Thursday, July 16, 2009
Obama and Historians
Obama's Secret Meeting With Historians
The president held a dinner at the White House for leading presidential scholars
Posted July 10, 2009President Obama has found another way to break out of the White House "bubble"—holding private discussions with eminent historians who have studied the successes and failures of his predecessors. His goal is to better understand what has worked and what has failed in the past as he makes policy today.
Obama held a dinner at the White House residence with nine such scholars on June 30, and it turned out to be what one participant described as a "history book club, with the president as the inquisitor." Among those attending were Michael Beschloss, H. W. Brands, Douglas Brinkley, Robert Dallek, and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Obama asked the guests to discuss the presidencies that they were most familiar with and to give him insights into what remains relevant to the problems of today.People Who Read This Also Read
At one point, the discussion turned to whether Obama was trying to do too much too fast and whether he might overload the political circuits of Congress.
Read more here.
Labels: historians, history, Obama
Monday, January 05, 2009
AHA - Day Two
Saturday brought the full force of historians and interactive energy to the Hilton and the Sheraton and the blocks in between.
I attended the Historians Film Committee session on Why We Fought: America's Wars in Films and History. As the panel chair noted, a few years ago, the room wouldn't have been filled because interest in films and history used to be seen as more to the periphery of more traditional historians. The overflowing into the hallway crowd heard about Ken Burns' Civil War, Clint Eastwood's foray into WWII era films, and Cold War Berlin at the movies.
Sam Wineburg was the luncheon keynote at the National History Education Clearinghouse all-day event. It was great getting to say hello when I ran into him in the hallway and, as always, his presentations always intrigue his audience. He turned Bloom's Taxonomy on its head to emphasize historical questions and questioning as opposed to primarily concentrating on rote memorization of facts and dates, especially without the proper contextualization. Our teacher leadership team member joined me there and we re-visited the book exhibits afterward. The OAH was so frantic that I wasn't able to really look around the book exhibit so this afternoon opportunity seemed like a real treat.
I joined a colleague and his wife for dinner at Dervish that evening. I'm not sure I've ever been to a specifically Turkish restaurant before. More common for me is the Mediterranean food.
I attended the Historians Film Committee session on Why We Fought: America's Wars in Films and History. As the panel chair noted, a few years ago, the room wouldn't have been filled because interest in films and history used to be seen as more to the periphery of more traditional historians. The overflowing into the hallway crowd heard about Ken Burns' Civil War, Clint Eastwood's foray into WWII era films, and Cold War Berlin at the movies.
Sam Wineburg was the luncheon keynote at the National History Education Clearinghouse all-day event. It was great getting to say hello when I ran into him in the hallway and, as always, his presentations always intrigue his audience. He turned Bloom's Taxonomy on its head to emphasize historical questions and questioning as opposed to primarily concentrating on rote memorization of facts and dates, especially without the proper contextualization. Our teacher leadership team member joined me there and we re-visited the book exhibits afterward. The OAH was so frantic that I wasn't able to really look around the book exhibit so this afternoon opportunity seemed like a real treat.
I joined a colleague and his wife for dinner at Dervish that evening. I'm not sure I've ever been to a specifically Turkish restaurant before. More common for me is the Mediterranean food.
Labels: AHA, historians, NHEC, Sam Wineburg, Wineburg
Saturday, January 03, 2009
NYC - American Historical Association - Day One
We arrived in New York for New Year's Eve given the great rate the AHA was able to secure for those of us able to fly to the city early. The snow was beautiful and we survived New Year's Eve.
More historians filtered in on Thursday, but it wasn't until Friday that the historians dominated the lobby, including the lobby bar. The atmosphere was that of running into old friends and colleagues mixed with the uncertainly facing not only those seeking new or their first faculty positions but those with positions hoping they would not be cut due to budget constraints before a suitable candidate accepted their positions.
The email information for registration ensured a much faster and smoother registration process - especially for those of us with last names beginning with one of the last letters of the normal groupings. Keep up the great work, AHA staff! We know what a major headache registration glitches can be for everyone involved.
The ever-anticipated Exhibit Hall opened at 3pm and stayed open until 7. My duties at OAH prevented me from spending any real time there so I looked forward to not having rushed time among the books during this convention. Additionally, it's always a good place to run into the people you want to make sure to see, even if just to briefly touch base.
Presidential Professor Carol Berkin was her usual dynamo self running around the convention and checking on her books. She is always surprised by her enthusiastic fans but her fans certainly aren't. Great scholarship that is actually fun to read is not all that common. And her dedication to the profession and her acknowledgment of the importance of teaching despite her scholarly status is most effectively demonstrated by her editorship of History Now.
A member of our Teaching American History grants Teacher Leadership Team was able to fit the meeting into his busy schedule although he has to leave early to return for an in-service on Monday. It's great to see one of our program's graduates take in the complexity of offerings at a professional conference such as the AHA. My first "mentoring" duty was helping him dissect the diverse program.
Spending some time with my major professor/continuing mentor was also enjoyable.
More historians filtered in on Thursday, but it wasn't until Friday that the historians dominated the lobby, including the lobby bar. The atmosphere was that of running into old friends and colleagues mixed with the uncertainly facing not only those seeking new or their first faculty positions but those with positions hoping they would not be cut due to budget constraints before a suitable candidate accepted their positions.
The email information for registration ensured a much faster and smoother registration process - especially for those of us with last names beginning with one of the last letters of the normal groupings. Keep up the great work, AHA staff! We know what a major headache registration glitches can be for everyone involved.
The ever-anticipated Exhibit Hall opened at 3pm and stayed open until 7. My duties at OAH prevented me from spending any real time there so I looked forward to not having rushed time among the books during this convention. Additionally, it's always a good place to run into the people you want to make sure to see, even if just to briefly touch base.
Presidential Professor Carol Berkin was her usual dynamo self running around the convention and checking on her books. She is always surprised by her enthusiastic fans but her fans certainly aren't. Great scholarship that is actually fun to read is not all that common. And her dedication to the profession and her acknowledgment of the importance of teaching despite her scholarly status is most effectively demonstrated by her editorship of History Now.
A member of our Teaching American History grants Teacher Leadership Team was able to fit the meeting into his busy schedule although he has to leave early to return for an in-service on Monday. It's great to see one of our program's graduates take in the complexity of offerings at a professional conference such as the AHA. My first "mentoring" duty was helping him dissect the diverse program.
Spending some time with my major professor/continuing mentor was also enjoyable.
Labels: AHA, Berkin, historians, history
Friday, February 08, 2008
New Data Tools for Historians
Yesterday's AHA Blog pointed to Dan Cohen's post on a new CHNM's new NEH grant, “Scholarship in the Age of Abundance: Enhancing Historical Research With Text-Mining and Analysis Tools.”
Here's Dan's synopsis:
Matrix is developing some similar tools as evidence of similar humanities technology organizations mine the web to assist all of us in better managing information overload and utilize various means of AI to help us find more date faster.
Here's Dan's synopsis:
We will first conduct a survey of historians to examine closely their use of digital resources and prospect for particularly helpful uses of digital technology. We will then explore three main areas where text mining might help in the research process: locating documents of interest in the sea of texts online; extracting and synthesizing information from these texts; and analyzing large-scale patterns across these texts. A focus group of historians will be used to assess the efficacy of different methods of text mining and analysis in real-world research situations in order to offer recommendations, and even some tools, for the most promising approaches.
Matrix is developing some similar tools as evidence of similar humanities technology organizations mine the web to assist all of us in better managing information overload and utilize various means of AI to help us find more date faster.
Labels: AHA, CHNM, Cohen, data mining, digital, historians, Matrix
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Shrinking Historian?
Here's my reply to a discussion over at Edwired by Dan Cohen.
Ditto to many of Sage comments in support of your analysis. We’re often missing the broad strokes and then wonder why our own students cannot put history into its broader context. I think one of the SUNY schools has developed a “broad-field” doctoral program that teaches future historians how to not over-specialize so that no one else understands you except for a few, select fellow specialists in your particular field.
There are so many topics and connects to explore in history and wiping away the broad themes as being only in support of the dead, white males is just ridiculous.
Carol Berkin at Baruch is one of the “traditionally” trained historians who "broke out" to write for popular audiences and has been criticized for same. Yet, thousands of people will know more about women in the American Revolution thanks largely to her book, Revolutionary Mothers. It’s a manageable work for those people who don’t get paid to read for a living and tells some great stories. Who could ask for more from anything they read?
Despite some of its challenges dealing with where to go next in technology, H-Net is one of the best examples of organizations who allow a broader membership within its larger context. While some individual communities believe gatekeeping is important to what they are doing, others explore areas traditionally ignored by the “authorities” in the profession. H-Net used to meet in conjunction with the AHA and this year is moving it’s more official meeting space to the Social Science History Association - a community that is more interested in technology and is more diverse in its active membership.
Blogs like yours, H-Net, and other social networking approaches in person and online make our profession much more rich and diverse.
Ditto to many of Sage comments in support of your analysis. We’re often missing the broad strokes and then wonder why our own students cannot put history into its broader context. I think one of the SUNY schools has developed a “broad-field” doctoral program that teaches future historians how to not over-specialize so that no one else understands you except for a few, select fellow specialists in your particular field.
There are so many topics and connects to explore in history and wiping away the broad themes as being only in support of the dead, white males is just ridiculous.
Carol Berkin at Baruch is one of the “traditionally” trained historians who "broke out" to write for popular audiences and has been criticized for same. Yet, thousands of people will know more about women in the American Revolution thanks largely to her book, Revolutionary Mothers. It’s a manageable work for those people who don’t get paid to read for a living and tells some great stories. Who could ask for more from anything they read?
Despite some of its challenges dealing with where to go next in technology, H-Net is one of the best examples of organizations who allow a broader membership within its larger context. While some individual communities believe gatekeeping is important to what they are doing, others explore areas traditionally ignored by the “authorities” in the profession. H-Net used to meet in conjunction with the AHA and this year is moving it’s more official meeting space to the Social Science History Association - a community that is more interested in technology and is more diverse in its active membership.
Blogs like yours, H-Net, and other social networking approaches in person and online make our profession much more rich and diverse.
Labels: AHA, Berkin, Cohen, Edwired, H-Net, historians, history, Revolutionary Mothers
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