Sacred Heart University DigitalCommons@SHU History Newsletter History Department Spring 2006 History Newsletter, Spring 2006 History Department Sacred Heart University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/hist_news Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation History Department, "History Newsletter, Spring 2006" (2006). History Newsletter. Paper 1. http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/hist_news/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History Department at DigitalCommons@SHU. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Newsletter by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SHU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY Department of Newsletter A Resource for Majors, Minors, and Alumni. Spring 2006 From the Editor say “new” because, technically, the restored as men of wisdom and as pal- History Department preceded the forma- adins of democracy; the Whigs get short Welcome to the first installment of tion of the now dissolved Department of shrift and Henry Clay (Lincoln’s political the History Department’s Newsletter! We History and Political Science.) We are hero) comes off particularly badly. offer this publication as a means of com- thrilled to be growing as a department, Wilentz’s account of Clay’s drunken rant municating exciting news and opportuni- with increasing numbers of majors, in a Washington hotel as the 1840 presi- ties with students and alumni. With your minors, and faculty members, and we are dential nomination slipped from his help, we expect that it will become much making changes to streamline for an even grasp is devastating. more. greater impact here at Sacred Heart. Wilentz’s knowledge of the period is Keep an eye open for features like Hopefully the Newsletter will allow us to formidable in its extent and depth, and Things To Do With A History Major, stay connected as we do. in its grasp of complexities. The discus- The Uses And Abuses Of History, and, —R. Bryan Bademan sion of Lincoln, however, is somewhat premiering in this issue, What I’ve Been vestigial and the tilt toward is Jackson Reading Lately . We hope to tap the Feature Essay open to challenge at various points. talent of former SHU History grads, to Nevertheless, this is an immensely rich see what people are doing with our What I’ve Been Reading . and well written exploration of a time degrees. We’ll solicit the wisdom of facul- “Of Icons and Iconoclasts” when democratic ferment gave rise not ty members here and elsewhere on topics by Paul Siff only to mainstream political organizations ranging from life in the historical profes- but animated a fascinating variety of eco- sion to preparing for a career in law, pol- Sixty years ago Arthur Schlesinger, nomic and social movements as well. itics, teaching, or any other number of Jr., published The Age of Jackson, a If Andrew Jackson was, in John worthwhile vocations. And don’t be sur- broad-gauge and laudatory account of William Ward’s phrase, “symbol for an prised if you see some current undergrad- Jacksonian Democracy from its age,” the Brooklyn Bridge is another. It uates here in print sharing some of their antecedents to its twilight in the 1850s. ranks as one of America’s most powerful real-time experiences. Written in the afterglow of Franklin D. visual icons and has been extensively As a department, we’re inspired by Roosevelt’s New Deal, it portrayed Old photographed, painted, written about, the conviction that succeeding as a Hickory and his supporters as champions and portrayed in film and popular music History major not only makes good aca- of the common man against the forces of since its completion in 1883. The cus- demic sense as one of the more challeng- entrenched privilege. Subsequently, both tomary popular notions about the bridge ing and rewarding degrees here at SHU, this sort of sweeping history and as symbol have been positive: an exem- but that it also directly feeds into two Schlesinger’s thesis became unfashion- plar of technology, of progress, of archi- other more important tasks that universi- able. Considerations of race, class and tectural grace, and even of democracy, in ties engage: (1) Your vocation: History gender shouldered aside traditional polit- part through an alleged connection with majors transition easily into a staggering- ical history; ethno-cultural studies of Walt Whitman, the great democratic ly wide range of professions. And (2) voter behavior replaced grand narratives. bard, who is assumed to have included it your basic humanity: Understanding the And the Old Hero took his lumps as a in his poetic celebrations of American world and ourselves historically is every slaveowner, Indian-hater and economic life. Richard Haw, an English scholar bit as important to us as a human society ignoramus; some historians even por- now living and teaching in New York, as our memories are to us as individual trayed the programs of his Whig oppo- will have none of this. In The Brooklyn persons. In forthcoming issues we’ll pon- nents as more likely to benefit ordinary Bridge: A Cultural History (New der some of these practical and theoreti- Americans. Now comes Sean Wilentz of Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, cal contributions that our humble disci- Princeton University with a book, The 2005) his intent is to undermine and pline makes to our life and our world Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson complicate the usual feel-good Brooklyn around us. to Lincoln (New York: W.W.Norton, Bridge associations; the Whitman con- It is fitting that the publication of 2005), nearly twice the length of nection is bogus (he never wrote a poem the History Newsletter coincides with the Schlesinger’s (his footnotes alone run about the bridge and, in fact, seems to first year of the department’s “new” over 150 pages), but similar in perspec- have paid it little if any heed); the struc- independence from Political Science. (We tive. Jackson and his followers are ture’s opening ceremonies were elitist, not democratic (common folk and labor Announcements (’05) for having been accepted into the organizations were kept at arm’s length Masters program in American Studies at or excluded entirely); visual and literary Yale Historian to Deliver Annual Fairfield University. Lisa wrote her senior portrayals have been as apt to be dark as Lecture in History: On April 6, 2006, thesis on the religious motivations for otherwise. Even the structure’s supposed Jonathan Spence will deliver Sacred Christopher Columbus’ voyages. Also, Americanness is dubious: John Roebling, Heart’s annual Lecture in History. Dr. Gina Bellavia (’05) has received a schol- its designer, was born and trained in Spence is Sterling Professor of History at arship to attend Roger Williams Germany; an amateur philosopher, his Yale University and was recently presi- University School of Law. outlook was Hegelian rather than dent of the American Historical Emersonian. And over time the bridge’s Association. He is author of more than a symbolism became increasingly ambigu- dozen books, including The Search for Department News ous. Ironically, the terrorist attacks of Modern China (Norton, 1990), a text- September 2001, the blackout of August, book used here at Sacred Heart, and a New SHU History Club! Three of our 2003 (and one might add, the recent biography of Mao Zedong in the majors (Michelle Baillergeon, Katelyn transit strike) have cast the bridge as Penguin Lives Series. The lecture, titled Botsford, and Meghan Strecker) have more a public space and thoroughfare “China Today: Does the Past Matter?” written a constitution and a set of bylaws than anything else. Readers who prefer will take place in University Commons at and have submitted them to the Student their history as simple affirmation will 3:30 p.m. Activities Office. Official recognition is find Haw’s book distinctly discomfiting, pending, but it appears we will have our but those interested in the way an adroit Club early next semester. If all goes as and industrious scholar can make us planned, the Club will meet once every rethink the meaning of a familiar public two weeks. For details, contact Dr. icon, will find this a most rewarding book. Curran at [email protected]. Society has always contained those who wish to destroy rather than venerate SHU Participates in Stratford High icons; Leon Czoglosz ranked among School’s Teaching American History them. A young self-proclaimed anarchist, Grant: The School Districts of Stratford native-born but with an ominously “for- and New Haven have been awarded a eign” sounding name, he mortally grant of nearly $1 million to strengthen wounded President William McKinley in the teaching of American history in their September, 1901, sending the nation into curricula. Working closely with the shock, grief and a demand for revenge. Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of This single act of violence had wide Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale repercussions, the best known being University, Professors Bademan, Theodore Roosevelt’s elevation to the Jonathan Spence McLaughlin, and Siff from the History presidency. However it also involved a Department will teach undergraduate fascinating cast of lesser-known charac- and graduate courses over the next three ters, including Dr. Lloyd Vernon Briggs, a Student News years to high school teachers in conjunc- specialist in mental illness, who, follow- tion with SHU’s Department of ing Czolgosz’s swift trial and execution, Please congratulate the winners of our Education. embarked on a journey of investigation departmental awards. Lauren DellaVolpe in an effort to understand the assassin was the winner of the 2005-2006 Eby During Fall 2006, SHU will again offer a and determine the conditions which Memorial Scholarship. Last year, semester-long concentration in Medieval might have led him to commit his crime.