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: Newsweek
Aug 29, 2009
[Jon Meacham is the Editor of Newsweek. Meacham’s latest book, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for biography or autobiography.]
The editor of The New York Times Book Review and the paper's"Week in Review" section, Sam Tanenhaus is the biographer of Whittaker Chambers and is at work on the life of William F. Buckley Jr. In a new, short book, The Death of Conservatism, he argues that the right needs to find its footing for the good of the
Source: brisbanetimes.com.au
Aug 29, 2009
The man who revealed the human stories behind brutal World War II battles in Europe says the protagonists in the battle for the Pacific are still too raw for him to tackle a similar book.
British historian Antony Beevor has written a series of books, most notably Stalingrad and Berlin, which sold more than four million copies and covered the bitter fighting on the Eastern Front between the Soviet forces of Stalin and the Nazi troops of Hitler.
But despite his succes
Source: AHA website
Aug 28, 2009
The American Historical Association has recently received several inquiries from members and others about its upcoming annual meeting in San Diego, which will be co-headquartered at the Manchester Grand Hyatt and the San Diego Marriott hotels. Most inquiries have been prompted by a recent letter to history departments from San Diego Unite Here Local 30. This message calls for a boycott of the Manchester Grand Hyatt because its owner Douglas Manchester supported Proposition
Source: wbur.org (NPR Boston)
Aug 28, 2009
BOSTON — For historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy marks more than the passing of an era. The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer has also been a long-time Kennedy friend.
Goodwin spoke to us live from the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester on Friday morning, where she was helping keep vigil over the flag-draped casket of the late senator.Bob Oakes: I’m wondering if you might share with us what Ted Kennedy has meant to you in yo
Source: The Times of India
Aug 28, 2009
BANGALORE: Often people are not aware of historians' research on several subjects and places. A new set of initiatives by The Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) aims to change that.
With a view to make such research accessible to non-specialists and history consciousness a part of popular culture, ICHR has initiated several new programmes. The autonomous organization plans to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Sri Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara empire by holding an e
Source: The Harvard Crimson
Aug 28, 2009
Art historian Melissa McCormick received tenure from the East Asian Languages and Civilizations department this July, becoming a professor of Japanese art and culture.
Her research on the Tale of Genji, a seminal Japanese novel composed by a woman over 1000 years ago, and her work on the relationship between painting and literature in pre-modern Japan have helped bring her to the forefront of her field...
... McCormick said she intends to do further research on women’s
Source: American Thinker
Aug 28, 2009
[Stephen Schwartz is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism. This article was sponsored by Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.]
In an important development for the fight against extremist Islam in the West, the Dutch city of Rotterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam have dismissed Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss-born Islamist academic, from his two local jobs.
Born in Switzerland, Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the radical
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Aug 28, 2009
In a vault beneath the British Library here, Jeremy Leighton John grapples with a formidable challenge in digital life. Dr. John, the library's first curator of eManuscripts, is working on ways to archive the deluge of computer data swamping scientists so that future generations can authenticate today's discoveries and better understand the people who made them.
His task is only getting harder. Scientists who collaborate via email, Google, YouTube, Flickr and Facebook are leaving fe
Source: theage.com.au
Aug 26, 2009
Biographer Brian Matthews was shocked as he read through Manning Clark's diaries and discovered the private anguish and ''multiplying betrayals'' behind the public mask.
The eminent historian and his wife, Dymphna, were ''a golden couple'' who appeared to have a very strong marriage, the author of Manning Clark said at yesterday's Melbourne Writers Festival...
... Clark's epic A History of Australia often reflected his personal life, Matthews said. He looked for key fig
Source: MRC Newsbusters (Conservative Media Watchdog)
Aug 26, 2009
During the 2:00AM ET hour of CBS’s Up to the Minute on Wednesday, shortly after news broke of Senator Ted Kenney’s death, historian Douglas Brinkley exclaimed the Massachusetts Democrat was: "...going to be a – a martyr because of all that he’s done and he very well might help, in death, Obama get his health care plan."
Fill-in anchor Michelle Gielan discussed Kennedy’s legacy with Brinkley, soon turning to the current debate over health care reform: "And one of those
Source: bath.co.uk
Aug 26, 2009
Historian Martyn Whittock is working on A Brief History of the Third Reich when I call, trying to distill all that has been written about this period of history into a one-stop shop easily digestible account.
But he is more than happy to stop writing to discuss a topic closer to his heart – medieval history – and his latest book, A Brief History of Life in the Middle Ages, which has just been published by Constable & Robinson.
It is his 37th book to be published, th
Source: UPI.com
Aug 26, 2009
A University of California anthropologist says her study of 19th-century silver prospectors sheds light on the recent bubble in the U.S. housing market.
Susan Glover, who recently received a Ph.D. from University of California-Davis, in a report published in the journal Human Ecology, looked at the relationship between what was reported in contemporary local newspapers and the strategy used by prospectors in Gothic, Colo. She found news reports tended to overstate what prospectors c
Source: BBC
Aug 25, 2009
A row has erupted in Mexico after the government distributed a history textbook to primary schools which makes no mention of the Spanish conquest.
The chronology of the text neatly avoids the issue by ending before the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s.
Some opposition figures have seized on what they see as a calculated omission.
The arrival of the conquistadors resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people and the colonisation of Mexico.
Source: News Jacksonville.com
Aug 24, 2009
When he graduated from Northwestern University in 1992, Aaron Sheehan-Dean thought his future lay in government.
He went to work as a legislative aide to U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, who represented Sheehan-Dean's home state, Michigan.
But during his four years in Washington, Sheehan-Dean realized his favorite part of the job was conducting tours of the Capitol for constituents - tours he punctuated with tales from history, many of them about the Civil War period.
Source: http://www.onepennysheet.com
Aug 24, 2009
Wal-Mart Faces Its Day of Reckoning. Wal-Mart’s relentless growth and Darwinian competitiveness have created a world that is increasingly inhospitable to its own success.
Labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein has been following Wal-Mart for half a decade now, and he believes changes in China, and not in the domestic landscape, may force its day of reckoning.
Since Sam Walton opened the first Wal-Mart in Rogers, Ark., in 1962, the company has grown into a global retailing
Source: http://www.newarkadvocate.com (Newark, Ohio)
Aug 24, 2009
Carl Beamer sits in front of a computer that seems out of place among the stacks and stacks of used books consuming every inch of the old bookstore he owns on Granville Street.
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The bearded 55-year-old former Newark Air Force Base historian seems perfectly content amidst the narrow aisles and crammed bookshelves some might call clutter and others a treasure trove.
He's owned Cindamar Books since 2001, but this wasn't exactly the career path he expect
Source: Fox News rush transcript
Aug 24, 2009
MIKE HUCKABEE, GUEST HOST: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight: In another new attempt of damage control over the health care mess, the president is now comparing himself to FDR and JFK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: FDR was called a socialist when he passed Social Security. JFK and Lyndon Johnson, they were both accused of a government takeover of health care when they passed Medicare. This is the process that we go through because, understan
Source: Times (London)
Aug 23, 2009
One of them is a “poseur”. The other is “patronising”. One suffers from “verbal diarrhoea”. The other is a “whiner”.
A bust-up on the set of High School Musical 4 perhaps? A scrap behind the catwalk at a Milan fashion show? No. Those accusations were slung round in an increasingly bitter public row between two of the world’s most distinguished commentators on global finance and economics, professors Paul Krugman and Niall Ferguson, of Princeton and Harvard, respectively.
Source: pnj.com
Aug 23, 2009
1 More than 30 years after he served as an Army helicopter pilot over the forests of Vietnam, Charles "Doc" Merkel, 64, is going on another combat deployment.
But much has changed in the last 30 years.
Merkel is a civilian employee of the Air Force now--he retired as a major from active-duty after serving 20 years--and he's no longer a helicopter pilot. He's a historian.
As historian for the 53rd Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Merkel is responsible
Source: AHA Blog
Aug 23, 2009
[HNN: Arnita Jones, the executive director of the AHA plans to retire after next summer. She has served 21 years in the same job, first at the OAH and then at the AHA. This week the AHA posted a job announcement for her replacement.]
AHA: Applications Are Invited for the Position of Executive Director
The American Historical Association invites applications for the post of executive director, the Association’s chief executive position, responsible to the elected AHA Council. Th
