for example, someone like george packer who i think is a first-rate researcher and writer. i relied more on them that other things but i do think it is dicey, the closer you get to the present. i have opinions then, so i have to be more careful plan normally about .eing independent making sure it is not about what i think but about what i can find in sources and what other people have. make they did you decision to make it so contemporary? jane: i think in part of teaching, students always want to get to where they are. disappointed if you teach a modern u.s. history course and you and did say with ronald reagan. that is 15 years before they were born. they want to get to something that remembers say you have to balance their desire to finally get into their lived experience weh the limited resources have, the limited scholarly resources we have for that era. susan: who are your students generally? are they going to go on the history profession or they rounding out scholarship? jane: there are people who want to learn to think critically. if you become historians, a lot of