The STL Great Debates

The Saint Louis Great Debates | Missouri History Museum

There's another great opportunity coming to the Missouri History Museum in the upcoming week: the Saint Louis Great Debates. This debate will focus on the region's economic development. There will be several speakers, and then there will be a moderated discussion following the speakers' presentation. This is great timing in terms of coinciding with the Solutions Project. Check out the above link for more information, and to secure your spot. It's best to make a reservation for this event, as the last debate was filled to capacity.

The St. Louis Great Debates will be at the History Museum on Tuesday, January 25, at 7:00 p.m. The doors open at 6:30 p.m.

Colin Gordon to Speak at the Missouri History Museum

Historical Mapping with Colin Gordon | Missouri History Museum

On Saturday, January 29, Colin Gordon will be speaking at the Missouri History Museum at 1:00 p.m. Please check out the above link to find out more information about Colin Gordon and his 2008 book on the decline of St. Louis as seen through maps. Hope to see you there!

Kagame Interview (by Amanpour)

As I mentioned in class, this interview with Rwandan President Paul Kagame is a slightly different perspective than shown in the Philip Gourevitch article you read, "The Life After," from The New Yorker (May 4, 2009 issue). In this interview, Kagame discusses his thoughts on foreign aid and the role of colonialism in the problems that the Democratic Republic of Congo faces today.

Tips for Effective PowerPoint Presentations

Despite the harsh title of this Slideshare, it is a helpful reminder of effective techniques for creating interesting PowerPoint presentations. Flip through the slides here to get an idea of design tips.

YOU SUCK AT POWERPOINT!

View more presentations from @JESSEDEE.

Long-term solitary confinement: a violation of human rights?

Hellhole: The United States holds tends of thousands of inmates in long-term solitary confinement. Is this torture? by Atul Gawande
The New Yorker (March 30, 2009)

• Gawande shows the negative ramifications of long-term solitary confinement on prisoners, and argues that it is torture to prohibit humans from vital social contacts with other humans.
• Interesting fact from the piece: In 1890, the Supreme Court of the United States nearly deemed long-term solitary confinement unconstitutional. The heavy reliance on solitary confinement within the U.S. is a product of the last couple decades.
• This could lead to fascinating human rights research topics on practices within the United States prison system and comparative work between the U.S. system and other countries' prison practices.
  

The Next Empire

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/05/the-next-empire/8018/

Please read "The Next Empire" by Howard French, which the Atlantic published in May 2010 (click on the blog post title or the above link). As you read, please prepare to discuss the article by doing the following:

1. Note the author's key arguments. Make an outline of his points.
2. Record what you do not understand. It is always good to bring up what you were unclear on in a discussion, as your classmates will be able to help you clarify your thinking.
3. Identify two or three areas of potential disagreement or debate.
4. Develop a critique of the article.

The Ways We Write History

Thanks to Mr. Edson for sending me the following link on Wikipedia Historiography. How fascinating to see the range of edits that were included on Wikipedia about the Iraq War:

"This particular book—or rather, set of books—is every edit made to a single Wikipedia article, The Iraq War, during the five years between the article’s inception in December 2004 and November 2009, a total of 12,000 changes and almost 7,000 pages. "

James Bridle decided to make a book of all those edits and ultimately created a 12-volume encyclopedia. Fascinating to see the many perspectives on history and how challenging it can be to write history; this project is a good way to see how many versions of history were written in just under five years.