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: Inside Higher Ed
Apr 16, 2009
Six years ago this month, the National Museum of Iraq was extensively looted amid the chaos of the U.S. invasion of Baghdad. Among the stolen objects was the Mask of Warka, a 5,100-year-old Sumerian artifact that is believed to be one of the earliest surviving representations of a human face. The mask was found buried on an Iraqi farm five months later — but thousands of other precious objects were destroyed or disappeared into the black market.
"We do not know, and we may neve
Source: China Beat (blog)
Apr 16, 2009
Philip J. Cunningham was a participant and observer of the events in Beijing in 1989. Now Cunningham has a forthcoming book, Tiananmen Moon: Inside the Chinese Student Uprising of 1989 (Rowman & Littlefield, May 2009) that details his story of the events.
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If getting caught up in a popular uprising in China has taught me anything, it is that the past, present and future flow together as one with ferocious intensity. Looking back now at the eventful uprising at T
Source: Shlomo Avineri in a letter to the editor of the NYT
Apr 16, 2009
[The writer is a professor of political science at Hebrew University.]
In “Hamas Comes Out of Hiding” (Op-Ed, April 13), Paul McGeough writes that when he asked Khalid Mishal, the Hamas leader, if his organization would consider changing its charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction, Mr. Mishal answered, “Not a chance.”
What Mr. McGeough did not mention is that Hamas views all Jews, not just Israel or Zionism, as its enemies.
Its charter goes to some le
Source: Excerpt from an Open Letter posted on the website of the Long Bow Group, Inc, which is run by GMU historian Carma Hinton
Apr 15, 2009
HNN Backgrounder Chai Ling was a leader in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. She escaped to the United States and reinvented herself as a software company entrepreneur. When Jenzabar, her company, was sued by former executives she complained about the bad publicity, saying it damaged her reputation as an all-American success story. One of her complaints was directed at George Mason University historian Carma Hinton, who leads a small non-profit production company (
Source: HAW website
Apr 15, 2009
As historically minded activists, scholars, students, and teachers, we stand opposed to wars of aggression, military occupations of foreign lands, and imperial efforts by the United States and other powerful nations to dominate the internal life of other countries.
In particular, we continue to demand a speedy end to US military involvement in Iraq, and we insist on the withdrawal, not the expansion, of US and NATO military forces in Afghanistan. We also call for a sharp reduction o
Source: Chicago Tribune
Apr 15, 2009
Franklin Rosemont, a surrealist poet and labor historian, maintained Chicago's long history of leftist activism through prolific writing and his stewardship of 123-year-old radical publishing house Charles H. Kerr.
Mr. Rosemont, 65, died Sunday, April 12, in the University of Illinois Medical Center, after possibly suffering a stroke or an aneurysm, said his wife, Penelope. He was a resident of Chicago's Rogers Park neighborhood.
The son of a printers union activist, Mr
Source: Times-Picayune
Apr 15, 2009
Tulane University history professor Judith Kelleher Schafer loves uncovering the truth, whether it be pleasant or not.
"I need history to tell me what to write," she said. "I couldn't make up this stuff. The truth is so wonderful."
Schafer's third book came about by happy accident. While researching archives of the First District Court of New Orleans and the Daily Picayune from 1846-1862 for her award-winning book, "Becoming Free, Remaining Free
Source: Press Release
Apr 15, 2009
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation announced today that one of four 2009 Bradley Prizes will be awarded to Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill and one of the world’s most distinguished historians of modern times.
Sir Martin Gilbert will be presented the award during a ceremony to be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, June 3. Each award carries a stipend of $250,000.
“The Bradley
Source: Scott McLemee at the website of Inside Higher Ed
Apr 15, 2009
I've lauded the piece here before, and was glad to see it in the table of contents for The Politics of Truth: Selected Writings of C. Wright Mills, a volume published last year by Oxford University Press and edited by John H. Summers, a visiting scholar at the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. But on closer examination, I saw that the editor hadn't simply reprinted the appendix. This version of "On Intellectual Craftsmanship" was rather different: it
Source: Email from Princeton University Press to HNN
Apr 15, 2009
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, established at Princeton University, is preparing the authoritative and comprehensive edition of the correspondence and papers of our nation’s third president. Jefferson’s letters are the largest component of the more than 70,000 document copies that have been assembled from over 900 repositories and private collections worldwide. Through the publication of letters and papers received as well as those written by Jefferson, The Papers of Thomas Jefferson supplants
Source: Joseph Nye Jr. in the WaPo
Apr 13, 2009
President Obama has appointed some distinguished academic economists and lawyers to his administration, but few high-ranking political scientists have been named. In fact, the editors of a recent poll of more than 2,700 international relations experts declared that "the walls surrounding the ivory tower have never seemed so high."
While important American scholars such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski took high-level foreign policy positions in the past, that pat
Source: NY Daily News Editorial: "Bullying Columbia professor does not deserve lifetime employment"
Apr 13, 2009
There is a deeply disturbing report that Columbia University has granted tenure to a teacher who used his classroom as a platform for propagating offensive teachings about Jews - and bullied his students to boot.
Joseph Massad should have no place on the faculty of a world-class institution of higher learning, let alone a university located in New York. He showed himself to lack the quality of mind and temperament necessary to serve among the Columbia professoriate.
Mas
Source: http://www.press.uchicago.edu
Apr 13, 2009
[Rémi Brague is the author of the book, The Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (University of Chicago Press, 2009).]
Question: As a historian of medieval Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thought, how do you view the relationship between the three religions of the book and philosophical activity? In particular, do you think there is a difference between theology and philosophy in Christianity, and between Kalām and
Source: Martin Kramer at his blog, Sandbox
Apr 12, 2009
In August 2006, I wrote a post entitled "Massad mystery at Harvard." There I asked why, for two years, Joseph Massad described his book Desiring Arabs as "forthcoming from Harvard University Press," only to announce that it would be published by the University of Chicago Press. I wrote the following:
Source: David Kaiser at his blog
Apr 11, 2009
[David Kaiser, a history professor at the Naval War College, is the author of The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy (2008).]
During the past seven days this blog has had about 1100 hits, which may be a record. I do hope some of my new patrons will return, but the reason for the outburst of interest is quite ironic: the fraudulent attribution to myself of a piece of right-wing hysteria which continues to circulate around the net. Snopes.com, a site which specializes in
Source: UPI
Apr 11, 2009
Art historian David W. Scott, the founding director for the National Museum of American Art in Washington, reportedly has died at the age of 92.
Scott joined the museum in 1963 when it was known as the National Collection of Fine Arts and helped raise the Smithsonian Institute site's stature, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.
"Scott determined to build the NCFA into a museum of consequence," author Sophy Burnham said in her "The Art Crowd" boo
Source: Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria
Apr 10, 2009
Congratulations to historians who have won Guggenheim Fellowships for 2009:Robert Beachy, Goucher CollegeJeffrey Bortz, Appalachian State UniversityKate Brown, University of Maryland, Baltimore CountyVeena Das, Johns Hopkins UniversityPierre Force, Columbia UniversityPeter Galison, Harvard UniversityRisa L. Goluboff, University of
Source: NYT (click here to watch video)
Apr 10, 2009
The historian David McCullough calls for a halt to construction plans near the Brooklyn Bridge, which he says would obscure the monument and damage a forgotten historical site nearby.
Source: David Levering Lewis in the Chronicle of Higher Ed
Apr 10, 2009
In"A Life of Learning," an address to the American Council of Learned Societies 20 years ago, John Hope Franklin recalled the 100th-birthday wisdom of the ragtime composer Eubie Blake, who said that had he known he would live so long,"I'd have taken better care of myself." John Hope Franklin not only took good care of himself until his death last month at 94, but he also took great care of the memory and self-concept of the American people.
A cautionary truth about the life of John Hope F
Source: HAW website
Apr 9, 2009
To members and friends of Historians Against the War,
The HAW Steering Committee has endorsed a new basic statement for HAW, which would replace the 2003 statement that focused on ending the occupation of Iraq. The proposed new statement appears at the end of this message.
We are grateful to all those who gave feedback on a draft of this statement. We are submitting the final statement for ratification by people who are on our "HAW-Info" email list. This is the same
