Roundup

Amazon Digs Indicate Advanced Indian Civilizations [audio, 4 minutes 39 seconds]

There have been a lot of things said about the Amazon: That it was a vast virgin jungle, that its only inhabitants were hunter-gatherers and that the rain forest was too hostile to have ever supported big civilizations. But increasingly, archaeologists say they are discovering the Amazon was home to large, even advanced civilizations before the Europeans arrived.

Niall Ferguson: "The United States Is On A Completely Unsustainable Fiscal Course With No Apparent Political Means Of Self-Correcting" [video, 10 minutes]

"Imperial declines...are nearly always associated with fiscal crises," and these fiscal crises are the result of the rising costs of servicing debt, according to Niall Ferguson (via Zero Hedge). In a speech to the Center for Independent Studies in Australia, Ferguson breaks down why empires fall and the current threat to the U.S. through its own emerging fiscal crisis....

National WWII Museum searching for Senior Historical Expert

Senior Historical Expert at The National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Responsible for leading Research Services Department, management of oral history collection, development of research capabilities, educational programs, and publications. PhD in History, record of publishing, and public speaking experience required. Prior administrative experience desired. Send resume, writing sample, and three references to: Historian In Residence, The National WWII Museum, 945 Magazine St, Ne

Exhuming Spain's civil war mass graves [video 2 minutes 44 seconds]

Spain has spent much of the last decade re-examining the past, exhuming mass graves from its devastating civil war. It is thought there are around 2,000 unmarked burial sites across the country, but only a fraction have been opened. The government now provides some funds for the search, but the work is left to relatives and volunteers. As Sarah Rainsford reports, for some people, time is running out....

Jon Wiener on John Lennon's Political Legacy [video, 5 minutes 38 seconds]

Nixon wanted him deported; the FBI spied on him. Why did The Beatles' John Lennon set so many people off, and how did he make the transition from pop icon to political figure? Thirty years after the singer's death, Nation contributor Jon Weiner talks with CNN's Candy Crowley about John Lennon's political legacy—how he became politicized, and why"Imagine" is still a controversial song, even today.Jon Wiener is the author of

Reason.tv: The Power of Nazi Propaganda [video, 6 minutes]

From radio and film to newspapers and publishing, the Nazi regime controlled every aspect of German culture from 1933-1945. Through Josef Goebbels' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the German state tightly controlled political messaging, promoting deification of the leader—the Führerprinzip—and the demonization of the ubiquitous and duplicitious "racial enemy." A new exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., examines "

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Graham E. Fuller on modern Islam [audio, 55 minutes 55 seconds]

Graham E. Fuller has a BA and MA from Harvard in Russian and Middle East studies. He worked 20 years as a CIA operations officer, seventeen of them overseas in Turkey, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and China. He later became Vice-Chair of the National Intelligence Council at CIA, with overall responsibility for national level strategic forecasting. After leaving government service Mr. Fuller was a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation for 12 years where, amo

Julian Zelizer: Assessing the Bush Presidency & "Decision Points" in the Media

By Bonnie K. GoodmanMs. Goodman is the Editor/Features Editor at HNN. She has a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University, and has done graduate work in history at Concordia University. Her blog is Histor

Bush Releases Memoir: 'He Knows the Historians Are Coming' [video, 8 minutes 38 seconds]

In his new memoir "Decision Points," former President George W. Bush explains some of the tough decisions he made while in office, including how he dealt with 9/11, the lack of weapons of mass destruction and Hurricane Katrina. Historians Michael Beschloss and Julian Zelizer give perspective on presidential memoirs.

Thomas E. Sebrell II: Britain’s involvement in the US Civil War [video, 2 minutes 3 seconds]

A long forgotten and controversial part of Britain’s past is being unearthed by an American historian living in London. Tom Sebrell has uncovered evidence of strong support for the southern Confederate states in the Civil War in America. Britain was officially neutral during the war. But Sebrell is now leading walking tours of London that reveal untold stories of Britain’s role. Laura Lynch decided to take the tour for herself.

Lincoln's Evolving Thoughts On Slavery, And Freedom [audio, 36 minutes 4 seconds

In 1854, Sen. Stephen Douglas forced the Kansas-Nebraska Act through Congress. The bill, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, also opened up a good portion of the Midwest to the possible expansion of slavery. Douglas' political rival, former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln, was enraged by the bill. He scheduled three public speeches in the fall of 1854, in response. The longest of those speeches — known as the Peoria Speech — took three hours to deliver. In it, Linco

Why does Minnesota have a tradition of electing third-party candidates? [audio, 1 minute 30 seconds]

Minnesota is one of a few states in the country where third party candidates do well. MN90 producer Marisa Helms shows us that the success of third party candidates is attributed to a supportive public financing system, and being in the right place at the right time. Disenchantment with the major parties helps, too.

Publisher to Remove Black Confederate Textbook Reference: James Loewen on NPR [3 minutes 35 seconds, audio]

James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong and co-editor of The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The Great Truth about the Lost Cause, appeared on National Public Radio's Morning Edition on Oct. 22 to discuss the controversy over the claims about black Confederate soldiers in Our Virginia: Past and Present, a textbook distributed to Virginia fourth graders.

Niall Ferguson: Renews Debate with Paul Krugman Over US Stimulus

Basic FactsTeaching Position: Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University and William Ziegler Professor at Harvard Business School. Area of Research: Financial and Economic History, History of Colonialism. Education: Magdalen College, Oxford,

Matthew A. Wasniewski: Appointed the New Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives

Basic FactsPosition: Appointed the 4th House Historian. Area of Research: 19th & 20th Century United States History, Diplomatic History. Education: Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, 2004. Major Publications: Wasniewski is the author of"Walter Lippmann, strategic internationalism, the Cold War, and Vietnam, 1943--1967." Ph.D. Di

The Honey Trap: The True Story of Madame Elizabeth Brousse, A/K/A "Cynthia" -- by Jeff Shear

Jeff Shear is the author of Keys to the Kingdom, an investigation into a weapons deal between the US and Japan (the FSX), published by Doubleday in 1994. He has been a Fellow at The Center for Public Integrity, in Washington, DC where he was one of several contributors to the book The Buying of the Congress, publis

GOPer Runyan Lists Dred Scott As Recent SCOTUS Decision He Disagrees With [video, 25 seconds]

Jon Runyan, a former pro football player and now the Republ

TT antebellum U.S. position at Cal Poly Pomona

The History Department in the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) invites applications for a tenure-track position in Antebellum United States history, with preferences for cultural or diplomatic history, at the rank of assistant professor to begin Fall 2011.The Position: Primary duties are:  (1) teaching undergraduate and graduate-level courses on Antebellum US history and lower-division

Charles Kenworthy: Are Target Assassinations Legal?

[Charles Kenworthy is an ACE contributor]That the CIA targets terror suspects for assassination should come as no surprise to anyone following the news.  A special set of circumstances, however, led California Representative Jane Harmon to label Anwar al-Awlaki “Terrorist No. 1.”  Al-Awlaki is an American citizen.  He was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents in 1971.  Although he was raised in Yemen after the age of seven, he attended college in the U.S. before finally deciding to