Academic Questions

History

June 7, 2021

The Behaviorist Plot

John E. Staddon

If historians of science present a distorted picture, they imperil the future of science, a future on which modern civilization depends.

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April 16, 2021

Repatriation and the Threat to Objective Knowledge

James W. Springer and Elizabeth Weiss

We reject the view that the members of any ethnic, racial, or tribal group have the sole right to tell “our story,” because that story is not solely theirs.

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April 16, 2021

Social Justice 101: Intro. to Cancel Culture

Steven Kessler

Understanding the illogical origin of cancel culture, we can more easily accept mistakes, flaws, and errors in history, and in ourselves, as part of our fallen nature.

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February 25, 2021

Bernard Bailyn: An Historian to Learn From

Robert L. Paquette

A review of Bernard Bailyn's "Illuminating History: A Retrospective of Seven Decades."

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February 25, 2021

History of Science: Politicizing a Discipline

John E. Staddon

In the first article of our feature critiquing the experts, psychobiologist John Staddon comes to a troubling conclusion. While science earns credibility by submitting evidence to numerous universally......

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February 22, 2021

From Bologna to Zoom: The Evolution of the University

Glynn Custred

Created in Europe and spread throughout the world with the West’s rise, the university evolved from a guild-like medieval institution bounded by Christian doctrine to a flourishing, free-market......

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September 30, 2020

A Noble Warrior with Pen in Hand

Donald M. Hassler

A review of The Conversational Enlightenment: the Reconception of Rhetoric in 18th Century Thought, David Randall, Edinburgh University Press, 2019, 297 pp., $29.95 paperback.

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July 2, 2020

Gertrude Himmelfarb (1922-2019)

Steve Balch

Gertrude Himmelfarb’s life may have ended, but her work will continue to inspire and awaken those in dogmatic slumber.

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July 2, 2020

“Racist and Proud”: The Awful Legacy of Ta-Nehisi Coates

Mark Zunac

Ta-Nehisi Coates received a MacArthur Fellowship for “[i]nterpreting complex and challenging issues around race and racism through . . . nuanced historical analysis.” But nuance......

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July 2, 2020

The Metamorphosis of Carlos Eire

Mike Gonzalez

It took a devout Catholic and Cuban exile in the U.S. to explain the profound importance of the Protestant Reformation to the success of the West.

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