Author Archives: Will
Ahab Among the Innocents
The oddest intellectual disjuncture of parenting so far has come during my quiet hours of feeding the baby her bottle. I’ve been listening to books on tape audiobooks* while she drinks, because bottle feeding requires two hands, considerable attention, and a healthy dose of … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World
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Trump the Small-‘r’ Republican?
As Frank Rich pointed out in his recent meditation on the political phenomenon of Trump, political observers and pundits have struggled to identify historical precedents. The most popular, according to Rich, have ranged “from the third-party run of the cranky billionaire … Continue reading
Apparently the Liberal Arts Aren’t Irrelevant
I have been noticing an increasing drumbeat in recent months of arguments that despite all “evidence” to the contrary, the liberal arts are neither dead nor irrelevant. These arguments tend to emerge out of one of two motivations, either passionate defense … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching
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Removing the Confederate Flag is Not Nothing
After I heard about the horrific church shooting in Charleston on June 17, I have to say that the last thing I would have predicted is a wholesale, bipartisan war on the Confederate flag. I expected the brief, heart-wrenching, and … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World
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Have I mentioned I grew up in Brothertown?
Due to a very happy arrival in our family, Brian and I were legally required to cool our heels at my parents’ house in southern Oneida County in central New York, where I grew up. Our enforced (albeit highly enjoyable) 3-day visit … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World
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A Declension Narrative of Paperwork
Of all the contributions that historians can make to contemporary public discourse, I think that reflective skepticism about declension narratives is one of the most important. Historians define “declension narratives” as any story of change over time that trace a secular … Continue reading
Capitalism is an Empty Signifier
Back in January, I posted about a project that my Cultural History of Capitalism seminar was undertaking this semester. Students in the class had to go out and interview three people about how they understood both the meaning of capitalism … Continue reading
In Case We Doubted that Scholarship is Social
I have just returned from the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers in Chicago. I’m obviously not a geographer, but I got an opportunity to talk about my work on the print culture of geographical knowledge in the … Continue reading
Yik Yak is the Id of the University
It has been a tumultuous 24 hours at UMW, since the Virginia State Police rolled in last night and arrested some protesters who had been occupying the administration building for the past three weeks in an attempt to get the … Continue reading
Millennials Should Learn Trades, Say College Educated Writers
This NPR piece, and other like it based on the arguments of economist Anthony Carnevale of Georgetown University, have been making the rounds on my social media over the past few weeks. The NPR journalist, Chris Arnold, builds on Carnevale’s work to argue that … Continue reading
Posted in Historian in the World, The Aspiring Handyman
Tagged Higher Education, media
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