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A CONSERVATIVE LOOK AT BLOGGING HISTORIANS

At HNN, arch-Cliopatriarch Ralph Luker has collected a formidible honor roll of conservative historians who are bloggers (and perhaps some conservative bloggers who like history) to which he has added yours truly. Never knew so many were out there. Much appreciated Dr. Luker!

Special thanks to blogfriend Nonpartisan of ProgressiveHistorians for the nod. It’s a pleasure when a spirit of comity exists across the partisan divide. All too rare these days, unfortunately.

A LITTLE HISTORY

I hope to have a number of posts of my own up later today but here are two on history and historians that caught my eye:

“When Archivists Deal with Power Players” by Dr. Maarja Krusten

I “know” Maarja from our interaction on H-Diplo and at HNN and she brings a wealth of knowledge to the table regarding the politics of the National Archives ( interestingly enough, she had, if I recall, doubts about Bush’s appointment of Cold War scholar Allen Weinstein to head the National Archives, something I strongly supported; I’m betting her opinion of Weinstein is more favorable today). The piece will also interest those readers, like Lexington Green, who have an interest in Richard Nixon.

“Training the Next Generation of Historians ” by Kevlvn

A great post at ProgressiveHistorians on the future of the historical profession and the relationship that universities and professional historians could have in improving the education of K-12 students in history and their own teaching of undergraduates (the quality level of which, to put it kindly, is uneven). A commendable post and one that touches on the larger question of the mission of the American university in the 21st century.

COURT HISTORIAN: ARTHUR SCHLESINGER, JR. 1917-2007

Historian and public intellectual, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. passed away the other day at the age of 89. Dr. Schlesinger was an author of extensive scholarship, I myself recall reading his Age of Jackson as an undergraduate and I have a number of his Kennedy books, where Schlesinger veered into hagiography, on my shelf. It is difficult to separate the man from most of the subjects on which he wrote, the New Deal and the Kennedy administration seemed to be part and parcel of Schlesinger’s very identity.

Schlesinger used his vast knowledge of history as much to shape public debate as to inform the public about history. His “Vital Center“, published in 1949, helped separate American liberalism from its myopic indulgence of international Communism that was a de rigeur attitude among intellectuals in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Schlesinger’s career was one of defending liberalism, which he equated with the values of the New Deal and Camelot, and it’s icons, from the attacks of conservatives and leftist radicals alike. Schlesinger, like his contemporary and nemesis, Richard Nixon, stayed ” in the the arena” of the battle of ideas until his last breath.

I often disagreed with Schlesinger’s take on historical interpretation, moreso his politics, but one must acknowledge that as a historian, Schlesinger was a giant.

LINKS:

David Greenberg

Jonathan Zimmerman

Alonzo Hamby