Books in history and, more generally, the humanities are held in much higher regard than articles, and it’s part of my job to read a lot of them. But I generally prefer reading articles over books. One reason is that articles allow for a feel about subject matters beyond your field. Another reason is that it doesn’t take as much time to read them as you do books. (AI, of course, may eventually change all that.)
Continue reading “Five recent history articles albeit not in Vietnam Studies”Previous posts on “recent articles” include one from 2016 and two from 2019. This one is on the following articles:
- Ryan Wolfson-Ford, “The Partitioning of Laos: Lost Voices from both sides of the Mekong River in 1893 and the creation of modern Laos,” The Journal of Lao Studies 8 (December 2024): 1-21.
- Duong Van Bien, “The Global Catholic Missionary Societies and the Spread of Marian Devotion in Pre-Twentieth-Century Vietnam,” Manusya: Journal of Humanities (2024): 1-20.
Several years ago, Pierre Long Tang, then a Pepperdine faculty, told me with a touch of despair that undergraduates couldn’t listen to Bruckner because his symphonies are too complex and too long for their attention span. I’d imagine they felt somewhat the same about Mahler. We live in an age of minuets and scherzos apt for TikTok, not oratorios and concertos. And certainly not symphonies from late romanticism that rack up an hour’s time on average.
Continue reading “Commute listening: Mahler’s first five symphonies”It has happened twice. In winter 2008 I drove from South Bend to the Twin Cities for a few days visiting my family. I learned that Art Spring, the founder and former director of the honors program at my alma mater, had died. His funeral took place on the same day that I learned about it, and it was too late to drive up to St. Cloud. I learned the news from Joe Tadie, who added that Pat Costello, who had retired from decades of teaching English, drove up from Winona for Art’s funeral.
Continue reading “Pat Costello: a life well lived”I didn’t think a lot about the uses and misuses of AI during 2024-2025, but they were somewhat in the back of my mind. Then a month ago, I decided to use AI (mostly ChatGPT) in my classes during this semester (mostly Great Books I with first-year students). I am happy to report that so far, it has gone well enough.
Continue reading “Using ChatGPT in my classes: Part 1”
A coincidence of two horrifying events occurred this month. On July 16, a Wednesday, it was announced in Minnesota that David Brom would be released to a halfway work house after 37 years of incarceration. Brom had been convicted of murdering his parents and two younger siblings in the early hours of February 18, 1987 while they were sleeping. Sixteen years old at the time of the familicides, he was sentenced to four life terms with the possibility of parole after some 50 years.
Continue reading “Two murders of 4 persons each in their sleep 37 years apart”Last week was the first time that I set foot in Central Texas, flying into Austin for archival research at several depositories in Austin and Waco. I spent two afternoons at the Briscoe Center for American History, and had a chance to visit the museum at the LBJ Presidential Library right next door.
Continue reading “Two surprises during a visit of the LBJ Library”
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