More Noted Things
John Gravois,"Condemned to Repeat It," CHE, 24 November, looks at an Intercollegiate Studies Institute report that suggested a) appalling historical ignorance among contemporary undergraduates; and b) that some relatively obscure institutions were doing a better job of teaching historical literacy than were many elite institutions. While ISI was pressing the institutions for greater accountability, it still has not released critical information about its own test. Thanks to Sam Wineburg for the tip.
Boxes of three and a half decades of historical journals take up much of the storeage space here at Cliopatria Palace and, until now, I haven't known how to clear them out. Pillariseti Sudir's"Ready to Recycle Scholarship?" AHA Today, 20 November, comes to rescue, with suggestions about libraries which can still put them to good use.
Hey! We'll probably never know whether last month's discussions at National Review Online, Blog Them Out of the Stone Age, Cliopatria, Phi Beta Cons, Altercation, and Open University had any influence in the decision-making, but the history department at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is advertising its search to fill the Ambrose-Hesseltine Chair in American Military History. Can I think of the name of someone who would be an excellent candidate for it? Er, yes, I can.
Finally, at SurveyUSA, you pick a Democratic and a Republican nominee for President in 2008 and it projects the count in the Electoral College.