Author Archives: michaeljdouma
Runaway Slave – Speaks Good Dutch
“Speaks Good Dutch” was a common descriptor for runaway slave advertisements in New York state in the 18th century.
New Netherland Institute/ AADAS Lectures Online
The New Netherland Institute has posted the audio from lectures at our recent conference in Albany, NY. I spoke about Dutch Americans and slavery, through the story of Charles Liernur, a Dutch-born Confederate engineer. The audio of my lecture can be found here.
Constitution Scholarship
Jack Balkin at Yale has recently written a response piece to my co-authored work on the Constitution. He calls our work “a piece of theoretical dynamite tossed into originalist scholarship.” Balkin’s piece will appear in the same issue as my work in the next issue of the journal Constitutional Commentary.
Politi-fact. Maybe. Histori-fact. Not really.
There’s been a little back-and-forth recently on the nature of Lincoln and Colonization of African-Americans. This view is not entirely satisfactory, but Politifact has at least recognized the existence of my new research on Suriname, St. Croix, etc. http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/jul/09/another-look-lincoln-and-colonization-ex-slaves/
Mulder – Shades of White Flight
Mark Mulder, Shades of White Flight (Rutgers University Press, 2015). Review by Michael J. Douma This important book is a case-study of the role of religion and structural racism in the flight of Dutch Americans from the Chicago neighborhoods of Roseland and Englewood in a period from the late 1950s to early 1970s. This is […]
Hoppe: A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline
Hoppe: A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline (2015) Hans-Hermann Hoppe applies the logic of human action to explain three major events in world history: the Neolithic Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of states that exercise the monopoly right of coercion over a limited territory. The first chapter presents a good, quick […]
Gordon H. Clark on History
For some time, my brother has been writing a biography of the Presbyterian theologian Gordon H. Clark. I have been reading and editing the manuscript. Although Clark was a prolific writer and a formidable thinker, he is known almost exclusively to small but dedicated band of followers attracted to his unique version of Christian presuppositionalism. […]
Views on Job Hunting in VAP-Adjunct-Land
Building on the recent discussion of adjunctification, fair wages, and jobs in academia, I would like to point out just how difficult it is to get a tenure-track job as a history professor. I have spent four years in visiting positions, and while I have some sympathy for adjuncts, I fully support my friend Phil […]
Memorial Day – Flags
Recently, at my alma mater, Hope College, I tried to help identify the age of a photo. Zooming in on the flag in front, we identified it as a type that only was made from 1908 to 1912. But, before agreeing on that date, we noticed another flag in the background was a post-1912 flag. […]
Michael J Douma 