On Monday Christians around the world heard again Luke’s story of the Nativity. But after lingering in some detail on the first day of Jesus’ life, that evangelist moves rapidly through the next couple decades. In the same chapter that begins with Jesus’ birth, Luke skips ahead to age 12, then summarizes Jesus’ adolescence and … More Why Every Biography Is Incomplete
The surprising power of the timeline as a tool for history professors. … More The Timeline as a Historical Tool
This week’s “comment drive” got off to a good start asking about historical movies… Let’s see if we can generate even more conversation about one of filmmaker’s favorite genres of history: biography. In this week’s installment of Past & Presence, our department’s webisode series, we turn to biography: I host from my hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota; we … More Comment Drive: What’s Your Favorite Biography?
Change the first word to “Twelve” and this post from 9/11/2012 still seems to fit today, 9/11/2013. Eleven years ago this morning I was in Hamden, Connecticut, waking up after a late night of dissertation writing to turn on CNN in time to watch the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Those structures … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: This Day in History: 9/11
At some point in the history of this blog, I think I’ve had at least one post about every course that I teach — with one exception: I’ve said little about my upper-division course on the history of the Cold War, for the simple reason that I haven’t taught it since May 2011, and this … More Teaching the Cold War
Eleven years ago this morning I was in Hamden, Connecticut, waking up after a late night of dissertation writing to turn on CNN in time to watch the collapse of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Those structures stood less than two hours’ drive away from my apartment, and I knew people who lived in … More This Day in History: 9/11
In which Chris basks in the reflected glory that comes with having been a graduate student of a Pulitzer Prize winner… Lamentably still on my to-be-read-over-the-summer list, Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis’ magisterial biography of American diplomat George Kennan was yesterday named the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. Called “an engaging … More Congratulations, John Lewis Gaddis!
One of my favorite things about spring semester is that I get to teach a section of our department’s capstone course, HIS499 Senior Seminar. It’s fun in part because it’s so unlike anything else I teach — as close to a graduate seminar as I’m going to (or would like to) get as a professor … More What Historians Do
So here it is, December 30th, the sixth day of Christmas. And I know what you’re thinking: “Where am I going to find six geese for my true love? *Do geese even lay eggs in late December?” (See end of post for answer.) And adding to the problem, yesterday’s five gold rings didn’t come cheap … More The Sixth Day of Christmas
A series of posts taking you day-by-day through a proposed travel version of my course HIS230L World War I. Read the introduction to the series here, or the previous post here. Friday, January 18, 2013 – Paris If it feels like I haven’t had a lot to say recently about the titular topic of this … More What If?
The Pietist Schoolman 