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: Sydney Morning Herald
Mar 7, 2009
He has been compared with a Holocaust denier, but David Potts does not say there was no 1930s Depression, just that its dimensions were exaggerated. The historian's The Myth Of The Great Depression has gone into reprint, updated for the current economic crisis, which so often is measured against perceptions of the 1930s.
Potts acknowledges job losses, factory closures and household evictions, but says people were more resilient, more caring and happier than might be assumed. People
Source: Chicago Tribune
Mar 7, 2009
The plot sounds like a fictional thriller: The son of a scholar of ancient religions is charged with using intricate Internet scams to discredit his father's critics.
But this is no made-up story. New York City authorities this week charged the son of University of Chicago professor Norman Golb with identity theft, criminal impersonation and harassment in connection with a campaign to smear opponents of his father's scholarly theories.
The academic subject at the cente
Source: The Onion (a satire)
Mar 6, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO—In an event that sparked outrage across the historical community, deniers of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake convened last weekend to share their controversial theories about what actually occurred on that tragic day more than a century ago.
The 1906 Earthquake Deniers, a group reviled by Californians and scholars alike, held three days of lectures and roundtable discussions over what they call a "century-long hoax" of exaggerated seismic activity in the Ba
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Mar 6, 2009
The right-wing author, who was jailed in Austria for denying the Holocaust, says that the online store is the only way he can make money after being declared bankrupt in 2002.
Items up for sale on the site include Hitler's walking stick, available for £7,000, and a goblet and spoon given as a christening present by Heinrich Himmler to Hermann Goering's daughter, which can be bought for £4,000.
Irving authenticates the goods, which are offered by other sellers, and takes
Source: http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com
Mar 6, 2009
Israel’s chaotic history reminds historian Dr. Michael Oren of a line from Irish poet William Butler Yeats: “In dreams begin responsibilities.”
Jews achieved their dream of statehood over 60 years ago. Oren, who specializes in diplomatic and military history at The Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research institute, maintains that Israel’s current leaders, much like those before them, must continue to make difficult decisions to protect the country’s hard-earned sovereignty.
Source: Reuters
Mar 6, 2009
The son of an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls impersonated other experts in order to further his father's views on the 2000-year-old documents, New York prosecutors said.
During a six-month period in 2008, Raphael Haim Golb, whose father Norman Golb is a University of Chicago professor of Jewish history, created dozens of Internet aliases in the names of individuals who were active in Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship.
Norman Golb has taken the position the scrolls were pro
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Mar 6, 2009
When I tell people that the five years I spent researching and writing my last book included about a month and a half of work in the French national archives, they often look skeptical or even laugh, saying, "Right, research in France. That sounds really tough." Sometimes they pantomime the copious drinking of wine. Or they ask why anyone needs to go to the archives at all, since everything is now on the Internet.
Actually there's a lot that isn't on the Internet. And once
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Mar 6, 2009
On a bright, frozen morning in January, Rashid Khalidi is set to talk about his new book, Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East (Beacon Press), a concise glance back at the four-and-a-half-decade-long superpower struggle in the Middle East between Washington and Moscow. He eases into a blue chair in his spacious, book-filled corner office at Columbia University, crosses one leg over the other, and begins to vent about Israel's recent military campaign in the Gaza
Source: Published letter to the editor of the NYT
Mar 5, 2009
To the Editor:
“Vatican Calls the Apology of a Bishop Insufficient” (news article, Feb. 28) reports that the Holocaust-denying Bishop Richard Williamson has consulted with David Irving. Mr. Irving is a fitting partner for him.
Strangely, Mr. Irving is described in the article as a “historian.” When he sued me for libel for calling him a Holocaust denier, the court ruled that his “falsification of the historical record was deliberate” and motivated by “ideological belief
Source: http://www.westbranchtimes.com
Mar 4, 2009
Democrats might not like this comparison, but one historian thinks that President Herbert Hoover and President Barack Obama have two significant things in common: both rode a wave of popularity into office and both will likely see hard economic times mark their presidencies.
Obama, however, has the chance to learn from Hoover’s mistakes. And the things he did right.
“This might be a warning for President Obama and others in the future,” Hoover historian and University
Source: Historians Against the War
Mar 4, 2009
To members and friends of Historians Against the War,
For the past several weeks the Steering Committee has been discussing revising or updating our policy statement that people have been signing to join HAW. We adopted the current statement on September 21, 2003, and it reads:
"As historians, teachers, and scholars, we oppose the expansion of United States empire and the doctrine of pre-emptive war that have led to the occupation of Iraq. We deplore the secrecy, d
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Mar 4, 2009
The U.S. Army War College has suspended a widely known expert on Islamic studies partly because she had turned to the Middle East Studies Association, and threatened to contact a newspaper, with allegations that administrators there were violating her academic freedom and discriminating against her as a Muslim.
Sherifa D. Zuhur, a research professor of Islamic and regional studies in the college's Strategic Studies Institute, was suspended without pay for 10 days, effective Monday,
Source: Guardian (UK)
Mar 4, 2009
Yesterday the Russian publishing house Atticus cancelled the publication of an acclaimed book by the Russian scholar Orlando Figes about life under Stalin. The publisher said it was dropping the book for economic reasons, but the historian believes that the decision was the product of political pressure and reflects a desire by the Kremlin to rehabilitate Stalin.
The history in my book, The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia, is inconvenient to the current regime in Russia
Source: Press Release--American Heritage
Mar 4, 2009
Rockville, MD—American Heritage Publishing today announced that Dr. Allen Weinstein, the former head of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), has been elected to its Board of Directors.
“Allen is a great addition to our Board,” said Chairman Robert Breeden. “He brings great depth to the Board, not only as a noted author and educator of American history, but also as an advisor to many national and international government, educational, and civic bodies.”
Source: Anthony Grafton at the dailyprincetonian.com
Mar 2, 2009
At the end of the 1960s, large parts of the academic economy collapsed. For a decade or more, universities had enjoyed prosperity: Fellowships and salaries rose, new libraries and labs provided decent working space, and those who finished their Ph.D.s often chose among multiple job offers.
Suddenly all occasions conspired against us. The economy turned sour. The anti war movement and everything that went with it made students and faculty less popular in many respectable circles. Foundatio
Source: LAT
Mar 2, 2009
Biography
H.W. Brands, A Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Doubleday)
Ernest Freeberg, Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene V. Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent (Harvard University Press)
Paula J. Giddings, Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching (Amistad/HarperCollins)
Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (Random House)
Source: Guardian (UK)
Mar 2, 2009
The former Labour leader Neil Kinnock once described Eric Hobsbawm as "my favourite Marxist". But now the Labour government is being challenged to explain to parliament why one of Britain's most eminent leftwing historians has been barred from seeing a file kept on him by the Security Service, MI5.
Hobsbawm is 91 and a Companion of Honour, an award given to only 45 Britons for outstanding achievements and whose motto is "In Action Faithful and in Honour Clear". H
Source: Campus Watch
Mar 2, 2009
On Wednesday February 11th, the Middle East Center and Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania co-sponsored a panel discussion entitled "War on Gaza: A Teach-in and Discussion with Penn Faculty and members of the Penn Community." It brought together academics and local activists to a forum for discussion and expression critical of the "Israeli Occupation," to paraphrase Ania Loomba, the panel's chairman and a Penn English professor.
The event attr
Source: Humanities (magazine of the NEH) March/April
Mar 1, 2009
When Thomas Carlyle sat down in 1834 to write The French Revolution: A History, he wanted to do more than chronicle the mere procession of events. He wanted readers to smell the fear in the streets during the Terror, to taste the decadence of the Bourbon monarchy, to observe the sartorial cavalcade when the Estates-General meets for the first time since 1614, to picture blood spilling from guillotines. To accomplish his task he marshaled the same tools used by novelists—shifting point of view, i
Source: http://www.bookslut.com
Mar 1, 2009
For 10 years, David Greenberg has been writing Slate’s “History Lesson,” which follows the Web site’s conventional-wisdom debunking formula. His column focuses on tropes of history present in our punditocracy, which he then methodically deconstructs. His first column, which appeared on Oct. 23, 1998, at the height of Bill Clinton’s impeachment woes, defended America’s proud history of partisanship. In a column entitled “Blundering Into Afghanistan,” posted less than 10 days after Sept. 11, 2001,
