Robert “Bob” Tignor, the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Emeritus, and a renowned scholar of British colonialism and its aftermath, world history, and the modern histories of Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya, died on Dec. 9, 2022.
“Truth” is now a quaint term in American (and many other) societies. It has frequently been remarked that we live in a “post-truth” age, one characterized by “fake news” and “alternative facts.” Scholars and news commentators now distinguish between “beliefs” and facts, and warn us that public opinion is guided more by belief than by fact. Some blame social media for creating a world in which there are no generally accepted signposts, but even long before the (recent) advent of social media, information technology provided each of us with his/her personal printing press. The hope was that access to plentiful and “free” information would produce a more open, creative and democratic world. But, for now at least, the opposite seems to be the case. Americans live in a world in which one of the two major political parties has as its platform a demonstrable lie – that its leader won the 2020 presidential election. What does a “lie” mean in this context? What is
From the left, the right and in between, we writers, academics and activists are joining together to defend liberal democracy and confront the danger facing America.
commemoration of him in his hometown. i always joked that if that town had been in the south there would have been a statue before the body was cold. but that was not true in more reserved upstate. so when we started a campaign to get a statue of general wadsworth put on the courthouse lawn where it should be. a courthouse after a statue is naked after all. james mcpherson came and gave the inaugural lecture of our campaign, attended a reception with people who donated and was endlessly patient with everyone. and it was a very important way for us to start our effort. and i m pleased to say that our courthouse is no longer naked. but i think the most personally compelling example of jim s generosity is that even though as i mentioned i ve jumped off the tenure track professionally, he kept asking me back to do alumni colleges. and when it came time to organize the conference in honor of his retirement, jim asked that i be included, which then led to my contributing to his t