Post AUIRr6BHninZ7MfD1M by historian1661@c18.masto.host
(DIR) More posts by historian1661@c18.masto.host
(DIR) Post #AUI8GfHVzD5W9t2Bfc by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T00:23:13Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Interesting teaching experiences last week:I know, historians have to help students from other fields to understand historical reasoning & the way we use evidence (I recommend Sam Wineburg's writings on that). So, no problem when they tell me, I've have never taken a history course.But I am finding that some (even advanced) students in other social sciences & humanities do not understand the basic task of formulating an argument and supporting it with detailed source references.Anyone? 1/n
(DIR) Post #AUIBbOjL1Bysllcsz2 by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T01:00:35Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
Interesting teaching experiences last week:Totally bombed in attempting to teach Jose Ortega y Gasset's classic The Revolt of the Masses (https://archive.org/details/TheRevoltOfTheMassesJoseOrtegaYGasset)I had expected the predictable problem: the charge that he is elitist , despises the working class (=untrue) etc.No. They simply did not understand his argument, because they did not understand his definitions of "mass" and "minority," on which everything rests.2/n
(DIR) Post #AUICMz8VTmx5I65dmC by historian1661@c18.masto.host
2023-04-04T01:09:11Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@CitizenWald Nixon was a big fan of Ortega y Gasset. I was reading one of his books, maybe his memoirs, and he wrote about how much he liked Ortega's thought.
(DIR) Post #AUICsF767tLnowKsds by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T01:14:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
It's always frustrating when a book fails to resonate--or even generate basic comprehension. Of course, I can explain or lecture, but we miss the point of a seminar, which is dialogue among equals.Honestly, I think the problem with Ortega is not that he is intellectually difficult, & rather, that he is stating unfamiliar views in an unfamiliar way, and in the process, using terms in a particular way.Bottom line=the students needed to make a more concerted effort to grapple with the text3/n
(DIR) Post #AUIDVoDdXT6vzZGEtc by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T01:21:59Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
I had thought that these contemporary reflections would help the students to understand Ortega:- this piece by the estimable Ted Gioia (still only on birdsite AFAIK) :The Smartest Book About Our Digital Age Was Published in 1929https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-smartest-book-about-our-digital-age-was-published-in-1929- Tom Nichols: How America Lost Faith in Expertisehttps://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2017-02-13/how-america-lost-faith-Nope. So I explained Ortega's language & concerns, and then, reference to election denial, #ClimateChange denial, & #MAGA anti-elite resentments did the trick4/n
(DIR) Post #AUIEW3yB4uI0nPiOhc by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T01:33:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
To recap: the first attempt to teach Ortega was less than ideal, but the students found that my explanation helped (NB an oft-forgotten point is that he also classifies the overspecialized scientific expert--what we in German call the Fachidiot--among the ignorant "mass").But helped them to make sense of him.New adventures tomorrow: Ortega, the Lindbergh flight, St. Exupéry, Leni Riefenstahl, & more in a consideration of nature, space, and speed in modern Europe.Wish me luck 😃 5/n
(DIR) Post #AUIFe2tF4lV1ibmDui by ebrandom@zirk.us
2023-04-04T01:45:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@CitizenWald what class is this that you're trying to teach all these things in!? I've not read Ortega, and have been meaning to for a long time.
(DIR) Post #AUIPIErqrVQa2MMnqq by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T03:34:00Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ebrandom Just an intermediate-level seminar on 20th-century Europe
(DIR) Post #AUIPQsrM3ZVoO2FyUa by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T03:35:34Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@historian1661 I was not aware of that! Hard to think of Nixon reading these kinds of things. OTOH hard to think of his Republican successors reading much of anything
(DIR) Post #AUIRr6BHninZ7MfD1M by historian1661@c18.masto.host
2023-04-04T04:02:41Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@CitizenWald I think Nixon liked Ortega's conservatism, especially in Revolt of the Masses.
(DIR) Post #AUISqTy5yVhoYblPrk by CitizenWald@historians.social
2023-04-04T04:13:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@historian1661 That's what I would guess, though it is more complex and not really a conservatism (of course, Nixon's conservatism was also closer to old liberalism). Ortega gives a rather spirited defense of classical parliamentary democracy that could be more than apt today. (Of course as one of my Spanish history friends said [roughly], Ortega was a classical liberal but all his students turned out to be fascists)