Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

Molly Worthen’s essay “Lecture Me. Really” (Sunday Review, Oct. 18) makes a compelling case for lecture courses and reminded me of a few I have treasured for more than half a century.

In my first class in American history as a college sophomore, the professor noted that we had only an hour, and since he was the expert, he would talk and we would listen. Every now and then, he said, he’d set aside a class to ask questions and discuss what we had learned. I still remember being dazzled by his lecture on the role that barbed wire played in “taming” the Wild West.

As a vice president at Brown University in the 1970s, I sat in the amphitheater when Stephen Graubard (then editor of Daedalus) gave his final lecture in an intellectual history course. When he finished, students gave him a standing ovation, and many left gifts of gratitude.

But just as the critics Ms. Worthen cites overstate their case, she does a bit when she implies that the humanities can be taught only by lecturing. Well-led seminars, deep study of texts and real-world observation can also be effective.

RON WOLK

Warwick, R.I.

Here.

Here.

Feminism keeps lying about women, and women (especially young ones) keep falling for it. The truth is that men and women are different. Men want as much casual sex as they can get. Women want a committed relationship. Women will never be happy or fulfilled having casual sex. Feminism, which tells women that they are no different from men, has been a disaster for women. In fact, abortion rights are a male plot to get more sex for men. That women don't see this is mind-boggling. See here for an interesting op-ed column.

Ben Carson has a consistent position on abortion. Those who carve out an "exception" for fetuses created during rape and incest are inconsistent.

This is Fort Holmes, at the very top of Mackinac Island. It has only recently been restored. Click to enlarge.

Here.

Here.

It was probably 3:45 when a few Indians opened fire on Custer's column as it was filing down the coulee toward the river. The details of what followed will remain forever obscure. There are as many speculations as speculators. Custer did move back away from the river and then north along a ridge, where many bodies were later found distributed over a surprisingly large area. He and a few others ended up on Custer Hill, about four miles from Reno Hill. Most of the two thousand warriors had concentrated on this small force, those pouring from the village circling to the left, and those racing from Reno's treed command circling to the right, so as to surround the command completely—and at odds of ten to one. The rest of the regiment heard firing shortly after 4:20. It was probably all over by 4:45. Every man with Custer died. All 210.

(John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876, Volume No. 8 in the Source Custeriana Series [Ft. Collins, CO: The Old Army Press, 1976], 178)

Note from KBJ: Here is a map of Custer's route:

Click to enlarge. The map comes from this website.