Book Note: Was America Founded As a Christian Nation? by John Fea

by Dan Miller. Was American founded as a Christian nation? That question is the title of a 2011 book by John Fea, an American historian who teaches at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. Like most questions about the past, the answer turns out to be complicated. Fea was inspired (incited?) to write the book by encounters …

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“New” Ancient Texts

by Young Kim. Sometimes I am a bit envious of my colleagues who study more recent history (and by “recent” I mean of the last few hundred years or so).  When they talk about visiting archives chock-full of documents to collate and explore, my borderline-obsessive self feels a tinge of jealousy at the prospect of …

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Book Note: A Disposition to Be Rich by Geoffrey Ward

by Bob Schoone-Jongen. I just finished reading A Disposition to Be Rich: How a Small-Town Pastor’s Son Ruined an American President, Brought on a Wall Street Crash, and Made Himself the Best-Hated Man in the United States, a biography with lots of sin and no redemption, a tale sure to brighten a gloomy time of …

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The Ups and Downs of Teaching a Core History Class Online

by Karin Maag. Last year, I volunteered for a new assignment. My department was looking for someone to teach an online section of our core history survey, and I agreed to try it. From the outset, I admit, I was unsure about taking this step. After nearly seventeen years in the classroom, I have a …

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Big Data and Big History

by Will Katerberg. “Big Data” is all the rage today. We have data sets so large that current database management software can’t handle it. Think, for example, of medical records and demographic statistics and the need to identify trends and patterns in them. The study of history is going big these days too. We teach …

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Empowerment of Women at Umm el Jimal, Jordan

by Bert de Vries and Jeff DeKock. The Umm el-Jimal Project, Open Hand Studios, and our partners continue to integrate the ancient archaeological site and modern community of Umm el-Jimal, Jordan. Therefore, we’re excited to report the launch of the Empowering Rural Women Project in January 2014. A joint program funded by UNESCO and UN …

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