Happy New Year!

One of the most persistent myths in American history is the idea that the election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 […]

Well, of course he was. American historical narratives have always told us so, and recent prize-winning tomes that agree on […]

Every recent presidential election cycle, about the time a campaign goes negative, newspapers run a story like the one in the […]

Myths about early American politics certainly abound, but different ones operate in different quarters of the culture.

[BLOGITORIAL NOTE: Just to model the true spirit of democratic pluralism, we wanted readers to know up front that today’s […]

For Cheney, the Imperial Presidency is a matter of personal and ideological conviction.

So, over this past weekend I was sweating over a long-overdue article [hi, Sean!] on Philip Freneau, the so-called “poet […]

There is an interesting map up at Newsweek‘s web site illustrating what the magazine calls “a surprising correlation between the […]

Since the doleful events of September 11, one of the points made by almost everyone, from the president to television […]

Having been to more than my share of very sparsely-attended indie rock shows and history conference panels in recent years, the thought has occurred more than once that “mid-career” academic historians have much in common with a lot of the veteran indie musicians I go to see: well-known within a certain dispersed circle of cognoscenti, perhaps even established in certain way, but doing something too particular in its appeal to ever achieve more than the most modest sort of popularity.

May 27, 2008 Are You Smarter Than an Eighth Grader? No, you’re not. Here are the questions Isaac had to […]

Historians, find the pattern Assuming there is one, besides electoral fear. Any thoughts? Any other maps this resembles?   September […]

April 28, 2008 End-of-the-semester blues Travel and end-of-the-semester workload issues have kept me off of here a little longer than […]

But researchers doing only word searches will miss not only context, but also what might lurk just beneath the headlines.

Here’s why I was holding back my experiences at the NYC tea party from earlier this week: The night turned […]

I am trying to be a serious person in these serious times, but permit me to take moment to follow […]

My students and I had fun discussing political geography today.  For instance, take a look at these two maps side […]

March 31, 2008 Barack Obama, Glenn Loury, and the American Historical Narrative Over at TPM Cafe, former black conservative Glenn […]

February 29, 2008 Seems Like Old Times, I: Nationalizing the state militias One of the features I have planned for […]

Modern Franklin Gets the Boot [UPDATED] Outbreaks of popular resistance against expert medical advice are a long Anglo-American tradition, and […]

    <<One of many glamorous moments of the 1988 Al Gore campaign that I did not see. Scene of […]

I am driving off to the Society for Historians of the Early Republic (SHEAR) annual meeting in beautiful downtown Springfield, […]

June 30, 2008 The Age of Analogies   One of Josh Marshall’s posts last week noted the dismal failure of […]

October 2008

Look at you: sitting there at your computer checking the weather reports, studying Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode guides, and reading […]

I have long thought that now-President Obama’s reputation as an orator was little inflated, more by a media and public […]

July 29, 2008 Tennessee church shooter targets conservative historical fiction It appears that the angry white guy who shot up […]

In answer to Ben’s comment, of course Sir Lord Baltimore counts, and who could forget Paul Revere and the Raiders, […]

August 29, 2008 Vice Grip . . . on the media’s imagination, blogosphere included. Finally, we come to the sense-shattering […]

The late-breaking beatification of John Adams and his family, soon to be a major monument, forms one of the wonders […]

January 31, 2008 Goody Bags Bad The eloquently nasty James Wolcott made a sharp comment on the historical contribution to […]

This page presents some of the same links that appear on my original home page, along with some new ones, […]

If there is a blacklist, I have yet to see it—maybe when I make full professor.

My two little boys love the kids’ sections of megabookstores, so a trip to Borders to get out of the […]

Things have not been as active as they might have been around here because we are busy are completing what […]

Hillary Clinton’s opponents really need to hold her to her claims about her experience, and make sure she owns up […]

While the Founders of the United States have seen their reputations downgraded in some quarters over the past few decades, […]

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