As we turned the page from 2020 to 2021, I reviewed my own blogging year and that of everyone at The Anxious Bench. Here at Pietist Schoolman, my Christmas devotional series continued, taking inspiration from sources as diverse as Jill Biden and It’s a Wonderful Life. Then here’s some of what I’ve been reading elsewhere … More That Was The Week That Was
“This is not my country.” That’s what I wanted to believe yesterday, as I stumbled back from a week-long vacation in the Rocky Mountains into the ugly events transpiring in Charlottesville, Virginia. Having intentionally tried to avoid the news in order to savor time with my family, it was bewildering to check social media in … More On Charlottesville: “This Is Not My Country”
It was a reruns week here at The Pietist Schoolman while I wrapped up the semester’s grading. But here’s some of what was being written and reported elsewhere: • Accused of paying millions of dollars to cover up earlier sexual misconduct, former House speaker Dennis Hastert resigned from the board advising the Wheaton College center that bears his name. (Hastert … More That Was The Week That Was
For the first time in nearly three years, the Washington Monument will be open to visitors today. So this seems like a good time to revisit my February 2012 post on the history of that monument, and of presidential memorials in general. Commemoration has been much on my mind since my trip to the battlefields and … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: Presidential Memorials
Attention to David Barton’s treatment of Thomas Jefferson has died down since the controversy that led to Thomas Nelson rescinding their endorsement of The Jefferson Lies back in 2012. But Barton remains active and his popularity among the evangelical right’s rank and file has rebounded. Barton’s continued popularity, it seems to me, raises several issues … More Should Christian Scholars be Watchdogs? An Interview with David Barton Critic Warren Throckmorton
I said it this morning on my Pietist Schoolman Facebook page, but it bears repeating for the larger audience that reads the blog itself: Within the evangelical world it’s hard to overstate the importance of this critique of David Barton, coming as it does from the president of the Conference on Faith and History and chair of the History … More Tracy McKenzie on David Barton: “What’s Really at Stake”
Looking for ideas for the history buff and/or book lover on your Santa list? To my earlier collection of history books making the cut for some early “Best of 2012” lists, let’s add the following, selected by the editors of the New York Times Book Review for their 10 Best and 100 Notable lists: Pat … More Some More “Best of 2012” History Books
Here • My post on the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 became my first to be featured by WordPress on its “Freshly Pressed” page! • Academic historians just need to stop whining about “popular” historians. Now. • The second part of my series on the commemoration of World War I in Minnesota … More That Was The Week That Was
The Pietist Schoolman 