someone mentioned preceptorship at princeton, basically like having a t.a. back in the way old days of princeton, very distinguished senior scholars would actually be the t.a.s for recently hired assistant professors. it's like having in the civil war if you put raw recruits in charge of the generals. it was sort of strange. it was an extraordinary experience, try to teach american social history in one semester, which is insane in itself. jim as my preceptor, he was already quite distinguished was gentle but firm in telling this raw recruit just how crude some of his lectures actually were. i've never forgotten that. both the lessons historically but also the lessons as we've all been saying of jim as a gentleman. most often we taught at a graduate reading seminar, history of united states from 1815 to 1877