Roundup: Talking About History

Apr 24, 2004

Timbuktu's Archival Treasures Document a Flourishing Literate Past

Lila Azam Zanganeh, in the NYT (April 24, 2004):In popular imagination, the word Timbuktu is a trip of three syllables to the ends of the earth. Today this West African city is a slumbering and decrepit citadel at the southern edge of the Sahara, in Mali, one of the poorest countries in the world. Yet it is here that some of the most astonishing developments in African intellectual hist

Apr 23, 2004

The San Francisco Earthquake

Carl Nolte, in the San Francisco Chronicle (April 18, 2004):Today is the 98th anniversary of the earthquake and fire that destroyed San Francisco, a time to tell old stories about what writer Will Irwin called "The City That Was," a magical San Francisco that probably never existed except in memory. The old San Francisco, Irwin wrote, was "the gayest, most lighthearted, most pleasure-loving city on the western continent ... a city o

Apr 23, 2004

Rwanda's History Too Controversial to Teach

William Wallis, in the London Financial Times (April 17, 2004):Forgive thy neighbour How does a country recover from genocide? A decade after the slaughter of 800,000 Rwandans, the government is concentrating on justice for the Tutsi victims. But many Hutus suffered too and the latest measures are struggling to bridge the deadly ethnic divide... Rwanda's history is considered too sensitive to be taught in schools, although teachers are confronted ev

Apr 22, 2004

Troy: Yes, It Existed (But as for the Rest of Homer's Story ... )

Rodney Chester, in the Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia) (April 17, 2004):Homer may have used poetic licence when he wrote his tale of the Trojan horse, and the war that razed an ancient city. Rodney Chester reports IT HAS love, betrayal, great warriors, brilliant cunning. It is the story of the Trojan Wars and as Troy expert Dr Eric Cline, of George Washington University in the United States says, there is a reason the story continues to fasci

Apr 22, 2004

Sandra Hochman's Astonishing 1973 Documentary About the Women's Movement

Douglas Rogers, in the Guardian (April 16, 2004):In 1973, Sandra Hochman's documentary about the women's movement, featuring Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine, caused a sensation. So why has it spent 30 years locked in a vault? Warren Beatty looked bemused. This should have been so easy for him. He was the hottest film star in the world, the cameras were rolling and h

Apr 22, 2004

Michelangelo's Marble Masterpiece Is Being Cleaned for His 500th Birthday

Ann Beveridge, in the Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia) (April 16, 2004):As a symbol of naked male beauty, power, defiance and erotic attraction, Michelangelo's David is said to be without equal. Ever since the towering white-marble colossus was first displayed in the main square of the Italian city of Florence in 1504, where it was pelted with stones by political protesters, it has inspired and inflamed human passions. Its significance toda

Apr 21, 2004

Do We Need to Know History?

Dr.M.A. Jayashree & Prof . M.A. Narasimhan, in Star of Mysore (April 21,2004):...History is a record of past events including many a times, the record of the shortcomings of ancestors. How can a thing of the past, which is based on the meagre knowledge of the ‘then’, be a source of inspiration for the problems

Apr 20, 2004

Painting History: It's No Longer Heroic

Glenn Dixon, in the Wash Post (April 17, 2004): History painting once was a fairly straightforward affair. Whether it was Emanuel Leutze's"George Washington Crossing the Delaware" or Jacques-Louis David's"The Death of Socrates," the formula was clear: You need great men, dramatic moments, and flattering lighting.

Apr 15, 2004

Japanese Records Confirm Canada Was Shelled

Michael Whitby and Bill Rawling, Ottawa, Official naval historians, Department of National Defence, in the Ottawa Citizen (April 11, 2004):Any suggestion that Canada and the United States staged the attack on Estevan Point in June 1942 is unfounded and flies in the face of rigorous historical research. Two Japanese submarines (I-25 and I-26) were sent to the Pacific coast of North America in June 1942 to reconnoitre the main United States base

Apr 15, 2004

Historians Fear Hollywood Is Distorting the Battle of Britain in a New Film by Tom Cruise

Cole Moreton Right, in the London Independent (April 11, 2004):Billy Fiske was a racing driver, a pilot, an Olympic gold medallist and an American - but one thing he did not do was win the Battle of Britain single-handed. Veterans and historians fear that will be the impression given, however, when Tom Cruise plays Fiske in a new film called The Few. "I've heard it is almost like he won the war all on his own," says Ben Clinch, who loade

Apr 15, 2004

Chester Finn: History Teachers Are Being Manipulated by Biased Materials

Chester Finn, in the Weekly Bulletin of News and Analysis from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (April 15, 2004):If America’s history teachers were broadly educated, deeply knowledgeable about the content that they’re responsible for imparting to students, and free to draw their information, textbooks, and other instructional materials from whatever sources they judge best, all within a framework of sound academic standards and results-based acco

Apr 14, 2004

Lincoln, from a British Perspective

Richard Carwardine, a professor of American history at Oxford University, who received the 2004 Lincoln Prize for his 2003 biography, in the WSJ (April 14, 2004):Abraham Lincoln has long fascinated the British. Indeed, a century ago there was something of a cult of Lincoln. As a tribute, a copy of Augustus Saint-Gaudens's statue of a deeply contemplative Civil War president was erected in 1920 in

Apr 14, 2004

Scots And English Division Is 10,000 Years Old

Keith Sinclair, in the Herald (Glasgow) (April 12, 2004):THE ancient split between the Scots and the English is older than previously thought, a new academic theory claims. The difference between the English and Scots, Welsh, Irish and Cornish has traditionally been attributed to the influence of invading forces such as the Anglo-Saxons, Celts and Vikings as they settled in different parts of Britain hundreds of years ago. However, an Oxford don w

Apr 14, 2004

One Way to Teach Kids About Holocaust Denial

Jesse Leavenworth, in the Hartford Courant (April 12, 2004):History teacher Patrick Richardson will introduce his lesson on Holocaust denial by issuing students a press release from the future that declares Sept. 11, 2001, never happened. "We would say that's ridiculous, and yet 60 years removed from the Holocaust, these things are gaining momentum," Richardson said Friday. These "things" are claims that the Nazis' attempt to s

Apr 13, 2004

Biased World History Textbooks Warp American Children's Outlook

Suzanne Fields, in the Washington Times (April 13, 2004):America-bashing coincides with the proliferation of dumbed-down world history textbooks used in grades six through 12 in our public schools. The material our schoolchildren study is either diluted to emphasize trivia or edited with an eye to the politically correct, designed never to offend the lowest common sensiti

Apr 13, 2004

Sean Hannity, Historian

Thane Peterson, reviewing Sean Hannity's new bestseller, Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism and Liberalism, in MSNBC (April 13, 2004):Deliver Us from Evil is full of name-calling trumped up as intellectual debate, one-sided history lessons designed to deceive the ill-informed, and good old-fashioned war-mongering. Why do so many people read this stuff? My guess is that it's mainly to c

Apr 13, 2004

Bias in the Supplementary Materials Used by History Teachers

From the new study by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation study, "The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America's History Teachers," written by Sandra Stotsky:In the past three decades, scholars and parents have criticized K-12 history textbooks for their inadequate coverage of important topics as well as for being error-laden and poorly written. They came under additio

Apr 13, 2004

The New Movie About the Alamo Is PC and Boring

Don Feder, a former writer for the Boston Herald, in frontpagemag.com (April 13, 2004): There are episodes in America’s history that deserve to be retold to each generation as examples of the patriotism, heroism and the sacrifices made to keep us free – Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Bataan, D-Day, Iwo Jima and The Alamo. Of these, the Alamo is perhaps the most tragic, and t

Apr 9, 2004

Columnist: The History Channel's Apology--And Why It's Important

Dave Addis, Virginia Pilot (April 9, 2004): Wednesday night, with no new episode of “The West Wing” in sight, my wife and I tucked ourselves into our couches and watched an hour long apology on The History Channel. This would not normally be considered compelling television. The program consisted solely of four middle-aged white males – a news anchor and three musty historians – sitting

Apr 8, 2004

Columbia University: For a Long Time It Was Uncomfortable Being Smack in the Middle of a City

Lucy Qiu, in the Columbia Spectator (April 8, 2004): Columbia kicked off a new four-part lecture series titled"Our Past Engaged: Four Turning Points in Columbia's Recent History" last night in Low Library with a lecture given by professor of history Kenneth T. Jackson focusing on the interaction of the University and the city in the years between the Civil War and the Progres