Say what you want about this state and the Republican rule of it (and you know I have), but one thing they've continued to do a great job of is putting good historians in positions where they can serve the public. (I'm looking at you, Gordon Belt, director of Public Services at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.)
This time the good news is that Carroll Van West has been made our state historian. West is the kind of historian history nerds such as myself go all fan-girl over. He's been doing interesting things at MTSU for a million years, the books he's published with the University of Tennessee Press make up the wish-list of many a Tennessee fan (the state, not the football team), and his historic preservation work is remarkable.
The governor's press release says:
West has served as director at the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) and the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area since 2002. He has taught as a professor in the MTSU history department since 1985. He currently serves as a co-chair of the Tennessee Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission and as a Tennessee representative on the National Board of Advisors of National Trust for Historic Preservation. West also sits on the Executive Board of Lewis and Clark Trust, Inc. and on the Advisory Board of Teaching with Primary Sources, Library of Congress.
There's no filling the shoes of
Walter Durham, but Carroll Van West is a worthy successor.
