R. Luke DuBois has created a fascinating visual representation of presidential State of the Union addresses (also known as annual messages until FDR's administration). HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20 takes the State of the Union addresses from each presidency and sorts them according to word frequency, generating a Snellen eye chart for each president, with the … Continue reading Presidents Say the Most Interesting Things
More Silliness about Tariffs from David John Marotta
Updated 6/30/13 8:15 P.M. Forbes appears to have taken down both of Marotta's posts on the Civil War mentioned in this post (h/t Joe Adelman), but you can find them on his personal website here and here. Marotta's daughter is listed as co-author on his website. Last week, David John Marotta wrote an opinion piece … Continue reading More Silliness about Tariffs from David John Marotta
Were Tariffs the Cause of the Civil War?
Updated 6/30/13 8:22 P.M.: In the interest of fairness, here is Marotta's response to his critics, co-written with his daughter, who wasn't credited as a co-author in his original Forbes piece. Updated: 7/1/13 3:00 P.M.: I posted a comment to the above post on Marotta's site politely pointing out the discrepancy between his and his … Continue reading Were Tariffs the Cause of the Civil War?
The Evolution of a Book, Pt. 13: Indexing the Book
(Previous entries in this series: Pts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.) It's appropriate that this entry is the thirteenth in the series. Academics generally hate compiling an index, even though it's one of the most important tools that they (at least historians) use when reading. There are software programs available that can create a book index for you. … Continue reading The Evolution of a Book, Pt. 13: Indexing the Book
Andrew Jackson, Southerner: The Introduction
LSU Press has given me permission to post the introduction to Andrew Jackson, Southerner. The 1828 presidential election was one of the nastiest in United States political history. Andrew Jackson’s campaign accused the incumbent, John Quincy Adams, of being a pimp and spending the people’s money to fund gambling in the White House. Adams was … Continue reading Andrew Jackson, Southerner: The Introduction
Ian Bogost on MOOCs and the Future of the Humanities
Ian Bogost has provided a great summary of the problems of MOOCs in the roundtable appearing in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Here are the bullet points, but go read the entire piece: MOOCs are a type of marketing MOOCs are a financial policy for higher education MOOCs are an academic labor policy MOOCs are … Continue reading Ian Bogost on MOOCs and the Future of the Humanities
The Evolution of a Book, Pt. 12: Working with Page Proofs
(Previous entries in this series: Pts. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.) Working with the page proofs of your book is a daunting task. As your publisher will tell you, the only possible changes are editorial, factual or typesetter errors. So, that sentence that doesn't quite read right? You're stuck with it. The additional research that came to light … Continue reading The Evolution of a Book, Pt. 12: Working with Page Proofs
Childhood Foods and Nostalgia
Animal crackers don't taste like they used to. I came to this realization recently when I tried some. They taste a little too smooth, light, and bland compared to what I remember from childhood. I distinctly remember how much of a treat it was to have a box of animal crackers and how I looked … Continue reading Childhood Foods and Nostalgia
Should the Democratic Party Dump Andrew Jackson?
It's taken me longer than I hoped to respond to this piece by Steve Yoder (h/t John Fea). Yoder poses an interesting proposition: That the Democratic party should drop its association with Jackson because he was "perhaps the most systematic violator of human rights for America’s nonwhites." This question of name association is one that is not … Continue reading Should the Democratic Party Dump Andrew Jackson?
Thank You, Nashville
I want to thank the hit ABC show Nashville for using the cover of Andrew Jackson, Southerner as a prop in the mayor's office. It would be better if someone on the show were actually reading the book, but I'll take it. (Of course, that portrait just happens to be the same one I'm using for my … Continue reading Thank You, Nashville
Jacksonian America: Society, Personality, and Politics 