A treasure and a pleasure to read, Morgan is one of the greatest American historians (his American Slavery, American Freedom:  The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia is vital to understanding how slavery was rationalized in a country being built on a foundation of liberty; if I were teaching a class, it would be on my syllabus). American Heroes is a collection of essays from his long and rich career.

What I’ve just finished reading:  Jane Leavy, The Last Boy:  Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood

An absorbing book about one of the greatest baseball players ever, about a blessed yet troubled life that ended not long after Mantle finally learned how to subdue the demons that began to trouble him in youth.  I’m not convinced that Mantle was indeed the “last boy” of his way of life — the title implies promises on which the book doesn’t deliver. But if you want to understand this boy’s life, you’ll want to read this book.  Highly recommended.

What I’m reading:  Jane Leavy, The Last Boy:  Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood

My love of baseball and appreciation for Leavy’s book on Sandy Koufax prompted me to pick this up.

What I’ve just finished reading:  Charles W. Eagles, The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss, and Peter Gay, Modernism:  The Lure of Heresy

Eagles effectively chronicles an important moment in the civil rights struggle. I wished for more about Meredith — a fascinating figure, both radical and conservative — himself, but the author’s focus is on the roles of the university and the State of Mississippi. Eagles’s closing chapter on the ways in which Ole Miss, where he has long taught, has tried — and failed — to come to grips with the legacy of this event is excellent.

I’ve long been an admirer of Gay, one of our great cultural historians, and with Modernism, he rewards the reader yet again, with intelligence, perception, and wit.

A longtime professor at the University of Mississippi, Eagles writes about a pivotal event in the civil rights movement and in the history of his institution. (Fittingly, I picked up this book at Square Books, a terrific independent bookstore in Oxford, Mississippi, the home of the university.)

What I’ve just finished reading: Alan Brinkley, The Publisher: Henry Luce and His American Century

Thoughtful, judicious, intelligent and highly recommended — what we have come to take for granted from Brinkley, in short. I await his next work eagerly, whatever the subject matter.

For nearly 20 years, I was a newspaper copy editor in Milwaukee, where I was born and grew up. But in the last few years, the Journal Sentinel had been cutting its staff through buyouts. In the summer of ’09, a round of buyouts didn’t yield enough cuts for the company, and in August I was laid off, among dozens in the newsroom who lost their jobs.

One year later, I’m happy to report, I have landed in a rewarding position: grant officer/writer for the Columbia St. Mary’s Foundation (http://www.supportcsm.org), which cultivates philanthropic support for the health-care system serving the Milwaukee area.  When I told this to Susan Older, whose Displaced Journalists online community (http://displacedjournalists.com) shines light in a gloomy time for journalism and employment, she urged me to write about it, to show out-of-work journalists that we should and could survive, even in a wretched economy. So I’m writing this for Susan, for my friend and fellow writer Julie Weber, who writes a blog that I recommend (http://jewliweb.wordpress.com) –- and for you.

I knew that I could do the job with the foundation. And I wanted to do the job, as I would be writing applications for grants to support programs such as free health clinics for the poor. I would be telling important stories about a vital resource, and how it could be brought to people who lacked access to it. Like journalism, the foundation would call on my communications skills to comfort the afflicted. For me, it was the right opportunity at the right time.

Yes, before making that case and getting the job, I needed to hear numerous résumé critiques and make revisions, to do lots of networking and to profit from luck. Most important, however, was that I could talk about significant transferable skills from journalism: writing, editing, research, working on my own and as a member of a team to meet deadlines. (That set complemented one from my background as a scholar in American history and political science.)

Earlier, I had put those skills to work for scholars who had me edit their grant applications. More recently, I used the tools in volunteer work for two nonprofit groups. I sought out the work after getting excellent advice from a grant officer who was kind enough to give me an informational interview –  build a track record, he said. So I did some cold-calling, got a lead from a networking contact, consulted Web sites listing volunteer opportunities, and found Make A Difference –- Wisconsin (www.makeadifferencewisconsin.org) and Daystar Inc. (www.daystarinc.org). The former recruits and trains volunteer instructors who present seminars on basic financial literacy (how to handle credit, make a budget and manage a checking account, for example) to teenagers. The latter operates a long-term shelter for women who are recovering from domestic violence. My work for these groups was very gratifying because it enhanced my credentials and references, showed initiative, gave me a chance to do some good work, and allowed me to add nonprofit experience on my resume.

In the meantime, I was taking courses at Milwaukee Area Technical College for a certificate in information design and publishing: introduction to digital media, Web site development, Photoshop and InDesign. The coursework was a step toward another important credential (I need just two classes to finish), it showed employers that I wasn’t standing still during unemployment, and it let me meet instructors and students who gave me job leads, contacts and valuable advice.

All these things put me in a good position to get the job that I’m fortunate, grateful and proud to have. I’m glad to tell this story, and share some advice that I hope will be helpful, even if it isn’t new to you:

1)    Get out there and network, network, network. And network on the Web, especially on LinkedIn. If you’re not on LinkedIn, get busy and get connected.

2)    Get some retraining. Go to school or seek resources on the Web that will add to your knowledge.

3)    Do volunteer work. You will feel better for it, you will help someone with your skills, and you will make good networking contacts.

4)    Seek out informational interviews with people who work in jobs or at companies in which you’re interested. They can give you valuable information and lead to job contacts.

5)    Identify transferable skills and promote them. Journalists: remember that grant writing requires the type of skills that you have honed for years. So does RFP (request for proposal) writing. Think of how you can communicate important messages, for your own cause and for others you make your own.

6)    When you see a need for your skills, offer to fill it. You’ve seen many business brochures, PowerPoint presentations and promotional and informational literature that are filled with typos, grammatical errors and infelicities. So fix them. Look at it as a chance to make freelance money, or to do pro bono work that will make you feel good and gain networking contacts.

7)    Even though opportunities aren’t abundant in this economy, do not –- do not — give up easily. Find a place for yourself. Make a place for yourself.

One of the leading American historians, and one of my favorites, Brinkley has written about New Deal-era demagogues, the end of the New Deal era, and liberalism and conservatism in 20th-century America. Now he turns to one of the media-builders of the era, who left a significant mark on the period as well as on journalism. Intelligent and incisive, Brinkley’s works are a pleasure to read.

What I’ve just finished reading: William L. O’Neill, A Bubble In Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001

This is an informal look at the period (at times exceedingly informal and jarring), with unvarnished judgments and interludes on topics such as the controversial Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian, the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and “Alan Greenspan: The God That Failed.”

I have to keep reading, to feed my long habit in American history. I can’t kick it — and I’ve never wanted to try. With that in mind, here’s the latest from my library.

What I’m reading: William L. O’Neill, A Bubble In Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001

O’Neill has written a number of eminent books, among them Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s, and American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960. Now he turns to a period featuring peace, prosperity and freedom from fear — contrasting sharply with the first decade of the 21st century that followed.

What I’ve just finished reading: Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

This is the kind of book that makes you happy — and sad — at the finish: happy because you’ve just enjoyed an intellectual treat, sad because it’s the end of the treat (and this is one of the weighty volumes in the estimable Oxford History of the United States!). It’s a pleasure to learn from Wood, one of the leading historians of the American Revolution and the early United States. He offers you keen insight and an entertaining, fascinating read (though I believe his prose is sharper in the small gem that is The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin, as well as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Radicalism of the American Revolution).

Where may indeed be used to refer to a situation or a respect as well as a place, Webster’s says (“Where they were strong, we were weak” and “There is never peace where men are greedy,” for instance). Our sample sentences, however, do not involve any of these.

Use in which in the first two: “He told a joke in which two guys walked into a bar” and “I remember a war movie in which a general slapped a wounded soldier.” In the third, the answer is when or in which: “It was a year when the Tigers were in contention for the division title,” or “It was a year in which the Tigers were in contention for the division title.” (And may the Tigers win it this year.)

That prompted me to recall some of the crash blossoms I have seen in decades of working for newspapers, reading newspapers and reading about newspapers, in the Lower Case and other vehicles:

“Here’s one way to lick Doberman’s leg sores”

“Teenage prostitution problem is mounting”

“Third Reich field goal lifts Hawkeyes”

“War dims hopes for peace”

Feel free to share your favorites.

Slightly off topic, but still amusing and worth remembering, I recall a Dave Barry column written for a trade publication years ago — a “guide” to aspiring journalists — in which Barry said that headlines should sound as though Tonto spoke them (“Reagan to Congress: Give me tax cut”) or completely unintelligible (“House unit airs solons’ parley plea”). Seriously, we would all benefit from headlines that are not so cryptic as to be problematic — and from much-needed changes in modern newspaper design that would allow for more space to write something decent.

What I’m reading: Gordon S. Wood, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

This is a volume in the well-regarded Oxford History of the United States. It’s about a period in which I have a strong secondary interest (after the Progressive Era and 20th-century American history). Wood is one of the leading authorities on the Revolutionary era and an intelligent writer. As I expected, this has been a rewarding read so far.

What I’ve just finished reading: John Milton Cooper Jr., Woodrow Wilson: A Biography

Cooper (disclosure: he was my major professor at the University of Wisconsin) has written another book that anyone interested in Wilson will have to consult. His strengths are analysis and interpretation, coming from decades of study of the Wilson era. Readers will profit, too from his Warrior and the Priest, a comparative biography that illustrates Theodore Roosevelt’s and Wilson’s impact on American politics and government, and his Breaking the Heart of the World, on Wilson and the League of Nations fight. Read Breaking the Heart with Margaret MacMillan’s excellent Paris 1919 to understand the problems of peacemaking after World War I.