t need to look like anyone’s but mine own. I’m sure there will be many more lessons acquired. I just hope that next time I grapple with them in the privacy of my own home!

No Sunday Night Odds and Ends This Week

I apologize to my faithful readers who eagerly await the appearance of my "Sunday Night Odds and Ends" each week.  My wireless modem (I think that is what it is called) died on Saturday and I have been without Internet access at home ever since.  We will be back with our usual serving of odds and ends next Sunday night.

Song of the Day: Piano Man

My student Colin Riddle just called my attention to the original video of this Billy Joel classic.  Here it is.  Enjoy

Are You Smarter Than an 8th Grader...IN 1895!?

Stephen Dubner, writing at the Freakonomics blog at The New York Times, has reproduced a final exam given to the eighth-grade class in Salina, Kansas in 1895.

You can see the entire test here.  I have reproduced the United States History section below.

U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates:
1607
1620
1800
1849
1865

We could probably get some discussion about this test on two levels.  First, could you pass it?  Second, in one way does it reflect civic education in the late nineteenth-century?

HT: Joe Carter

Schama: Budget Cuts to the Humanities Can Lead to "Appalling" Damage to Culture

Check out The Telegraph interview with historian and writer Simon Schama about British budget cuts to the humanities.  Much of what he says applies to the American context as well.  Schama argues, to quote from the article, that "history will become the preserve of the rich if the coalition continues to cut arts and humanities in favour of sciences." 

Here are a couple of snippets from the piece.

Schama said he was uneasy that "sciences and subjects, which seem to be on a utilitarian measure useful, have retained their state funding, while the arts and humanities are being stripped of theirs."

He fears that such a move will have the "unfortunate" effect of channelling students into subjects such as accountancy rather than philosophy or the history of art. 

Schama said Britain runs the risk of causing "appalling" damage to culture by making the arts and humanities the preserve only of the well-heeled. 

And...

He also slammed some fellow academics, adding: "You have to work very hard to make history boring, and there are plenty of people in the institutions who do a brilliant job of making it boring.

"I was lucky enough to be taught at school and particularly at university by teachers who believed that history was not just for other historians and was not purely an academic pursuit.

Will Loek Van Mil Be the First Seven Footer to Take the Mound in MLB History?

Steve Henson, writing for Yahoo Sports, thinks it is likely.

Here is a taste:

TEMPE, Ariz. – Torii Hunter(notes) looks up at Loek van Mil – cranes his neck and looks up, up, up at Van Mil – and sees intimidation and dominance, a pitcher he wants on his side. Hunter is convinced the right-hander from Holland will become the first 7-footer to play in the major leagues, and soon.

“I’ll take my chances with him,” the veteran Los Angeles Angels outfielder said. “He’s part of a rare breed. That’s a guy you want on the mound.”

Hunter is in the same organization as the 7-foot-1 Van Mil for the second time. Last August, Van Mil was traded to the Angels from the Minnesota Twins, the team that signed both players. Hunter made a point of watching him pitch in spring training five years ago when Van Mil was throwing only 87 mph. Since then, his velocity has increased to 99 mph on a good day, 95 consistently. Van Mil’s first name is pronounced “Luke,” and his cool hand fires bullets.

“His stride is so long, it’s like he’s handing the ball to the catcher,” Hunter said.

Most Popular Posts of the Last Week

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

1.  Jesus Will Return on May 22, 2011 (July 2010)
2.  The Ten Most Religious Cities in America (November 2010)
3.  Where Do Most College Graduates Live? (February 2011)
4.  Benjamin Carp: Boy Wonder (February 2011)
5.  Jubilee is Off to a Great Start (February 2011)
6.  Garrison Keillor on Stephen Ambrose's Plagiarism (April 2010)
7.  What Tools Do Students Need to Do Research? (February 2011)
8.  Gordon Wood's Review of Jill Lepore's Recent Book (January 2011)
9.  How to Cite Facebook and Twitter (January 2010)
10. Would the Tea Party Have Opposed the U.S. Constitution? (February 2011)

Also receiving votes:

Religion in Jamestown (July 2009)
Professors: Fill Out That Time Sheet (February 2011)

What is Happening to Little Italy?

My grandmother was born in Little Italy, New York and I have taken students there in the past, but according to this article, New York City's enclave of Italian culture is shrinking.  In fact, you would be hard pressed to find many Italians who still live there.  Here is taste:

In 1950, nearly half of the more than 10,000 New Yorkers living in the heart of Little Italy identified as Italian-American. The narrow streets teemed with children and resonated with melodic exchanges in Italian among the one in five residents born in Italy and their second- and third-generation neighbors. 

By 2000, the census found that the Italian-American population had dwindled to 6 percent. Only 44 were Italian-born, compared with 2,149 a half-century earlier.

A census survey released in December determined that the proportion of Italian-Americans among the 8,600 residents in the same two-dozen-square-block area of Lower Manhattan had shrunk to about 5 percent.

And, incredibly, the census could not find a single resident who had been born in Italy.  


Read the rest of this very interesting article here.

Tim Lacy's Review of George Cotkin's Morality's Muddy Waters

I highly recommend Tim Lacy's recent review of George Cotkin's Morality's Muddy Waters: Ethical Quandaries in Modern America. 

As someone who has been wrestling for some time now with the question of the relationship between moral philosophy and history, I found Lacy's thorough review to be fascinating.  I can't wait to get a copy of Cotkin's book, but I think I will begin with Cotkin's April 2008 Journal of the History of Ideas essay, "The Moral Turn" and the symposium that surrounded it.

In the meantime, here is a taste of Lacy's review:

That work, titled Morality’s Muddy Waters: Ethical Quandaries in Modern America and published by Penn Press, made it to my desk last October. The book both exemplifies Cotkin's call to action and exhibits the assertion that history, written and analyzed by historians, is a superb vehicle for the study of morality. As a matter of classification, the book is what some could call a "study in U.S. intellectual history." In other words, it is not a straightforward narrative of intellectual-ethical-moral matters with seamless transitions between chapters and a recurring community of discourse. Cotkin proposes topics, presented chronologically, that underscore moral complexity, competing ethical imperatives, circumstances, the nature and effects of evil, empathy, responsibility, moral clarity, strictures, contingency, contradictions, and character. I was most fascinated by the emotional complexity of morality, both as cause and effect, of the events presented.


And here is another taste:

...If religion has something substantial to say to us about the human condition, as a great majority of the world believes it does, then it would behoove the intellectual historian dealing in morality to read some of that speculation into the text. In the case of MMW, where most of Cotkin's decision-makers are operating in something of a Judeo-Christian context, whether by violation or perceived adherence to the faith, that means doing more with Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant theology. Perhaps theological speculation about demonic evil, given dispassionately, would at least help us understand something about the contexts in which these evil characters saw themselves? Would this also help us understand how the masses processed and received news of these atrocities of hatred, murder, mass murder, and international humanitarianism?

I fully recognize the dangers of a professional historian engaging in this kind of speculation. How would colleagues perceive the work? Would an academic press accept the book? What is the line between moral speculation and moralizing? How does one discuss the meaning of 'demonic' without getting past knee-jerk reactions? Cotkin's work is about "productive confusion." Does theological speculation move us into contentious, unproductive territory? And then, in relation to America's Judeo-Christian culture, how does one properly navigate the Protestant-Catholic-Jewish lines of division? Then again, if competing ethical imperatives are an important topic, what raises the bar on moral competition more than religious divisions?

Thanks, Tim.  

Lincoln Jumped Out the Window to Halt the Government

If you are following the protests in Wisconsin over the state's budget bill, you know that the Democratic state senators have fled to Illinois as a way of stopping a vote on union legislation.  

Such a move is not unprecedented in American history.  In fact, as the Chicago Tribune reported earlier this week, Abraham Lincoln once did the same thing.  As an Illinois state legislator, Lincoln jumped out a second story window of a local Springfield saloon in order to avoid being rounded up for a quorum to vote on a transportation bill that he and the fellow members of his Whig party opposed.

Randall Stephens has some thorough coverage of this historical analogy over at the blog of The Historical Society.

His Triumvirate is Complete

Jamie Boehner, a faithful and long-time reader of our blog, has written to inform me that his copy of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation has arrived, making his "triumvirate complete."  And if that is not enough, he has provided some evidence, which I have posted here:

Thanks, Jamie!

William Hogeland on the Radical Revolution

William Hogleand, the author of Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent and the author of the Hysteriography blog, talks about his recent book at the National Archives.  He even plays the banjo and sings!

Check it out here.  You may also want to read his blog post about the event at Hysteriography.

New York Times Editorializes on National Archives Security Problem

Here is a taste of the editorial:

Last month, the National Archives banned an amateur historian who did what should have been unthinkable: He doctored the date on a valuable Lincoln document. Now the archives has found that it has a more widespread problem, with underhanded “scholars” and sneak thieves making off with American treasures to sell on the black market to history buffs.

“We have people alone with images and artifacts all the time,” Paul Brachfeld, the inspector general of the archives told The Washington Post. “The thieves all say how easy it was,” he said, describing recent efforts to better secure archives and track down missing items.

Among the items known to be missing are Lincoln telegrams from the Civil War, patents for Eli Whitney’s cotton gin and the Wright brothers’ flying machine, target maps for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the “only known copy” of the Potsdam Declaration signed by President Harry Truman at the end of World War II, and more.

Mike Huckabee: Quit Attacking Obama's Faith

At a speech at the National Press Club earlier today, Mike Huckabee, the former presidential candidate and Baptist minister, told his fellow conservatives to stop questioning Obama's Christian faith.

Here is a snippet from the CNN report:

During a speech at the National Press Club Thursday, Huckabee said it's time for some conservatives to quit questioning the president's Christian faith and added he thinks Obama is a role model for the "primacy of the American family."

"He has personally articulated, not once but numerous times, of his Christian faith. I take him at his word. I have no reason not to. For us to continue to dwell on that is missing the point. I have no disagreement with President Obama as a human being. In fact, I will go so far to say one of the things I respect very much is the role model that he has served as a husband and father," the conservative Republican said during the midday speech in Washington, DC.

"I think he has been an exemplary husband to his wife and an extraordinary father to his daughters," he continued. "Frankly, America needs a good role model like that and how can I on one hand argue for the primacy of the American family and not recognize that in his own personal life style he has given us an excellent example of a person who has his priorities straight in marking out time for his wife and raising his daughters in a disciplinary environment in which he recognizes that he the parent is responsible for the atmosphere in which they are raised. And I commend him and salute him for that."

Huckabee's words are similar to that of conservative radio talk-show host Michael Medved, who recently told his fellow conservatives to stop their unfair attacks on the president.

But Huckabee also criticized Obama's decision to order the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which "defines marriage for federal purposes as only between a man and a woman."

Podcast: Motivations for Migration to the Americas

The Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History has seen fit to post a podcast of yours truly conducting a seminar for teachers in Palm Beach County, FL on the motivations for migration to the Americas.  (The podcast says Savannah, but I think I did this one in Palm Beach).  It is actually less of a formal podcast, and more of a tape of me presenting to a group of teachers in an informal setting.

Albert Raboteau on Black History Month

Albert Raboteau is the dean of African-American religious history.  His book Slave Religion is a classic and still remains on the reading lists of many graduate students in both history and religion.

Over at the Huffington Post religion page, Raboteau reflects on the meaning of Black History Month.  Here is taste:

Our nation has need of tears, tears for all those lynched, maimed, whipped, shamed, and debased by our history of race hatred. Our country has need of tears for those who suffered and for those at whose hands they suffered. For they, by denying the humanity of others, denied their own. We remain connected to the past by memory, and the nation, like individuals, must come to terms with the past. There is a way out of the evasion and willed amnesia of our racial trauma -- listening to the voices of our ancestors, expressed in story, song, sermon, and texts, offers one such way as a telling of memories, an expression of mourning, and, by means of listening and mourning, to begin the process of healing the wounds, personal and social, inflicted by racism.  

Read the entire article here.

The Atlantic Interview with Tim Keller

Tim Keller is one of the hottest names in evangelicalism right now.  He is the founder and pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and a prolific apologist for the Christian faith.  Over at the Atlantic, Eleanor Barkhorn interviews Keller about his ministry and his new book The King's Cross.  Here is a taste:

In 1989, Timothy Keller moved from rural Virginia to New York City with his wife and sons to start Redeemer Presbyterian Church. The church started small but in the past two decades has grown to 5,000 weekly attenders, attracting attention from the New York Times for its ministry to New Yorkers after the September 11th attacks and New York magazine, which called Keller the "most successful Christian Evangelist in the city" in 2006. Keller's influence began to extend beyond New York in 2008 when he published The Reason for God, a rational defense of belief in God that became a New York Times bestseller. Keller spoke with The Atlantic about how his success as a writer has affected his church and the process he went through to write his latest book, The King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus, which comes out this week.

---

It's interesting to hear you say that writing books is part of your calling as a Christian minister, since in the past you've said you think you're a better preacher than a writer.

Well, I struggle to be a writer. If you ask me to go someplace and speak after all these years, yes, I can pull that together, I can do that. Writing is much more difficult for me. ... I am a better speaker than a writer, but basically I felt like over the years there are certain messages I wanted to get out there, and I felt that the written word is one way to get them out that can't be gotten out any other way.

I was reading some article—I can't remember who it was, it was a book reviewer for the Washington Post, I thought. Basically, it said a book is a textually created world. ... When you give yourself to a book, you essentially let the author take you into a world for a while. Even if it's a non-fiction book, the author is basically saying, "This is how I see what's going on in the world." ... It has an effect on you that simply listening to a 30-minute talk or an address, no matter how compelling, I don't think does.

I found in the last three years that people are affected by the books in ways I don't think oral communication can do. So I made that effort, and it's not easy.

What's your writing process like?

It works best if I have spoken on it because I can hear myself saying it, and then I write it. The other thing that you might find interesting—though I don't know if I can keep it up—is what I'll do is when I've written a chapter or two or three, I'll read them to my wife, out loud. And as I do that, we'll both say, "Well, do you want to put it that way or that way?" I understand what I'm trying to say better if I actually read it aloud to her, and she would actually rather I do that even though it's a bit tedious, you know, to have someone read aloud to you for an hour. She would rather do that than actually look at it on the page.

I think partly it's because when you're reading something I think you do say it in your head. And so I want to hear what it's going to sound like in the people's heads. And the best way to do that is to read it out loud. So, I usually have to speak it, then I write it, then I speak it to my wife and make corrections that way.

You've been a minister for a while, and you've led Redeemer for more than two decades. What made you decide to start writing books for a wide audience now, rather than earlier in your career?

I'm 60. I've been here for 20 years. I've had almost 40 years of ministry. I waited deliberately to write for a few reasons: One is I wanted to get pretty much mature in my thinking. In other words, I've pretty much come mostly to my conclusions. If I were a man in my 30s or even my 40s writing, then I would be afraid that I'd evolve on past what I'd written down.

Also, I've got a lot more material because I've been working this stuff through. I've probably preached the whole book of Mark five times in my life. And so I feel like I've got, you know, more stuff. I waited for that reason: I felt like it would be better stuff if I waited...

Up to 80,000 New Hampshire Men Mobilize to Defend Boston

Oh, I failed to mention that this happened in 1774.

Rag Linen has republished articles from two September 1774 issues of the New Hampshire Gazette showing the way the men of New Hampshire responded to the rumor that Boston would be bombarded by the British.  Great stuff.

Colbert Interviews Eric Foner on Lincoln and Slavery

New Pew Study: Most People Who Agree With the Religious Right Also Support the Tea Party

A new study by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has concluded that "Tea Party supporters tend to have conservative opinions not just about economic matters, but also about social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage."  In addition, "they are much more likely than registered voters as a whole to say that their religion is the most important factor in determining their opinions on these social issues."

What the study doesn't tell us is whether or not the members of the Tea Party, 87% of whom said "government is almost always wasteful," believe that abortion and gay marriage should be ended by government intervention.

In many ways this study shows the schizophrenic and contradictory character of the Tea Party.  Its members do not want the government interfering on their right to own guns, but I am guessing that they have no problem with the government legislating morality when it comes to abortion or gay marriage.

The History of One Block

Check out this post about the history of the development of one New York city blog.

This could be a great project for an undergraduate history class.  Assign each student in the class a block or a neighborhood in your town and have them write a history of it using whatever local records they can find.  The more recent history could be done through oral histories.

What a great way of getting students to do some serious social history.

Glenn Beck Meets Billy Graham

Last Saturday Glenn Beck had a three hour meeting with Billy Graham, presumably at Graham's home in North Carolina.  David Gibson reports on the meeting at Politics Daily.

While I have no doubt that Beck respects Graham and sincerely wanted the privilege of meeting him, I can't help but also think, along with Gibson, that this meeting was an attempt to save his poor ratings and declining popularity.

When you think about it, I wonder just how much Beck and Graham have in common.

Following the meeting, Beck said on his radio show that "the average Democrat" is "standing now with profound and clear evil."  The last time I checked Graham was still a registered Democratic, although to be fair he is probably not an "average Democratic."

Graham has spent his entire life trying to convert people to evangelical Christianity.  Beck is a Mormon.  I wonder if Graham tried to preach the gospel to Beck during their visit.

As Gibson points out, Graham refused to become part of the Moral Majority in the 1970s and has always had an uneasy relationship with the Christian Right.  Gibson notes that in refusing to join the Moral Majority Graham said "I'm for morality, but morality goes beyond sex to human freedom and social justice."

And speaking of "social justice," I wonder if Beck told Graham that the latter's commitment to social justice was an evil progressive scheme to bring Marxism and socialism to America.

To paraphrase Gibson, Beck's 15 minutes of fame may be up.

Religion and the Wisconsin Labor Protests

Over at Religion in American History, Heath Carter has a very thoughtful piece about the relationship between religion and labor in the context of the recent situation in Wisconsin.  Here is a taste:

To have a fuller sense of the relationship between religion and labor in present-day Wisconsin one would need to pay close attention to the rhetoric that everyday people are using on both sides of the debate - who is marshaling religious language and arguments to support their view, and to what effect? (It would be interesting, for example, to study the language on signs that demonstrators on both sides are carrying). In addition, one would need to know more about what happens this weekend, in synagogues and churches around the state: will rabbis, priests, and ministers broach the labor dispute, and if so, what notes will they strike? Most interesting to me - and most difficult to recover - are the conversations that will happen over meals following those religious services: in the restaurants and kitchens where ordinary people will debate the meaning of religion for economic life. It is in those places and amongst those people that lasting change begins. 

An Addendum to My AOL News Op-Ed on George Washington's Religion

AOL News has recently added this addendum to my op-ed: Was George Washington a  Christian?

UPDATE: Several of the comments on my article have challenged my assertion that Washington did not mention Jesus Christ in his personal and public writings. These commentators appeal to the multiple references that they say Washington made to Jesus Christ in a "Prayer Journal" from 1752. Unfortunately, most reputable scholars, including Frank Grizzard Jr., a former senior editor of the George Washington Papers, believe that this journal was not written by George Washington. I would ask readers to consult Grizzard's book "The Ways of Providence: Religion and George Washington."

In that book, Grizzard writes (p. 51): "On April 21, 22, 23, 1891, there was sold at the auction rooms of Thomas Birch's sons, 1110 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, a collection of Washington relics owned by Washington descendants Lawrence Washington, Bushrod C. Washington, Thomas B. Washington, and J.R.C. Lewis. Included in the sale was 'The Daily Sacrifice,' a twenty-four page manuscript document written in a pocket memorandum book and subsequently circulated as 'Washington's Prayers,' 'Washington's Prayer Book,' or 'Washington's Prayer Journal.' The catalog of the sale was prepared by Philadelphia auctioneer Stan V. Henkels, who asserted that the manuscript was not only in Washington's own handwriting, written when the future Father of His Country was about twenty years of age, but that Washington even composed the prayers himself. Both claims are patently false. The prayer book had been among a group of papers already rejected by the Smithsonian Institute as having no value, and at the time of the sale others continued to challenge its authenticity. Tens of thousands of genuine Washington manuscripts have survived to the present, including many from the youthful Washington, and even a cursory comparison of the prayer book with a genuine Washington manuscript reveals that they are not the same handwriting. Nevertheless, the prayers continue to be disseminated under Washington's name, thanks to their publication in the early twentieth century by William Herbert Burk (1867-1933) as 'Washington's Prayers' (Norristown, PA, 1907) and later republication by William Jackson Johnston in 'George Washington: The Christian'."

Library Journal Review of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation

From Library Journal:

In this primer on America's historical relationship to Christianity, Fea (history, Messiah Coll.; The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America) shows that the facts are much more complex than the oversimplified sound bites that litter the present political debate. He covers the history of the idea of the United States as a Christian nation, whether the American Revolution was a Christian event, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the religious beliefs of seven key founders. As the book goes on, it becomes clear that Fea has no intention of definitively answering the question posed in the title, which may frustrate readers already committed to one side or the other. Instead, the author lays out the relevant information with all of its ambiguity and invites readers to draw their own conclusions. VERDICT Although this book is primarily intended for a Christian audience, it is a useful text for anyone seeking a balanced historical overview of a thorny question.—Brian T. Sullivan, Alfred Univ. Lib., NY

The Week's Patheos Column: Historians and Providence

In the 21st century the idea that the United States was founded as a Christian nation is alive and well. One might even say that this view of the American past is thriving. Those who believe that America is a Christian nation are serious about their faith in God and country. They have an earnest desire to influence the nation for Christ and celebrate the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of the United States. They find the study of history as one way of promoting this belief.

But when studying the American past, many Christian nationalists fail to see the difference between the study of history and the study of theology. This is especially relevant in the way that many authors invoke the doctrine of providence in their understanding of the past.

Read the rest here.

The Student Poverty Song

Students at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia have penned "The Student Poverty Song" as a protest over tuition increases.

The Corporatization of the University

James E. Cote and Anton Allahar are the authors of Lowering Higher Education: The Rise of Corporate Universities and the Fall of Liberal Education.  They argue that colleges should "step back and consider" whether the closer ties they are cultivating with corporations will result in "the sacrifice of important academic values."

Inside Higher Ed has interviewed these authors about their book.  Here is a taste:

Q: Why do you link this trend to the disengagement of students?
A: The corporate model treats students like customers, and as customers they expect services and products for their tuition fees. The services include high grades in return for little effort. The products include guaranteed credentials with a guaranteed value. With this sense of entitlement, most will not prepare for classes, and expect all material to be told to them in simple terms in entertaining classes. What is lost here is the implicit bilateral contract of higher education for students to meet their teachers "halfway." When students put out the effort to partner with professors in the teaching/learning process, classes assume their proper place as the “tip of the iceberg” of learning rather than the "iceberg." Programs that require students to learn only in classes — thereby misleading students that classes are the "iceberg of learning" — are little more than (pseudo-) vocational high schools. We now have many universities where a “culture of disengagement” prevails and students in this culture have a sense of “entitled disengagement” never found before in institutions of higher learning (i.e., while grade inflation and disengagement can be found in the past, never have both simultaneously occurred in such proportions and been condoned by universities).

Was America Founded... at 60% Off

The Thoughtful Christian, the website of Westminster/John Knox Press, is offering Was America Founded as a Christian Nation at 60% off today.  That's $12.00!

1719 Comments and Counting...

A war is going on over at AOLNews concerning my op-ed about the religious beliefs of George Washington.  I never knew so many people could be so deeply invested in the question of whether or not Washington was a Christian.  Frankly, I think Washington would be absolutely shocked to learn that so many commentators and pundits are interested in his religious beliefs.

The powers-that-be at AOLNews have asked me to write an addendum to the piece responding to some of the commentators.  I wrote something up last night, but I have not heard if they are going to run it. 

My inbox is full with e-mails--most of them by self-identified members of the Christian Right who are critical of the piece.

Here is my favorite e-mail:

Dear Brother Fea;

 

This book has already been written.  Thoroughly researched and documented, Peter Marshall (Jr) and David Manuel convincingly proved the settling and founding of America to be the Divine hand of God to create a nation where Jesus Christ could be worshipped and preached to all the world, in their book "The Light and the Glory". 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Light-Glory-Peter-Marshall-Manuel/dp/0800750543

For those unfamiliar, The Light and the Glory is an extremely popular book of providential history that has done more in recent years to promote the idea that America was a Christian nation than other book. I discuss this book in Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction (now available at all booksellers and available here at 60% off!).  You can also get a quick glimpse of what I think about it here.  I also pick up some of these themes about providential history in today's Patheos column.

Thomas Jefferson's Lost Books Have Been Found...

...in the rare book division of the library at Washington University in St. Louis.  The Associated Press reports:

Dozens of Thomas Jefferson's books, some including handwritten notes from the nation's third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis.

Now, historians are poring through the 69 newly discovered books and five others the school already knew about, and librarians are searching the collection for more volumes that may have belonged to the founding father.

Even if no other Jefferson-owned books are found, the school's collection of 74 books is the third largest in the nation after the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia.
"It is so out of the blue and pretty amazing," said Washington University's rare books curator Erin Davis of the discovery that was announced on President's Day.

The books were among about 3,000 that were donated to the school in 1880 after the death of Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, and her husband, Joseph Coolidge.

There was no indication at the time that any of them had belonged to Jefferson. But it turns out that 2 1/2 years after Jefferson's 1826 death, his library of 1,600 books was sold to settle debts. Ellen Coolidge's grandfather helped oversee her schooling when she lived at his mountaintop estate at Monticello when she was a teenager and young adult.
Dozens of Thomas Jefferson's books, some including handwritten notes from the nation's third president, have been found in the rare books collection at Washington University in St. Louis.

Now, historians are poring through the 69 newly discovered books and five others the school already knew about, and librarians are searching the collection for more volumes that may have belonged to the founding father.

Even if no other Jefferson-owned books are found, the school's collection of 74 books is the third largest in the nation after the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia.
"It is so out of the blue and pretty amazing," said Washington University's rare books curator Erin Davis of the discovery that was announced on President's Day.

The books were among about 3,000 that were donated to the school in 1880 after the death of Jefferson's granddaughter, Ellen Wayles Randolph Coolidge, and her husband, Joseph Coolidge.

There was no indication at the time that any of them had belonged to Jefferson. But it turns out that 2 1/2 years after Jefferson's 1826 death, his library of 1,600 books was sold to settle debts. Ellen Coolidge's grandfather helped oversee her schooling when she lived at his mountaintop estate at Monticello when she was a teenager and young adult.

Read the rest here.

According to this article on the Monticello blog, the books found include copies of Aristotle's Politica, and several architecture books that he probably consulted when he designed the Lawn at Monticello.

Today's Paul Edwards Interview

I am not sure how long this will be "up," but you can listen to today's interview with Paul Edwards on Detroit's WLQV, FM-1500 here.  Go to the podcast for the February 22, 2011 show and fast forward to about the 25 minute mark.

Drumming Duel: Dan Harris vs. Max Weinberg

In a drumming competition:

Celebrating Washington's Birthday

J.L. Bell reflects on some of the earliest celebrations of George Washington's birthday.  Here is a taste:

There might have been a private celebration for the general at Valley Forge in 1778. At least, some regimental musicians got extra pay for some event that 22 February. But the public ceremonies didn’t take off until 1782, after the siege of Yorktown confirmed that Washington was worth celebrating. Rochambeau, the French commander, hosted a big dinner for the general that year.

Some Americans thought that celebrating Washington’s birthday was too reminiscent of the king’s birthday holiday under the monarchy. But the date grew in popularity, even as people weren’t sure when to celebrate. On 14 Feb 1790, Washington’s secretary Tobias Lear told Clement Biddle:

In reply to your wish to know the Presidents birthday it will be sufficient to observe that it is on the 11th of February Old Style; but the almanack makers have generally set it down opposite to the 11th day of February of the present Style; how far that may go towards establishing it on that day I dont know; but I could never consider it any otherways than as stealing so many days from his valuable life as is the difference between the old and the new Style.

John Wilson Previews the March/April Books and Culture

Another packed issue.  Check out the podcast.

Research in Library Borrowing Records

Elizabeth D. Samet teaches English at West Point.  In her recent book, Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, she studied library borrowing records from some prominent 19th century students at the military academy.

Here is a taste of Samet's recent article in The New Republic:

Throughout much of the nineteenth century, West Point cadets were permitted to check books out of the library only once a week: “On Saturday afternoon,” the 1857 regulations state, “any book that a Cadet may have been reading during the week, may be taken to his quarters, on the approval of the Librarian, and shall be returned on the succeeding Monday. If not then returned, he shall be reported by the Librarian.”

Decades of Saturday borrowing activity are recorded in handwritten ledgers now preserved in the archives. I’ve spent a fair bit of time looking through them, following the activity of a given title or tracking the reading habits of an individual cadet. There are storied names in the books: Lee, Sherman, and Grant, who refers in his memoirs to the “fine library connected with the Academy from which cadets can get books to read in their quarters. I devoted more time to these, than to books relating to the course of studies. Much of the time, I am sorry to say, was devoted to novels, but not those of a trashy sort. I read all of Bulwer’s then published, Cooper’s, Marryat’s, Scott’s, Washington Irving’s works, Lever’s, and many others that I do not now remember.”

I was recently talking with a student about library borrowing records.  Very few records of this type exist for the eighteenth-century century, but those that they do offer a wonderful glimpse into the intellectual life of ordinary people.  I am no expert, but I imagine that the deeper one gets into the nineteenth century, the more accessible these sources become.

Getting Published

Daniel Dekker identifies "10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing."  They are:

1. The number of books being published in the U.S. has exploded.
2.  Book industry sales are declining, despite the explosion of books published.
3.  Average book sales are shockingly small, and falling fast.
4.  A book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore.
5.  It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.
6.  Most books today are selling only to the authors' and publishers' communities.
7.  Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.
8.  No other industry has so many new product introductions.
9.  The digital revolution is expanding the number of products and sales channels but not increasing book sales.
10. The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil.

Dekker then offers some ways of responding to these "awful truths".  Here is my summation:

1.There is a huge market in "pass-along sales."  This is basically people buying books and passing them along to someone else.

2.  Do events and speaking engagements

3.  Build a platform for your ideas

4.  Branding.  Develop a reputation for yourself, your book, and your ideas.

5.  Be creative in finding new marketing channels for your book.

6.  Say what everyone else is saying in a new way.

7.  Keep books short.

There is a good discussion going on about this over at Jesus Creed.

Do You Write in Longhand?

I am finding some good stuff today at ProfHacker. In this post, Natalie Houston discusses the benefits of writing in longhand.

Here is a snippet:

When I draft in longhand, I feel that my writing is more closely connected to my thought process, both in pace and in content. I think better. I’m able to work through an idea without worrying about the next one. I revise differently, tending to write much longer sections through completely before doing any revisions at all. This gives me a different perspective on the essay and means that I progress more easily through the draft.

It’s more enjoyable to sit in my armchair with my favorite pen and a stack of blank paper on my clipboard than to sit at my computer and resist the lure of the internet. Although I’m primarily a visual learner, the tactile experience of writing longhand eases me into the flow of argument in a way that the blank screen and blinking cursor never do. If I’m stuck, it’s easier to just start writing something, anything, by hand. Seeing it look like type on the screen gives it a finality that is sometimes intimidating. In longhand, I know it’s just a draft.
The transcription process serves as a gentle revision process, a chance to reacquaint myself with what I was thinking about a week ago, or a month ago when I wrote the draft. I like to leave enough time in between the initial draft and transcribing it to computer so that it feels a bit unfamiliar, giving me room for better critique.

Sure, these preferences might simply be due to the fact that I spent almost 20 years writing longhand before I ever started composing at the keyboard. But there might be some neurological factors as well. Some neuroscientists suggest that the physical act of writing activates the brain differently than pushing keys on a keyboard, perhaps because of the shapes of the letters. Writing also helps bring key information to the forefront of the brain’s filters. One study that compared people composing longhand and by keyboard revealed significant differences in the timing of the revision process. They also found that participants changed their writing style when moving from one mode to the other — but not necessarily in the same ways. These studies and other recent work about how our brains adapt to the demands of the new media environment raise interesting avenues for research with future generations more familiar with keyboards from the very beginnings of their literacy.

I agree with Houston.  Though I can't really explain it, my mind seems to work better when I write longhand drafts.  For some time I have been on the brink of returning to the yellow legal pad. I think Houston's piece has just pushed me over the edge.

Op-Ed at AOL News: Was George Washington a Christian?

Today, 279 years ago, George Washington was born. Over the course of the past year, I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about Washington for my book on Christianity and the founding of the American republic. In that text, I explore his religious beliefs and wonder whether or not we can truly call him a Christian.

Today, Washington's faith has become a minor battlefield in America's ongoing culture wars. Tim LaHaye, an evangelical minister and the co-author of the best-selling "Left Behind" novels, has called Washington "a devout believer in Jesus Christ" who, in good evangelical fashion, "had accepted Him as His Lord and Savior."

In contrast, Joseph Ellis, a historian who won the Pulitzer Prize for his writing about the American founders, has described Washington as a "lukewarm Episcopalian." Writer Brooke Allen recently concluded that "there are very real doubts as to whether Washington was a Christian or even whether he was a believer at all."


Who is right? Or, more important, what is at stake in deciding who is right?  

Read the rest here. Some of my regular readers will notice that this column originally appeared at Patheos.

At 4:20 today I will be discussing Washington's faith on The Paul Edwards Program on WLQV-FM in Detroit.  If you are not in the Detroit area, you can listen live here.

Do Your Students Take Notes?

Writing at ProfHacker, Nels P. Highberg wonders if students really understand why taking notes in class is important.

When I was a student I was obsessive about taking notes.  I tried to write down everything the professor said.  When it was time for the exam my fellow students would flock to my room for a study session which often turned out to be little more than me working through my notes with them.

Every now and then I run into a student who seems to have the same passion for note taking that I had in school.  But I do not find them too often.  At least once a semester I have to chide my survey classes for failing to write stuff down. 

Highberg ends his post with some questions worth thinking about.

Do your students take notes?  How?  Have you talked with them about note-taking strategies?  Do students in classes with exams take better notes more instinctively than in classes without exams based on in-class material?