Commemoration has been much on my mind since my trip to the battlefields and cemeteries of World War I, but I have to admit that I hadn’t given much thought to the nature of commemoration in this country, the center of which (sorry, Mount Rushmore) is Washington, D.C. Of course, like many Americans I’ve seen … More Presidential Memorials
The last surviving veteran of the First World War died last Saturday, just shy of her 111th birthday. Her name was Florence Green. She joined the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) as a mess steward in September 1918, nine months after she turned 17 and two months before the end of the war. Mrs. Green’s … More The Last Veteran of WWI
Calling museums “cathedrals of the modern world” (as I quoted cultural historian Jay Winter last week) might seem like setting the bar awfully high. Probably too high for something like the National Army Museum in London, which seeks simply to document the evolution of the British way of war in a way that’s neither intimidating … More “Cathedrals of the Modern World”: London
It’s not quite the most wonderful day of the year, but the day after the Super Bowl is one of my favorites. The moment when football finally cedes the sporting spotlight and makes room for the true National Pastime to return from hibernation. Back in 1987 Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post famously rattled off … More Super Monday
Are the liberal arts (e.g., history) irrelevant or out of date? Not according to Nannerl Keohane, former president of Duke University and Wellesley College: The very broad, capacious form of education that we call the liberal arts is rooted in a specific curriculum in classical and medieval times. But it would be wrong to … More A Defense of the Liberal Arts
Here • Timothy Garton Ash’s comments on the new French genocide denial law got me wondering what you all think about the limits of free speech and historical inquiry. (Thanks to Seth Rima — one of my former students, coincidentally interviewed this week at our department blog! — for sharing his thoughts.) • My January … More That Was The Week That Was
It’s been a busy first week of class here at Bethel, so I’m going to postpone my two posts on museums until next week. But before we wrap up the week, let me pass along a few more details about the Pietism colloquium (Friday, April 20) that I’m coordinating with my colleague Christian Collins Winn. … More Update: Jon Sensbach’s Talk at Our Pietism Colloquium
2/2/12 – Readers with ties to the Baptist General Conference or Bethel University (or those with a more general interest in Pietism in American denominations) should be sure to check out The Baptist Pietist Clarion, an annual newsletter edited by my colleague G.W. Carlson (profiled here at the end of 2011). All of its back … More The Baptist Pietist Clarion
Before the beginning of the semester last fall, I wrote a post on the challenges (or, as I called them in the post title, “blessings”) of teaching the same course (Modern Europe) year in and year out. Today, the start of our spring semester at Bethel, brings a different kind of problem: teaching a course … More Human Rights in International History
Museums are the cemeteries of the arts. (Alphonse de Lamartine) Even their fans must admit that museums can feel like places where the past (or, for the poet Lamartine, art) gets embalmed and entombed. According to historian Jay Winter — already quoted multiple times in this series on exploring the history of World War I … More “Cathedrals of the Modern World”: Introduction
The Pietist Schoolman 