Historians in the News

Bancroft Prize awarded to Distinguished Professor of Law: Tomiko Brown-Nagin

Winners of 2012 Lukas Prize Project Awards announced

Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism have named the 2012 winners of the Lukas Prize Project Awards.A Vanderbilt University professor has won the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for his sensitive account of the fine line people of mixed race have tread in the United States since the nation’s beginning. The Mark Lynton History Prize will go to a University of Virginia professor for her unusual and groundbreaking work on the history of common sense. The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award was won by a former A.P. reporter and editor who is completing a book on the world’s inability to help Haiti.

Keogh Relishes His Stint as Burns Scholar

Being a scholar of 20th-century Irish history when personal papers and official state archives were nearly impossible to obtain in Ireland made Dermot Keogh appreciate “the value of good material.” So imagine his delight in being the Burns Visiting Scholar of Irish Studies at Boston College, and having a chance to peruse one of the world’s most acclaimed holdings of Irish history and culture. “It’s second to none,” says Keogh of the University’s John J. Burns Library Irish Collection. “The library is simply exceptional from the point of view of a researcher, and Boston College itself is equally impressive in its energy, ethos and work ethic.” Keogh, who is emeritus professor of history and Emeritus Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration Studies at University College, Cork, will offer a glimpse into his multifaceted scholarship on March 28 when he presents the lecture "Contrasting Studies of Irish Catholic Intellectuals in a Revolutionary Age, 1908-1919," at 4 p.m. in the Burns Library Thompson Room. Some of Ireland’s most eminent experts in history, literature, bibliography, language and art have served as Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies, and use the Burns Irish Collection for research. In addition to research obligations, the Burns Scholar teaches two courses and presents two lectures each academic year....

John Steer, English art historian, 83

Professor John Steer died on 20 February aged 83. Michael Liversidge, Emeritus Dean of Arts, remembers the man whose appointment as the first Lecturer in European Art at Bristol in 1959 marked the effective birth of the University’s Department of History of Art.John Richardson Steer was born in Bournemouth, attended Clayesmore School in Dorset, and took his first degree in History at Oxford (Keble College). He decided to go on from there to the Courtauld Institute of Art when he graduated as a result of visiting the Ashmolean Museum and hearing some lectures on Venetian art by a visiting scholar from the Courtauld, Johannes Wilde – one of the great generation of immigrant art historians who helped to establish the subject in Britain when they were forced to leave Germany in the 1930s, an exodus that brought, among others, Sir Ernst Gombrich and Sir Nikolaus Pevsner to this country....

Titanic mania endures 100 years after sinking, says Cornell historian

...Katherine Howe, author of a new novel the Titanic called "The House of Velvet and Glass," said the draw of the ship is "the collision of all possible symbols available to you in 1912, the way that engineering can fail, the wealth, the poverty, all of these things coming together on one night."We've always been fascinated with class, and aboard the Titanic, the division between the haves and have-nots was in dramatically stark relief.Down in third class were immigrants heading to America, in search of a better life, dreaming perhaps of life in first class. Upstairs was the very picture of how one might imagine life in the Gilded Age: the parlors were occupied by some of the richest people in the world. Back then, to be rich was to be famous. The ship was like an exclusive Oscar party, Howe, said. The rich men on the boat, such as John Jacob Astor IV or Ben Guggenheim, Howe pointed out, were the equivalent of someone like George Clooney....

Stanford scholars deconstruct Middle East uprisings by looking at Europe's past

The recent political uprisings across the Middle East share similarities with the unrest that rippled through Eastern Europe in the late 20th century.Stanford scholars say studying these connections may lead to a better understanding of what comes next in today's movements."We are all trying to puzzle through these various scenarios and understand what political possibilities lie before us," said Robert Crews, associate professor of history and director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (CREEES)....The center recently hosted the 36th Annual Stanford-Berkeley Conference on Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. Fifteen scholars participated in panel discussions on who makes revolutions, why some fail and how to interpret protest movements.The daylong conference, "From Prague Spring to Arab Spring: Global and Comparative Perspectives on Protest and Revolution, 1968 – 2012," took on a unique twist from years past by looking beyond the boundaries of Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. It drew an audience of high school students, undergraduates, faculty and others....

Women’s History Month: Meet Nellie Neilson

Many of the stories we will hear during Women’s History Month will be of “firsts” of pioneers and trailblazers. Often these stories are cast as turning points and new beginnings, as if once the barriers were knocked down, a new world suddenly appeared. But the story of Nellie Neilson, the American Historical Association’s first female president, shows how halting and sporadic change can be.Nellie Neilson had first been nominated for the presidential position at the AHA in 1932, but wasn’t elected until 1943. And then, even after the long process of lobbying and persuading the historians of the United States that the profession would not collapse into utter ruin with a woman at the helm, even after her successful term, another woman would not serve as president until Natalie Zemon Davis in 1987. As Jacqueline Goggin wrote in the American Historical Review, “these gains were fragile,” and, she continued, they reminded her of Jesse Bernard’s description of the “flowing and ebbing tides” of women’s fortunes in the professions.

Peter Novick, Wrote Controversial Book on Holocaust, Dies at 77

Peter Novick, a history professor at the University of Chicago who stirred controversy in 1999 with a book contending that the legacy of the Holocaust had come to unduly dominate American Jewish identity, died on Feb. 17 at his home in Chicago. He was 77.The cause was lung cancer, his wife, Joan, said.Dr. Novick — “a nonobservant Jew,” according to his wife — was the author of “The Holocaust in American Life,” in which he asked why the Nazi genocide had “come to loom so large” and “whether the prominent role the Holocaust has come to play in both American Jewish and general American discourse is as desirable a development as most people seem to think it is.”He was skeptical that it was, and 10 years of research, he added, “confirmed the skepticism.”Dr. Novick did not deny the enormity of the Holocaust or suggest that it should be forgotten. But he contended that at a time of increasing assimilation, intermarriage and secularization, it had become “virtually the only common denominator of American Jewish identity in the late 20th century.”...

Wear Laurel Ulrich's t-shirt and make history

“Well behaved women rarely make history” ~Laurel Thatcher UlrichI often wear a t-shirt bearing historian Ulrich’s advice because people react with a chuckle and it starts conversations. Conversations we need because women’s history is rarely given its due.March is Women’s History Month, so designated because history has largely been framed through the male lens, recorded by male pens, and thus not surprisingly showcases men as the protagonists and the leaders; women, if noticed at all, play supporting roles (unless of course they take “male” personas, such as generals)....

Peter Novick: An Appreciation

Michael Berenbaum is a professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of theHolocaust, at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles.Peter Novick argued that the Holocaust had been overemphasized in American culture and manipulated by prominent Jewish organizations to preclude any criticism of Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians. He asserted that it was used to strengthen Jewish identity by making a long-defeated enemy central to that identity at precisely the point when Jews have gained full acceptance in American national life. Novick saw this as a fixation that allowed Jews to see themselves as oppressed when they have, in fact, become privileged.Novick, who died on February 17 at age 77, held views on the Holocaust that were antithetical to everything to which I have devoted my professional life. But Novick was my friend as well as my opponent. This was so because he embodied the best in American intellectual life, offering others a model of what it means to be a serious scholar.

VC award would be based on lies, military historian warns

GUNNER Albert (Neil) Cleary was a brave victim of the most appalling atrocities by Japanese guards in Borneo during World War II, agrees military historian Lynette Silver.But Silver insists Cleary should never have been given the posthumous distinction of being mentioned in dispatches in 2011, still less be now considered by this week's Defence Honours and Awards Tribunal for a posthumous Victoria Cross.She says the evidence being used to support Cleary's elevation to the pantheon of Australian war heroes is based on perjured testimony given by two of Cleary's fellow POWs, Private Keith Botterill and Lance Bombardier Bill Moxham.Silver says Botterill and Moxham - frustrated by what they viewed as lenient punishments being handed out to their Japanese torturers - lied under oath at the War Crimes Trials held in Papua New Guinea in 1946 about how Cleary died on May 20, 1945, at Ranau.

Israeli professor sees hope in Muslim attitudes to Jews

Many observers believe that all Muslims have just a single shared attitude to Jews and Israel — hostility. Moshe Ma’oz, professor emeritus of Hebrew University’s Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, strongly disagrees.What’s more, he says, such thinking is counterproductive and makes it harder for both sides to discover and develop areas where they hold similar interests.He noted that Iranian nuclear capability is seen as a major threat not only by Israelis, but equally or even more so by Sunni-led Arab states throughout the region....Maoz, a professor of Middle East history at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a previous director of the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, has devoted his career to studying Muslim politics and culture....

Lives of Armenians in Turkey are in danger – Turkish historian

The Turkish authorities assisted in the anti-Armenian demonstration, which was held in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on February 26 and under the pretense of commemorating the Khojaly incidents, the renowned Turkish historian Taner Akcam said in an interview with Taraf daily of Turkey.Akcam also noted that there were anti-Armenian slogans even before the actual demonstration.“Large posters that read: ‘Don’t believe in the Armenian lies!’ were posted in Istanbul streets continuously for ten days. Subsequently, the instilling of enmity toward the Armenians was spread during demonstration itself, in which partook the Minister of Internal Affairs....

Florida Atlantic historian celebrates first English Channel flight

Nearly 100 women from the USA, Canada and Europe are in Kent to commemorate the centenary of the first flight by a female pilot across the Channel.Harriet Quimby flew from Dover to northern France a year after she became the first woman to gain a pilot's licence in the USA...."This is a very important event," said history professor Dr Barbara Ganson.Dr Ganson, of Florida Atlantic University, said: "It is always a joy to talk and to study history but I want to help make history and celebrate history."I'm flying the Channel - that's why I came here."...

Zelizer: Dual life as scholar, mainstream news pundit

Like many American fathers, after Wilson School professor Julian Zelizer wakes up in the morning, he takes his kids to school and then heads to the gym. But instead of watching sports highlights or listening to music while he lifts weights, Zelizer mulls over ideas for his weekly CNN column.It is rare for professors to appear in mass media as much as Zelizer does. In addition to teaching HIS 583: Readings in American Political History this semester, Zelizer has appeared 18 times on Bloomberg television in the past month. On Sept. 10, he authored a column in The New York Times about the history of one-term presidents. Two days later, he was back in his home outlet, penning away on the political legacy of 9/11....

Marion G. Merrill, civil rights activist and writer, dies at 97

Marion G. Merrill, 97, a civil rights activist and writer, died of heart ailments Feb. 16 at Cokesbury Village retirement community in Hockessin, Del., where she had lived since 1988. The death was confirmed by Donald A. Ritchie, a friend of the family.Mrs. Merrill was the widow of Horace Samuel Merrill, a professor of history at the University of Maryland. She was co-author with him of a 1971 book, “The Republican Command, 1897-1913.” They had been married for 53 years when he died in 1996. Mrs. Merrill also helped her husband in the mentoring of graduate students....

Bowling Green History Professor to Appear on NBC Show

BOWLING GREEN, KY (3/8/12) - John Hardin, a history professor at Western Kentucky University, will appear in the NBC show “Who Do You Think You Are?” Friday (March 9). Dr. Hardin, a co-editor of the Kentucky African American Encyclopedia Project, appears with Jerome Bettis as the NFL star discovers how his great-great-grandfather survived slavery in rural Calloway County in the 1850s. “His story was not unlike others who lived through this period of American history and later migrated to other states,” Dr. Hardin said. “His family later wound up in Michigan where Jerome was born.”...

How women's history is good for business

For businesses wanting to increase sales, Bonnie Hurd Smith of Ipswich, historian and author of the book, We Believe in You, thinks National Women’s History Month might be the answer. Featuring women’s history in your business, she says, can attract women clients, members, and donors, and Smith sees history as the key to success personally and professionally.As a result in 2010, Smith founded History Smiths, a public relations and marketing agency that incorporates history in service to organizations, businesses, communities, and individuals on the North Shore.She says every business or organization—for profit or not-for-profit—wants to attract customers and their loyalty as well as media attention while also developing a positive reputation. Many also want to make a difference in their communities.“Getting involved with history can do all of that for you,” Smith said. “Studying women’s history makes us feel less alone. We can see the experience of women who succeeded and how they achieved their goals.”...

Latvia threatened with retaliation after Russian historians refused entry

Russia’s ambassador to Latvia has blasted the country’s move to declare two Russian historians persona non grata after presenting an exhibition on war crimes committed by Nazis and their Latvian collaborators.Blacklisting Russian historians Aleksandr Dyukov and Vladimir Simindey is a non-friendly step on Latvia’s side, Ambassador Aleksandr Veshnyakov has told the press. The official added that he learned about the incident from the media and promised to discuss the issue with Latvian Foreign Minister on Wednesday. The ambassador also noted that Russia reserved the right for retaliatory action, even though such steps would not assist with historical research in any way.The Latvian Foreign Ministry declared Dyukov and Simindey personae non grata on March 2, banning them from entry in Latvia and other states of the Schengen zone. The Foreign Ministry spokesman explained the move by the fact that the historians’ actions “were harming Latvia and its citizens”. The move followed the opening of the "Stolen Childhood" exhibition dedicated to the inmates of Nazi concentration camps in Latvia....

Cambridge historian and Oxford publisher under scrutiny over claim made in Dickens book

A book about Charles Dickens’ life in Cleveland Street written by a Cambridge historian and published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in February has been criticised after it failed to acknowledge previously published works.In Dickens & the Workhouse Dr Ruth Richardson uncovers new material about Charles Dickens’ life in nineteenth-century London. She discovers that many of the characters in Dickens’ books were based on real people living in and around Cleveland Street in what is now Fitzrovia. In the book she provides historical material that for the first time shows how the workhouse in Cleveland Street was the inspiration for Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist.Dr Richardson’s work has been credited with being the main reason why the former Strand Union Workhouse was given listed status by the government last year and subsequently saved from demolition. She was internationally recognised for her work....