The History Blog

Past and Present

Archive for November, 2009

The 1960s or the 1980s??

November 10, 2009 at 2:16 pm by wcsuhistory

Malcolm X vs. Spike Lee…
JFK vs. Reagan…
The Fugitive vs. The A-Team…
The Beatles vs. U2… ?
This article bemoans the tendency of college students in 2009 to still take courses on the US in the 1960s, while they (and their professors) ignore the 1980s. What do you think? And who thinks the 1970s are getting a bad break too?? [BP]

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The History Blog is the shared effort of faculty members of the History Department at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. We are Burton Peretti, Michael Nolan, Katherine Allocco, Abubaker Saad, Wynn Gadkar-Wilcox, Leslie Lindenauer, Kevin Gutzman, Joshua M. Rosenthal, Jennifer Nugent Duffy, and Marcy May. We range in ages, backgrounds, families, religions, and interests, but we share a commitment to exploring the past as it connects to the present. For specifics about any one of us, you can check us out at the WCSU History Department webpage at http://www.wcsu.edu. Our blog examines history in our community, politics, and education; we welcome comment and discussion.

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Historians and ethics

November 9, 2009 at 11:10 am by wcsuhistory

Here’s a career option for History majors–working for tobacco companies! (?) This article discusses controversy over the companies’ use of historians who testify in their favor in court and in depositions. An interesting ethical issue. [BP]

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Upstate New York and Political Parties

November 8, 2009 at 9:26 pm by wcsuhistory

As you may have heard, there was an unusual special election for a U.S. House seat in upper New York State last Tuesday. The Democratic candidate won. As this article shows, portions of the current district (which sprawls across the Adirondack mountains) have been represented in Congress only by Republicans ever since the 1850s, when the party originated. (The outline of the district or districts in that region, of course, changed somewhat every ten years with the Census and reapportionment.) Owens’ victory broke a very rare 145-year party stranglehold on a region. The article gives some fine detail on the history of congressional representation in that part of the state. [BP]