Tom Isern, NDSU

Here are instructions to access the Wimba webcast of Jessica Clark's colloquium on Friday, 28 March 2008.

TO ACCESS THE LIVE WEBCAST

First, go to the login page for Wimba, here -

http://208.185.34.137/

There, see Setup Wizard on the right? Run this. It will check to see if you have any web security settings that might interfere with running the archived presentations; you might have to turn off a popup blocker. It also will try to check for sound settings, input and output. Output is all that matters to listen; if you want to talk back, you'll need to check out your headset or microphone input.

Next, log in as Participant.

Room ID = NDSU_History_Room

For Name, just use your own name.

When Wimba opens, follow the link to NDSU History Room.

You can access this anytime in advance to check the interface.

TO ACCESS THE ARCHIVED PRESENTATION

First, go to the login page for Wimba, here -

http://208.185.34.137/

There, see Setup Wizard on the right? Run this. It will check to see if you have any web security settings that might interfere with running the archived presentations; you might have to turn off a popup blocker. It also will try to check for sound settings, input and output. Output is all that matters for an archived presentation, of course.

Next, log in as Participant.

Room ID = NDSU_History_Room

For Name, just use your own name.

Once logged into the Wimba classroom, select the Archives tab.

In the archives, see archived presentations for the History room. Click on the one for March 28, and it should open.

The next History Department Colloquium is this Friday the 28th. Find details in this poster.

Michael Korda's biography of Eisenhower, Ike: An American Hero, was a Christmas gift, and I've just finished reading it. I enjoyed the work, however deeply flawed, because of my interest in the subject. My review for publication panned it, arguing that near 800 pages of text ought to get us closer to the heart of Eisenhower than this book does. It's interesting, though, on two grounds. First, it got published, and got a national buzz, despite a failure to use obvious sources. The book contains not one citation to any materials in the Eisenhower Library. Second, it's a perfect example of the great man theory of history that I tell my students about, citing Tocqueville on the difference between aristocratic historians (Korda is one) and democratic historians. I'm led to observe that it's amazing how much we still don't know about Eisenhower.