Blog Archives
Here are a few excerpts from our talks around the country–from NCAA to NASA, from Greek system organizations to councils on financial literacy, from universities to doctors’ associations—and many more in between. Have talk, will travel! Hire us, and you’ll be glad you did. We’ll custom design our presentations for your specific group. For North Texas State University: THE Beloit College Mindset List is an international phenomenon. According to TIME Magazine “Mindset List” is part of the “American Lexicon.” The Seattle Times calls it “irreverent and insightful.” Editors in England say the Mindset List is essential. Brian Williams at NBC News says it is indispensable. Editors in India and New Zealand ask us to help them create lists for their Read on »
For Release: TUESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2013 Author contact: 12:01 a.m. Ron Nief (608-770-2625) niefr@beloit.edu Tom McBride (608-312-9508) mcbridet@beloit.edu Beloit College Mindset List Recognizes the Class of 2017, Entering College this Fall, As The “Sharing Generation.” Beloit, Wis. – When the Class of 2017 arrives on campus this fall, these digital natives will already be well-connected to each other. They are more likely to have borrowed money for college than their Boomer parents were, and while their parents foresee four years of school, the students are pretty sure it will be longer than that. Members Read on »
THE SHARING GENERATION: A Preview of The Mindset List® for the Class of 2017 By now we are familiar with adjectives that go before “generations,” such as “Greatest” and “Silent.” Or sometimes we just hear “the Boomers.” For some reason that bunch isn’t called “the Booming Generation.” Maybe that’s a good thing, too. The current generation, I predict and I hope, will be called The Sharing Generation. They may very well become the most secular generation–and yet also the generation best organized for service–in American history. Why? Well, consider for a moment how much—and what–they share: *They share information: it is a generation that has grown up with the electronic cut and paste and forward. *They share themselves: it’s a Read on »
The MINDSET LIST® proudly presents a new series on famed fictional characters. Here we treat them as real persons, offer a character sketch, and then unite them with famous people who died, or were born, the same year they were. We then present their personal Mindset Lists…. Here’s DONALD DUCK, and right after him you’ll find TONY SOPRANO. In future look for the likes of Jay Gatsby, Lucy Ricardo, Don Draper, Jerry Seinfeld, Captain Kirk, and more. Have fun….. Donald Duck Donald Duck has always been #2, or perhaps he is 1A. #1 has always been Mickey Mouse, likely the most recognized such rodent in the world. Donald is probably the most recognized duck, but given the Read on »
A Mad Man’s Mindset List®…. In both The Mindset Lists of American History and The Annual Mindset List, Tom McBride and Ron Nief offer an “indispensable” (Brian Williams) and “mesmerizing” (Associated Press) way of tracing the American past…. Here McBride and Nief offer their unique perspective on one of America’s favorite TV characters…. As AMC’s Mad Men continues in its latest season, it is time to take historical stock of its leading character: the outwardly handsome but subtly tortured Don Draper. A brilliantly successful man in the sexist, alcohol-soaked early 1960s, Don’s personal life remains a mess from which we viewers do not wish walk away. A Little Background Don Draper (real name: Richard Whitman) was born in the American South in 1924 and is thirty-six Read on »
Presented to the League of Women Voters on February 10, 2013: 1. When they were toddlers, academics were talking about the “chilly climate” in the classroom for women; now that they are college students, academics are worried about the paucity of males attending American colleges and universities. 2. Although Hillary Clinton was a pioneering feminist, most of them supported Obama in 2008. 3. They fully expect the Democratic Party to be running women on the top or bottom of presidential tickets for the next decade and beyond—and think the Republicans might, too. 4. They are the least surprised people in America to learn that the Army is now bringing women into forward combat roles. 5. Read on »
An Excerpt from the Keynote Address for the NCAA National Convention Dallas, 2013 By Tom McBride and Ron Nief, co-authors of The Mindset Lists of American History (Wiley, 2011) What have today’s young people—those between eighteen and twenty-nine—grown up with in terms of American athletics? What has been “normal” for them? What is their “sports mindset”? There are two ways to answer this question: by offering some items off our famed, patented Lists, and by offering some analysis of a main difference between this sports generation and previous ones. Let’s start with some List items: they supply an immediate (and comic) insight into what has always been “normal”—in terms of athletics—for the current generation of young people: Sports bras Read on »
THE MINDSET LISTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY Frequently Asked Questions Posed to the Authors, Tom McBride and Ron Nief Q: Why didn’t you just publish a book that included all your Mindset Lists since the beginning in 1998? A: No one would buy such a book when they get all our Mindset Lists free online at www.beloit.edu/mindset or www.mindset.flywheelsites.com Besides, we wanted to do something larger: prove that our methods are an illuminating way to pursue historical truth, especially about American life over the past 150 years, from 1880-2030. Q: What do you mean by that? A: We mean that an investigation of what’s normal for one generation, but abnormal for another, reveals how history is all about change. Historical change Read on »