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: Philadelphia Bulletin
Feb 17, 2009
Herbert Hoover was a pariah to Democrats. George H.W. Bush’s greatest shortcoming was his ambition. John Tyler’s presidency was marked by tumult and trauma.
These and more morsels of information were shared by three historians during a panel discussion on the administrations of Mr. Hoover, Mr. Bush and Mr. Tyler at the National Constitution Center on Presidents’ Day last night.
Commemorating “The American Presidents” book series, Gary May, William Leuchtenburg and Tim N
Source: Network of Concerned Historians
Feb 17, 2009
On 6 February 1998, Tohti Tunyaz (pen name: Tohti Muzart) (1959–), an Uighur historian and writer, was detained and on 1 April 1998, he was arrested in Urumqi, Xinjiang (East Turkestan’s name since 1955), when returning to China to visit his relatives, collect source materials, and do research. Tohti was born in Kashgar and graduated from the Central Institute of Nationalities history department, Beijing (1984). Later, he was assigned to work for the Standing Committee of the China National Peop
Source: Mary Madigan at Frontpagemag.com
Feb 17, 2009
[Mary Madigan, publisher of the Exit Zero blog, wrote this article for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.]
I expected Columbia's
Source: Time Magazine
Feb 16, 2009
Last year's gripping campaign and the wave of popularity behind Barack Obama have focused tremendous attention on the White House and the presidency. As the country marks Presidents Day, TIME spoke with author and historian Richard Norton Smith about America's "schizoid" relationship with its President, the lofty expectations for Obama and the way history's verdicts can shift over time.
[QUESTION] What interests you as a historian about our new President?
[A
Source: Gary Fouse at Frontpagemag.com
Feb 16, 2009
[Gary Fouse is an adjunct teacher at UC Irvine. He spent 3 years in the US Military from 1966-68 as a military policeman in Erlangen, Germany. He was a US Customs Agent from 1970-73, and a DEA agent from 1973-1995. Gary blogs at http://www.garyfouse.blogspot.com. He wrote this article for Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum
Source: NYT
Feb 13, 2009
Alison L. Des Forges, a human rights activist and historian who tried to call the world’s attention to the looming genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and who later wrote what is considered the definitive account of the eventual slaughter of more than 500,000 Rwandans, was among the passengers killed Thursday when Continental Airlines Flight 3407 crashed near Buffalo. She was 66 and lived in Buffalo.
Her death was confirmed by Human Rights Watch, the New York-based advocacy group; Dr. Des Fo
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Feb 13, 2009
HNN Editor: The NYT Book Review notes that Burlingame's Lincoln biography will be placed online in the spring, allowing it to be continually updated to correct errors and incorporate new information.
... Landmark biographers of Lincoln are many: Carl Sandburg (1926, 1939), James G. Randall (1945-55), and David H. Donald (1995), to name just three. All have been challenged during thi
Source: CNN
Feb 12, 2009
... In conjunction with the bicentennial of his birth, a slew of new books on the 16th U.S. president have appeared. Among the best-reviewed is the biography "A. Lincoln" (Random House) by historian Ronald C. White Jr., who drew on new research for his portrait.
CNN talked with White about Lincoln's impact on the country, President Obama's affinity for him and what lessons Lincoln has to offer Americans of today. The following is an edited version of White's comments:
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Feb 12, 2009
A management crisis in the State Department Office of the Historian threatens the future of the official “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series that documents the history of U.S. foreign policy, according to a newly disclosed report on the situation.“We find that the current working atmosphere in the HO [Historian's Office] and between the HO and the HAC [Historical Advisory Committee] poses real threats to the high scholarly quality of the FRUS se
Source: Letter dated Feb. 11-2009 (distributed through IraqiCrisis email)
Feb 11, 2009
Mr. Nouri al Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq
Mr. Mufeed al Jazairi, Head of Cultural Committee, Iraqi Parliament
Mr. Qahtan al Juburi, Minister of Tourism
Mr. Qais Husain Rashid, Acting Chairman of the State Board of Antiquities and
Heritage
Dear Sirs,
We write to you with serious concern about the preservation of the cultural
heritage of our country.
As you know, the 2003 war resulted in extensive damage to the museums and
historical sites of Iraq.
We ar
Source: Britannica Blog
Feb 11, 2009
James McPherson
Source: http://www.nixonlibraryfoundation.org
Feb 10, 2009
John H. Taylor, President Nixon's former chief of staff and executive director of the Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace Foundation since 1990, is leaving his Foundation position on Feb. 15 to accept the call of the Episcopal Bishop of Los Angeles, J. Jon Bruno, to serve full time as vicar, or priest in charge, of St. John Chrysostom Episcopal Church and School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.
Taylor announced his resignation on Jan. 5 to a group of Foundation Board
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Feb 10, 2009
The Obama administration today named Carole McAlpine Watson as acting chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. She has filled that role since last month’s departure of Bruce Cole, who had led the endowment since 2001. Today’s announcement may be a sign that the White House does not plan to name a permanent chairman — who would be subject to Senate confirmation — for several weeks or months.
Ms. Watson has served on the endowment’s staff since 1978, most recently as ass
Source: Chicago Tribune
Feb 8, 2009
As Barack Obama's historic presidential campaign unfolded last year, a certain official at the Smithsonian Institution was holding his breath with particular intensity. The official was Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the Smithsonian's planned National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), in Washington, D.C. n Bunch and his staff realized how having an African-American in the White House for the first time could energize the envisioned museum's startup efforts. With Obama'
Source: Newsweek
Feb 7, 2009
What made Johnson run? That was the question that, for several months in the late 1970s, drove Robert Caro mad. Never mind that Caro was better equipped to answer it than perhaps any other man, living or dead. For years, he had been at work on a nonfiction chronicle of Lyndon Johnson's early life. He had spent thousands of hours wooing and winning and interviewing Johnson's family members and neighbors. He'd even spent a long night, alone, huddled in a sleeping bag in the remote Texas hill count
Source: Bill Moyers Journal on PBS
Feb 6, 2009
More books are coming during this bicentennial year. Here's my most recent favorite,"Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World." It's a collection of original essays by prize-winning historians, including the book's editor, Eric Foner, who is with me now.
Eric Foner is an acclaimed professor of history at Columbia University here in New York City, and the author of"The Story of American Freedom","Politics and Ideology in the Age of the Civil War" and"Reconstruction: Amer
Source: Letter posted in the Iraqi Crisis newsletter
Feb 6, 2009
[Mr. George formerly ran the Iraq Museum.]
Dear Chuck,
I just got an e-mail from Dr. Amira Edan from Baghdad, she is telling me that they are in
a very bad situation squeezed by the minister of tourism and antiquities to open the
museum, and he wants the museum ready by Feb. 12th, he ordered to put down the solid wall
that was built behind the main door of the museum, and he is sending TV crews to shoot
while the museum people are working and antiquities open on tables in
Source: Ronald Steel in the New Republic
Feb 6, 2009
[Ronald Steel is a professor of international relations and history at the University of Southern California.]
... Whereas other historians often plowed the same familiar fields, Diggins's restless mind led him into continually new bypasses of the American political experience. It drew him to an inquiry, in his first book, into the response by Americans to Mussolini's experiment in Italian fascism, and then on to studies of the American left--both New and Old, of the embrace of righ
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Feb 6, 2009
Historian Allen Weinstein, most recently ninth Archivist of the United States, has joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies – Maryland’s iSchool – as a visiting professor. Dr. Weinstein resigned his post as Archivist this past December.
In announcing Weinstein’s appointment Dean Jennifer Preece stated: “We are honored to have Professor Allen Weinstein join the iSchool. He will challenge our students and faculty intellectually and substantially
Source: Jamie Glazov at frontpagemag.com
Feb 6, 2009
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Olga Velikanova, an assistant professor at the University of North Texas, where she teaches Soviet history. Dr. Velikanova was among the first scholars to work with declassified Communist Party and secret police archives. Her research about everyday Stalinism, the cult of Lenin and Russian popular opinion has been broadcast by the BBC, Finnish and Russian radio and TV as well as the History Channel in Canada. She is the author of “Making of an Idol: On Uses o
