There was nary an empty seat in Liberal Arts 11 on Friday as Fritz, a history professor who's taught two generations of University of Montana students, delivered the final lecture of his career as a full-time professor of history.
Students sat in rapt attention as the professor and former Montana legislator gave them a sober goodbye, a critical analysis of the Iraq war in his American military history course.
It was vintage Fritz to anyone who's ever sat in one of his classes. Engaging and humorous, but rife with clear and precise thinking, Fritz's lectures consistently challenge his students with an air of sincere authority.
Poking holes in the Bush administration's war strategy, Fritz gave his students an impromptu assignment.
“You've got 10 minutes to come up with an exit strategy,” he said, pacing through the classroom.
There was a long silence before the answers started coming.
“We should pay Israel to take it over,” said one student, eliciting a few snickers.
Turns out, Fritz said, the answers are not as clear as the hindsight of history allows. But, as George Santayana's old saw goes, those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
That is the lesson of this war, said Fritz. The Bush administration is filled with people who neither know their history nor care to listen to those who do.
“We might have had some people on the ground who had an inkling of what was happening, but they were unceremoniously removed from office and replaced by guys who won't criticize the administration's strategy,” he said, summing up the reasons for the rise of Iraq's insurgency and the country's violence and instability.
The lecture was a full-on assault of the Bush war plan, bold and judgmental about the administration's failures, denials and arrogance - from its failure to secure the borders to its decision to disband the Iraqi military to losing the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.
He called Bush's “bring 'em on” words in 2003 to would-be insurgents “the most irresponsible statement made by any public official in my lifetime.”
It was the concluding lecture of Fritz's American military history course, which examines every major post-Civil War military action the U.S. has been involved with, up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Fritz has been at UM since 1967, and over four decades has taught Civil War history, early American history, American military history, the history of law and Montana history. He was also chairman of the history department for 11 years. In 2003, he was given the Montana Governor's Humanities Award.
He is also a former Montana legislator, having served in both the House and Senate as a Democrat in the 1980s and 1990s.
Much has changed in his 40 years, Fritz said, while shaking hands with grateful students after his lecture. This generation - the ones who will be asked to continue to fight this war - has been largely deprived of an education in history, he said.
“I think the educational establishment has approached the point of abolishing history as a requirement to graduate high school,” Fritz said. “One thing is that they don't see to it that good teachers are in the classroom. High school students think it's Dullsville, U.S.A. They've watered down the requirement.”
Proof of that is how few of his students know much - if anything - about World War II when entering his military history course.
“I might as well be teaching a course on the Peloponnesian War, though I bet most of this class went to see ‘300,' ” he said, turning to a few students who hung around after the lecture. “So that's a good start.”
Yet every year, the department ends up with hundreds of history majors and minors, and Fritz's courses in American and Montana history are among the most popular.
“We only get a handful of students who enter the university and want to be history majors,” he said. “And yet we end up with almost 300 history majors and minors. ... We must be doing something right to attract those students.”
With 800 to 900 students in his courses each year for 40 years, a conservative estimate is that Fritz has taught more than 30,000 students.
In his retirement, Fritz said he plans to travel for the next eight months, to Colombia and Germany while hitting the links whenever he can.
“This is the most free time I've had since before I entered kindergarten,” he said.
In the next few years, Fritz will continue to teach a few courses at UM, but when he's gone for good, he fears military history will disappear from the campus completely.
“I think military history is one of the most important components of American history,” he said. “We've fought one major war in each generation since before we were a nation. I think the historical profession tends to kind of downplay military history, because they think it's nothing but tactics and drum-and-bugle history. But the causes and consequences of war are what drive this country.”
Reporter Jamie Kelly can be reached at 523-5254 or at jkelly@missoulian.com.
|
 |
 |
Add your comment now! Write your comment in the form below.
(Email address is for verification only. If you'd like to email a story, look for the link above)