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Trump’s Cartoonish View of American History
The problem of business majors in politics
I majored in history in college. Actually, that is not entirely accurate. My major was a multi-disciplinary major called “Broadfield Social Studies.” It required about 50% more credits than a traditional major and required me to complete credits in history, political science, psychology, economics, sociology, and geography. I also minored in English and picked up a teaching degree for high school.
By the time I graduated, I was licensed to teach every class in high school that kids hate, except algebra.
There weren’t a lot of history majors on our campus, and we all knew each other. We were the people sitting together in the student union, drinking coffee and discussing global events. We went to the kind of bars where there was live music, and the occasional whiff of marijuana smoke. We drank shots without a chaser. We wore old flannel shirts and jeans. Some of us, the guys mostly, had beards.
Unlike the survey history classes that were required of all underclassmen, the upper-level history classes only had about ten students in them and only met once a week. These classes required us to read one book each week, and some of our books might be 800 pages long or longer.
