I don’t know which brought tears to my eyes—the negligence on the part of the famed Great Books school, the University of Chicago, or Joe Bast’s
extraordinary devotion to learning. You will not read this unmoved: “My Eight Years as an Undergraduate.”
Friday, July 1, 2011 - 11:21
Comments
Joyce Appleby describes herself as a "left-leaning historian ... with strong libertarian trends." She has written a partially good book on the history of capitalism--The Relentless Revolution. I reviewed it in Liberty and would be interested in comments by writers on this blog. My overview, expressed with a somewhat rhetorical flourish:
At the start, The Relentless Revolution is like an exhilarating train ride, full of insights and a historian’s gold mine of information, but it loses steam and slows to a crawl once the Rubicon of the Industrial Revolution has been crossed. At the end, Appleby is praising the US government for trying to rein in the capitalist beast.
Along the way, Appleby appears to adopt the Kenneth Pomeranz view that slavery may have contributed to the Industrial Revolution as much as or more than trade did. I'd like to see some reaction to that. Otherwise, however, she offers some good sense about the causes of the Industrial Revolution--showing nicely how scientific theory and British practicality worked together and admitting that Britain had a more open society than the rest of Europe (and of the world), and that the openness was an important factor, too.
Sunday, May 29, 2011 - 17:48
On the Pope Center site, Wendy McElroy parses the latest in "studies" on campus--"male studies," not to be confused with "men's studies." The proposed discipline is something of a challenge to men's studies, which are considered rather wimpy.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011 - 11:32
I expected Ian Morris’s book Why the West Rules—For Now to be much better than it is, having read Tyler Cowen’s recommendation on Marginal Revolution. Frankly, I hated it.
The book is one of those grand-themed books like Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Kenneth Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence but it is not nearly as insightful as those (I’ve directed conferences on both). Morris’s ambition is to explain the progress of mankind starting about 50,000 years ago and, in particular, to answer the question of why the West overcame the East in social development.
But his theories are pallid, almost nonexistent. The major theory is that people are greedy, lazy, and afraid. Social development (his label for progress) occurs because people respond to changing circumstances—especially climate change—in ways that reflect these attributes.
Yes, that's basically it. And it's a pretty horrifying book because in his view history is mostly about the slaughter inflicted by a changing array of brutal chieftains, kings, and emperors. The history of the world is like a chessboard; sometimes White dominates, sometimes Black, but all the pieces are playing the same game.
There’s not a word here about institutions. Thus, in the end, in spite of 750 pages of sometimes arresting detail, history turns out to be just one damn thing after another, as Arnold Toynbee once characterized it.
The book is one of those grand-themed books like Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Kenneth Pomeranz’s The Great Divergence but it is not nearly as insightful as those (I’ve directed conferences on both). Morris’s ambition is to explain the progress of mankind starting about 50,000 years ago and, in particular, to answer the question of why the West overcame the East in social development.
But his theories are pallid, almost nonexistent. The major theory is that people are greedy, lazy, and afraid. Social development (his label for progress) occurs because people respond to changing circumstances—especially climate change—in ways that reflect these attributes.
Yes, that's basically it. And it's a pretty horrifying book because in his view history is mostly about the slaughter inflicted by a changing array of brutal chieftains, kings, and emperors. The history of the world is like a chessboard; sometimes White dominates, sometimes Black, but all the pieces are playing the same game.
There’s not a word here about institutions. Thus, in the end, in spite of 750 pages of sometimes arresting detail, history turns out to be just one damn thing after another, as Arnold Toynbee once characterized it.
Sunday, February 27, 2011 - 18:09
I've been off this blog awhile, but I notice that there was some interest in the Egyptian revolt. Troy Camplin, writing on the Pope Center site, pointed out that one reason for the unrest is the fact that Egypt has promoted college education (it is free) and as a result the cities are full of educated people who don't have jobs.
Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 21:53
You may have been following the Chilean miners’ rescue.
Can you imagine any other Latin American country where this high-tech rescue could have occurred? Or, thinking back to February, can you imagine any other Latin American country that could absorb an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude as Chile did? According to Wikipedia, the death toll was 486. In contrast, the death toll in the 2010 Haitian earthquake was in the 200,000 range (admittedly, Haiti is not a Latin American country, but a Caribbean one).
The resilience of Chile was no surprise to me because our son, at age 20, traveled through South America three years ago. He wrote:
"I have heard several times that Argentina is the Europe of South America, while Chile is the United States. This argument was supported 5 minutes into the country. After 3 days driving through Bolivia without seeing anything resembling a road, let alone pavement, Chile offered us a perfectly manicured road with painted lines 5 minutes past the border. I couldn´t believe it. And in all of Chile that I have seen so far, the story is the same. Roads straight out of the USA, and buildings and stores that would be right at home in any American city. It really is the economic growth miracle of the continent."
Political scientist Aaron Wildavsky created or at least popularized the meme “wealthier is healthier.” Chile is healthier because it is wealthy and it is wealthy because its government has allowed markets to work.
Can you imagine any other Latin American country where this high-tech rescue could have occurred? Or, thinking back to February, can you imagine any other Latin American country that could absorb an earthquake of 8.8 magnitude as Chile did? According to Wikipedia, the death toll was 486. In contrast, the death toll in the 2010 Haitian earthquake was in the 200,000 range (admittedly, Haiti is not a Latin American country, but a Caribbean one).
The resilience of Chile was no surprise to me because our son, at age 20, traveled through South America three years ago. He wrote:
"I have heard several times that Argentina is the Europe of South America, while Chile is the United States. This argument was supported 5 minutes into the country. After 3 days driving through Bolivia without seeing anything resembling a road, let alone pavement, Chile offered us a perfectly manicured road with painted lines 5 minutes past the border. I couldn´t believe it. And in all of Chile that I have seen so far, the story is the same. Roads straight out of the USA, and buildings and stores that would be right at home in any American city. It really is the economic growth miracle of the continent."
Political scientist Aaron Wildavsky created or at least popularized the meme “wealthier is healthier.” Chile is healthier because it is wealthy and it is wealthy because its government has allowed markets to work.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - 23:01
I'm back on the subject of Pearl Harbor again and am considering reviewing George Victor's 2007 book The Pearl Harbor Myth (which Robert Higgs reviewed in 2008 in the Freeman).
Can anyone recommend a book that disputes claims that Roosevelt and Marshall deliberately withheld information about the pending attack from the Hawaii commanders? Roberta Wohlstetter's 1962 book is too old and Gordon Prange's book presumably does not include most of the information that Jimmy Carter de-classified in 1979. (Although At Dawn We Slept was published in 1982, Prange died in 1980 and two graduate students finished the book.)
Can anyone recommend a book that disputes claims that Roosevelt and Marshall deliberately withheld information about the pending attack from the Hawaii commanders? Roberta Wohlstetter's 1962 book is too old and Gordon Prange's book presumably does not include most of the information that Jimmy Carter de-classified in 1979. (Although At Dawn We Slept was published in 1982, Prange died in 1980 and two graduate students finished the book.)
Sunday, June 20, 2010 - 09:18
David: I must confess that I am having trouble figuring out what is so bad about the Barack Obama song that those third graders sang and danced to.
Lots of silly, time-wasting things go on in the nation's public schools, and this may be one of them, but it is far from the worst.
Barack Obama is the nation's president. The song praises him, says that his election as the first black president is historic, lauds diversity, and honors Martin Luther King, Jr. What's wrong with that? You may convince me, but I need for you to spell it out.
Lots of silly, time-wasting things go on in the nation's public schools, and this may be one of them, but it is far from the worst.
Barack Obama is the nation's president. The song praises him, says that his election as the first black president is historic, lauds diversity, and honors Martin Luther King, Jr. What's wrong with that? You may convince me, but I need for you to spell it out.
Sunday, May 2, 2010 - 17:24
This post is not about past history but about the future--the future of higher education. Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma, offers us a way to think about how a"disruptive technology" like online education can destroy a system, perhaps even a university system. For details, see my article "The Iceman Cometh" on the Pope Center website.
Friday, April 23, 2010 - 19:58
Into this gloomy springtime, let me bring a flower or two. Academia (one source of the country's long drift to the left) may be on the brink of change.
In an article on the Pope Center site today, I list four events that are revealing the cavernous gulf between academia and the public. One is Climategate; another, academics' concession that they are indeed liberal; the appearance of Atlas Shrugged in college courses; and, finally, public questioning of the conventional wisdom that"everybody has to go to college."
Once the faultlines are visible, can the earthquake be far behind?
In an article on the Pope Center site today, I list four events that are revealing the cavernous gulf between academia and the public. One is Climategate; another, academics' concession that they are indeed liberal; the appearance of Atlas Shrugged in college courses; and, finally, public questioning of the conventional wisdom that"everybody has to go to college."
Once the faultlines are visible, can the earthquake be far behind?
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 16:23
Why is history being squeezed out of the curriculum in North Carolina’s K-12 schools? (A North Carolina State University professor has slowed down the process with a triumphant victory, but this is just a skirmish in a long war.) One reason, Jenna Ashley Robinson suggests, is that the curriculum is planned by education school Ph.D.’s, none of whom has a degree (even a bachelor’s degree) in history, political science, economics, or philosophy.
Monday, March 1, 2010 - 10:31
There's been quite a flap over how 11th grade history is to be taught in North Carolina. The Department of Public Instruction decided to start the only U.S. history course in high school after Reconstruction-- so that it could work in more modern history (and some ideas about big themes, such as Progressivism). A history professor at N.C. State, Holly Brewer, sounded the alarm and within a few weeks had over 9,000 fans on a Facebook page. The DPI has backed off -- it will come up with something new.
Meanwhile Brewer notes that World history doesn't look too secure either; it may become"World Studies 1945-Present."
Meanwhile Brewer notes that World history doesn't look too secure either; it may become"World Studies 1945-Present."
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - 13:52
Tom Bertonneau (a keen critic of today's college generation) explains that students aren't as"media savvy" as many people think. They can't read movies any better than they can read books.
Monday, February 1, 2010 - 14:57
Did you give money to your college last year? If you even gave it a fleeting thought, you might like to read about my dilemma over giving to Wellesley.
Friday, January 1, 2010 - 13:15
I was reluctant to read Black Maverick, the biography by David and Linda Beito of T.R.M. Howard, an early civil rights figure in the Mississippi Delta. There were several reasons for my resistance. First, Howard was unknown to me (and as a teen-ager, I spent the"Freedom Summer" of 1964 as a civil rights worker in Clarksdale, Mississippi, so I thought I knew a fair bit). Second, Howard carries some emotional baggage—he ended his career as a well-paid but controversial abortionist in Chicago (after years of being an illegal abortionist there and in Mississippi). That struck me as somewhat less than heroic. And there were other things—philandering, driving the latest Cadillac, and his late-in-life avocation as a big-game hunter. Not my cup of tea.
But the Beitos’ book changed my views enormously—softened them, one might say. The Beitos do a terrific job of making this larger-than-life figure believable and placing him in the context of mid-century Mississippi. Yes, he was heroic! While they are objective in their analysis, they convey an image of Howard as a restless individual who refused to be confined by racism in the South or legalistic restraint in the North. He was, the Beitos write, “fearless in waging war against inequality and disenfranchisement, but he was not a man to tilt at windmills.”
Howard, a physician, journalist (in his early days in California), and businessman, did indeed have a major role in founding the civil rights movement in the Mississippi Delta. Historians should not ignore him. Thanks to the Beitos' solid research, they do not have to anymore.
But the Beitos’ book changed my views enormously—softened them, one might say. The Beitos do a terrific job of making this larger-than-life figure believable and placing him in the context of mid-century Mississippi. Yes, he was heroic! While they are objective in their analysis, they convey an image of Howard as a restless individual who refused to be confined by racism in the South or legalistic restraint in the North. He was, the Beitos write, “fearless in waging war against inequality and disenfranchisement, but he was not a man to tilt at windmills.”
Howard, a physician, journalist (in his early days in California), and businessman, did indeed have a major role in founding the civil rights movement in the Mississippi Delta. Historians should not ignore him. Thanks to the Beitos' solid research, they do not have to anymore.
Thursday, December 17, 2009 - 22:40
Thanksgiving is over, so it’s time to think of Christmas gifts. I recommend The First Assassin, a first novel by National Review writer and editor John J. Miller. A competent thriller and easy read, it's about a supposed assassination attempt on President Lincoln in 1861. The book captures the feeling of a sleepy Washington, D.C., as it woke up to the fact that war was imminent. I can’t confirm its accuracy, but clearly the description of the city, with its unfinished Capitol and one-third-built Washington Monument, is meticulously drawn. Miller’s picture of Lincoln is not particularly flattering. At the end, Miller lists some of the nonfiction books he drew upon, which include Reveille in Washington by Margaret Leech and Runaway Slaves by John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger.
Sunday, November 29, 2009 - 11:30
I am interested in comment by members of this blog on the Justice Department's decision to try five accused Sept. 11 co-conspirators in federal court in Manhattan. In terms of liberty, is this an advance over military commissions or does it spell disaster?
Sunday, November 15, 2009 - 18:31
Here's a way to innovate in teaching history: create a course based on debates over critical issues. Jay Schalin of the Pope Center doesn't mean student debates; he means that two faculty members should argue formally over issues such as (in American history) the national bank vs. the gold standard,"manifest destiny," the Monroe Doctrine, and, of couse, slavery vs. abolition.
Jay's argument in favor includes a sample syllabus for an American history course.
Jay's argument in favor includes a sample syllabus for an American history course.
Monday, October 26, 2009 - 09:53
David Owen, a New Yorker writer and author of a new book, Green Metropolis, finally reveals the truth behind planners' antipathy to new roads and their support of traffic" calming" devices (narrow streets, roundabouts, speed bump, and other obstacles to driving). The goal is to make drivers so angry they will stop driving. He writes in the Wall Street Journal:
Traffic jams, if they're managed well, can actually be good for the environment. They maintain a level of frustration that turns drivers into subway riders or pedestrians.
Sunday, October 18, 2009 - 13:31
Compared to the ludicrousness of giving President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize after nine months in office and the horror of the treatment given to innocent people labeled criminals by federal bureaucrats, my story is mild. But it has led some observers to express relief (and even joy) at my having told it.
Three years ago, the John W. Pope Foundation pledged $90,000 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a series of lectures on"Renewing the Western Tradition." This followed a long period of discussion and debate over a much larger gift that would establish a curriculum in Western civilization--an idea proposed by the administration but ultimately rejected by the faculty. The lecture series was a remnant.
In the minds of distinguished and named professors at Chapel Hill, it turns out,"renewing" the Western tradition is more like"fixing" the Western tradition or" conducting a nuanced and multi-layered conversation about it and its relationship with other traditions, which may be better." See for yourself.
Three years ago, the John W. Pope Foundation pledged $90,000 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for a series of lectures on"Renewing the Western Tradition." This followed a long period of discussion and debate over a much larger gift that would establish a curriculum in Western civilization--an idea proposed by the administration but ultimately rejected by the faculty. The lecture series was a remnant.
In the minds of distinguished and named professors at Chapel Hill, it turns out,"renewing" the Western tradition is more like"fixing" the Western tradition or" conducting a nuanced and multi-layered conversation about it and its relationship with other traditions, which may be better." See for yourself.
Saturday, October 10, 2009 - 21:22
