Vol. 143 Issue 8 - October 24, 2019
Michigan’s oldest college newspaper
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
Rahe’s new book on Sparta wins geopolitical award By | Nolan Ryan Editor-in-Chief Paul Rahe, professor of history, will receive an award on Friday for his newest book on ancient Sparta and its defense strategies. At a conference in Washington, D.C., the Mackinder Forum, an association of foreign policy scholars, will present Rahe with the 2019 STRATFOR Book Award for Geopolitical Analysis for his recent book “Sparta’s First Attic War: The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta, 478-446 B.C.” This is the
third volume in his series of books examining the grand strategy of Sparta during the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. The award, presented by Mackinder, is funded by STRATFOR, a geopolitical intelligence organization. “We try to identify books that weave together history, geography, and strategic studies in a compelling analysis or narrative of significant geopolitical events or processes,” Leonard Hochberg, coordinator of the Mackinder Forum-US, said in an email. “Professor Rahe’s magisterial reconsideration
of the narratives of Herodotus and Thucydides from the perspective of Spartan grand strategy exemplifies the above criteria.” In addition to receiving the award, Rahe will deliver a lecture titled “Grand Strategy in Sparta’s First Two Attic Wars” on Friday. A Hillsdale College press release that announced the new book in August noted that this third volume will be included in the Yale University Library of Military History. Rahe said his series aims to explore the question of
how communities defend themselves and their way of life. These books examine how Sparta in particular set about defending itself. Rahe said that when it comes to the wars he interprets in the books, many works have been written on Athens, but he thought there was a lack of in-depth study on Sparta. “This volume is about the aftermath of the Persian wars and the alliance between Sparta and Athens,” Rahe said. “It’s an examination of how that alliance came apart and how the Spartans coped with the Athenian challenge.
My focus is on particulars, but always with an eye to parallels.” And Rahe certainly sees modern parallels with some of the 20th century conflicts in which the United States participated. Rahe said the third volume especially has similarities to the U.S. situation after World War II. “You have an alliance against a great power — Germany and Japan — with the Soviet Union. When the war is over, the two allies become enemies,” Rahe said. Rahe, however, said he does not explicitly make
these analogies in his volumes. Instead, he lets readers find the parallels themselves. “The Peloponnesian War has been regarded as a template for World War I, World War II, and the Cold War for a very long time,” Rahe said. Hochberg also notes the parallels Rahe sees with modern politics. Rahe’s work, he said, contributes to an understanding of international relations. “He calls attention to
See Sparta A2
Book checkouts on the decline at Mossey library By | Victoria Marshall Assistant Editor Amidst the massive decline of students checking out physical books in American universities, Hillsdale students show themselves exempt from the trend. A 64% decline in the number of books checked out at Yale’s undergraduate library in February 2019 led the university to relocate three-quarters of its books to create more space for study rooms. As a result, students staged a protest, and Yale decided to expand the number of books in its library rather than increase the amount of study spaces. Although students and their books arose victorious in this fight, one glaring fact remains: university libraries across the country are experiencing a massive decline in the use and circulation of their in-house books and materials. The Atlantic reported that at the University of Virginia, college students checked out 238,000 books during the 2008-2009 school year, but that number has shrunk to just 60,000 this past school year. This statistic is no different for Northwestern University, whose circulation among undergraduate students declined 50% from 2013 to 2017. This trend is not limited to undergrads; for graduate students and faculty members at UVA, use of in-house books is down both 61% and 46%, respectively. Hillsdale College’s Mossey Library has also
experienced a decline, although not as severe. There has been a 2% decrease in the amount of in-house materials checked out and picked up from the 2017-2018 school year to the 2018-2019 year, according to Public Services Librarian Linda Moore. “I would say that we have seen a decline perhaps not as significant as other places but it’s sort of hard to tell because what people use to count their figures are different,” Moore said. “We use checkouts, renewals, and we also count in-house use — books that are picked up off the shelves and left here — and those are the things that we consider as circulation.” According to Moore, students checked out 113,000 books in 2018, which is 1,000 less than the checkout number 20 years ago. “The problem with these figures is that they don’t include e-books, so that would add some amount back in there,” Moore said. “That’s why it’s really hard to compare back to 1999 to the 2000s. The internet was fairly new so people hadn’t done a lot with e-books.” The internet completely revolutionized the research industry, prompting university libraries across the country, including Mossey, to expand their online databases. “We have seen an increase in the amount of content available digitally in both e-book and e-journal format,” said Technical Services Librarian LeAnne
Rumler. “Some publishers have switched completely to digital content. We have also seen an increase in the number of reference works which have become available online, making research material more accessible.” When asked about the decline of in-house book use, Mossey Library Director Maurine McCourry said that she believes it is the sign of the times, as more students and faculty defer to electronic databases to complete their research. “The material is available online, and when it’s available online, publishers can make it available more quickly,” McCourry said. “Scientific journal articles can be published the next day after the research is complete, and you can publish an article right away. The digital, in some cases, is actually the better source of information now.” This availability and reliability of online materials has led the college to invest and substantially increase its online resources. “On our expenditures on electronic resources, we spend probably three times as much on electronic resources as we do on print materials,” McCourry said. “We have a very healthy book budget for our size library. We still spend a lot on books and we buy all the books the professors ask us to buy pretty much, but we still just to have access to
See Library A2
Bishop Earl Boyea celebrated the first Catholic mass in Christ Chapel on Tuesday. Virginia Aabram | Collegian
Whitmer budget cuts county sheriff funds By | Rachel Kookogey Assistant Editor Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget cuts affected local law enforcement, and Hillsdale County Sheriff Timothy Parker and Michigan Republicans are contesting Whitmer’s vetos. According to Rep. Eric Leutheuser, Whitmer’s 147 line-item vetos shocked both parties of the Michigan legislature as they fell “dispropor-
tionately on rural areas.” Parker said the immediate effect of Whitmer’s vetos on Hillsdale County is the removal of funding for one of its Secondary Road Patrol deputies. Whitmer’s veto removed the state-wide funding of the SRP from issued traffic tickets. Every $10 from an issued-ticket goes to a fund which the Michigan State Police divides among all counties across Michigan.
The budget cut will affect county sheriffs all across the state of Michigan. In Hillsdale County, the funds provided for the salary of one SRP deputy. Leutheuser said the SRP fund is essential for rural areas like Hillsdale because many of those areas have no other law enforcement.
See Sheriff A6
Q&A: Rob Leatham, pistol champ By | Austin Gergens Collegian Reporter Pistol World Champion Rob Leatham spent October 17 and 18 at the John A. Halter Shooting Sports Center. He spent his time coaching the Hillsdale Pistol Club on behalf of their new sponsors, Springfield Armory. Leatham is: an 8-time International Practical Shooting Confederation World Champion, an 11-time NRA Bianchi Cup Champion, a 17-time Single Stack National Champion, and a 30-time United States Practical Shooting Association National Champion. Kristina Stillwagon rescued this dog, Grizelda, from the a local puppy mill. See A6 for coverage. Courtesy | Kristina Stillwagon
Follow @HDaleCollegian
How did your career get its start? I grew up loving pistols, more so than even rifles or shotguns at that period of
www.hillsdalecollegian.com
time, and so I really don’t remember not shooting. It was really kind of the formative years of my life. I got in high school and got into sports and things became very, very competitive but I never lost my love for shooting and shot all the time that I could. Basketball and track were my two biggest sports. I still remember being in basketball and track practice and I’m thinking about guns the whole time. I just couldn’t wait to get shooting. When I heard that there were competitions for pistol shooting, and being a competitive person by nature; well, yeah, I wanted to be a part of that. As soon as I got involved in the formalized competition, I was hooked. I mean, that’s all I ever wanted to do. I never anticipated making it a business or life. It
was just a hobby.” When I got out of high school, I did not go to college because I wanted to get a job so I could afford to shoot. And that’s really kind of how my involvement professionally began. I won a few nationals and I won a world championship and I said, ‘Man, that’s all I want to do. I won’t do anything but shoot.’ How did you become a world champion pistol shooter? “There are lots of people who practice shooting, there are a lot of people that shoot more than I do. It comes down to skill. You fundamentally have to be skilled
See Pistol A3