Quite often, people blame their lack of historical literacy or lack of enthusiasm for history on their teachers and professors from grade school through college. Certainly, having an instructor passionate about their subject can have a lasting impact on a student. For those who never had the opportunity to sit before a brilliant history professor, now is, sort of, your chance.
Encounter Books has recently published a collection of Walter A. McDougall’s lectures entitled “Gems of American History.” McDougall, a professor of history and the Alloy-Ansin professor of international relations at the University of Pennsylvania, presents to the reader 12 lectures that range from Benjamin Franklin’s American conversion from loyal British subject to American revolutionary to the constitutional problems with America’s modern foreign policies. From a career in the classroom that began at the University of California, Berkeley (1975–1988), to the University of Pennsylvania (1988–present), there was certainly a treasure trove of lectures to pull from.
