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PREVIEW ISSUE: APRIL 2014 The American Historian ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN HISTORIANS The ACT of HISTORY The Promise and Pitfalls of Historic Portrayals ALSO INSIDE Finding Time for Social Media p. 8 The Vexing Challenges of Contingent Historians p. 10 Writing History with Emotion p. 12 Reviews p. 28 Career and family... We’ve got you covered. Organization of American Historians’ member insurance plans and services have been carefully chosen for their valuable benefits at competitive group rates from a variety of reputable, highly-rated carriers. 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For a descriptive brochure that summarizes features, costs, eligibility, renewability, limitations and exclusions, call Forrest T. Jones & Company. Arkansas producer license #71740, California producer license #0592939. 2 The American Historian | April 2014 #6608 0314 6608 OAH All Coverage Ad.indd 1 2/26/14 3:46 PM Career and family... Alan M. Kraut Welcome to the We’ve got you covered. New OAH Magazine Organization of American Historians’ member insurance plans and services have been carefully chosen for their valuable benefits at competitive group rates from a variety of reputable, highly-rated carriers. Dear Colleagues: Professional Home & Auto Welcome to the preview issue of The American What can you expect? While the highly regarded • Professional Liability • GEICO Automobile Insurance Historian, the Organization of American Historians’ Journal of American History will continue to deliver new new magazine for American historians in every venue knowledge derived from state-of-the-art research, The • Private Practice Professional Liability • Homeowners Insurance PRESIDENT THE FROM where the American past is being explored. Those of us American Historian will offer its readers perspective on • Student Educator Professional Liability • Pet Health Insurance engaged in the teaching and practice of American history how new knowledge in the latest scholarly articles and require a place where our needs and concerns are center books is changing the American historical narrative and Health Life stage. What do we need that a magazine can offer? 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With intelligence and figures are portrayed to audiences in a variety of venues, good humor, The American Historian can keep us in including public history sites, the classroom, and in mass † Underwritten by New York Life Insurance Company, touch with each other and encourage us as we strive to media. The essays discuss the immense possibilities that New York, NY 10010 Policy Form GMR. better teach and practice the historian’s craft. dramatic portrayals of historical figures offer historians, Please note: Not all plans are available in all states. In print and online The American Historian is students, and the general public, but also analyze their designed to aid, inform, and entertain all of us engaged more problematic aspects. The issue also includes three with the challenges and rewards of bringing the lessons columns that address issues relevant to our community Trust for of the American past to others. Where do we do our of historians, including the use of emotion in the writing Insuring Educators work? Many of us teach in K–12 classrooms, hoping of history, the budgeting of time for social media Administered by to take our young students on their first journeys to and blogging, and the distressing challenges faced by Forrest T. Jones & Company other times and places in their country’s history. Others contingent historians. (800) 821-7303 • www.ftj.com/OAH teach at community colleges or at four-year colleges In a recent interview published in The Atlantic, Personalized Long Term and universities where our challenge is capturing the Columbia University’s Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Care Insurance Evaluation past’s complexity and nuance. And still others teach Eric Foner, a former OAH president, commented on American history outside the academy’s walls—in the importance of history teaching. “We try to teach parks, museums, and on television, computer, and people the skills that come along with studying history,” smartphone screens where we reach out to the broader Foner said. “The skills of evaluating evidence, of posing Featuring top insurance companies and special discounts. public, hoping to remind them that the past is not past questions and answering them, of writing, of mobilizing at all, but that American history is neglected at great information in order to make an argument. I think all of risk in the construction of the present and the planning that is important in a democratic society if people are This advertisement is for informational purposes only and is not for the future. 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