By Matthew Meyerhuber When I moved into Hope’s campus, I was already fairly certain I would be a History major. In grade school and high school, I had always enjoyed my history classes. AP United States, though, made something click. After clearing out of my head the misconception that a History major is good only …
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Alumni Feature: Kristy Truax Nichols
By Kristy Traux Nichols ’02 We argued as my father drove me home from the airport. It was winter break in 1999, and I tried to explain to him that I wanted to change majors, dropping business to pick up history instead. “But what will you do in real life?” he …
The Powerful lessons of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
By Alexandra Piper I arrived in D.C. a couple of weeks ago as part of Hope’s Washington Honors Semester, excited to tackle the new challenges of living in a city. For those who don’t know me, or have not heard my ramble on about my interests, I am a History and Political Science double …
Welcome Back!
By Jeanne Petit This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the American Historical Association Meeting in Denver, Colorado. Each year, thousands of historians from all regions and all eras get together at this meeting to hear about the latest research and see all the latest history books that have come out in the …
The Reason for the Season?
By Albert Bell A historian can make himself unpopular by disagreeing with the oft-expressed sentiment that “Jesus is the reason for the season.” We don’t know the year of Jesus’ birth. It was probably between 4 and 6 BC. Yes, Jesus was born Before Christ. As for the month and day, there is no historical …
Alumni Feature: Barbara VanHeest
Young adulthood may be the most exciting time in life. It is also the only time in your life when it seems acceptable for everyone, including complete strangers to ask “What do plan to do after graduation?” When I arrived at Hope in the fall of 1983, the question was the same, and my answer …
Student Feature: Studying Law in Spain
By Natalie Fulk Basically, since I started taking Spanish in seventh grade, I decided that I had to study abroad at some point while I was in college. I love learning about new cultures and groups of people and I wanted to experience a new culture firsthand. This fascination led me wanting to major in …
Happy Thanksgiving!
By Jeanne Petit While those of us who grow up in the United States connect the history of Thanksgiving to the Pilgrims who came to the United States in the 1620s, the first national celebration of Thanksgiving happened during the bloodiest conflict in American history—the Civil War. In the fall of 1863, President Abraham Lincoln …
An Opportunity to Reflect
By Jonathan Hagood With the help of my eight-year-old son (Tyler) I was recently reminded that I like to travel. It’s a longish story, but here’s the short version. When my wife and I moved to Michigan in 2008, our oldest son (Jackson) was almost five and Amy was pregnant with Tyler. The three of …
“So what are you doing with that History major?” Answer: “Everything.”
By Fred Johnson It makes sense, and I absolutely understand. In today’s twelve easy payment, no money down, reality [non-reality] TV, Facebook “Like,” “Friend,” “Poke,” OMG, #Whatever world, it seems that knowing, understanding, valuing, and majoring in History is an odd choice, maybe even foolish. Of course, historians have long insisted that the skills learned …
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