Today’s roundup of interesting articles and links from around the web includes notes on becoming a “stylish” writer, an AAUP report on contingent faculty and their involvement in governance, a roundup of 4th of July celebrations around the country, and more.

News

Voting Rights for Adjuncts

Inside Higher Ed covers the AAUP report on contingent faculty, which finds that “they continue to be routinely excluded from department meetings, discussions on curriculum, and governance activities, leading to a ‘sense of inequity.’” 

George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum Launches New Website
From a National Archives press release: “While the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is still under construction on the campus of SMU, visitors will be able to visit virtually through the new interactive website, which features highlighted documents and artifacts from the Library and Museum’s vast collections.”

The Mormon Lens on American History
Jennifer Schuessler from the New York Times discusses the boom in the developing field of Mormon studies, with more non-Mormons entering the field, and more books relating to Mormon history appearing in the catalogs of top academic presses.  

Wikipedians at the National Archives
History@Work covers a meetup and scanathon at the National Archives, Kansas City. Wikipedians and National Archives staff met to scan documents, tag images, write, edit, and proofread articles and documents on the theme “Between the Rivers,” which “looks at how the states of Iowa and Missouri have been shaped by the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers that run through them.” 

Discussions

Health Care Ruling Has Implications for Education Spending
Mark Walsh covers, on Education Week’s School Law blog, the possibility of a shift in the Supreme Court’s approach to conditions on federal education funding. 

Gandhi Centre Stage
In the July 5 issue of the London Review of Books, Perry Anderson (UCLA) takes critical look at many recent books on India, and in the process, provides an overview of modern Indian history.

Was the American Revolution a Just War? 
John Fea, noting that this is “not really a historical question,” takes a look at some recent arguments over whether Christians should have taken part in the American Revolution. 

Becoming a “Stylish” Writer
Rachel Toor, for the Chronicle, picks up on comments by AHA Vice President Patricia Nelson Limerick, Executive Director James Grossman, former President Anthony Grafton, and President William Cronon to argue that prose can be attractive and smart at the same time. 

President Obama: Historian-in-Chief
Politico’s Edward-Isaac Dovere delves into the president’s interest in history and the yearly White House dinners (characterized as “part book club, part Socratic seminar, part fact-finding mission”) with a close circle of nine historians.

Miscellaneous

Patriotism, Fireworks, Hot Dogs Mark Nation’s 236th Birthday
Here is a roundup of the celebrations that took place yesterday around the country commemorating the 4th of July. Check out a slideshow of the firework displays here.

Is Pez Trying to Sugarcoat American History?
The Atlantic’s Darren Garnick writes about the newly launched four-year plan to have Pez Dispenser Presidents: “The novelty company is targeting the educational market by issuing the ‘Pezidents’ in chronological order in batches of five.”

This post first appeared on AHA Today.