Harvard's New Boss
[posted by Callimachus]
How could I have missed this? I saw the headlines, "Harvard names female president." But only now do I see it's Drew Gilpin Faust, one of the superb American history writers of the current generation. She opened up huge, important vistas into the role of women in the Civil War -- and allowed that to be integrated into the full history. This wasn't some graduate school abstraction; all you have to do is read the wartime writings of both sides to understand how crucial the work and will of women was to the struggle.
I wish her all the best. I'm only sorry that her new role likely will mean she'll be writing less history.
How could I have missed this? I saw the headlines, "Harvard names female president." But only now do I see it's Drew Gilpin Faust, one of the superb American history writers of the current generation. She opened up huge, important vistas into the role of women in the Civil War -- and allowed that to be integrated into the full history. This wasn't some graduate school abstraction; all you have to do is read the wartime writings of both sides to understand how crucial the work and will of women was to the struggle.
I wish her all the best. I'm only sorry that her new role likely will mean she'll be writing less history.
Labels: Drew Gilpin Faust, education, historians
