Category Archives: Teaching

“Teaching 21st-Century Students”: A Reflection (Be True to Your School, 3)

[Note:  I’ve spent my career studying, teaching, and reflecting on History, and, whenever those above me in the administrative food chain asked my opinion on some academic topic, I was not behindhand in responding. Here’s an example:  as a follow-up to our opening faculty … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Elective History Course for 9th and 10th Graders, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Who Was A Citizen?” Historical Problem, 8: A Solution

[NOTE:  This is the final installment in the long-running “historical problem” aimed at identifying the author of Cursory Remarks on Men and Measures in Georgia, by “A Citizen,” which was published in Savannah in 1784. “A Citizen” first appeared on the … Continue reading

Posted in American Revolution, Georgia History, Historical Problem, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Form, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Portrait of “A Citizen of Georgia” (1783-1788): Historical Problem, 7

[NOTE:  With this “historical problem” winding down, let’s see what information we’ve found that might help identify the author of the letters and the pamphlet signed by “A Citizen” between 1783 and 1785.  “A Citizen’s” identity was still a matter of contention as late as the … Continue reading

Posted in American History, American Revolution, Colonial Georgia, Georgia History, Historical Problem, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Form, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

William McIntosh, Jr. v. Seth John Cuthbert (1788): Historical Problem, 6

[NOTE:  The response to “A Citizen’s” 1784 pamphlet, Cursory Remarks on Men and Measures in Georgia, by the Sheftall family in 1785, criticizing the author as an anti-Semite, seemed at first to have ended the controversy.  Yet, the dispute was resurrected three years later, in … Continue reading

Posted in American History, American Revolution, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Form, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“The Flags, Daddy, the Flags!”: “Retired But Not Shy” at Six

[NOTE:  I launched Retired But Not Shy: Doing History After Leaving the Classroom a couple of weeks following my retirement, in May 2010, from nearly four decades teaching History in an Atlanta prep school.  I really didn’t know what I was doing, but, as the … Continue reading

Posted in American "republicanism", American History, Arnold M. Shankman, Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Removal, Civil Rights Movement, Creek Indians, Delta Blues, Dr. Martin Luther King, Education, Elias Boudinot, George R. Gilmer, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, Interdisciplinary Work, Martin Luther King, Mississippi John Hurt, Newark (Del.) High School Class of 1962, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, The Blues, Uncategorized, Wilson Lumpkin, WP Long Read | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Sheftalls Strike Back: “Mr. Printer” (Two versions, 1785)–Historical Problem, 5

[NOTE:  Parts of “A Citizen’s” pamphlet, which was scattered about the streets of Savannah, Georgia, late in 1784, reeked of anti-Semitism.  Thus, it was no surprise that, early in 1785, the Sheftalls, one of Savannah’s leading Jewish families, responded.  Thanks … Continue reading

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Changing Views of the Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia (In Pursuit of Dead Georgians, 25)

[NOTE:  Over the past several years, while researching Rancorous Enmities and Blind Partialities: Factions and Parties in Georgia, 1807-1845 (2015), I read a lot of books on Cherokee removal and the “Trail of Tears,” key events during the years covered in that volume.  These … Continue reading

Posted in "Cherokee Phoenix" (newspaper), American History, Books, Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Removal, Chief John Ross (Cherokees), Civil War, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Form, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“A Citizen,” “Cursory Remarks on Men and Measures in Georgia” (1784): Historical Problem, 4–The Pamphlet

“A Citizen,” Cursory Remarks on Men and Measures in Georgia. N.p., 1784.  Microprint:  American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.  30 pp. [NOTE:  If you have read the previous posts in this series, you know that you have embarked on an “historical problem,” … Continue reading

Posted in American "republicanism", American History, American Revolution, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Research, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized, WP Long Read | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The “Brutus Letters” (1784)–and a Note on Purchasers of Confiscated Property: Historical Problem, 3

[NOTE:  Beginning in the summer of 1784, Chief Justice George Walton, apparently with aid from his Revolutionary associate, Richard Howley, launched a series of letters in the Georgia Gazette attacking the administration of Governor John Houstoun for being, essentially, “soft on Tories.”  … Continue reading

Posted in American History, American Revolution, Education, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Growing Up White in the Jim Crow South: Two Perspectives from Georgia (Teaching Civil Rights, 3)

A Review of: Hamilton Jordan, A Boy from Georgia: Coming of Age in the Segregated South (edited by Kathleen Jordan). Athens, Ga., and London:  The University of Georgia Press, 2015.                                             Jim Auchmutey, The Class of ’65: A Student, A … Continue reading

Posted in Age of Jim Crow, Books, Civil Rights Movement, Current Events, Dr. Martin Luther King, Education, Georgia History, Historical Reflection, History, History Curriculum, Popular Culture, Prep School, prep school teaching with a PhD, Research, Retirement, Southern (Georgia) History, Southern History, Teaching, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments