The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is a nonprofit educational and cultural institution dedicated to preserving the history of the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was founded by the territorial legislature in 1849, almost a decade before statehood. The Society is named in the Minnesota Constitution. It is headquartered in the Minnesota History Center in downtown Saint Paul.Although its focus is on Minnesota history it is not constrained by it. Its work on the North American fur trade has been recognized in Canada as well.MNHS holds a collection of nearly 550,000 books, 37,000 maps, 250,000 photographs, 225,000 historical artifacts, 950,000 archaeological items, 38,000 cubic feet (1,100 m3) of manuscripts, 45,000 cubic feet (1,300 m3) of government records, 5,500 paintings, prints and drawings; and 1,300 moving image items.[citation needed]MNopedia: The Minnesota Encyclopedia, is since 2011 an online "resource for reliable information about significant people, places, events, and things in Minnesota history", that is funded through a Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund grant and administered by the Minnesota Historical Society. The Minnesota Historical Society Press (MNHS Press) publishes books on the history and culture of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest with the goal of advancing research, supporting education, and sharing diverse perspectives on Minnesota history. MNHS Press is the oldest publishing company in the state of Minnesota and the largest historical society press in the nation, with more than 500 books in print. MNHS Press also produces the quarterly magazine, Minnesota History (journal).
The stated goal of Amos Alonzo Stagg: College Football's Greatest Pioneer is to be a definitive biography from birth to death. The picture Summer paints is of an honest and highly competitive man. Longevity is the theme, both in Stagg's career and life. The challenge of the book is that Amos Alonzo Stagg lived for 102 years and had a major impact on college football, the University of Chicago, and to a lesser extent, baseball, basketball, and other schools. How can the definitive biography be written of such a man in a mere 220 pages?The book is mostly organized chronologically, with some diversions to talk about interesting and impactful players Stagg had and the sports besides football that he coached. The story of Stagg's early life, including the poverty he came from and the time he grew up in, is compelling. The humble beginnings of Amos Alonzo Stagg clearly kept him competitive throughout his long life. Growing up in an era of the late 1800s when sports were just beginning to become organized, a man such as himself proved the right person for the right time. The meat of the book is chapters five through nine, which chronicle the rise and fall of football at the University of Chicago. The thinnest chapters deal with Stagg's life outside of football.The most enjoyable parts of this book are the stories of the man that place him at the center of the evolving game of football. Some of these anecdotes seem relevant today, such as Stagg holding high school athletic competitions as a way to evaluate talent. Stag invented something eerily similar to high school football camps that are so popular today. Others bear little resemblance to the present. For example, Stagg pinching pennies to keep the football team from going under at Chicago. A great deal of this book is dedicated to ways he cut corners to save, including sending the University of Chicago team riding in a dilapidated train car on a trip to play out west.Another highlight of the book is the issues of Stagg's day that are still relevant in the present. For example, the University of Chicago initially hired Stagg to coach football as a way to promote the school. Additionally, player safety is talked about at length. While the game today does not include the mortality rates it did in Stagg's time, both eras share a concern for the health of the players. The research done to report on the number of deaths in football across high school, college, and the pros, is impressive. This data is indicative of the type of original research done by Summer.A choice made by Summers is spending pages speculating why Stagg lived for so long. A vegetarian diet, abstaining from alcohol, and a reason to live certainly contribute to a healthy lifestyle, but if that was all it took, there should be a lot more centenarians. These three characteristics of Stagg may seem more strange in his era than in ours. While the book might not unlock the key to long life, this level of detail gives us a deeper insight into the kind of person he was.Ultimately, this book is a great read. College football fans will learn a lot and hopefully wonder what the sport of college football would be like if there were more honest men like Amos Alonzo Stagg in it.
Many trials inhabit the academic area traumatic that instructional actors replace their practices and processes to teaching and learning, reworking and making them more adequate to societies' needs (Bolivar as cited in . This requires, from schools and on the whole teachers, an effort to adapt their work modes and take into account all points associated with students and context. This is in line with a rising thought in academic discourses that seems in a position to respond to those demands: contextualization.
