In 1949 Elia Kazan, a director and member of the Communists Party was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He saved himself by naming other communists he knew in Hollywood. While most are familiar with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as an allegory of McCarthyism, Kazan also directed an allegory of McCarthyism called On the … Continue reading Class Notes
Author: James Finck
Dr. James W. Finck was raised in the shadows of history in the great state of Virginia. Growing up it was difficult to travel too far without running into a monument or battlefield from the Revolutionary or Civil War. In this environment, Finck developed a love for studying the past and from his youth knew that he wanted to make it his life’s work. Finck received a B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He then studied under James I. Robertson and William C. Davis at Virginia Tech, while earning a Master’s degree. Finally, he received his Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas, under the direction of Daniel Sutherland. For five years, Finck taught at the University of Texas-Pan American before accepting his current position as American Historian at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in 2011. At a small liberal arts institution, Finck considers himself a generalist in history, but his specialties are the Civil War and American Politics. Finck has established himself in Oklahoma with the creation of the Oklahoma Civil War Symposium, which has brought in leading Civil War scholars for the past eight years, and he has spoken at many venues around Oklahoma, especially working with the Honey Spring Battlefield. Finck is the author of Divided Loyalties: Kentucky’s Struggle for Armed Neutrality in the Civil War, as well as Images of America: Chickasha. Finck is also the author of the syndicated newspaper column “Historically Speaking.”
Class Notes
Jan Shipps writes, “when Mormon history begins with the First Vision, the result tends to be an account of a religious movement which, even as it differs dramatically on basic theological and doctrinal issues from other sects and churches, is analytically yet one more sub-division of Christianity inaugurated through the efforts of a charismatic leader. … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
In 1950, Truman as part of his policy of Containment sent troops to South Korea to assist the South Korean army in defeating the North Korean Army. The goal was to push the Northern army back to the 38th Parallel. General MacArthur was able to get troops behind the North Koreans with an amphibious assault … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
Jan Shipps believes it’s important to not only focus on Joseph Smith, but his entire family, all of whom embraced their 14-year-old son and brother as a new prophet. Part of their acceptance, according to Shipps, was that living on the frontier they already had a belief in magic. In fact, Joseph was known to … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
This semester I am teaching a class called Civil War in Memory. The point of the class is to look at how history changes over time. While facts often do not change the interpretation often does. I chose to focus on the Civil War because few subjects have had the kind of change over time … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
For the story of Joseph Smith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we are studying Jan Shipps' Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition. She argues that like the earliest Christians who saw themselves as a distinct Hebrew tradition which eventually morphed into a new religion, Christianity, that, “Mormonism is a … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
Alexander Campbell is one of the most important American religious figures of the 19th Century. The Stone/Campbell movement is the foundational movement for the creation of the Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ. Yet today Campbell is relatively unknown even by members of the Churches he founded. There are a few reasons for … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
While Russia was our ally during WWII, things turned sour quickly after the war ended. The first major issue was Poland. Russia had liberated Poland from the Nazis but now instead of allowing free elections as Truman insisted, the Russians decided to keep Poland under their control. While this was clearly an act of aggression, … Continue reading Class Notes
Class Notes
The Campbellite movement grew out the Baptist theology. Though Alexander Campbell began as a Presbyterian he saw more similarity with the Baptists, especially as Douglas Foster pointed out here, “commitment to the Scripture; the emphasis at the local church and rejection of hierarchical structures; the practice of believers’ immersion.” However, Baptist leaders soon saw too … Continue reading Class Notes
New Cold War
This semester as I am teaching a class on the Cold War, it seems as if the major comparison we are discussing is the war in Ukraine. I am grateful this war is still on students’ minds, as often with tragedies like Ukraine there is a great deal of emotion at first that wanes over … Continue reading New Cold War
Historically Speaking 