This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Federation of American Scientists
Oct 22, 2012
We were sad to learn that Professor Anna K. Nelson, a tenacious and effective advocate for improved public access to national security records, passed away last month.For decades, Prof. Nelson argued for improved declassification practices in almost every venue imaginable, from congressional hearings to the most obscure and transient advisory bodies. As a professor of history at American University, she insisted that government records were public property and that access to such records was one of the foundations of good citizenship.Among many other posts, she served as a presidentially-appointed member of the JFK Assassination Records Review Board, which was tasked to oversee the declassification of records concerning the assassination of President Kennedy. Because of the perseverance of Dr. Nelson and her colleagues, that Board was uniquely productive in overcoming longstanding barriers to declassification, particularly those pertaining to intelligence agency records....
Source: AHA Today
Oct 22, 2012
The Respondents:“If the White House treats Iran, as Governor Romney claimed last night, ‘the same way we treated . . . apartheid . . . South Africa,’ then Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his regime…have nothing to worry about." Read more… —Carol Anderson, Emory University“As an international lawyer, perhaps the most surprising moment of this debate for me was when Romney suggested that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be ‘indicted’ under the UN’s Genocide Convention for incitement. Seriously?” Read more… —Elizabeth Borgwardt, Washington University in St. Louis
Source: John McNeill for AHA Today
Oct 21, 2012
The American Historical Association invites donations to endow a Jerry Bentley Book Prize in World History, which will honor Professor Bentley’s tireless efforts to promote the field of world history, and his signal contributions to it, over a career tragically cut short by his recent death. Over the past 20 years, the field of world history has developed into one of the most vibrant and energetic areas of the discipline—with a growing volume of books and monographs published in the field, and an expanding presence in history departments and doctoral programs. Professor Bentley played an indispensable role in the development of the field. He began his career as a scholar of Renaissance Italy, but quickly became one of the leading figures in the world history movement of recent decades. He was the founding editor of the Journal of World History, and served as its editor from the first issue in 1990 until shortly before his death. He wrote one of the landmark works in the field in 1993, a study of cultural interactions within Eurasia entitled Old World Encounters. Through his work with the World History Association, the College Board Advanced Placement program, and his teaching at the University of Hawaii, he helped to elevate world history into a thriving field of both scholarship and pedagogy.
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Oct 19, 2012
Michael Gove, education secretary, is proposing “pernicious” reforms to history teaching in schools, according to Hilary Mantel, the novelist who this week won the Man Booker prize for a second time.In an interview with the Financial Times, the author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies , which are set in the 16th century, said: “I don’t like the idea that we’re going to go back to spoon-feeding children with a cut-and-dried and patriotic version [of history] . . . One telling is not enough, particularly not one telling done de haut en bas....
Source: University of Virginia
Oct 16, 2012
In anticipation of Election Day, some of the nation’s top social scientists and historians will offer their unique perspectives on U.S. presidential history at a two-day conference convened by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center Oct. 26-27.The conference, “Recasting Presidential History,” seeks to jump-start a new generation of scholarship about the presidency that capitalizes on key insights of leading scholars, many of whom have not concentrated on the presidency. Groundbreaking work in sub-disciplines, ranging from cultural to social history, have created new frameworks that can inform and enrich work on the presidencyKey themes of the conference will include how presidents have tried to reform economic, social, global and political structures; how presidents have shaped and been shaped by cultural trends; how presidents have portrayed and sought to harness the media; and how they have interacted with the world.
Source: WSJ
Oct 16, 2012
Listening to Kenneth Jackson, a professor of history at Columbia University, lecture 15 top New York City public school history teachers at the New-York Historical Society on Monday morning, I was reminded of another great history teacher, Charles Cook....[H]e glowed even when it came to eras in which he didn't have a vested interest. He had a particular passion for the Civil War. In common with other great educators, he never talked down to his students; he never taught by rote; his talent seemed merely a felicitous byproduct of his passion for his subject.It was obvious that Mr. Jackson, a former president of the New-York Historical Society, also has the gift. As he discussed the causes of World War I, the teachers, most of them from high schools and a few from middle schools, were assembled around him, seminar-style, in the Society's soaring library. They included representatives from the Bronx Academy of Letters; the Beacon School; J.H.S. 157 Stephen A. Halsey; Midwood High School; the High School for Environmental Studies; Stuyvesant High School; I.S. 190; and the High School of American Studies at Lehman College.
Source: AHA Today
Oct 15, 2012
As the U.S. Supreme Court returns for the fall, it is therefore fitting to highlight the latest Robert H. Smith seminar, titled: “The Supreme Court in the Age of Holmes and Brandeis”, co-sponsored by the Institute for Constitutional History and the AHA. This six-week seminar will examine the influence of two men—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Louis Dembitz Brandeis—on American constitutional development from 1902 to 1939. Although the phrase “Holmes and Brandeis dissenting” led many people to believe that they shared a common jurisprudential philosophy, the differences between them are as important as the areas in which they agreed. We will look at the biographies of the two men, the classical legal thought that dominated the Court throughout most of this period, the important cases in which they wrote—mainly in dissent—and the influence of those opinions on subsequent cases. Instructors include Melvin I. Urofsky, professor of law and public policy at Virginia Commonwealth University, and John Fabian Witt, the Allen H. Duffy Class of 1960 Professor of Law at Yale Law School.
Source: Allen Mikaelian for AHA Perspectives
Oct 11, 2012
Allen Mikaelian is Associate Editor of the AHA magazine "Perspectives" and media relations coordinator for the American Historical Association.
Do vice presidential debates matter? That seemed to be the question of the day, the one that dominated the airwaves before and after last night’s debate. From our perspective as historians, we are certain that they do matter, even if they don’t generate a bump in the polls or a defining moment in the campaign. For the historian, they are responses to long-standing trends and further evidence of the importance of understanding the past.
Our Roundtable on the vice presidential debate features historians responding as historians. Beyond questions over who won and who had their facts in order are questions about where the candidates’ ideas come from, why certain important discussions were left out, and how to cut through rhetorical poses in order to understand real policy possibilities. These are the sorts of questions historians and historical thinking can answer. Last night’s debate did matter, and our panelists can help us understand how.
—Allen Mikaelian, Associate Editor
Source: National Security Archive at GWU
Oct 11, 2012
Washington, DC, October 10, 2012 – In November 1962, Cuba was preparing to become the first nuclear power in Latin America—at the time when the Kennedy administration thought that the Cuban Missile Crisis was long resolved and the Soviet missiles were out. However, the Soviet and the Cuban leadership knew that the most dangerous weapons of the crisis—tactical Lunas and FKRs—were still in Cuba. They were battlefield weapons, which would have been used against the U.S. landing forces if the EXCOMM had decided on an invasion, not the quarantine. The Soviets intended for them to stay in Cuba secretly because they were not part of the Kennedy-Khrushchev understandings, while the Cubans wanted to keep them to defend against another U.S. invasion. But Soviet Deputy Prime Minister Anastas Mikoyan brought the final resolution to the Cuban Missile crisis on November 22, 1962 in his four-hour conversation with the top Cuban leadership: the tactical nuclear weapons would have to leave Cuba.
Source: Zeenews.com (India)
Oct 10, 2012
Thiruvanathapuram: Without Mahatma Gandhi, free India would have fragmented further while Pakistan`s existence is "difficult to conceive" without Mohammad Ali Jinnah, says a British historian who has contrasted the two leaders in his latest book.The effect of individuals in historical developments can be debatable but the fact of one free India and Pakistan is difficult to imagine without these two leaders, Roderick Matthews, author of "Jinnah VS Gandhi", told IANS in an interview at the just-concluded 5th Kovalam Literary Festival here.Matthews said there were alternatives to Gandhi within the Congress but none of them had his unique style."If there was no Gandhi, there were three or four Congress leaders who could have stepped forward. Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das.... or even (Subhas Chandra) Bose, could have replaced the Gokhale-Tilak generation in the 1920s," the Oxford-educated Matthews said....
Source: IrishCentral.com
Oct 9, 2012
A new book by historian William Chafe, entitled “Bill and Hillary,” dissects the couple’s marriage and alleges that Bill Clinton asked Hillary for a divorce in 1990 before he embarked on his long- shot bid for the presidency.William Chafe is currently a Professor of History at Duke University and a highly regarded historian.The book, reviewed in Sunday’s New York Times, alleges that in 1990 Bill wanted to leave Hillary for an energy-company executive named Marilyn Jo Jenkins.Chafe says that Bill asked Hillary for a divorce but the future first lady refused....
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed.
Oct 8, 2012
Eugene D. Genovese, a historian who wrote about slavery in the American South, died on September 26 after a long illness. He was 82. Early in his career he identified himself as a Marxist, but he later denounced that affiliation and veered toward conservatism....Eric J. Hobsbawm, an economic historian of the 19th century and longtime Communist Party member, died on October 1 in London. He was 95. A professor of economic and social history at the University of London, he wrote a trilogy covering the period 1789 to 1914: The Age of Revolution, The Age of Capital, and The Age of Reason. After he retired from the London institution, he taught at Stanford and Cornell Universities, among others....Related LinksEugene Genovese, 1930-2012Eric Hobsbawm, 1917-2012
Source: Belfast Newsletter (UK)
Oct 8, 2012
Leading Ulster historian BRIAN M WALKER reveals how research into the Ulster Covenant has uncovered that a largely forgotten unionist leader of the time is his ancestorWHO do you think you are? Currently there are a number of fascinating programmes on television that explore people’s backgrounds and discover what their ancestors did. Of course, once you start down this path of inquiry there is no telling what you will find.Recently many people have investigated their ancestors’ role in the Ulster Covenant of 1912. In my own case, I discovered not only that several family members signed the Covenant but also that I was related to one of the key figures in 1912, who was one of the three elected unionist leaders in the period from 1911-21. Few people today have heard of this man....
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Oct 7, 2012
A local historian is digitizing and organizing rarely seen documents that will open whole new areas of on-line research in women’s history.Kristen Gwinn-Becker, founder and CEO of HistoryIT (HistoryIT.com) in Evanston, has leveraged her creative and humanities background to advise the National Women’s History Museum on upgrading its online educational exhibits and create an easily searchable database of women’s biographies.The museum makes its information public on its website (NWHM.org) and through newsletters and outreach programs. It is working to build an actual bricks-and-mortar museum next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C....
Source: BBC News
Oct 7, 2012
Speaking truth to power has always been a high-risk strategy in China. Its rulers tend to prefer flattery, and writers who forget this do so at their peril. China's "grand historian" - 2,000 years ago - was one of many who have paid a terrible price."Among defilements, none is so great as castration. Any man who continues to live having suffered such a punishment is accounted as a nothing."The man who wrote those words is by no means a nothing today. In a nation obsessed by its history, Sima Qian was the first and some say the greatest historian....
Source: Irish Times
Oct 6, 2012
MAURICE KEEN: UNTIL THE second World War, most British medieval historians avoided cultural history, remaining more concerned with the church, government or the law; institutions and politics.Except for the literate pious, what might have made medieval people tick was treated as self-evident, immaterial or unknowable. In the subsequent revolution of approaches, Maurice Keen, who has died aged 78, played a seminal role. His major book, Chivalry (1984), which won the Wolfson prize that year, remains one of the great works of history in English of the past 70 years.After Chivalry, no one could look at Keen’s subject, the knightly life, unaffected by his comprehensive and nuanced exposition of the nature and significance of the culture of those who ruled western Europe for half a millennium....
Source: Jon Wiener in the LA Review of Books
Oct 4, 2012
Jon Wiener teaches U.S. history at UC Irvine. His most recent book is Historians in Trouble: Plagiarism, Fraud, and Politics in the Ivory Tower. He is a contributing editor to The Nation and hosts a weekly afternoon drive-time interview show on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.ERIC HOBSBAWM, WHO DIED OCTOBER 1 at age 95, was one of the world’s greatest historians, and also a Marxist. He was not just an academic — he was also a lifelong Communist with a capital “C,” a full-fledged member of the Party since his teenage years. Unlike most of his comrades, he didn’t leave the Party in 1956 after Khrushchev’s revelations about Stalin’s crimes, or after the Soviets’ repression of the Hungarian uprising; he didn’t leave in 1968 when the Soviets crushed the Prague Spring; he stayed until the end. Hobsbawm mentioned his long Party membership in his final book, How to Change the World, but didn’t really answer one of the big questions about his life: “Why the CP?”
Source: NPR
Oct 3, 2012
[CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO]Voters who tune in to the debates Wednesday night will likely hear conflicting interpretations of history. What truly happened in the past is the subject of an ongoing, loud debate in politics. Steve Inskeep delves into this topic with college professor Timothy Messer-Kruse, who attempted to make a small edit on the Wikipedia page for the 1886 Haymarket Square riot in Chicago.
Source: Jonathan Jones for the Guardian (UK)
Oct 2, 2012
Jonathan Jones writes on art for the Guardian and was on the jury for the 2009 Turner prize.The historian Eric Hobsbawm, who has died aged 95, is rightly being mourned as a great intellectual of modern times. Yet Hobsbawm was more than a powerful historian and political thinker; nor should he be remembered in solitary splendour. He was part of a group of British Marxist scholars who profoundly influenced our understanding of what culture is.More than 50 years ago, a bunch of dissident Oxbridge-educated academic historians changed the way the British saw culture. They understood, long before anyone else, that culture is what shapes the world. They also saw that culture is totally democratic and comes from the people. While the official guardians of the arts, such as Kenneth Clark, were praising the "civilisation" of the elite on television and in print, Hobsbawm and co were resurrecting the lost cultures of Luddites, the masked poachers and anyonymous letter writers, of William Blake and John Milton. They discovered and popularised the value of popular culture – something so integral to our lives today it seems bizarre it was ever denigrated.
Source: AP
Oct 2, 2012
Eric Hobsbawm, who was honored as one of Britain's most distinguished historians despite retaining an allegiance to the Communist Party that lasted long after many supporters had left in disgust, has died. He was 95.Hobsbawm died early Monday at a London hospital, said his daughter Julia Hobsbawm. He had pneumonia and leukemia.Read by generations of students and revered for his ability to make history come alive, Hobsbawm used his socialist perspective to tell stories from the people's point of view....Related LinksEric Hobsbawm, 1917-2012
