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: NYT
Jan 29, 2009
John P. Diggins, an intellectual historian who brought a provocative, revisionist approach to the history of the American left and right, and to figures as varied as Thorstein Veblen, Max Weber, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 73 and lived in Manhattan.
The cause was complications of colon cancer, said his companion, Elizabeth Harlan.
Mr. Diggins, who taught at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, roamed widely a
Source: http://www.thaindian.com
Jan 29, 2009
New US President Barack Obama’s background makes him pro-Indian and “he is going to do a lot for India before this spring is out”, says noted historian Simon Schama.A professor at Columbia University in the US, British historian Simon Schama foresees a favourable run for India vis-a-vis bilateral ties with the US during Barack Obama’s government.
Why? “Obama’s background - his mother was a hippy adventurist and his Indonesian link - makes him very pluralistic and very pro-Indian,” S
Source: http://www.thetelegraph.com
Jan 28, 2009
When Principia College came to Elsah in the 1930s and wanted to house its black cooks in the village, local officials would not allow it, apparently adhering to an unwritten rule.
At least one eyewitness, a longtime resident of the village, has confirmed that the alleged tradition was that no black person could remain in the village after dark, let alone overnight.
In connection with this local history, expert and author James Loewen will make an appearance at Principia
Source: http://www.aasianst.org
Jan 28, 2009
Dear Colleagues,
As President of the Association for Asian Studies and Editor of its flagship periodical, respectively, we’re writing this message to share our excitement about some initiatives underway relating to the annual meeting and the Journal of Asian Studies. Our hope is that these initiatives will help us continue to serve the needs of a wide range of people concerned with Asia, from K-12 educators to independent scholars, librarians to museum curators, and of course gradua
Source: James Kurth at FPRI--Foreign Policy Research Institute website
Jan 28, 2009
[James Kurth is the Claude Smith Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College and an FPRI Senior Fellow. Parts of this memorial essay were published in First Principles: ISI Web Journal (January 13, 2009).]American political science has not produced very many great ideas, and what ideas it has produced have not been very consequential. In part this is because most American political scientists have very much adhered to the liberal or progressive tradition in American
Source: Daniel Pipes at frontpagemag.com
Jan 28, 2009
In an article earlier this month,"Israel's Strategic Incompetence in Gaza," I made three points: that the Israeli leadership unilaterally created its current problems in Gaza, that the war against Hamas meant ignoring the much larger threat of Iranian nuclear weapons, and that the goal of empowering Al-Fatah makes no sense.These arguments prompted an earful from readers, who made interesting points that deserve answers. Slightly edi
Source: http://www.dailynews.lk (Sri Lanka)
Jan 28, 2009
Eminent historian Romila Thapar, professor emeritus at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and winner of the prestigious Kluge Prize in 2008, spoke to Kalpana Sharma of The Hindu about the importance of history teaching, the need for autonomous institutes to govern textbooks and historical research and the media's interpretation of contemporary developments.
Though she spoke about India her comments are relevant to Sri Lanka too. Hence we produce below a few excerpts of the interview.
Source: https://humanexperience.stanford.edu
Jan 27, 2009
The Slave Mart Museum building in Charleston, South Carolina doesn’t draw much attention from passersby. The stone, two-story building with an unassuming entry-way certainly doesn’t give any clues about the building’s pivotal role as a slave auction house. But to Rhonda Goodman’s trained eye the building has a lot to teach us about how ante-bellum Americans felt about the especially de-humanizing but integral facet of the slave trade; the slave auction. Goodman, a Stanford Art History Ph.D. cand
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Jan 27, 2009
History as a discipline is most popular as an undergraduate field of study at liberal arts colleges or research universities — institutions that attract well-prepared students. Professors at community colleges in the Seattle area are trying to find ways to attract more students, in part by accepting that many of those they want to educate view the field as boring, thinking of it as “just memorizing names and dates.”
To reach the students, these professors are working on a two-pronge
Source: Richard Borkow M.D., Village Historian of Dobbs Ferry
Jan 27, 2009
Washington’s bold and secret 1781 march from Dobbs Ferry, NY, to victory at the Battle of Yorktown in Virginia, began on Sunday morning, August 19, 1781, when the American army broke its 6 week summer encampment in lower Westchester and was paraded for the march in Dobbs Ferry. The allied French army, under the command of General Rochambeau, broke camp and departed for Virginia on the same day, about 3 miles to the east of Dobbs Ferry. Washington, the supreme commander of the alli
Source: Noah Mendel, reporting for HNN. (Mr. Mendel is an HNN intern.)
Jan 27, 2009
John Hope Franklin, an iconic figure in both contemporary and historic African-American life, was unable to attend the inauguration of President Obama. Although Dr. Franklin had been in Washington the Sunday before to attend the African American Church Inaugural Ball, his personal secretary told HNN that he was unable to attend the Presidential Inauguration on Tuesday, January 20th, on account of bad health.
Born July 2, 1915, Franklin is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Hist
Source: Juan Cole at Informed Comment, his blog
Jan 27, 2009
My Democratic Party colleague Taylor Marsh took exception to my Salon piece on Obama's decision to bomb Pakistan during his first week in office.I always welcome vigorous debate and believe that arguing substance in public is essential to our attaining the ideals of a democratic republic. I value Taylor Marsh's perspective and we have
Source: Newsweek
Jan 26, 2009
At noon on Sept. 16, 1920, a carriage filled with dynamite exploded at the corner of Wall St. and Broad St.—the heart of America's newly confident financial capital. The attack, which was clearly aimed at the headquarters of the era's dominant financial institutions, J.P. Morgan & Co., killed dozens of people and has remained one of the greatest unsolved mysteries. In "The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terror" (Oxford University Press), Yale histo
Source: Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria
Jan 26, 2009
The National Book Critics Circle announced the finalists for its 2008 awards on Saturday.
In biography, they are: Paula J. Giddings, Ida, A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching, Steve Coll, The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century, Patrick French, The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hem
Source: Deborah Lipstadt blog
Jan 26, 2009
Alan Dershowitz, asked by the Wall Street Journal[January 17h], to list his pick of of five best books on momentous legal cases has included History on Trial, in his pick .This is what he had to say about History on Trial.
Source: http://www.auroragov.org
Jan 23, 2009
The executive director of the Aurora History Museum will take on a new role this
month as he prepares to direct the Iraq Cultural Heritage Project, which will collaborate with the
Iraq National Museum in Baghdad on a wide range of projects, among other initiatives.
International Relief and Development—a nonprofit, non-governmental organization dedicated to
improving the lives and livelihood of people in the most economically deprived parts of the
world—selected Dr. Gordon Davis to lea
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Jan 23, 2009
On January 19, Acting Archivist of the United States Adrienne C. Thomas announced the selection of Alan C. Lowe as the new Director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The appointment is effective April 12, 2009.
The George W. Bush Library is temporarily located in Lewisville, Texas, and is administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. The permanent George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum will be constructed on the campus of Southern Methodist Univ
Source: Jonathan Zimmerman in the Philadelphia Inquirer
Jan 23, 2009
[Mr. Zimmerman teaches history at New York University.]
A few weeks ago, I received a sad e-mail from one of my graduate students. She had recently interviewed for a very competitive job at an elite liberal-arts college, and everything seemed to go well. Shortly thereafter, though, she found out that she didn't get the job.
Nobody else did, either. Faced with mounting costs and declining revenues, the college had simply canceled the position.
Welcome to the
Source: Independent (UK)
Jan 23, 2009
The historian Ellen Wilson wrote a series of important books that laid the foundations for much of the scholarly discussion that took place in 2007 on the bicentenary of the British abolition of the slave trade. Based in York in later life, she had earlier worked as a journalist in the American mid-west during the Second World War.
Of Cornish and Irish stock, she was born Ellen Gibson in Wisconsin in 1919, and graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1941 in history andjournali
Source: Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The Root
Jan 22, 2009
African Americans comprised nearly half of the audience at Lincoln’s second inaugural address. As Lincoln spoke to the crowd, he made the astonishing suggestion that perhaps God had willed that the Civil War would continue, “until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.” It was the day that Lincoln became the black man’s president.
Frederick Do
