A master political strategist on the value of language (and Shakespeare)

Karl Rove

Karl Rove

Regardless of where you stand politically, it is hard to deny that Karl Rove is one of the most brilliant and effective political strategists in recent memory. He never graduated from college, but he does tout the incredible value of what he learned there...in English class:

"The best course I ever took in college was in my sophomore year, and it was a course in Shakespearean literature. I learned more about political communications in one semester from a Catholic nun than I learned in any political science course. It made me aware of the power of language. And how, telling a story -- a political campaign is about big issues, but you have to describe a narrative, you have to create a storyline, you know -- what is this all about?"

-- Karl Rove, in an interview with Stephen Dubner, in the Freakonomics Radio Podcast, "Freakonomics Goes to College, Part 1," 30 July 2012

So, for all the English teachers out there, happy continued teaching of such a relevant and powerful discipline.

Image: White House. Karl Rove. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, n.d. Web. 16 Aug. 2012.

There is no single draft of greatness

In case you have students who believe that rewriting is something only done in school, show them this interactive display of Darwin's 6 revisions of On the Origin of Species -- you can play it like a movie (I recommend the Fast setting) to watch the work 'evolve,' and even hover over specific segments to read the actual text of the book itself.

And speaking of counterclaims -- there's a great surprise -- as an entire chapter (in red) appears suddenly in the 6th version -- it is Darwin directly addressing counter arguments that have been made against natural selection.

The title is a nice pun, too, on the full title of Darwin's work:  On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

Click on the image below or go to http://benfry.com/traces/ (does not work well in Chrome - use Firefox or Safari)