Edmund Morris, Biographer and Historian

Mr. Morris has authored what I consider the definitive biographical series on Theodore Roosevelt which really forms a trilogy.  They are The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex and Colonel Roosevelt.  There is an excellent interview of Mr. Morris by Charlie Rose which is easily accessible on YouTube, well maybe.  I just did a search but I know it is out there as I used it in a powerpoint with my college survey course.  His writing is very accessible and I found myself easily following the narrative pace that Mr. Morris set without much difficulty.  Which I can honestly say is not achieve very often as I try to struggle through some presidential biographies.

May be copyrighted
 taken from  www.register citizen.com

So thank you, Mr. Morris, for such find work.. You so richly deserved the Pulitzer Prize for the first Roosevelt bio that you completed and all of the praise that you have received for Colonel Roosevelt.  While your other biographical subjects do not interest me, your Roosevelt trilogy holds a high honor on my presidential biography bookshelf.  

The Economist

Time to get back into writing on this thing.  I have to get back into a habit of writing everyday and this could be the part of a good start.  So, today, I wanted to share that for the past several years I have had a subscription to The Economist and I enjoy it very much.  The news may be a bit dated since I have a billion news apps on my iPad2 but the viewpoint, which is not American, is refreshing to me.  In addition, it is intellectually stimulating which is harder to find in daily or weekly newspapers.  Since I am trying to improve my knowledge of economica and economic history, this newspaper really serves me well.

   Dan, since you are the only follower, do you read The Economist? In the infamous words of Katie Kouric, what newspapers do you read to stay informed and help shape your world view?

Edmodo

    If you are a teacher and you are not using Edmodo, well, you are just  clueless.  It is the quickest, easiest way to share with students and allow the students to collaborate or share with each other.  It operates like Facebook so the learning curve for use with regards to the students could not be shorter.  I can not say it is the same for teachers.
   
   File sharing is probably the best feature for me so far.  Since I am trying the flipped classroom the students have easy access to power points, screencasts, podcasts, documents and links to webpages and videos.  After a little practice it is so easy.  You can even administer quizzes and it not only grades it for you but will break down the most missed, etc.  Just amazing!!

   

Flipped Classroom

I am trying on experiment this year.  It is going well in some classes but not in others.  Advanced students seem to be able to keep pace and access the technology outside of the classroom more consistently and successfully.  I am have not tried video yet, I think I will try voice over a powerpoint. then maybe a video in the classroom.  I have had some medical difficulties but I will try to post here more frequently now.

A successful flipped classroom serves students so well in today's connected world.  Wish me luck. I will keep you posted.

Historian Rock Star - Walter Borneman

The next great up...Walter Borneman!!!!  He has quietly, well not so lately, been writing excellent readable narrative history for years.  I am proud to day that I own several of his works and am currently reviewing The French and Indan War, Deciding the Fate of North America.  It sits proudly on the shelf next to Dr. Fred Anderson's The War That Made America and Parkman's book on Wolfe and Montcalm.  Check out Borneman's latest on the only four men to make the rank of fleet admiral in Admirals.  Thank you for all of your great work!  I just your Polk volume on my Amazon wish list!

The Cleveland Tumor

   Just the motivation of a president to take such personal risk for the sake of the country.  Cleveland decided to make the surgery secret, which increased the risk exponentially, to keep the confidence of the people steady after the Panic of 1893.  The surgery was a secret long after the Panic and the president were gone.  If a modern president made such a gamble, would we even know?  Even twenty years later?  Read Matthew Algeo's The President Is A Sick Man, about the surgery, the coverage, the doctors, etc.  It is a wonderful read about an interesting subchapter of American presidential history.

Dr. Don Fehrenbacher, Historian of the Week

This week's historian of the week is Don Fehrenbacher.  Dr. Fehrenbacher is the author of The Dred Scott Case: Its Signifiance is American Law and Politics which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1979.  In the same year, Dr. Fehrenbacher won the distinguished Lincoln Prize from the Gettysburg College which is the highest annual award for Civil War Studies in the nation.  He held many distinguished visiting chairs at several universities including Oxford, LSU and the College of William and Mary.

   His work is remarkable.  He was working on a constitutional history of slavery when he died in 1997.       His influence still lives in a generation of American history scholars and his work graces the bookshelves of many more, including mine.