Linktastic Voyage

Loads of stories that have caught my eye have begun to pile up on my tabs. My intent was to give each a full post, but with my pace of late, let's face it -- that wasn't gonna happen. So here are some links with commentary as apt:

You know what? President Obama has accomplished a hell of a lot, especially given the political context within which he has had to operate.

The Miller Center at UVA has started a blog, Riding The Tiger, that promises to look at the presidential election in historical context.

Cliopatria, the first among equals of the History News Network Blogs is closing its doors. Ralph Luker, paterfamilias of Cliopatria, did yeoman's work herding cats over there for more than 8 years. When he started blogging at HNN Ralph was one of a precious few professional historians who saw the potential for blogging as a medium of blending historical, political, social and cultural questions. In large part due to his nurturing thousands of historians now blog.

Ruy Teixeira thinks much of the hullaballoo about Independent voters is nonsense and he recently found himself reviewing an especially nonsensical book about Independent voters. Negative reviews are fun.

This about sums up my feelings.

Voter ID laws, created to create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist (but really simply created to make it harder for Democrats to vote), might just end up having unintended consequences.

Students in one history class at my alma mater are making campaign ads rather than writing final papers. I love this idea:

There’s a catch, though. The students can only use images, quotes, documents, and music from the era. They cannot use anything that came afterwards. An image of the White House burning in 1812 would not work for the election of 1808. They cannot use images of Leutze’s famous Washington Crossing the Delaware, a product more reflective of the 1840s than the 1770s. Their assignment is to capture the spirit of the age – not the spirit of our historical memory.

I might have to appropriate this idea and adjust it for my students.

At the Chronicle Leonard Cassuto argues that the comprehensive exam needs to be changes because it does not seamlessly fuel the way toward writing a dissertation. The problem with this solution is that it assumes rather than proves the seamlessness. The fact is that the comprehensive exams are rather different from the dissertation -- and frankly I've always argued that in many ways the comprehensive exams are what separates history PhD's from laymen -- learning to respect both the history and the historiography is vital. There is a lot of material out there. I am of the belief that before one does original work one should immerse oneself in the books and articles that have come before. And in so doing get to really know the history as well.

In which I say some stuff about the new UT system post-tenure review policy.

UTPB PTI

Many of you have asked about being able to see the YouTube of the UTPB Pardon the Interruption from my fall semester Sports History class. Here it is, in three parts. They did a great job, especially given the technological constraints and that we do not have any sort of broadcast journalism major (and it came out even better on dvd -- there are many sacrifices the student who posted this had to make for it to be YouTube-able). My Global Sports class this semester now has a high standard to reach.

Pardon Our Interruption . . .

My US Sports History and Society class had a project whereby they put together an episide of Pardon the Interruption. Their YouTube trailer is brilliant and is destined to go viral.

Me on TV Re: Terrorism (Self Indulgence Alert)

On a couple of occasions in the last few weeks I have been featured in stories on terrorism at our local ABC affiliate. You can see the first of these stories (with both online text and the videos) here (in a story on terrorists using technology such as Facebook for recruiting). I am still waiting for the second, on my Global Terrorism class this semester, to go online. .

The Olympian Ideal!!! (Self-Indulgence Alert)

On page 7a of the print edition of today's Odessa American readers saw this, under the title: "Reading, Riding." (The image is copyright protected so I cannot post it. Odd, since one would think I would get some proprietary claim over a photograph of myself.)

The Devil’s Dictionary, American Politics, and the Constitution

I was the speaker for our Constitution Day events at UTPB today. Here is the brief address that I gave for any who might be interested (it was followed up by a great Q & A).

In the late 19th and early 20th century a man by the name of Ambrose Bierce, a journalist, author, and humorist, began penning satirical definitions of words in one of his newspaper columns. He defined a cynic as someone “whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.” He defined contempt as “The feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is too formidable safely to be opposed.” In 1906 these definitions were compiled into The Devil’s Dictionary, which consists of more than a thousand words and is structured just like a normal dictionary.

Bierce did not steer clear of the law and the legal profession. He defined a lawyer as “one skilled in circumvention of the law.” Justice is “a commodity which in a more or less adulterated condition the State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxes and personal service. And there are three definitions that he put forward that are apropos for my talk today. Speaking of the country’s two great political traditions, Bierce identified a Conservative as “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” That which is “lawful” is, according to Bierce, “compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction.” And, finally, an egoist is “a person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.”

I am intrigued by Bierce’s definitions because while cynical, in both the traditional and in his own definition of the word, they also speak some truths. We live in a cynical age. More to the point, we live in an age of ugly and divisive political dialogue. Without a grasp of history or meaning we accuse those with whom we have honest disagreements not merely of being wrong or misguided, but of being idiotic or evil, of being Nazis and Fascists and Socialists and Communists and terrorists and Klansmen. We accuse them of being Hitler or Stalin or Lenin or Satan. These accusations are wrong in both sense of the word – they are wrong in fact and interpretation, but they are also wrong ethically and morally. To be intentionally ironic, and even hypocritical, these accusers are unaware of how fascistic and Stalinist, how idiotic and evil they are.

Our judicial system is not immune from these trends. Indeed, on both sides of the political all and across all ranges of the ideological spectrum the inclination is to try to appropriate those aspects of Constitutional law and our judicial system that we like and to disregard those that we don’t. And so in that spirit, and with Bierce’s definition of both an egoist and lawfulness in mind, I offer my own entries into a Devil’s Dictionary for our fraught political climate.

An activist judge is “a judge who does not act to misinterpret the constitution in ways that I see fit.”

Original Intent is “how I can best misrepresent a complex history into a simplistic sound bite to convince the listener that I know how Thomas Jefferson would have felt about the internet.”

Unelected judges are “men and women in black robes with black hearts who act in ways contrary to my interests.”

And, alas, it seems that the Constitution is now “ a document that serves as a useful weapon to hit my Nazi-Stalinist-Socialist-Communist-Hitler-loving-Satanist of an enemy over the head with.”

But perhaps a little perspective is in order. In a world in which the noisiest and the obnoxious get the most attention irrespective of talent, merit, or the intelligence of one’s views on the issue about which they are screaming (I’m talking to you Kanye West, Joe the Plumber, and anyone who has ever appeared on a reality show) it is worth stepping back and recognizing a few salient points, particularly when it comes to our Constitution and those who interpret it.

Almost universally the men and women on the court are not just intelligent, but are brilliant and committed public servants all of whom could be making much more money and garnering much more fame while being called much nicer names. I have been in the room with a number of Supreme Court judges, and almost across the board they have been thoughtful, dazzlingly articulate, and able to sort through ideas of great complexity and with long and sometimes tortured histories. It is precisely the fact that we do not elect them that allows to them to contemplate, think, and sometimes protect the rights of the few when the Constitution and the principles of the country demand it.

The accusation of “Judicial activism” really is a bit of an empty one. Assuming that we really do believe that the courts, and particularly the Supreme Court, are part of the system of checks and balances and that the judicial branch is coequal with the legislative and the executive branches, then the Supreme Court is sometimes going to challenge both the legislature and the executive. As my own definition indicates, “activism” tends to be in the eye of the beholder. The other side engages in activism. My side engages in complex legal assessments.

And while close decisions draw all of the sound and fury and bring out some of the very worst in our politicized dialogue, the reality is that the vast majority of cases that go before the Supreme Court end up with unanimous and near unanimous decisions. The vast majority of cases are decided by unanimous, 8-1, or 7-2 majorities. Far, far fewer cases end up with a 5-4 result than we would think from the tone of discussion about the court.

It seems clear, then, that we need to take a step back. That the Constitution and the interpretations of it are too important to become part of the maelstrom of ugliness that too often defines American life in the year 2009. Disagreement is a vital and cherished part of American civic life. But that guy whose politics you disagree with? He’s not a Nazi. He’s not a Stalinist. He’s almost certainly not even actually an enemy. He simply disagrees with you. Is that really so evil?

School is Cool!

It's the first day of school out here at UTPB, and as usually happens when things kick off, I am excited for the new year. My classes are great -- I am teaching an upper division course, "US History Since 1945" and, because of a scheduling quirk, two graduate courses, "The Historian's Craft," which is the foundational class for all of our MA students, and "Modern Africa," -- and I am excited about the books I am using, especially in Modern Africa and the US Since 1945. Normally we teach on a M-W-F or T-Th schedule, but because of a host of circumstances, I am on a M-T-W-F schedule, with the grad seminars on T-W and the undergraduate class meeting M-W-F. I hate teaching on Fridays because of conferences, but my schedule will allow me to get a lot of writing done this term, and that's always welcome.

The cynical question when my enthusiasm is at its peak is: "How long will this last before it is crushed out of me?" And about half of the answer to that question is dependent on my students (the other half is dependent upon administration, but that is a post for another time). A good, enthusiastic group can make the coming four months a pleasure. But all it takes is a few students, the ones always looking for the easiest path, the ones who come up with excuses easier than changes of clothes, the ones who smirk their way through a semester full of material they do not understand, to suck the energy from a professor. I am not teaching the survey this semester, which will help. It seems that the students absolutely least equipped to have any clue about what university life is all about have the most obnoxious criticisms. "There is too much reading! He grades too hard!" Not to put too fine a point on it, but how the fuck would you know what college-level reading and expectations are?

In any case, in an effort to nip some of the student excuses in the bud, I present to you the "Top Ten No Sympathy Lines (Plus a Few Extra)" that students try to pawn off on faculty and the responses from one professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. (Hat tip to Texas in Africa.)

Let the games begin!!!

Bound to a Toddlin' Town

I am bound for Chicago to attend an "Energy Freedom Summit" being held by the organization Set America Free, which is affiliated with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, with which I was a fellow a few years back. I will be representing UTPB, which is developing an Energy Studies program, in hopes of bringing back some ideas. In between sessions -- and the list of participants is impressive; I'll be taking lots of notes, I'm sure -- I imagine there will be time for deep dish pizza, brats, hot dogs with vegetables on them, and other heart-healthy-living options. I will post as I can.

Dork Receives Award: Self Indulgence Alert

Yup, that's me, from a picture that appeared in a local paper and is now rotating on the UTPB website.

All Politics is Local

Or if all politics are not local, we tend to try to find the local angle because people are, let's face it, solipsistic bastards. And I think it is no surprise that Texans tend to have established a sense of state and regional pride that is legendary even given that everyone thinks their home region is pretty special. Let's face it -- where else might an anti-littering campaign ("Don't Mess With Texas") become a pugnacious state motto ("Don't Mess With Texas").

But because Texas is so big and influential, national stories sometimes legitimately are also state and local stories. take, for example, the passing of Lady Bird Johnson earlier this week. Mrs. Johnson was an admired figure in the state and nation, and it is remarkable to think how she outlived her larger than life husband by more than three decades.

In her role as a member of the University of Texas' Board of Regents she took her commitment not only to UT-Austin, but to the entire system seriously. UTPB archivist Dr. Terry Shults passed the following along to the university community to show us a little local angle to a story that has received a great deal of attention nationally and statewide:

As someone who has only lived in Texas in this century, Lady Bird Johnson was only known to me filtered via national media. As archivist here, I was aware of many photo ops of her on campus and in town including a very interesting one with Mr. and Mrs. LBJ, John Ben Shepperd, and first UTPB President Billy Amstead at the opening of the Presidential Museum room in honor of JBS' son who had just died.

We also have "Lady Bird Johnson, Regent, The University of Texas System, Formally Accepting First Student of U.T.P.B., August 1, 1972."

But evidence that she was involved in UTPB in more than ceremonially, literally came across my desk just recently from the thirteen boxes of papers of late business and civic leader Dan Hemphill:

[A2004/05 Dan Hemphill Papers, Box 10, Folder #26 Item 9]:

Presidential Associates UTPB Development Committee from UTPB President V. R. Cardozier [cover letter for paper in answer to a question from Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson on what is being done to recruit students], May 21, 1976.

R.I.P. Lady Bird Johnson.

We're So Money

In an article on measuring how much college students learn US News & World Report had the following to say:

The state of Texas also requires its public colleges to release more data. In a recent report, the state announced that the tiny University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa far outperformed the larger UT campuses in El Paso and Dallas on the Collegiate Learning Assessment. What's more, Permian Basin also had a greater percentage of students either employed or enrolled in a graduate program within a year after graduation for every year between 2001 and 2004, when compared with its counterparts in El Paso and Dallas.

This follows on the heels of Newsweek showing that they really, really like us as well.

I have nothing to add.

Well, ok, maybe one thing. In the summer after my first year at UTPB one senior historian who does not hold an academic position (but who does have a blog) and with whom I had a rather heated argument over email decided to take a shot at my university. He wrote "I would rather not have a job than teach at that little third-rate institution." Wish granted: he still does not hold an academic position. My "little third-rate institution," however, seems to be doing quite nicely.

Yeay Us!

Inside Higher Ed has a nice piece on the good job the UT system is doing in bringing a college education to students from low-income families. UTPB is one of the schools singled out in the article. We have a program called UTPB Promise in which we commit to "help qualified students meet the financial challenges of attending the university."