Hello, Atlanta! Like thousands of other history nerds, I’m descending on Atlanta soon to attend the annual meeting of the American Historical Association. I’m looking forward to our book panel tomorrow afternoon about history and America’s culture wars.

A candid photo of our panel at rest…

For you non-academics out there, the AHA convention is the biggie for academic historians. Universities often hold their first round of job interviews there, and historians talk about their work with one another. I’m going to wear a tie.

I’ve been invited to take part in an exciting panel about history and culture wars. I’ll be sharing my thoughts from my recent book about educational conservatism. I’m joining “high-powered historians” Andrew Hartman, Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, and Stephen Prothero. I’ve learned a lot from reading their recent books about the history of the culture wars (Hartman) and about sex-ed and bilingual-ed (Petrzela). I’m looking forward, too, to learning a lot from Dr. Prothero’s new book about the long march of liberalism.

Our work will be commented on by Leo Ribuffo. Professor Ribuffo’s book about conservative activism in the early twentieth century had a huge influence on me as I started my academic career, so I am happy to have a chance to meet him in person and hear what he has to say.

Want to know what we talk about? Keep your eyes peeled. Professor Hartman has promised to post our comments on the US Intellectual History blog. I’ll be sure to post a link.