Tag Archives: Liberal Arts

History and Research

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When doing research, especially with primary sources, I always get enthralled with the source I am reading.  I always try to understand the situation of the author/ creator and I put myself into his/her shoes.  This type of thinking, admittedly, is not appealing to many.  Far too many individuals have little interest or time to be concerned with history and what it means for the future.  Some find it frivolous and inefficient to finance this style of research; however, it is as important as any other discipline.

Historical research not only gives the reader interesting information, it gives him/her the tools and content to use this newly found information and tell others about it.  With the “nature of archives [varying] as widely as the world itself”, it is impossible to find nothing of value or intrigue.  Educating the populous about their own history is by far the best way to not repeat it.   Whether it’s local or international history, the populous can always learn from the mistakes and successes from our predecessors. From business strategies to engineering techniques, every facet of history, brought about by research, can help the modern world.  It is up to historians to bring forward this information to be made available to all.  It is also up to historical researchers to create the standard for intellectual thinking in history.

((Grafton, Anthony and Grossman, James “Habits of Mind: Why college students who do serious historical research become independent, analytical thinkers.” The American Scholar Winter 2015. ))

A Liberal Art Education

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Walk into any Starbucks across the country, and you will encounter a highly educated college graduate whose degree in interpretative dance, Zulu, or what-have-you seems to translate into immediate hiring at any coffee shop, effective immediately after graduation. Unfortunately for millions of college students, a bachelors degree no longer guarantees a high paying position. Instead, highly intelligent graduates are stuck working multiple jobs as baristas and busboys in a never-ending race to pay back insurmountable student loans. It is not enough to simply graduate with a degree; instead, students need to be able to think, to question, to innovate, and do so better and more uniquely than any of their similarly educated peers. In other words, an impossible task. A critic of the current higher education system, William Deresiewicz, laments recent graduates’ inability to connect with the common man, and failure to gain a comprehensive understanding of the world. He claims students know “more and more about less and less,” decreasing their employability. ((Deresiewicz, William in “Habits of Mind: Why college students who do serious historical research become independent, analytical thinkers.” The American Scholar Winter 2015.)) However, the authors of “Habits of Mind,” Anthony Grafton and James Grossman, suggest students should be highly specialized, in order to switch from a “passive observer” to a “creator” and to become an independent, self-reliant thinker ((Grafton, Anthony and James Grossman. “Habits of Mind: Why college students who do serious historical research become independent, analytical thinkers.” The American Scholar Winter 2015.)). But liberal arts schools combine both views. Students are well-rounded and well-informed, while still specializing in an area that teaches them the skills that Grafton and Grossman revere; they possess the ability to hold conversations with plumbers and with highly educated colleagues in multiple languages. Grafton and Grossman seem to suggest that it is impossible to be both synoptic and analytic; however, every student that walks down the steps of Old West provide evidence to the contrary.