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
Oct 27, 2008
History has long been among the most popular undergraduate majors — and has long been seen as playing a crucial role in how colleges provide liberal education. But is the discipline doing everything it can to promote liberal education, especially since most history majors will not become lifelong historians and since many history students are not majors?
A new report, prepa
Source: http://timesunion.com
Oct 26, 2008
Historians sometimes like to engage in a game of "what if?" about the close calls and random twists of fate embedded in the drama of history.
A tantalizing opportunity for such speculation comes in what historian and author David Hackett Fischer calls "that high summer of 1609."
As the French explorer Samuel de Champlain paddled a canoe on July 31 to the southern edge of the lake that now bears his name, the English seaman Henry Hudson was sailing no
Source: Atlanta-Journal Constitution
Oct 26, 2008
As a reporter and editor for the Atlanta Daily World for many years, beginning in the 1950s, George Coleman had a great deal of firsthand knowledge of Atlanta’s African-American community and the civil rights movement.
He also collected books about Atlanta history and the history of black Americans, said his daughter, Bernadette Lambert of Powder Springs.
“He used to tell me, ‘I’m more of a historian than a journalist,’” said Mrs. Lambert. “He loved to talk about Atlant
Source: http://www.atlanticfreepress.com
Oct 26, 2008
No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel’s bestseller list – and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel’s biggest taboo.
Dr Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation – whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel – is a myth invented little more than a century ago.
An expert on European history at Tel Aviv Universit
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 25, 2008
The French are using the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt to accuse England's men of acting like 'war criminals'.
Exactly 593 years after King Henry V's legendary victory, a revisionist conference will be held at the scene of the triumph.
Academics will suggest that the extent of the feat of arms was massively exaggerated, with claims that the English were hugely outnumbered a lie.
More controversially still, they will say that the foreign invaders used numerous underhand tact
Source: Press Release--Gilder Lehrman Institute
Oct 24, 2008
Mrs. Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States and Honorary Chair of the Preserve America initiative, today presented the 2008 national "Preserve America History Teacher of the Year" award, co-sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, to David B. Mitchell, a high school teacher at Masconomet Regional High School in Topsfield, Massachusetts, during a ceremony at the Union League Club in New York City.
"Dave's always searching for new chances to t
Source: AP
Oct 24, 2008
Noted Nebraska historian Robert Manley, who told stories of pioneers and hard times of the Great Plains, has died.
He died on Wednesday of stomach cancer in Lincoln. He was 80.
Manley played guitar and sang folk songs. He also wrote books and essays, and lectured about historical events, places and, most importantly, people.
Manley, who had a 50-year-plus career as a teacher and historian, wrote at least 26 books.
He was born in Wisconsin, grew
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
Oct 23, 2008
Washington — At a conference here today, “Picturing the Nation,” the National Endowment for the Humanities and its British counterpart described useful ways of using art to teach national history.
The conference focused on elementary- and secondary-school students and teachers. But one presentation, by Wilfred M. McClay, a history professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, was on a topic relevant to all levels of education: the advantages and obstacles of using art as
Source: http://news.brynmawr.edu
Oct 23, 2008
Professor of History Sharon Ullman recently appeared on 98.5 Ben FM’s “Woman of the Week” show to talk about GLBT History Month (streaming audio is available on Ben FM’s Web site; Ullman is the second person interviewed in this clip).
Ullman had been asked by Equality Forum, an international nonprofit that works toward gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender civil rights through educational outreach efforts, to co-chair its celebration of GLBT History Month. She and her co-chair, NY
Source: Caleb McDaniel at H-SHEAR
Oct 23, 2008
I am very pleased to announce that on Monday, H-SHEAR will begin publishing an eight-week serial forum on Daniel Walker Howe's recent Pulitzer-prize winning book, _What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848_.
H-SHEAR has commissioned seven distinguished scholars to write review essays on Howe's book that focus on their respective areas of expertise. Each Monday over the next seven weeks, one of these review essays will be posted to the list according to the sche
Source: LAT
Oct 23, 2008
Albert Boime, an art historian, educator and author who evaluated art in its social and political context for new insights into French Neo-Classicism, Impressionism and other prominent art movements of the last 250 years, has died. He was 75.
Boime, a faculty member at UCLA for more than 30 years, died Saturday of complications from a blood disorder at Kaiser Permanente hospital in Los Angeles, said his wife, Myra. He had been a longtime resident of Mar Vista.
In close
Source: Independent (UK)
Oct 23, 2008
Although Richard Evans was the favourite for the Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, he maintains that the process of winning the job was tough. For a start, there was an application procedure. Not so long ago, you didn't do anything so vulgar as apply for this distinguished position. You sat about, hoping that you would be looked upon with favour. It is a royal appointment, after all, which means that it used to be in the gift of the prime minister of the day.
The syst
Source: Newsday
Oct 22, 2008
Presidential historian and best-selling author Michael Beschloss is receiving an award from a group affiliated with the New York State Archives.
Beschloss will receive the Empire State Archives and History Award from the New York State Archives Partnership Trust on Wednesday night in Albany.
Beschloss has written nine books on American presidents, including best sellers "Presidential Courage" and "The Conquerors." He's a regular commentator on news
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Oct 21, 2008
German authorities are investigating a suspected Nazi war criminal after
he was tracked down by a student working on an university project.
The 89-year-old former member of the notorious Waffen SS, whose name
cannot be revealed for legal reasons, is accused of participating in the
murder of 60 Jewish slave workers in 1945.
The massacre took place in Deutsch Schuetzen in Austria and the victims
were buried in a mass grave which was only discovered in 1995.
The name of the
Source: Press Release
Oct 21, 2008
In the days before television, Americans went to the movies to see and hear the top news stories of the day. International, national and regional news, sports segments, fashion, and human interest stories were all packaged into an 8-10 minute program as Phillip W. Stewart describes in “Projected History: A Catalog of the National Stories Produced by Universal Newsreel, Volume One, 1929-1930” (ISBN 9780979324383, pms press, 2008).
Along with the other newsreels of the period, the Un
Source: Phil Krone in the Clarion Ledger
Oct 21, 2008
The real beginning of the Barack Obama for president campaign was more than two years ago on the pages of The Clarion-Ledger.
It began on Sept. 13, 2006, when you published a piece by regular contributing columnist and historian Robert S. McElvaine titled "Obama can bind nation's wounds," and it audaciously promoted Obama for president in 2008.
The very next day Dan Hynes, the highly respected Illinois state comptroller and Obama's leading opponent for the the
Source: Martin Kramer at his blog Sandbox
Oct 20, 2008
Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor at Columbia University, is much in the news these days, for his connection with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The Los Angeles Times did some
Source: http://thestar.com.my
Oct 20, 2008
MALACCA: The National Union of the Teaching Profession wants the Education Ministry not to rush to introduce History as a compulsory primary school subject to prevent undue burden on both teachers and pupils.
Its president, Hashim Adnan, said the introduction of the subject without proper planning would undoubtedly add to a heavier workload for teachers and pupils who already have to contend with the Kajian Tempatan subject.
“We feel that the teaching of History as a co
Source: http://english.hani.co.kr
Oct 20, 2008
1,500-member National History Teachers Association to issue declaration stating the gov’t is undermining neutrality of education.
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Following history scholars, history teachers nationwide launched a campaign to sign a “history educators’ declaration,” which says the “government’s move to revise the (history textbook) ‘A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea’ has fundamentally shaken the textbook authorization system and undermines the neutrality of education as gua
Source: Independent (UK)
Oct 19, 2008
A year ago the Chinese journalist and historian Xinran returned to China. She was there to research her latest oral history, China Witness, a collection of interviews given by grandparents and great-grandparents. She took the opportunity to visit her mother, from whom she was separated at the age of seven during the Cultural Revolution. The visit offered the opportunity to talk about what had happened 40 years ago and its effect on both mother and child.
"I spent four hours sit
