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Session 69, “Professional Development: Turning Your Dissertation into a Book, was designed to help graduate students understand the process of turning their dissertations into publishable books appropriate for today’s book market. Panelists included distinguished authors, an author who has recently turned his dissertation into a book, and a representative from a university press.

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January 20, 2012

Whither the Future of the History Textbook

By Sarah Fenton, AHA Consulting Editor

Two printed materials arrive predictably on Ann West’s front porch: the Boston Globe and the Yellow Pages. West, a panelist at the 126th annual meeting, session 232, “Whither the Future of the History Textbook,” and editor at Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, clings to her Globe subscription, but nevertheless wonders if it, like “the printed telephone book, is destined for the dust heap of history.” After all, the phone book is heavy, cumbersome, and contains information more easily accessible online; and in the time it takes to publish a printed newspaper, its stories are often no longer current. Much like the history textbook, in other words, about whose future no one seemed particularly sanguine on Sunday, January 8, the last day of the 126th annual meeting. “The bottom line,” said panelist Bill Lombardo, American history editor for Bedford/St. Martin’s, “is textbooks are going to change.”

But what will that change look like? The trusty old phone book had one thing going for it that the now-endangered textbook might not. “Do textbooks work?” asked panelist and UCLA professor Jan Reiff. Though she believes that “students need a reference,” especially for those things “they don’t know and are afraid to ask,” Reiff nevertheless suspects that we know too little about “how people learn” to know what sources will serve them best. And so, she suggested, we must begin anew, regarding “this period as one of experimentation,” and “building online education into the discussion.”

The session’s panel devoted nearly as much time to different kinds of higher education faculty, and to their equally diverse students, as it did to various texts and sources. Dan Czitrom, Mount Holyoke professor, and co-author of the widely used Out of Many: A History of the American People, demanded that textbook reform “be tied to the deteriorating conditions of higher education faculty.” Several community college professors (as well as a teacher from the for-profit, nontraditional DeVry Institute in Chicago) spoke up in response, focused admirably more on their students’ needs than their own. An entire textbook chapter is just too much reading for students who attend night classes after a full day’s work. Instead, these teachers photocopy a page or two; distribute them in class; allow time for reading; and then work to contextualize the brief assignment through lecture and discussion. To Reiff, that contextualization remains critical; even traditional undergraduates often “think the fact is the key thing. The fact is not enough. They need context.”

While sympathetic to students with more on their schedules than a history seminar, Czitrom nevertheless rejected “the notion of student as consumer.” And yet, he also reminded his audience that “textbook publishing is a money-making enterprise.” Reiff feels sure that enterprising publishers should thus be eager to hear from nontraditional faculty, their students, and all those gathered on Sunday, who together form what West called “a community of users.”

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January 20, 2012

Grant of the Week: American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowships

The American Institute of Indian Studies has annouced its 2012 fellowship competition and invites applications from scholars who wish to conduct their research in India. Junior fellowships are awarded to Ph.D. candidates to conduct research for their dissertations in India for up to eleven months. Senior fellowships are awarded to scholars who hold the Ph.D. degree for up to nine months of research in India. The application deadline is July 1, 2012. For more information and instructions on how to apply, visit the fellowships page online, call (773) 702-8638, or email aiis@uchicago.edu.

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January 19, 2012

What We’re Reading: January 19, 2012

Since Martin Luther King Jr. Day began this week, we start this post with related articles, lesson plans, and videos. Then, in recent news, the National Archives has awarded $2.5 million in grants for historical records projects, JSTOR announces its soon-to-launch “Register & Read” program, and Dwight Eisenhower’s granddaughters have issues with his memorial design. Finally, thoughts on experiencing a conference through social media, tips for a non-academic job search, ideas for reforming graduate education, and two links just for fun.

Martin Luther King Jr.

• King memorial offers permanent place to quietly reflect on leader
  The Washington Post talks to visitors at the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial as they honored his life and work this past Monday.
• I Have a Dream: Celebrating the Vision of Martin Luther King, Jr.
  EDSITEment offers activities, lesson plans, and links to websites to help teach students about Martin Luther King Jr.
• 1963 March on Washington
  The National Archives’ video on the photographs of the 1963 March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream”speech, identifies a figure in an iconic American photograph.

News

• National Archives Awards $2.5 Million In Grants For Historical Records Projects
  Earlier this month, National Archives announced that it has awarded 40 grants totaling $2.5 million for historical records projects in 27 states and the District of Columbia.
• JSTOR Tests Free, Read-Only Access to Some Articles
  JSTOR’s soon-to-be-available “Register & Read” program will allow non-paying users to access some journal articles, but there are a number of limitations.
• Eisenhower’s granddaughters critical of Gehry’s memorial design
  The Washington Post reports on a difficult situation: former President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s granddaughters are grateful for a memorial for their grandfather, but have sustainability, logistical, and aesthetic issues with the design.

AHA Annual Meeting

• Nearly There—Experiencing a Conference Online
  Yvonne Perkins recounts her experience of following the AHA’s 126th annual meeting through Twitter this year, explaining that it helped her stay engaged, but that it’s second best to attending in person. Find more perspectives on this year’s meeting in our recent roundup of 126th annual meeting coverage (blog posts and articles).

Insights on Higher Education and Jobs

• Four Tips for a Non-Teaching Academic Job Search
  Brian Croxall at the Chronicle’s Profhacker blog offers four pieces of advice for those seeking a job outside of academia.
• It Starts on Day One
  Bethany Nowviskie, the director of digital research & scholarship at the University of Virginia Library and associate director of the Scholarly Communication Institute, offers “a modest proposal for reforming higher education in the humanities and creating a generation of knowledge workers prepared not only to teach, research, and communicate in 21st-century modes, but to govern 21st-century institutions.” Her article was republished on the Chronicle’s Profhacker blog.

Fun

• xkcd Web Comic
  You know what they say about those who fail to learn from history…
• Possibly the Greatest Flickr Group Ever
  Larry Cebula at Northwest History finds a fascinating collection of images of bomber jackets from WWII in a Flickr group online.

Contributors: Debbie Ann Doyle, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn

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January 18, 2012

Jobs in the History Profession: Two Sessions at the 126th Annual Meeting

By Sarah Fenton, AHA Consulting Editor

Of the nearly 5,000 attendees at this year’s annual meeting were some ostensibly similar historians who’d come to Chicago for two quite dissimilar reasons. There were those eager to participate in one or more of the 250 panels covering an astonishing array of topics, and those—just as eager, but surely more anxious too—with their eye on only one prize: a job. Some of these aspiring applicants were newly minted PhDs arriving for their first interviews; others had earned their degrees years before and had since been bouncing around in a profession that has far more aspirants than it does steady jobs. Two related panels—one long planned, the other spontaneously assembled—sought to combine these aspects of the annual meeting, and address simultaneously the individual search for jobs and the history of the job search.

The first panel—a Presidential Session with the rather ominous title “Did We Go Wrong? The Past and Prospects of the History Profession”—opened with William and Mary professor James Axtell providing a “Long View” in the hope that knowing we’ve been here before would do more to comfort than chasten us. Prior to the Civil War, Axtell explained, “American graduate education of any sort did not exist.” What has evolved since is “an extremely decentralized non-system” in which, for reasons both admirable and not, “precious few universities are willing to take the first step toward reducing their graduate enrollments.” Taken together, these conditions “make it very difficult for our national disciplines to adjust quickly to job/candidate misalignments.” Rob Townsend of the AHA followed, contributing hard data to back up Axtell’s overview, as well as providing an idea of how many History PhDs have found work outside of academia and, with understandably less specificity, where they’ve found it.

Panelist and NYU professor Tom Bender both deepened that sense of predicament and tried his hand at solving it. “The crisis is larger than the employment of historians,” Bender suggested; “it is also about the place of history in our civic life.” And yet, as panel chair Barbara Metcalf put it, Bender’s talk was “inspiring,” as it urged historians of all stripes to haul their “mind-boggling ideas,” analytic skills, ease with “interdependent variables,” and ability to produce “synthetic and explanatory narrative[s]” into fields flung far and wide—from McKinsey and Deloitte, to Silicon Valley, to community advocacy, film-making, and journalism.

With fewer than two hours’ break for reflection (and lunch!), many of those who’d gathered for the first session reconvened, along with an even wider and more diverse audience, for the second, “Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side.” On one side of this panel sat Jesse Lemisch, professor emeritus of history at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and, in the words of AHA President Tony Grafton, “a real Protestant; he protests against everything.” Lemisch demanded that the AHA not function as merely “a clearing house,” nor that it “submit to the marketplace” and work to primarily and “parsimoniously redistribute the ever-shrinking pie.” Instead, Lemisch looked to the “worthy goal of keeping our profession alive” by, among other things, fighting “rapidly and effectively for a new WPA.”  

Occupying (ahem) the other side of the stage was UCLA professor Lynn Hunt, just as fiery, but in robust defense rather than rebuke of the organization over which she once presided. “The left,” she wryly reminded her fellow panelists, “has been more influential among AHA members than with voters.” In between Lemisch and Hunt sat Edward Balleisen of Duke University and John R. Dichtl of the National Council for Public History, who each sought from their middle seats to find (in Balleisen’s words) some “common ground.” Dichtl put the essential question this way: “Do we transform internally or rally and take political action?” His answer, coming from the panel’s center but “representing those outside the profession,” was daunting but surely true: “we can do both.”

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January 18, 2012

Best History Blogging, Tweeting, and Podcasting: Winners of the 2011 Cliopatria Awards

By Elisabeth Grant

The Cliopatria blog at HNN recognizes the best history blogging on the web through its annual Cliopatria Awards (given out since 2005). The 2011 awards were expanded beyond blogs to include the best history Twitter feed and podcast. Congratulations to all the winners, listed below. What are your favorite history blogs, Twitter feeds, and podcasts online? Let us know in the comments.

2011 Cliopatria Award Winners
Learn more about each of these winning sites in this post on the Cliopatria blog.

• Best Individual Blog: The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice
  “A website dedicated to the horrors of pre-anaesthetic surgery.”
• Best Group Blog: Wonders and Marvels
  “A community for curious minds who love history, its odd stories, and good reads.”
• Best New Blog: Demography and the Imperial Public Sphere Before Victoria
  “Melodee Beals generously shares her work in progress using this research-focused blog.”
• Best Post: “If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read”
  Written by Karen Abbott, featured in the Past Imperfect blog, August 9, 2011.
• Best Series of Posts: “This Day in Labor History”
  Written by Erik Loomis, at the Lawyers, Guns & Money blog.
• Best Writer: Corey Robin
  “Robin joins battle with contemporary issues by way of a deep engagement with the history of political thought.“
• Best Twitter Feed: @KatrinaGulliver
  “In addition to participating actively and productively in professional conversations, Katrina Gulliver created and has continued to curate the #Twitterstorians hashtag, which enables historical and pedagogical discussions across the platform, and has helped immensely in creating a strong community of historical interest within Twitter.”
• Best Podcast Episode: “Nell Irvin Painter, The History of White People, W.W. Norton & Company, 2010”
  By Marshall Poe, from the New Books in History podcast, aired on January 14, 2011.

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January 17, 2012

Job Searches Hold Steady – 126th Annual Meeting

By Liz Townsend

Over 160 search committees conducted interviews at the AHA’s 126th annual meeting this January, holding steady from last year and showing a continued recovery from the nadir of 115 in 2010.

Fifty-nine searches interviewed at tables, while 45 reserved rooms through the annual meeting Job Center. In addition, we received information about 51 searches in privately arranged suites, greatly helping candidates find the correct room in time for their interviews. The Job Center Information Booth acts as a central hub for information about searches being conducted during the annual meeting, and we encourage all committees to report their locations to us as soon as they check in.

With technology easing the process of advertising for positions, obtaining c.v.’s from candidates, and making prearranged appointments, fewer searches are using the c.v. collection service to arrange interviews during the annual meeting. While only 28 positions scheduled interviews this way in Chicago, this service provides a useful option for committees whose positions were approved late or those who wish to see a wide variety of candidates.

We received some valuable feedback from surveys distributed at the annual meeting, and we encourage candidates and search committees who didn’t get a chance to fill one out in Chicago to tell us about their experience. We are constantly evaluating the services and making changes to make the Job Center as useful and smooth as possible. We’ll report on the survey results in a future blog post.

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January 13, 2012

Grant of the Week: Summer Institute for Israel Studies Fellowship

The Summer Institute for Israel Studies, a program of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, assists faculty in colleges and universities in the design of new courses in Israel studies or the enhancement of existing ones. Over 160 faculty members from around the world have participated in the Summer Institute for Israel Studies since its inception in 2004. Faculty from the social sciences and humanities are invited to apply. Fellowships include a stipend of up to $2,500 for a full course or $1,500 for a Brandeis seminar only; seminars; travel, meals, and accommodations at Brandeis and in Israel; and full access to vast Israel studies online resource center and Brandeis University’s online library resources. The deadline for applications is January 16, 2012.

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January 12, 2012

What We’re Reading: 126th Annual Meeting Edition

By Elisabeth Grant

While Twitter provided a space for quick commentary on the 126th annual meeting, more detailed coverage of sessions, events, and discussions on the history profession at the meeting can be found in a number of news articles and blog posts online.

Today, we’ve rounded up of coverage of the 126th annual meeting, from the AHA itself, to the New York Times, Chronicle, and Insider Higher, to the blogosphere. If we’ve overlooked any articles or posts on the meeting, please feel free to share links to them in the comments section below.

And check back here at AHA Today for at least one more session post, as well as links to multiple videos from the meeting.

AHA Coverage
Blog posts from the 126th annual meeting, prepared by members of the AHA staff.

Welcome
• Welcome from Jim Grossman

Main Events


• Opening of the 126th Annual Meeting


• General Meeting: Presidential Address and Awards

Sessions


• James M. McPherson: A Life in American History


• TeachingHistory.org Workshop Highlights Teaching with Innovative Tools


• Historians and the Obama Narrative


• Turning Your Dissertation into a Book


• Geeks Bearing Gifts: New Tools for the Humanities


• U.S. State Archives and Government Information Secrecy


• Digital Humanities: A Hands-On Workshop

An Undergraduate Perspective


• Day 1


• Day 2


• Historians and the Obama Narrative

Daily Overviews


• Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Radio 720 WGN

• Rick Kogan’s interview with AHA Executive Director Jim Grossman



HistoriansTV

• Accomplishments and Challenges Facing Historians: Interview with Tony Grafton


• AHA Executive Director on the 2012 Meeting: Interview with Jim Grossman

News
Coverage of the 126th annual meeting from a number of news outlets and perspectives.

Chicago Tribune

• Passions for the past — and jobs — come alive at history convention

• Historians Reflect on Forces Reshaping Their Profession


• A Conversation With a ‘Luddite’ Who Championed New Scholarly Directions for History


• The Chronicle has also recently posted on jobs in history and AHA leadership:


• Jobs for New Ph.D.’s in History Show ‘Modest’ Uptick, Association Reports


• OK, Let’s Teach Graduate Students Differently. But How?


• New Leader of History Association Has Already Felt Spotlight’s Heat

• What to Do About Historians’ Job Crisis

• A Tough Sell


• Second Draft of History


• Inside Higher Ed also recently posted articles on the history job market:


• A Small Bump


• Fear of Being Useful

• Government Secrecy May Be a Relic From the Cold War and a Wave of the Future

• American History Assoc. coming to Chicago, many LGBTQ and AIDS panels planned


• American Historical Assn. conference covers LGBT issues


• AIDS: History panel looks at healthcare and identity issues


• Historians talk Southern lesbians and respectability


• AIDS: ‘Patient Zero’ discussed at history association panel


• LGBTQ historians reveal survey results at confab

HNN
The History News Network covered the 126th annual meeting extensively, reporting on as well as filming a number of sessions and events.

• Upcoming Sessions of Interest at the American Historical Association Convention


• Full coverage


• Day 1: January 5, 2012


• Day 2: January 6, 2012


•  Day 3


• AHA Features Panels on the Indifference of Journalists to History


• Notes from the AHA Business Meeting


• Videos


• Lynn Hunt: Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side


• John Dichtl: Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side


• Edward J. Balleisen: Jesse Lemisch: Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side


• Jesse Lemisch: Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side


• Padraic Kenney Interview on Popular Protest Movements


•  Andrew J. Bacevich: The Revisionist Imperative: Rethinking the Twentieth Century


• Juan Cole: Interpreting the Arab Spring


• Thomas Bender: Where Did We Go Wrong? The Past and Prospects of the History Profession


• Anthony Grafton: Presidential Address: The Republic of Letters in the American Colonies

• My AHA 2012 Debrief: Sunshine in the Windy City

• Some observations on the “archival divide,” or what I said at AHA about historians and archivists


• Archivists and historians–Am I giving archivists too much credit?

• Blueprint at the American Historical Association Conference

• AHA 2012

• Disciplinary Meetings, Technology and Self-Reflection

• AHA 2012: a report from Day 2

• History in Harmony: Exploring Collaboration

• Editor’s Choice: Round-up of AHA and MLA Conferences

• 126th Annual American Historical Association Conference

• AHA 2012: Where Two or Three Are Gathered Together

• Blogging the AHA: Kornbluh on Welke, "Telling Stories"


• Blogging the AHA: Mumford on Honores, "Lupakas and the Law"

• AHA, Retrospectively

• Why I went (back) to the AHA


• Utopianism and its detractors

• American Historical Association 2012 Meeting Recap

•  AHA Day 1: Keeping up with the Jones (Digital Humanities edition).


• AHA Day 2: A disaster of biblical proportions.

• Nearly There – Experiencing a Conference Online

• AHA 126th Annual Meeting: Chicago, Day One


• AHA 126th Annual Meeting: Chicago, Day Two

• the AHA and “racial silence” in the criminal archive

• Historians and Religion—Sightings

• Crowdsourcing Transcription: FromThePage and Scripto

• Why I didn’t go back to the AHA

• Practices, the periphery, and Pittsburg(h)

• The Mother of All Conferences – The AHA 2012

• Invisible Australians: Living under the White Australia Policy


• Presenting Historical Research Using Digital Media

• Catching up with MLA and AHA

• Are You Attending the Queer American Historical Association Meeting?

• The Utopianism of the Digital Humanities

Twitter
This post from earlier today provides highlights from the Twitter stream of the 126th annual meeting. For a more complete picture of the Twitter activity at the meeting, see the following roundups of tweets.

• Archive of 126th Annual Meeting Tweets – The Broadside
  Sharon Howard has put together archives of tweets using the hashtags #AHA2012 and #AHA12 , from THATcamp at the AHA, and from session #138 on Crowdsourcing History.
• Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis
  Using the Storify tool, Lee Skallerup tracked the Twitter discussion on the “Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side.”
• Crowdsourcing History – Session 138 Twitter Archive
  A list of tweets, compiled by SearchHash, from session 138, “Crowdsourcing History: CollaborativeOnline Transcription and Archives.”

• Andrew Devenney
  Devenney used Storify to track the Twitter conversation from two sessions:


• Live-Tweeting "Presenting Historical Research Using Digital Media” Panel at AHA 2012


• Live-Tweeting the Teaching History Online Panel at AHA 2012

Last Updated: 1/26/2012

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January 12, 2012

Tweeting the 126th Annual Meeting

By Elisabeth Grant

Following the AHA’s 126th annual meeting this year on Twitter, through over 4,500 tweets, was fascinating. Attendees, as well as those following along from home, connected with other participants, shared links to resources and thoughts on sessions, and gave a dynamic glimpse into the various events and conversations going on at the meeting.

When Twitter first came online in 2006, many of its critics saw it as a place for inane personal updates. And while that is certainly still the case for some users, Twitter has also developed into a tool for communicating ideas and creating scholarly debate.

The AHA joined Twitter in 2010, and first used an official annual meeting hashtag (#AHA2011) for the 125th annual meeting. While a good number of conference attendees tweeted the meeting in 2011, this year’s Twitter coverage was exponentially larger. Historian Sharon Howard has aggregated and archived tweets using the #AHA2012 and #AHA12 hashtags and made them available here.

Below, see highlights of tweets on digital history and other sessions at the meeting. We also include tweets from followers participating from home and conference-goers at the Modern Language Association’s convention. And find some great new resources from follow-up tweets about the meeting. Click on each image for more information on that tweet.

Digital History
Not surprisingly, participants in digital history sessions were especially likely to tweet. Participants tweeted about THATCamp over 500 times and session 138 on Crowdsourcing History over 200 times. Here are a few examples of participants using Twitter to prepare for THATcamp, share links for the crowdsourcing session, and connect:

Sessions
However, it wasn’t just the participants at the digital history sessions who were tweeting. A number of attendees used Twitter to share a live feed of ideas from the film festival, teaching workshops, and a whole variety of other sessions they went to. For example:

Tweeting from Home
Those who couldn’t attend this year’s meeting found they could participate and stay up-to-date by following along from home. Though many lamented how much the tweets made them want to be in Chicago:

#MLA12
The Modern Language Association’s 2012 convention was held concurrently this year with the AHA annual meeting, though in Seattle, and there was some tweeting back and forth between participants, and overlapping ideas from the meetings.

MLA’s Executive Director Rosemary Feal even gave the AHA annual meeting a shout out:

After the Meeting
Now that the meeting has concluded, and participants have had a chance to gather their thoughts and catch their breath, the #AHA2012 hashtag is accompanying tweets linking to articles on the meeting, online resources, and ideas for future projects.

Future Tweets
Staff at the AHA enjoyed following these tweets, which provide a window into which topics were most popular and attendees’ feedback on the meeting. These tweets also give us ideas for making future meetings even more interactive and enjoyable.

Historians and Twitter
New to this whole Twitter thing? Learn Five Ways for Historians to Use Twitter.

Comment

January 12, 2012

Petition to the White House to Digitize All Public Government Info

The AHA suggests to our members that they consider signing the following online petition: Start A National Effort To Digitize All Public Government Info.

This is a petition drive to the White House urging the President to appoint a commission to explore the scope, costs, and benefits of digitizing all federal records holdings. The commission would establish a blueprint and do a cost/benefit analysis of such an effort. It is not clear what funds might be available for actual digitization, but this is a necessary foundation and practical first step towards a larger initiative.

This petition is sponsored by the Center for American Progress and Public.Resource.Org. See Yes We Scan for more information.

David Ferreiro, Archivist of the United States, supports this effort.

Further information is also available in the online newsletter of the National Coalition for History.

The petition must have 25,000 signatures by January 20, 2012.

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January 11, 2012

James M. McPherson: A Life in American History

By Sarah Fenton, AHA Consulting Editor

One measure of the affection felt throughout the profession for historian James M. McPherson might be the number of students, colleagues, and fans who willingly showed up—many with coffee in hand and suitcases in tow—to celebrate his career at an 8:30 a.m. session on the final day of the AHA’s 126th annual meeting. Panel chair and Clemson University professor Vernon Burton described his mentor and PhD advisor as not only a “famous historian,” but as “America’s historian.”

When not extolling his virtues as a teacher, friend, and battlefield guide, the panel—including historians Catherine Clinton, Judith Hunter, and Thavolia Glymph—praised his 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom as the best single-volume account of the Civil War era. It is precisely the book’s synthetic ability that most impressed panelist James Oakes, professor at the Graduate Center, CUNY. The book is social history, political history, military history (to such a degree that University of North Carolina professor Joseph Glatthaar titled his talk: “Jim McPherson, Closet Military Historian”), and even economic history. “There are four or five pages on tax policy!” Oakes said, seeming surprised anew, and the “enormous consequences” felt by how differently “the North and South funded the war.”

Enthusiasm for great books was in no short supply at this year’s conference. What makes this enthusiasm notable is its durability—not all books written 25 years ago continue to command unqualified praise. That left the audience with a certain amount of anxiety: if it’s so good, so complete, more than one member of the audience asked, “what have we to add?” Oakes professed to having some trouble with this issue himself. Asked to write a new volume, he declined—concerned not only about his ability to achieve such breadth, but because he wondered: “Why?” McPherson himself (after graciously demurring that “I’ve learned as much from my students and colleagues as they’ve learned from me”) looked to W.E.B. DuBois for inspiration, and encouraged his audience to carry on studying “the impact of the War on ordinary people.”

A panel that began with a slide show of McPherson’s life, from his 1930s North Dakota childhood onwards, couldn’t help but mix a bit of biography with history. McPherson acknowledged, for instance, that living through the demonstrations of the Vietnam era inclined him to make “connections between protests and war.” The passionate defense of Abraham Lincoln—his moderation and gradualism—mounted by panelist and Princeton University professor Sean Wilentz made more than one audience member wonder about the roughing up Wilentz had given our current president at the previous day’s session on “Historians and the Obama Narrative.” But, perhaps taking heed of Oakes’ warning that we look to the past not for precedence but for its own historical significance, no comparisons—however tempting—were drawn between the Civil War president and our own.

Comment

January 11, 2012

TeachingHistory.org Workshop Highlights Teaching with Innovative Tools

By Pillarisetti Sudhir

Every now and then (and especially after the NAEP reports) there is much lamentation about the sad state of history teaching, and all kinds of solutions are proposed, from abolishing the federal Department of Education to assessing teachers and schools more rigorously. But as if to show that an age of historical darkness is not really descending on the schools, and that much can be done without resorting to radical departures, many teachers in different parts of the country are using their ingenuity to teach history in more effective ways, sometimes using simple technological tools to enrich learning in their classrooms.

Two presentations on “The Old and the New: Teaching Historical Skills at the High School Level” at the Teachinghistory.org workshop for K–12 teachers at the 126th annual meeting showed precisely this kind of innovation.

John Schmidt and Jeff Treppa of the Homewood Flossmoor High School (a school located in the suburbs of Chicago that has received the federal education department’s blue ribbon for excellence three times) described how they “Renewed the Old” to impart to their students the skills necessary to write a research paper. Using seven simple steps and templates for all the preliminary parts of historical research, such as topic description, finding and evaluating sources, using note cards, and analyzing, Schmidt and Treppa were able to obtain dramatic results. Technology helped them in their task, but the foundation for their success was in recognizing that clarity of instruction and practical, hands-on application was more important than “teaching” the skills as theory.

In her presentation, “Using Technology to Teach Historical Thinking,” Molly Myers, also from Homewood Flossmoor High School, described the various social media (Schoology, a kind of Facebook for classrooms) and technologies (VoiceThread and MyFakeWall) that she uses in her teaching. Significantly, she drew attention to the fact that she stresses creativity above evaluation, thus digitally subverting the scriptural injunctions of Bloom’s Taxonomy. She also stressed that both teachers and students needed to participate in a learning community.

The workshop, sponsored by the AHA’s Teaching Division, was organized by TeachingHistory.org.

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