MACMILLAN Radical Teaching in Turbulent Times: Martin Duberman’s Princeton Seminars, 1966–1970 (Historical Studies in Education)

From 1966 to 1970, historian Martin Duberman transformed his undergraduate Princeton seminar on American radicalism. This book looks closely at the seminar, drawing on interviews with former students and colleagues, conversations with Duberman, and abundant archival material in the Princeton archives and the Duberman Papers. The array of evidence makes the book a primer on how historians gather and interpret evidence while at the same time shining light on the tumultuous late 1960s in American higher education. This book will become a tool for teaching, inspiring educators to rethink the ways in which history is taught and teaching students how to reason historically through sources. Review “I wanted to find a way to explore the emotional transactions that always take place in a university seminar, always coloring the exchange of ideas that are the purported subject of discourse―and are always ignored or evaded.  The goal was utopian, and had to partly fail.  But only utopian goals, I believe, allow us to partly succeed.  Robert Hampel has brilliantly recaptured, with insight and humor, those wonderful years of exploration” - Martin Duberman, historian, playwright, biographer, activist, and author of more than 20 books. “A wave of innovation swept over higher education in the 1960s, when radicals imagined classrooms that were dynamic, democratic, and governed by individual freedom rather than institutional edicts.  Nobody has captured that moment better than Robert Hampel.  Combining rich primary sources with his own reflections, Hampel’s study is a bold innovation in its own right.  It is an eloquent reminder of how difficult it is to take risks in the classroom, and of what we risk when are too afraid to try” - Professor Jonathan Zimmerman, University of Pennsylvania, USA and author of The Amateur Hour: A History of College Teaching in America. “Disguised as a biography, this is a charming and beautifully written little book about what it means to teach.  This book is strange in the most surprising and enchanting way.  It hums with energy, upends expectations, and gives readers a window on the craft of writing history.  Between its covers is a small world of delight” - Professor Jack Schneider, University of Massachusetts, USA and author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door. From the Back Cover From 1966 to 1970, historian Martin Duberman transformed his undergraduate Princeton seminar on American radicalism. This book looks closely at the seminar, drawing on interviews with former students and colleagues, conversations with Duberman, and abundant archival material in the Princeton archives and the Duberman Papers. The array of evidence makes the book a primer on how historians gather and interpret evidence while at the same time shining light on the tumultuous late 1960s in American higher education. This book will become a tool for teaching, inspiring educators to rethink the ways in which history education is taught and teaching students how to reason historically through sources.  About the Author Robert L. Hampel is Professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware, USA. He is a historian of education who also studies contemporary education policy. Hampel has previously served as Secretary/Treasurer for the national History of Education society.