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Show Welsh is 'a diamond in the rough' World War I and higher education The following is a collection of excerpts from Convocation speaker Michael Welsh's article entitled World War I at the University of New Mexico. The article in its entirety is printed in the January 1989 issue of the New Mexico Historical Review. In the article, Welsh says that II American higher education has been shaped by an often conflicting set of forces from both without and within. External forces, be they affirmative action, revolutions in science and technology, or an ever-advancing professionalization in national life, confront the political, economic, social and cultural realities of region and locality. From this comes the rich mixture of curricula, standards, patterns and perspectives that make higher learning in the United States unique among the nations of the world. "The consequences of these themes on the campus of the University of New Mexico can be clearly seen in the university's first encounter with the outside forces of war and military mobilization. Scholars of the modern West rightly address the profound changes brought to the region by the more prolonged and traumatic involvement of the United States in the Second World War. Yet the instability of the 'Great War,' as it was known in its day (1917-1919), both blessed and cursed the state university in Albuquerque. The school, the community, and the state would be different places by 1920, thanks in great measure to the forces from Europe, and from home, that transformed the university from a glorified high school to an accredited institution in 1922. How institutions adjusted to [the] phenomena [of war] would say much about their futures, in time of Michael Welsh is "definitely a diamond in the rough," said Jim Vlasich, SUU associate professor of behavioral and social sciences. Welsh, an associate professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado, is replacing Duane Smith as Thursday's Convocation speaker. Smith is unable to attend due to a medical emergency. However, Welsh will be discussing the same topic as Smith had planned to speak about- the history of the West. According to Vlasich, Welsh "has a better idea [than Duane Smith] as to SUU A ssociate Professor of Behavioral and Social where history is Sciences fim Vlasich going as a discipline." "What I admire about him [Welsh], " Vlasich said, "is that he had a chance to go to Berkeley-one of the finest schools in his field-and he passed on it. He went to the University of New Mexico instead because he wanted to be closer to the people he was going to write about." World War I brought an atmosphere of military preparedness to the University of New Mexico, as indicated by troops standing at attention. war and in the remainder of the 20th century. "Within six weeks of Wilson's declaration of war, UNM entertained a visit from a local civic group bearing the cumbersome title, 'The Committee for Securing a Mobilization Camp for the National Guards for Albuquerque.' "Because the U .S. Army lacked sufficient numbers of troops ready for combat in Europe, the federal government called upon state militia to train at home. By locating New Mexico's training camp (eventually known as 'Camp Funston') on the UNM campus, the university could realize some revenues for utilities and rental of space, and also attract young men who might enroll in wartime academic programs." Welsh advocates idea of 'New American History' 'New American History,' according to Welsh, is just old facts looked at in a different way "If Carry Nation or Susan B. Anthony were mentioned at all in pre-1960s American History classes, they were portrayed as 'just another guy, a page in the political process'," said Convocation speaker Michael Welsh in an article printed earlier this year in the Grand Junction, Colo., Daily Sentinel. Welsh is currently an associate professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. According to the article, Welsh was teaching nine District 51 high school and middle school history teachers to teach "New American History." T he article goes on to say that "this isn't the new history of recent years that brought on the 'demonization' of all white men and cries that the old 'facts' were not being taught. Instead, Welsh said, it's the neo-new history, or the new new history. "In the years between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, American history teachers tended to portray women such as the legendary battler against alcohol and the crusader for women's suffrage as victims'women fighting an unfair system and being beaten down,' Welsh said. "But after all, women did get the vote and the portrayal evolved in the 1980s to the view of women as 'contributionists,' persons who helped build change. "That was when the country started into the 'first I woman thing'-first woman doctor, lawyer, senator, he said. 'The problem was these individuals were being asked to demonstrate the qualities of a group and not every woman could be a doctor or a senator,' Welsh said. 'By late '80s and early '90s, people started saying, let's now start cranking men and women of color into the story'." "When this happens, Welsh said, you can do one of two things. You can fear it because it breaks down the simplicity you crafted or you can rejoice because all stories are possible. "The irony here is the new story is just the old facts looked at in a different way, he said. "The old history is a story of nation building, Welsh said. Up until the 1960s, the emphasis was on the story of a nation, a story of money and power. In the '60s, the reaction was to pose groups against groups. After about 20 to 30 years, students started saying, 'What about me, what about my grandmother,' he said. "Nation building obscured groups. Group building obscured individuals, he said. You can't find the middle point on the graph paper until you've got the margins set. "Welsh put the old style nation building version of history as one margin and the more recent pitting of group against group with some group always being a victim as the other margin. "The style of presenting history Welsh advocates is to present it as a collection of the stories of individuals, the choices they made, the consequences of their choices and how that relates to the student. "Such an approach to teaching American history is gaiping around in academic circles and filtering its way into high school and lower-grade classrooms, he said. "It is taught with three recurrent and overlapping themes that define a new context for historyethnicity, gender and the environment." Welsh earned his Ph.Din United States History/American West at the University of New Mexico and has written several books and articles about the history of New Mexico. At SUU he will discuss the history of the West. |
