Historical Facts

Review of Casey Nelson Blake, ed., The Arts of Democracy: Art, Public Culture, and the State (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007). ISBN-13: 978-0-8122-4029-0. 361 pages.Review by Andrew HartmanIllinois State UniversityJuly 2010“At stake in every struggle over art there is also the imposition of an art of living, that is, the transmutation of an arbitrary way of living into the

Although I wrote that I agreed with many points in Larry Cebula's "How to Read a Book in One Hour" post, I must admit that I did so with some regret. I truly do enjoy good history writing when I find it. And graduate school would be a waste if one only took books apart rather than relishing, at times, in an author's prose. Indeed, maybe graduate programs are turning out substandard writers, in

Larry Cebula, of Eastern Washington University, breaks down the infamous---and useful---grad school skim at his Northwest History weblog. I confess that I have used Larry's method on many occasions, and agree with most of his points. Allow me to add a few more tips.If you own the book and believe you are likely to keep it, follow some advice I obtained years ago from Mortimer Adler: Do not fear

An exciting opportunity: Fulbright Lectureship in U.S. intellectual history in the American Studies Department at the University in Rome for spring 2012. You can find information at this link (scroll to the bottom of the page). Casey Nelson Blake, Alex Bloom, George Cotkin, and Greg Sumner have held this lectureship in the past.