Newswise — 18 Virginia Tech history students recently collaborated on writing and editing a book on the iconic rock band, the Beatles. Available now online as an eBook and for purchase through Amazon, “Welcome to the Beatles” brings fresh perspectives on the Fab Four from writers not even born 25 years after the group last played together.
“I've taught the senior seminar on the Beatles a couple of times, but this is the first published book to come out of it,” said Robert Stephens, an associate professor of history. “I chose the Beatles because it allows the students an exciting way into writing about global history, as you can see from the book. They find it engaging, often because of their parents or grandparents' interest in the band.”
Quoting Stephens:
- “These students bring their own perspective, having come of age generations after the Beatles’ heyday, which ultimately enabled them to reexamine the band with the benefit of historical distance.”
- “I was surprised at how many were interested in race and gender as well as in the international reception of the band. They did significant primary and secondary research about their specific topic. Each article contains a historiography section that places the article within past scholarship, but the bulk of the work is in primary sources.”
- “Students often do not think of the Beatles as a ‘normal’ historical topic, but they find in their research what a powerful force for globalization that the Beatles represented. They often find that the topic is much broader and more complex than the ideas they came in with.”
Video Interview with Robert Stephens
To secure a live or recorded interview with Stephens, contact Bill Foy by email, or by phone at 540-998-0288.
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