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: Scott McLemee at the website of Inside Higher Ed
Dec 10, 2008
The most exciting and eagerly awaited title in this season’s haul from the scholarly presses is Jeffrey B. Perry’s study Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918, just published by Columbia University Press. Well, eagerly awaited by me, anyway.... The world at large has not exactly been clamoring for a gigantic biography of Hubert Harrison — whose name, until quite recently, was little known even to specialists in African-American political and intellectual history. But that st
Source: Stanford Humanities Center
Dec 10, 2008
Priya Satia is a Stanford history professor whose research interests include British cultural and political history, the history of imperialism, and humanitarianism. At first glance, Satia’s research might not seem relevant to Department of Defense counter-terrorism strategy, but her recent book, Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain’s Covert Empire in the Middle East, has made her a useful appraiser of current American surveillance and counter-insurgency strateg
Source: Southern Illinois University Carbondale student newspaper
Dec 9, 2008
An out-of-court settlement for the Ulysses S. Grant Association's lawsuit against SIUC will lead to all materials collected out of the Carbondale office over the past 44 years to leave the university.
A joint statement released Tuesday morning from the association and the university confirms all the "priceless" Civil War materials collected by the late history professor John Y. Simon will be moved to Mississippi State University, home of the association's new executive edi
Source: Scotsman
Dec 9, 2008
PRESENTER Neil Oliver described two leading Scottish historians as the "grumpy old men" from the Muppets yesterday after they criticised the BBC series A History of Scotland, which he hosts.
The first five episodes of the history show wrapped up last night with the final parts to be screened late next year.
A series of top historians contacted by The Scotsman yesterday said they had not bothered to watch the show or had disliked what they had seen.
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Dec 9, 2008
On December 7, historian Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, submitted his resignation to the President, effective December 19, 2008. Professor Weinstein, who has Parkinson’s disease, cited health reasons for his decision. Deputy Archivist of the United States, Adrienne Thomas, will serve as Acting Archivist until a new Archivist is appointed. It is anticipated that Bush administration will not try
Source: David Van Biema in Time
Dec 8, 2008
St. Augustine of Hippo (354- 430) was probably the most influential Christian thinker after the Gospel writers and St. Paul. It is to him that we owe such doctrines as original sin and predestination. Yet he has traditionally been unpopular with those concerned about Christian treatment of Jews over the centuries, a disapproval that was expressed eight years ago by the popular historian James Carroll in his much-read book Constantine's Sword. Carroll wrote that Augustine and his followers believ
Source: NYT
Dec 8, 2008
Studs Terkel, who died on Oct. 31 at 96, was remembered on Sunday as the father of oral history, the voice of the American worker, a pre-eminent listener, the sage of Chicago and a champion of the underdog.
A dozen friends and admirers — including the writers Jimmy Breslin, Victor Navasky and Walter Mosley — hailed Mr. Terkel, author of “Working” and “The Good War” (winner of the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction), saying he taught America how to listen to and understand th
Source: Oliver Marre in the Observer (Guardian)
Dec 7, 2008
Having approached him for Celebrity Big Brother and then decided against including him, Channel 4 still seems determined to give the controversial historian David Irving, once imprisoned in Austria for Holocaust denial, plenty of airtime.
On Tuesday night, C4's offshoot channel, More4, is showing a 90-minute documentary, An Independent Mind, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It is publicising it heavily, with a special
Source: WaPo
Dec 7, 2008
American-Made, by Nick Taylor (Bantam). A succinct survey of the Great Depression and particularly its consequences for workers. -- H.W. Brands
American Transcendentalism, by Philip F. Gura (Hill and Wang). From 1830 to 1850, a group of New England intellectuals confronted the great polarizing tension in American history, that between hyperindividualism and brotherhood. -- MD
Capitol Men, by Philip Dray (Houghton Mifflin). Devotes the majority of his pages to a
Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com
Dec 6, 2008
PLYMOUTH - Layoffs blamed on declining admissions and an expected downturn in the tourism industry have decimated the managerial ranks at Plimoth Plantation.
The living history museum announced the layoffs of eight veteran employees after the Plantation closed for the winter earlier this week. A ninth employee opted into the reduction in force as the layoffs unfolded. The reorganization consolidates most of managerial duties under four positions. Two are newly created managerial pos
Source: Gilder Lehrman Institute
Dec 4, 2008
On Saturday, December 6th at 8 p.m., selections from "Lincoln in His Time and Ours," a symposium held on November 22nd at Columbia University, will air on C-SPAN. Featured speakers will include Columbia University professors Andrew Delbanco and Eric Foner, and James McPherson, Professor Emeritus of U.S. History, Princeton University.
This is the first in a series of programs and projects about Lincoln that the Gilder Lehrman Institute is sponsoring over the next year, as p
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Dec 3, 2008
The U.S. Military Academy, in West Point, N.Y., has established a video oral-history project that will collect the stories of soldiers of all ages and make them available online for students, historians, journalists, and the public. The project, created by the academy’s history department, already has a preview site with a video explaining its goals, but the site’s formal unveiling won’t come until sometime in 2009.
“Soldiers’ personal stories are a largely untapped mine of military
Source: http://media-newswire.com
Dec 3, 2008
William J. McGrath, professor emeritus of history at the University of Rochester who was revered for his pioneering histories of Vienna, Austria, and Sigmund Freud, died Nov. 30. He was 71.
A scholar of modern European intellectual and cultural history, "William McGrath's signature mark was the way he broke down barriers between academic disciplines," noted Stewart Weaver, professor of history and chair of the Department of History at the University. His approach provided
Source: http://www.princeton.edu
Dec 3, 2008
Peter Brown, Princeton's Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, has been named a co-winner of the 2008 Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity.
He and Romila Thapar, a professor emeritus in history at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, will receive the award in a ceremony Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the Library of Congress. They are the sixth and seventh recipients since the prize's 2003 inception, and each will receive half of the $1 million award.
Source: Editorial in the Austin-American Statesman
Dec 3, 2008
Former Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe gave $15 million to the University of Texas, a donation for which every Texan should be grateful. The gift to the university's Center for American History should enable a better look at the past that forms our future.
The better we know the past, the better we can shape our future, and that's why Briscoe's gift is an extremely generous one. Even more generous is the former governor's attitude about the money. In reply to a question from the American-S
Source: Winfield Myers at Daniel Pipes's Campus Watch
Dec 3, 2008
[Winfield Myers is director ofCampus Watch, a project of theMiddle East Forum]
Political correctness is at its most parodic precisely when it seems beyond parody. The latest bit of history to support this adage is the Middle East studies establishment's reception of Sherry Jones's novel
Source: Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria
Dec 3, 2008
H-Shear, the H-Net listserv about the early American republic, has been sponsoring a series of essays that examine Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought. It includes: Introduction (Oct. 27), James Huston on Economic History (Oct. 27), Michael A.
Source: Jim Pinkerton at the Fox News blog
Dec 2, 2008
Last night’s special screening of new movie “Frost/Nixon” in Washington, D.C. was an early holiday gift to Beltway liberals, delivering glad tidings of anti-Nixonian feelgood vibes to the permanent Washington establishment, which has felt shut out of power for so long, during the dark night of Gingrich-DeLay-Bush these past 15 years, before the Obama dawn.
But even during this happy masque of lefty triumphalism, FOX News’ Chris Wallace threw a fair-and-balanced apple of discord into
Source: John Lawrence in Perspectives, the magazine of the AHA
Dec 1, 2008
[John Lawrence, chief of staff to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, holds a PhD in history from the University of California at Berkeley. The essay is based on his presentation at the 122nd annual meeting of the AHA at Washington, D.C., in January, 2008.]
... Over the past 34 years, I have held a number of senior positions in the House of Representatives, on personal, committee, and more recently, leadership staffs. Throughout those years, my training as a historian has v
Source: AHA Blog (Click here for embedded links in this post.)
Dec 1, 2008
See below for the winners of the 2008 AHA Election. These individuals will begin their terms of office following the 123rd Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
President (1-year term)
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University (early America, comparative women’s, material culture)
President-elect (1-year term)
Barbara Metcalf, University of Michigan and emeritus, Univ. of California, Davis (history of the Indian subcontinent, especially the colonial period;
