Oxford's Classics program recently proposed removing the study of Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid, according to The Oxford Student. Dr. David West, Assistant Professor of History here at AU, weighs in on this controversial decision:

Oxford's Classics program is apparently planning not to make the study of Homer and Vergil compulsory anymore to... Classics majors.  This means that the History and Political Science majors in my course this spring on Homer's Iliad and Vergil's Aeneid are getting a better education in the Classics than students of Latin and Greek at Oxford will going forward.  Another victory for Ashbrook and Ashland University!  Although students don't read these epics in the Greek or Latin original in this course, they do, nevertheless, read the epics, and engage with foundational ideas about honor, courage, heroism, warfare, political power, the nature and role of divine power in human life, the human passions, and the place of human beings in the cosmos.  Homer and Vergil's poetic exploration of these themes has continuously elicited responses from the greatest minds of the Western tradition, from Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero to Dante, Milton, and Nietzsche.  

Among the opponents of the plan to eliminate the Homer and Vergil requirement in Oxford's Classics program is an undergraduate who, in an interview with The Oxford Student, stated the problem quite eloquently: "Removing Homer and Virgil would be a terrible and fatal mistake. {The proposal} would mean that firstly, Oxford would be producing Classicists who have never read Homer and never read Virgil, who are the central authors of the Classical tradition and most of Classical literature, in one way or another, looks back to Homer and interacts with the Iliad. Removing it would be a shame because Homer has been the foundation of the classical tradition since antiquity and it is impossible to understand what comes after him without studying him first..."

To learn more about AU's History and Political Science program, visit our website. 

AU in Costa Rica Information Meeting

Best of Luck to Our Majors Presenting at 2019 URCA!

The History and Political Science Department wishes its majors the best of luck as they present their work at the 2019 CAS Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Symposium on Tuesday!

Kaitlyn Bailey, History, Political Science, & English major
Topic: Answering the Battle Cry of Freedom: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Call to Noble Action

The aim of Bailey's project is to understand the Civil War experience of Chamberlain, most known for defending Little Round Top at Gettysburg, through his own words.  The center of this experience was what Chamberlain labeled the “call to noble action.” By understanding the call to noble action, one can better understand the experiences Chamberlain and his men had during the Civil War.

Naomi Sims, Political Science & Creative Writing major
Topic: The Relationship of Artificial Intelligence and Humanity: Andy, the Analysis of a Screenplay

In her presentation, Sims will explore AI through film as opposed to more formal academic mediums because film provokes thought and introspection by placing the viewer in the shoes of a character.  She will discuss the possibility of AI wanting to be human rather than to destroy humanity.  AI as human raises philosophical, moral, and political questions which she will seek to answer by creating a fictional world and exploring what those relationships could look like.

Hendrick Stoops, Political Science major
Topic: Power, Politics, & Public: The Sublime & Depraved Uses of Zeppelins in Germany

Stoops' study examines the political influences of and on Zeppelins, particularly in the Weimar and Nazi eras, in order to better understand their importance to the German people and government. He examines primary documents, and three particular ships covered in them, to highlight the links between Zeppelins and sociopolitical identity.

 

More information about URCA, including full abstracts for each presentation, can be found on their blog. 

Democracy needs Education in Ideas

David Smith, a lecturer in American history at Baylor University, wrote an interesting column for the The Dallas Morning News on May 11, 2018. Here's one way he puts the argument:

Unlike accounting, marketing or computer programming, which are skills, human rights, a free press and democratic government are ideas.  Consequently, if those who believe in democracy don't stay conversant with ideas and how they should influence us, an appreciation of the subtleties that allow democracy to work will dissolve. We're already seeing it every time we turn on the news.

Here's the whole column:

Democracy Dies in Materialism and the U.S. is at Risk

Shortly after the inauguration of Donald Trump, in what amounted to an ongoing editorial about his administration, The Washington Post situated the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" right below the paper's masthead. It's a bold pronouncement:  not entirely inaccurate, but one that falls far short of encompassing the broader threat to the democratic order in the United States.

It's more accurate to say that democracy dies in materialism, by which I mean our utilitarian attitude today that knowledge is rooted only in marketable skills. It changes our perception of democracy from being a way to secure abstract rights and liberties into a means by which we can have fewer limits on what we obtain, measure each other by what we have and block those who disagree with us.

A materialistic view doesn't equip us to think deeply about human rights, civil rights, the role of government or human flourishing.  It cripples our ability to think historically and critically, and so reinforces the tribalism that's already transforming our politics into isolated echo chambers of certainty and hostility. 

As a teacher I see this constantly. "I love history and I would major in it, but my parents won't let me," is one of the saddest things a student has ever said to me. What she meant was that she loved it and wanted to study it but her parents insisted she get a degree that would get her a job.

Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) DROP-IN SESSION

Learn more about ATIC at this “Come & Go” session.

Wednesday, April 18 from 1:30 – 3 p.m.

Ronk Lecture Hall, Schar College of Education

ATIC offers 14-week in-residence internships near Dayton in either Intelligence to become an all-source intelligence analyst or Cyber Data Security to become a cybersecurity analyst

During an internship at ATIC, you will:

• Learn from leaders in the Intelligence community in organizations such as CIA, FBI, NSA, DEA.
• Learn by doing, discovering and exploring cybersecurity and data analysis in an experiential learning environment.
• Earn 12 semester hours of credit.
• Be eligible for Secret or Top Secret Security Clearance.

www.ashland.edu/ATIC

BE CAREER READY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

Ashland University’s Partnership with the Advanced Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) opens doors for your career as either an Intelligence Analyst or as a Cyber Analyst.

Who can participate in the Intelligence Program?
Students from many majors are needed in the Intelligence Community, for example majors in Criminal Justice, History/Political Science, Math, Computer Sciences, Natural Sciences, Accounting, Economics, Communication Studies, Foreign Languages, Psychology, Philosophy, English and others. Students must be 20 years of age, a U.S. citizen and have no felony convictions.

Who can participate in the Cyber Data Program?
Most likely Computer Science or Information Systems majors or minors. Students must be 18 years of age, and complete a criminal background check. The benefits of an internship at ATIC continue after completion of the internship as ATIC staff helps expedite the process to get graduates on the job.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES
Additional information and the approval form may be found on the College of Arts and Sciences pages at Ashland.edu/ATIC.

Best of Luck to Our Majors Presenting at URCA!

The History and Political Science Department wishes its following majors the best of luck as they present their work at the 2018 CAS Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium on Wednesday!

Rebecca Young, Music & History major

alongside Drew Berlin, Samantha Eron, Gracie Fumic, Kendra Garver, Mia Kardotzke, Maya Rickard, Anna Rivero, and Corey Turpin

My Charming Mademoiselle from Act II of The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti

"These students from Opera Workshop class in the music department will demonstrate their knowledge of classical vocal techniques, stage acting and modern music through the live performance of a scene from the opera The Consul by Gian Carlo Menotti."

Dennis J Clark, Political Science major

Machiavellian Faith and Foundings 

"The founding of a regime—one wholly new—represents the birth of new modes and orders under one who has risen from private citizen to prince. Niccolò Machiavelli discusses such foundings in chapter six of The Prince; he examines the actions and character of those who found new principalities at the highest level, those to whom he refers as “prophets”1: Moses, Cyrus, Romulus, and Theseus. I intend to outline how these princes are similar and where they differ in their actions, and what those  similarities and differences reveal about what Machiavelli believes can be learned from the example of these men."

Sabrina Maristela, Political Science, Spanish, & Philosophy major

Machiavellian Faith and Foundings 

"John Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic poem published in 1667 and revised in 1674 that explicates the “Fortunate Fall” of man...I examine a scene in Pandemonium in Book X after Eve’s temptation and man’s punishment to reveal the just nature of divine punishment and identify that the distinction between Hellish and Earthly punishments is a result of God’s omni-benevolence."

Jacquelyn Dambrosio, History & Political Science major

Aristotle and Machiavelli on Fortune as a Means to Happiness

"In my presentation, I will be comparing and contrasting Book One of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics with chapter twenty-five of Machiavelli’s The Prince. I will be elaborating on their views of the importance of fortune in achieving the highest human goal."

The Case for Majoring in the Liberal Arts - Once Again

In "If You Want Your Child to Succeed, Don’t Sell Liberal Arts Short," Michael Zinn, a creative strategist at Digital Surgeons, makes the case for the liberal arts. Among other things, he quotes Albert Einstein to the effect that the "value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks.”

Here is the whole column from the Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2018. p. A13: 

Critical-thinking skills are useful in any profession, and not all classes are obscurantist or politicized.

It’s college admissions season, and every parent is mulling the perennial question: “What major will help my child get a good job?”

Standard answers today invariably center on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, often referred to as STEM. Given the skyrocketing costs of higher education, parents and students alike can be forgiven for viewing a college degree as a passport into the professional world, and STEM majors are seen as the best route to professional success.

But my advice is to let your child know that a liberal-arts degree can be a great launching pad for a career in just about any industry. Majoring in philosophy, history or English literature will not consign a graduate to a fate of perpetual unemployment. Far from it. I say this as a trained classicist—yes, you can still study ancient Greek and Latin—who decided to make a transition into the tech world.

I am far from alone. There are plenty of entrepreneurs, techies and private-equity managers with liberal-arts degrees. Damon Horowitz, a cofounder of the search engine Aardvark, holds a doctorate in philosophy. Slack founder Stewart Butterfield and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman both earned master’s degrees in philosophy. The startup where I work employs computer programmers who studied musical composition and philosophy as undergraduates.

Throughout history it has been common for people to study subjects with no immediate relationship to their intended professions. In antiquity, education was intended to enrich students’ lives. Pragmatic benefits such as rhetorical ability, logical reasoning and business skills were welcome byproducts of a good education. The phrase “liberal arts” comes from the Latin word liberalis, meaning “worthy of a free person.” A liberal-arts education gives someone the freedom to participate fully in civic life.

Model Arab League 2017

The delegation from the Department of History and Political Science to the 2018 Model Arab League competition at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio. Ashland represented Lebanon and were led by Dr. Greg McBrayer,

Global Education Grant

The use of Latin in the Civil War era

A recent article by Andrew Dinan in The Classical Journal (Vol 113, No. 2) argues that Latin was quite widely used in the United States during the Civil War.  The article describes Latin poems, inscriptions, letters, and reports and essays.  Among them is an inscription at a Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts that was designed "to express, though imperfectly, the gratitude felt to those of our countrymen who have given their lives to achieve the greatest moral and social results of modern times."  The inscription nicely sums up the Civil War:

AMERICA CONSERVATA
AFRICA LIBERATA
POPULO MAGNO ASSURGENTE
HEROUM SANGUINE FUSO

Anti-Slavery Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library

Here is an opportunity to do some interesting work with primary sources in American history. The Boston Public Library is calling for volunteers to help transcribe their extensive collection of handwritten correspondence between anti-slavery activists in the 19th century into texts that can be more easily read and researched by students, teachers, historians, and big data applications. See the website here: antislaverymanuscripts.

South Korea Study Abroad Meeting

The New Lyceum

A group of recently graduated History and Political Science majors and Ashbrook Scholars has started an interesting new online journal called The New Lyceum.  They have already published quite a few good articles by current and former students on all kinds of cultural, political, moral, and historical topics.  For a sample, try this nice analysis by Connor Murnane, of the Netflix series Deadwood.  Peruse many others here.

According to the website, The New Lyceum

provides analysis of current issues that affect the body politic. It does so out of a belief that man is reasonable – he can come to understand truth through rational discourse."  Expanding on this idea, the editors write that "Reason alone distinguishes Man from all other life. By the power of reason, he can discern truth. A natural byproduct of reason is disagreement. Civil disagreement leads to discourse that destroys poorly developed arguments and nurtures those arguments that lead to truth. Sadly, our culture has lost the ability to respectfully disagree. Some people only want to converse with those who think like they do. Others believe that to criticize another’s point of view is to attack their character and thus avoid serious discussions altogether. This has impoverished the political and cultural life of our country, and an effort to revive public discourse is necessary.

The New Lyceum seeks to aid that revival. We will write on a wide variety of issues, and our authors may defend opposing sides on those issues. Our articles will be written as arguments. They will not belittle and will aim to persuade those who disagree.

Nicely done Joey, Nick, Josh, and James! 

Prof. Sikkenga on Sabbatical

Professor Jeff Sikkenga is spending his sabbatical this year in California. While driving across the country for two weeks, he and his family stopped at a number of historical sites, including Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois (see the photo) and Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Driving that far with kids in a crowded car renewed his appreciation of Hobbes' political thought. 

 
During the fall he lived in Monterey and was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This semester he is a visiting professor at Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy in Malibu. While on leave, he is working on a book on John Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration and finishing a revised second edition of History of American Political Thought, for which he wrote a chapter on the political thought of Barack Obama.

Second Place Taylor Essay by Jackson Yenor

We Have Less Time Than We Think

Let’s assume that I will live to be 72 years old, the typical age of a male living in the 21^st century. If I average sleeping one hour less than what is recommended by a physician, I will spend at least 24 years of my life doing so. Right off the bat, I am down 24 years before my life ends. 48 years to go.

Babies do not develop memories until they are around three years old. My first memory is following my father down the hallway as he spoke of political philosophy to a graduate school friend. I was 3 years old.  45 years to go.

From ages 6 to 18, I was in school. Let’s assume that I spent 7 hours at school and 3 hours doing sports and homework. If you subtract the 2 hours of actual learning that took place in that time each day, I will have eaten up 4 years of my conscious time in school doing things I did not want to do, and learning things I did not want to learn (and this version of Jackson didn’t go to college). 41 years to go.

I have graduated high school. Let’s say I get a nice job. With weekends and holidays subtracted, I will work 233 days out of the year for about 45 years. If I work an 8 hour a day with 1 hour commute there and back, I will have spent 11 years of my life in the full consciousness of doing a job. I have 30 years to go.

I am a male who needs to tend to my hygiene. I will probably spend 2 hours a week showering, brushing my teeth, shaving, and doing laundry. I will probably spend another 3 hours shopping, getting gas, and running various errands. I will spend another 2 hours a week using the restroom and washing my hands. I will spend another 4 hours per week (not including any dinner with family and friends) eating food alone. Lastly, while I am a healthy guy, I will probably spend 4 days a year feeling sick and debilitated. A year of my life will be spent in the misery of sickness. All in all, I will spend 6 years to keep myself clean, fed, and remotely comfortable, without ever thinking much of anything. 24 years to go.

Morgan Miller's Summer Internship at Acton Institute

This summer, Morgan Miller (Political Science and Philosophy double major and Ashbrook Scholar) did an internship at the Acton Institute in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She worked with the Programs and Education team whose main project was Acton University, a three day conference with over 1,000 participants from 80 different countries. Here is how Morgan describes her work:  "Before the start of Acton University, some of my duties included assigning course monitors to Acton University sessions, preparing course packets for the participants, and creating stipends for international and domestic fellowship students. After Acton University, I helped create reports ranging from 30 to 400 pages in length with the information gathered by the participants of the conference. The Acton Institute hosted many luncheons for the interns to discuss thinkers like Frederick Hayek and Abraham Kuyper. 

"In the few months I worked for the Acton Institute as an intern, I was surrounded by like-minded people that pushed me to think seriously about the way I viewed the world--everyone was eager to have a discussion or provide materials to help me expand my understanding on a particular area of study. It was in these months at Acton that I began to realize the implications of man as created in the image of God endowed with creativity to flourish fully if given liberty and a free market. I believe that because of my time at the Acton Institute, I have a fuller understanding of why these principles are important as well as a deeper passion for defending them."

Taylor Essay Award Winners

Every semester Ashbrook Scholars compete in an essay writing competition.  Authors chose their own topics and a first draft is critiqued in a writing seminar; winners are chosen from the revised versions.  Below are the winners from the FA 2017 competition.  Congratulations all!  You can read the first place essay at the bottom of the page and in subsequent days, we'll add the second and third place essays.  In the spring all the winning essays will be published in Res Publica.  

First place:       "The Good Catastrophe" by Caleb Boyer

Second place:  "We Have Less Time Than We Think" by Jackson Yenor

Third Place:     "Waiting for Change: It's Time to Abolish Tipping"
                            by Lucas Trott

Honorable Mention:  

           "Through the Lens of Mary" by Morgan Miller

           "Contrasts in Community: Healing at Home by Looking Abroad" 
                 by Dennis Clark  
           "In the Midnight of the Mind" by Tyler MacQueen

The Good Catastrophe

by Caleb Boyer

Most of us stopped reading fairy tales a long time ago. We often stop reading them as we get older. At the least, we stop taking them seriously. When I say fairy tales, I recall the fantastical stories written by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and authors like them. Their writings are the noblest and most complete kind of fairy tale, because they contain what Tolkien called “eucatastrophe” or, put simply, the good catastrophe. This term represents the sudden turn of events in a story which ensures the triumph of the good and the consolation of a happy ending. In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien claimed that such stories did not deny the existence of sorrow, failure, or evil. On the contrary, the existence of evil only heightens the joy of the good that is to prevail. However, fairy tales containing eucatastrophe did deny “universal final defeat.” In the end, goodness and virtue win against all odds.

Then we grow up. Experiencing the reality of our world has a way of invalidating our hope in goodness, virtue, and happy endings. Eventually we disregard fairy tales entirely and cease to believe in the existence of the good catastrophe. Instead we desire stories that reside in moral grey areas with “complex” characters that flippantly adhere to good and evil without consequence or redemption. We crave books, movies, and television series that end in catastrophe and final defeat. We argue that these stories are more valuable and relevant to our lives, because they seek to accurately reflect our reality and reveal something true about who and what we are as human beings. In actuality, we find these stories more attractive than fairy tales, because they demand little of us.

Dr. Paddags' Sabbatical Update

While on sabbatical, Dr. Paddags has found a temporary home at the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbuettel, Germany, where he is a visiting scholar during the Fall 2017. The library has an extensive collection of works from the early modern period, including the 18th century. Also, it is famous for the Evangeliar of Henry the Lion, one of world's most precious books. For Dr. Paddags research at the library has been very productive, thanks to the excellent collection, the knowledgeable and helpful staff, and the various seminars and lectures held at the library. In particular, it was a joy to get a hold of some of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's works - first editions! Also, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing used to be the head librarian for some time and reading some of his letters (in German, Latin, but most of them in French) in the original has been another special treat. In the picture below you can see Dr. Paddags in front of the library's main entrance.

The Department gets more Interesting

Update from Brian Le in South Korea

Brian Le's study abroad experience in South Korea is turning out to be more interesting perhaps than he expected.  One of the two photos below shows him at an historical site in Seoul, and the other is a picture he took of a South Korean border guard in the DMZ between the South and the North; two North Korean border guards peer into the room through the window, trying to intimidate the visitors inside.

He also wrote this on Friday:  "If you have not heard by now, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck the southeastern coast of South Korea with its epicenter a mere 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) away from my school on Wednesday afternoon. By Wednesday night, all of the international students had been moved to a nearby church where we rested and were fed. On Thursday morning, state officials inspected the buildings and declared all the dormitory buildings to be safe to enter, and Thursday night, we returned to our dorms. There is supposed news that a larger, magnitude 7-8 earthquake will hit, but only time will tell. Until then, the school has officially paused all campus activities and classes, to be resumed on December 4th, the last week of classes, and then finals week. My credits will still be viable, but in regards to what I will be doing in class those last two weeks, I have no idea. I wanted to let you and the other History/Poli-Sci professors and the Ashbrookers know that Jakson Kennedy and myself are safe, and that as of right now, I am taking advantage of our two week break to go to Seoul and obtain a visa to go to China and visit Beijing on an impromptu solo trip."