Lehrman American Studies Center

In a recent post on teaching the U.S. history survey, I wrote about how best to discuss with students the complex paradoxes present in America's past. I also mentioned that freedom is one of my course's central themes. I typically examine the intellectual roots of the concept of human liberty, why freedom emerged in the British American colonies in the 17th–18th centuries, and how/why Americans have debated the parameters of freedom ever since. But I've always struggled to find the right balance in discussing some of the grimmer realities of American history alongside America's profoundly important ideals and idealism.

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Every year I teach the first half of the US history survey course (which ends with the Civil War's conclusion), and each time I ask myself what I really want my students to take away from the class, especially since, for most of them, this will probably be the last formal history course they will take in their lives. I always have several general goals in mind.

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I realize that many readers of this blog are advanced graduate students and those who have just finished the Ph.D., but who do not yet have full-time academic positions. As chair of my department, I typically head up our tenure-track searches as well as hire adjuncts on a semester-by-semester basis. Therefore, I thought might be beneficial for those who anticipate hitting the TT search relatively soon (in the next year or so) to consider adjunct work to bolster both your CV and your chances of landing a position in a difficult job market.

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As a new academic year begins, a number of junior professors will soon be asked to serve as faculty advisors to various student clubs and organizations. There are certainly “pros” and “cons” to performing this service and, for those of you just starting out, here are some things to keep in mind.

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I visited Kenya last month to give a talk at African International University in Nairobi about democracy—in particular, early American democracy. For those who may not know, Kenya has been struggling to establish a stable and workable democracy for some time, and last year the nation tragically experienced a wave of violence after a disputed election, which left over 1,800 people dead. And the nation is far from healed. In fact, Kenya remains deeply divided by tribalism and other political divisions. Its people are also struggling to curb rampant corruption throughout its national government.

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Friends of the Lehrman American Studies Center should look at Tom Karako’s insightful op-ed piece in today’s Los Angeles Times on the budget crisis in California.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-karako26-2009jul26,0,757702.…

Karako notes that the crisis is partly due to the state’s dysfunctional constitution, which has left the legislative and executive branches too weak “to resist special interests and non-elected bureaucracies.” The solution, he argues, is a state constitutional convention and the federal constitution written in Philadelphia in 1787 ought to be the delegates’ model.

The piece is certainly worth a look and well-worth discussing.

I learned today that Annette Gordon-Reed's massive new book, The Hemingses of Monticello, won the George Washington Book Prize, which is supported by the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon. I've only started reading this book, which has also won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award; but given the many accolades it has garnered, it seems to be a work of considerable insight and perception.

Although I have not read her latest work, I adopted Gordon-Reed's first book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, An American Controversy, several years ago in my course on Virginia history. For those not familiar with this book, it essentially presents a formidable legal brief as to why Jefferson and Hemings likely had a long physical relationship with one another.

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This semester I’ve been teaching our department’s senior capstone course – History 490 – with mixed results. At my institution, every senior seminar has a general topic and mine has been the American Revolution (defined broadly). Although I have some outstanding history majors in the class who are superb writers and are producing some very interesting papers, I’ve been struggling with how best to help my weaker students. In particular, I’ve been frustrated by their lack of researching skills as well as their inability to construct a coherent thesis and analytical argument. I’m pretty hands-on with my students and I’ve try to help these students every step of the way. (I will likely post my Senior Seminar syllabus shortly in the Resources Catalog). But the results have not been encouraging.

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Lehrman Summer Institute Teaching Fellow James Ceaser has an article in the current online version of the Weekly Standard. He discusses recent efforts by some on the Left to cast conservatism as an intellectual movement into the dustbin of history. As usual, Jim is thoughtful and witty throughout. Well worth reading.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/196m…

Gerson Moreno-Riano discussed the academic job search in his recent posting and one of many perceptive points had to do with, as a job candidate, you should never read your PowerPoint slides during a teaching demonstration. The comments from some other bloggers have focused on the use of PowerPoint in teaching. Because many of us use PowerPoint in at least some our classes, I thought I would raise this topic generally.

I started using PowerPoint in my courses only last year. I had been wary of using them because, like many of you, I'm aware of the temptation to put everyone on the slides and then just start reading them. (I'm actually amazed how many professors actually do this!). Gerson's point that PowerPoints should be "brief, simple and professional" is worth remembering, whether you're doing a teaching demonstration or an introductory course which you've taught dozens of times.

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