Learning from David Hall

One of my favorite colonial American scholars is David D. Hall, Bartlett Research Professor of New England Church History. While I have learned a lot about colonial American Puritanism from his Faithful Shepherd,  Worlds of Wonder, and A Reforming People, I am most appreciative of his scholarship on the history of the book in colonial America.

His Cultures of Print: Essays in the History of the Book, Ways of Writing: The Practice and Politics of Text-Making in Seventeenth-Century New England, and his co-edited book on The History of the Book in America (see also Amory Hall'sBibliography and the Book Trades: Studies in the Print Culture of Early New England edited by Hall) are incredibly helpful resources for understanding colonial American print culture. Hall reminds us that in order to understand early American culture, we need to be familiar with print culture in the colonies.

America: The Story of US

When I was teaching US History survey courses, one of the best investments I made was purchasing the History Channel DVD series, America: The Story of US.

Even though now I only teach religious history and thought, I still use some of the clips from this series for my course on "Religion in American Life." The series is a top-notch production, and features commentaries from  respected historians as well as popular figures such as Donald Trump, Rudolph Guiliani, Sheryl Crow, and even P. Diddy. I highly recommend this series for anyone teaching large US History survey courses.