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1974 — Coach Mort LaPointe’s men’s lacrosse team beats Wesleyan, 15–7, to become the ECAC College Division Champions for the first time.

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Whispering Pines: ‘Live Free or Die’ – The Presidential Election of 1852

 

In his latest column, John Cross ’76 writes about the presidential election of 1852, in which two of the three candidates were Bowdoin alumni.

“Live Free or Die: Death Is Not the Worst of Evils”
—Toast from General John Stark in 1809 to the survivors of the Battle of Bennington

In this political season, if you were to ask Americans to name the U.S. presidential elections that had the greatest impact on the country’s future, it is a safe bet that the 1852 contest would not rank high on anyone’s list. It pitted Whig candidate General Winfield Scott (of Mexican War fame) against former Democratic senator Franklin Pierce of the Bowdoin Class of 1824 and Free Soil standard bearer John Parker Hale of the Bowdoin Class of 1827. Pierce’s campaign may have had one of the worst political slogans of all time: “We Polked you in ’44, we shall Pierce you in ’52.”

Continue reading Whispering Pines: ‘Live Free or Die’ – The Presidential Election of 1852

Posted on November 1st, 2012 in Alumni, Bowdoin, History, Law, Government & Politics | 5 comments

Students Share #BowdoinFall Photos

 

Is there any place better to spend the autumn season than the Bowdoin campus? We may be a little biased, but you will be too after checking out these great shots snapped by students and shared on Instagram with the hashtag #BowdoinFall. We collected and featured a selection on Storify.

Continue reading Students Share #BowdoinFall Photos

Posted on November 1st, 2012 in Bowdoin, Students | 3 comments

Is a College Grad More Politically Active? (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

In a recent editorial in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Neil Gross, a professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, examines whether obtaining a college education makes an American more likely to vote.

Although much research has shown that college-educated people are more politically engaged, Gross questions the veracity of this view. How, for instance, to explain the rapid increase in college attendance over the past 40 years with a simultaneous drop off in political participation? “The taste for politics might be a habit or disposition that requires far longer than four years to cultivate, and might arise from familial and personal characteristics and circumstances the influence of which no higher-education institution could ever approximate,” Gross writes.

Posted on November 1st, 2012 in Bowdoin | Leave a comment

Bowdoin Remembers: Commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War

Front page of the November 1862 "Bowdoin Bugle."

Front page of the November 1862 "Bowdoin Bugle."

Amid the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War, Bowdoin is preparing to commemorate the sesquicentennial with Alumni College programming. ”The Afterlife of the American Civil War,” a series scheduled August 8-11, 2013, will feature keynote speakers, talks by Bowdoin faculty and walking tours of historic Brunswick.

In the months leading up to the Alumni College, the Bowdoin Daily Sun, at the beginning of the month, will post Civil War milestones and other remembrances related to the College.

With thanks to the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, this month we feature an excerpt from a November 1862 Bowdoin Bugle editorial.

Continue reading Bowdoin Remembers: Commemorating the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War

Posted on November 1st, 2012 in Bowdoin, History, Law, Government & Politics | One comment