Historians in the News

Q&A: Roosevelt Biographer Recalls an Earlier Top Cop

...But with a crowded race for City Hall this year and some likely candidates suggesting they would like appoint a different top cop, it remains unclear what’s might come next for the long-time commissioner. Metropolis spoke with historian Edmund Morris, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt, on how  Kelly compares with New York’s other famous police commissioner. Here is the edited interview:Metropolis:  What drew TR into the police force? And how was policing different back then?Morris: TR came back to the city of his birth in 1895, after six long years as a civil service commissioner in Washington, ambitious to be a moral force in the reform administration of Mayor William L. Strong.Ironically, his restless progressivism ran into even more opposition here than it had been in the nation’s capital. This was partly because TR was just one member of the city’s four-man board of police commissioners (as president of the board, he had only titular preeminence). But it was also because he seemed to go out of his way to alienate such entrenched, conservative interests as the saloon industry, Wall Street, and indeed the corrupt ranks of the police force itself.

Job Searches at the AHA Annual Meeting

Search committees conducted interviews for over 154 positions at the 2013 AHA annual meeting, almost matching last year’s total of 160. The number of searches slipped a bit, which is typical in smaller meeting cities.For the first time in recent memory, jobs with a European specialization outnumbered those for the United States, 25 to 24 percent. The next highest was Asia, followed by Latin America, and then thematic. These searches, which did not require a specific geographical area, were mostly for public and digital historians. Five percent or less of the searches asked for either African, Middle East, or world history specializations....

Edwin Black at Fordham University traces Farhud and the roots of the Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust

Award-winning, bestselling author Edwin Black will chronicle the centuries of intersection between Islam and Jewry that led to the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad in 1941 and the ensuing Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust in a major address at Fordham University 6 PM January 31, 2013. Black's presentation is based on his recent bestselling and critically acclaimed book, The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust. The event at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham is sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Black's presentation will be followed by a 28-minute filmed testimony by actual victims in the documentary "The Farhud," screened by Professor Haim Shaked.Dr. Shaked is flying in from Miami for the special event. He is the director of The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. Black's presentation and the film are predicted to "completely re-define people's perception of mideast history, the Palestine conflict, and the basis for the robust international Arab alliance with the Nazis," said author Black.

America’s own Downton Abbey: Five history lessons based on the series by Katherine Howe

With the American premier of Downton Abbey, season three, here are five history lessons based on the popular television series provided by Katherine Howe, author and lecturer of American studies at Cornell University. The paperback of Howe’s novel, “The House of Velvet and Glass,” takes place in the same time period and will be released on Jan. 29 by Hyperion/Voice.The real women behind Cora, Countess of Grantham and her mother, Martha Levinson

Historian Martin Kramer to head Israel's first liberal-arts college

Middle Eastern historian Martin Kramer, author of various works on the Middle East and Islam -- including The Islamism Debate (1997), The Jewish Discovery of Islam (1999), and Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America (2001) -- has been officially named president-designate of Shalom College in Jerusalem, Israel's first degree-granting liberal arts college.The college will teach a core curriculum based on key texts in Western and Jewish history.Shalem College will begin its first semester in October.From Mr. Kramer's blog:

John C. Reilly Jr., Navy historian and author

John C. Reilly Jr., 79, a Navy historian and author who retired in 2001 as director of the Naval Historical Center’s ship history branch, died Dec. 17 at his home in Fairfax County.He had Parkinson’s disease, said his wife, Anna Reilly.Mr. Reilly joined the Naval Historical Center in the mid-1960s and became branch head in the mid-1980s.During his time at the center, he was the author or co-writer of several books, including “United States Navy Destroyers of World War II in Action” (1985)....

Prolific author, Northwestern professor Jan Carew dies at 92

Northwestern University issued the following obituary of former professor Jan Carew, who died Dec. 6:Jan Carew, professor emeritus of African American studies at Northwestern University, died Dec. 6 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 92.Professor of African American Studies from 1973 to 1987, Carew was described as the “quintessential Renaissance Man – an author, historian, internationalist, public intellectual, social justice activist and pioneer in experimenting with sustainable lifestyles for people of color.”Darlene Clark Hine, Board of Trustees Professor of African American studies and professor of history at Northwestern, said Carew was an important leader of Black studies....

Ostrower named ‘SuperProfessor’ of history by FacultyRow.com

Gary Ostrower, professor of history at Alfred University (AU), has been named a “SuperProfessor” by FacultyRow.com.FacultyRow, with 91,000 members in 103 countries, was launched in 2011 and is increasingly gaining recognition in traditional academic institutions throughout the world. “SuperProfessors” has become a prominent platform highlighting achievements of leading academics; instructors given the title “SuperProfessor” are considered the most admirable in their field. They demonstrate excellence, passion, and clarity, and have a wide range of knowledge within their respective field of study.Ostrower was chosen out of a pool of 4,000 applicants for the official 2013 list of SuperProfessors. Currently, there are about 400 SuperProfessors nationwide.Currently the Joseph K. Kruson Distinguished Professor at the University, Ostrower is an AU alumnus. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history at AU and a master of arts degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Rochester. He has spent most of his teaching career at Alfred, but previously taught at Vassar College and the University of Pennsylvania....

Claude-Anne Lopez Dies at 92; Told of Franklin’s Private Life

He was a postmaster-inventor-diplomat-founding father — just another American revolutionary. She was two centuries younger but plenty worldly as well, with a blend of verve and pragmatism that had helped her escape Nazi-occupied Belgium by taxicab. Their first meetings were hardly memorable.“I must admit that your words of wisdom left me cold,” Claude-Anne Lopez would write many years later. “But I had no choice: it was your papers or nothing.”It was academia in the 1950s, and she was a woman in a man’s world. She took what she could get: a job transcribing the 30,000 documents that constitute the Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University. She started as a transcriber at 65 cents an hour. She would become an authority — and an admirer....

Ravitch on Rhee

The PBS show “Frontline” on Tuesday night aired John Merrow’s documentary on school reformer Michelle Rhee, which focused on the 3 1/2 years she was chancellor of D.C. Public Schools. There is sure to be a variety of opinions on what it said and what it didn’t say.Here is the reaction of education historian Diane Ravitch, who has become the preeminent voice in the growing opposition to Rhee’s style of school reform. This appeared on Ravitch’s blog.By Diane RavitchI was invited by Frontline to offer reactions to the documentary about Michelle Rhee. I was disappointed that the documentary did not mention that Rhee is now working on behalf of a far-right agenda of privatization; that Washington Teachers Union President George Parker now works for StudentsFirst; that Rhee’s “miraculous gains” as a teacher in Baltimore have been discredited....

Klemens von Klemperer Dies at 96; Wrote of Nazi Era

Klemens von Klemperer, a refugee from Nazi Germany who wrote what is widely considered the seminal history of the movement among the country’s conservative elite to overthrow Hitler, died on Dec. 23 at his home in Easthampton, Mass. He was 96.His death was confirmed by his son, James.Dr. von Klemperer, an emeritus professor of history at Smith College, was one of a generation of refugee historians who helped lay the groundwork for modern German and European studies in the United States, a group that also included Hajo Holborn, Fritz Stern and Peter Gay.A privileged child who came from a family of German bankers and industrialists, he had taken a leading role in demonstrations against Hitler as a student in Vienna before fleeing to the United States in 1938....

Tzvi Yavetz, prize-winning Israeli historian of Rome, dies at 88

Israel Prize winner and historian Tzvi Yavetz passed away Tuesday at the age of 88. Yavetz specialized in the history of ancient Rome. He was among the founders of Tel Aviv University....

What 'Lincoln' misses and another Civil War film gets right

(CNN) -- He used the N-word and told racist jokes. He once said African-Americans were inferior to whites. He proposed ending slavery by shipping willing slaves back to Africa.Meet Abraham Lincoln, "The Great Emancipator" who "freed" the slaves.That's not the version of Lincoln we get from Steven Spielberg's movie "Lincoln." But there's another film that fills in the historical gaps left by Spielberg and challenges conventional wisdom about Lincoln and the Civil War."The Abolitionists" is a PBS American Experience film premièring Tuesday that focuses on the intertwined lives of five abolitionist leaders. These men and women arguably did as much -- maybe even more -- than Lincoln to end slavery, yet few contemporary Americans recognize their names....

Is Diane Ravitch the Cassandra of school reform?

Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham's Urban Studies Program. He is the author of three books and over 100 articles on African-American History, urban history, and the history of sports. His most recent book, White Boy: A Memoir, was published in the spring of 2002.In the spring and summer of 1965, as U.S. policymakers debated whether to send large numbers of U.S. ground troops to Vietnam to ensure that the South Vietnamese government not collapse, a longtime Washington insider named George Ball issued a fierce warning that the policy being recommended would be disastrous. Declaring that the conflict in Vietnam was a “civil war among Asians,” not a front of a global struggle against communism, Ball warned that sending U.S. ground troops lead would lead to national humiliation no matter how large the force sent or the technological advantage it possessed because it would cement the character of the war, from the Vietnamese side, as a struggle against a foreign invader. Ball’s advice needless to say, was disregarded, and the result was exactly as he predicted -- a humiliating defeat for the U.S.

Refugee and historian von Klemperer, who wrote about Nazi regime, dies at Mass. home at age 96

BOSTON — Klemens Wilhelm von Klemperer, a German refugee who wrote extensively about the rise and fall of the Nazi regime has died in Massachusetts. He was 96.Von Klemperer was an emeritus professor of history at Smith College in Northampton. His Dec. 23 death of natural causes at his home in Easthampton was confirmed Monday by his son, James von Klemperer.Klemens von Klemperer wrote numerous books and articles related to German and central European history, including “German Resistance Against Hitler: The Search for Allies Abroad, 1938-1945.”...

UPDATE: Joyce Appleby backing petition to disarm the filibuster

Joyce Appleby, emeritus professor of history at UCLA and author of "The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism," is circulating the petition posted below among historians who support filibuster reform.  (This is the second time she has championed filibuster reform. The first time was in January 2011 when she circulated this petition.)  She asks historians who wish to sign the petition to contact her at this email address: appleby@history.ucla.edu. We, the undersigned, American historians, political scientists, and legal scholars call upon our senators to restore majority rule to the United States Senate by revising the rules that now require the concurrence of 60 members before legislation be can be brought to the floor for debate.Signatories (UPDATED: 1/18/13)

History prof's tirade against class-skippers draws attention

When students failed to show up for a lecture given by Guy Halsall, professor of history at the University of York, you might imagine that he suffered a flicker of self-doubt and that the empty seats bruised the confidence of a sensitive scholar.Not a bit of it: Professor Halsall berated his students for missing a lecture from "probably the most significant historian of early medieval Europe under the age of 60."He posted the comments within the university's virtual learning environment, which is used for online contact between students and tutors.According to York student newspaper Nouse, Professor Halsall responded to an underattended second-year lecture by telling students they were failing to make the most of the "obscene amounts of money" that "mummy and daddy" were paying for their education....

Yehuda Elkana, Israeli historian and critic of the "Holocaust industry," has died at age 78

Elkana was a survivor of Auschwitz, so when, in 1988, he published an article in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on “The Need to Forget”, few could question his credentials.

NYT calls Bill O'Reilly "arguably the most popular history author in America"

 

Henry Louis Gates interviews Tarantino over use of the "n" word

 Since 1994's Pulp Fiction, the n-word been an issue -- not so much for Quentin Tarantino but for some of the viewers of his films. Why does he use it so liberally in his movies?Things are no different with his latest film, Django Unchained, opening Christmas Day. In the postmodern, slave-narrative Western starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio as sadistic plantation owner Calvin Candie, the word "nigger," by some counts, is uttered 110 times.