In the days after the terrible news of attacks in Paris and Beirut, members of the history department looked at each other and asked "What can we do?" As we are inundated with stories of terror, violence, and hatred around the world, we struggle as individuals and as communities with how to respond. As historians, …
Continue reading ISIS, Terrorism and Refugees: A Teach In
Happy new year from the Calvin College History Department! We started this blog two years ago, in January 2014. In our second year of Historical Horizons, we've focused more frequently on current events, both on campus, in our nation, and around the world. Many of our most popular posts were those offering a historical perspective on …
Continue reading Historical Horizons: 2015 in Blog Posts
by Doug Howard. During this Advent season we’ve all been grieving the violence in Paris, Beirut, Baghdad, San Bernardino, Colorado Springs, Mali… the list seems endless, some from our American free access to guns, some from acts of terrorism committed by Muslims. Some are both. We’ve heard Donald Trump scream about barring Muslims from the …
Continue reading Light and Hope
I sometimes use this image of “Geronimo in a Cadillac” in my history courses. It appears to be a relic from a racist time gone by. But it’s more than that. The photograph was taken in 1905 at the "Oklahoma's Gala Day" exhibition hosted by the Miller brothers' 101 Ranch, located southwest of Ponca City, …
Continue reading What’s in a Picture?
by Kristin Du Mez. It was the fall of 2008. The stock market was tumbling, bird flu was spreading, and fear continued to mount over the threat Islamic extremists posed to America and to “the American way of life.” It was in light of these uncertainties that I paused to reflect on how Christians were …
Continue reading Christianity in a time of terror: An Advent reflection
by Anna Lindner. (Excerpt from the Service-Learning at Calvin College blog.) The history department, by virtue of its nature, could and, I believe, should have a close relationship with the Service-Learning Center. History is not merely the study of the past; it is also an investigation of humans, the way they perceive and then try …
Continue reading Service-learning for the history student
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