Historians in the News

John Mearsheimer & Stephen Walt: US storm over book on Israel lobby

The power of America's "Jewish lobby" is said to be legendary. Commentators the world over refer to it, as though it were a well-established fact that US Jews wield far more influence than their numbers (2% of the population) would suggest. But this presumed influence is also a delicate issue in the US, and is rarely analysed. How does the lobby work? Is its power truly legendary, or just a legend? Two US academics, John Mearsheimer o

Max Holland: Says Zapruder film only missed the first shot fired by Oswald

[Max Holland is the author of “The Kennedy Assassination Tapes.” Johann Rush, a television photographer, filmed Lee Harvey Oswald demonstrating in August 1963. This article in the Times was first published in extended form on Mr. Holland's website, Washington Decoded. It was republished by HNN in February 2007..] FORTY-FOUR years ago today, a clothing company owner named Abraham Zapru

Lewis Lapham: New history journal criticized

Historians cherish the belief that history is a useful field of study for those wishing to understand the present as well as the past, just as journalists derive great satisfaction from the notion that their hasty work is the "first draft of history." And it seems entirely consistent with Lewis Lapham's distinguished career in journalism that he would decide that creating a quarterly that seeks to explain the present with illuminations from the past would constitute the proper coda to

Bernard Lewis: Lumped in with Cheney by critic

[Michael Winship, Writers Guild of America Award winner and former writer with Bill Moyers, writes this weekly column for the Messenger Post Newspapers in upstate New York.] Years ago, during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-81, a colleague of mine and I took the train from Manhattan down to Princeton, New Jersey's Institute for Advanced Study, where we had an appointment with Bernard Lewis, the renowned, conservative Middle East scholar. I don't recall much ab

Fiona Watson: TV historian endorses test on Scottish history

A leading historian has welcomed a decision to make questions on Scotland's past compulsory for students sitting the Higher history exam. Dr Fiona Watson, who presented the BBC TV series In Search of Scotland, said the move would underline the importance of Scottish history. The exam will contain a mandatory Scottish section from 2010/11. The decision by the Scottish Qualifications Authority came after a campaign by teachers and academics. The

Results of 2007 AHA Election

Council Officers President Gabrielle M. Spiegel, Johns Hopkins University (medieval, with a special interest in historiography and linguistic analysis, medieval and contemporary) President-elect (1-year term) Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University (U.S. to 1815, comparative gender history since 1600) Vice-President, Professional Division (3-year term) David J. Weber, Southern Methodist University (Borderlands, American West, Latin

Peter Mansoor and H.R. McMaster: Complaints that the Army has passed over both for promotion

by Max Boot

Meeting in Canada, Middle East Scholars' Group Worries About Academic Freedom

Montreal | Concerns over academic freedom loomed large over the scholarly presentations here at the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association, a group whose members sometimes confess to feeling as besieged as they do blessed by the contemporary preoccupation with their region of study. The association's Committee on Academic Freedom reported that it was busier than ever this year sending letters of intervention in cases where it sees the freedom of scholars— either in t

History journals: Few Policies on Plagiarism

In 2003, the American Historical Association got out of the business of adjudicating complaints of plagiarism, saying that the association could best promote good scholarship by issuing standards and promoting education about them. Journals, other publishers and colleges and universities are better suited than an association to consider plagiarism complaints, the AHA said, and they all have various sanctions they can impose. The move was controversial within the association, in part

David Irving: Oxford Union faces boycott over invite to Holocaust denier

The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, is leading a group of politicians and public figures who are boycotting an increasingly divided Oxford Union over the decision by its president to host a talk involving the Holocaust-denying historian David Irving and the BNP leader, Nick Griffin. The event, entitled Free Speech Forum, which is planned for next Monday, has provoked uproar at the university and beyond. Some Oxford students say they have received death threats and fear they will be t

North Dakota State University divided over award to one of their own

A handful of faculty at North Dakota State University question whether one of their colleagues is truly distinguished. Four faculty members have protested to administrators about history professor Tom Isern receiving the distinguished professor award, a new NDSU initiative that honors top faculty with a $20,000 raise and prestigious title. While the critics say Isern’s character doesn’t measure up, his supporters say his accomplishments make him deserving of the award.

Andrew Trees: Case of terminated Horace Mann teacher still causing waves

IT was an “O captain! My captain!” moment. Andrew Trees had been informed that his contract at the Horace Mann School, one of the nation’s most academically respected high schools, would not be renewed, and this May he was in his final days. A history teacher who had taught at the private school for six years, Mr. Trees had written a satirical novel, “Academy X,” about an elite school where students and parents resort to bribery and blackmail to ensure Ivy League college admission.

Harold J. Berman: 89, Who Altered Beliefs About Origins of Western Law, Dies

Harold J. Berman, a scholar whose expertise in Russian law took him to a Soviet courtroom to fight for royalties owed Arthur Conan Doyle, and whose forceful scholarship altered thinking about Western law’s origins, died on Nov. 13 in Brooklyn. He was 89. His daughter Jean Berman announced his death. Mr. Berman wrote 25 books and more than 400 articles on subjects as diverse as Russian culture and comparative legal history. They were published in over 20 languages.

Richard Lyman Bushman: To start at Claremont

A prominent Mormon historian and author has been hired to fill a new professorship in Mormon studies at Southern California's Claremont Graduate University. It is the second such academic program at a secular school nationwide, behind only Utah State University. Richard Lyman Bushman, professor emeritus of early American history at Columbia University, is a devout Mormon who wrote a sprawling 2005 biography of the faith's prophet, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. His

Henry Kissinger: Discusses diplomacy in the post-9/11 era

"Whoever the next president is, the new administration will be extremely disappointed if it believes that our relationships will mend because its leader has a different name. . . . Personal diplomacy and relationship-building, although important, are rarely the paramount drivers of global affairs. These are shaped importantly by the long-term national interest." Thus spake Henry Kissinger when I sat down with him recently in New York. Though I'd met him once or twice over

Juan Cole: Outside pressure groups are making work dangerous for scholars, says U.S. historian

Many professors keep regular blogs, but few are as widely read, and as controversial, as Juan Cole’s Informed Comment. Cole, a professor of Middle East history at the University of Michigan, is both an example of how an academic may share his expertise with rigour and plain diction—and that such expertise is in demand, judging by the size of the blog’s readership, which Cole says attracts 600,000 to a million visits a month—and, depending on who you ask, an example of how Middle East scholars ar

Jon Lauck: The challenge of writing a history of a Senate race in which he participated

How can someone write an objective account of one of the most important Senate elections of recent times if he also worked for the winning campaign? An unabashed conservative, Jon Lauck was not only a research and debate consultant for then-Rep. John Thune (R-S.D.) in his 2004 bid against then-Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D); he also actively supported Thune’s unsuccessful Senate bid in 2002. He then joined Thune’s staff after the Senate victory before joining the history faculty at South

Sean Wilentz: Says he favors Hillary Clinton for president

[Q.] So why Hillary? [Wilentz:] I think Hillary is important because the election really is the culmination of what's been a 40 year struggle for the Democrats to rediscover who they are. A 40-year struggle against what we'll call Nixon-slash-Reaganism. And, simply put, she's in the best position to be a president. Which is to say, she understands how American politics works. She understands the trajectory of American political history for the last 40 years because she's lived it in a way

David Noble: Outspoken academic wins fight with York

Round One goes to the teacher in the ongoing dispute between York University and its rabble-rousing professor David Noble. A labour arbitrator has ruled York violated Noble's academic freedom by issuing a 2004 press release criticizing a controversial pamphlet he penned and ordered the university to pay Noble $2,500 in damages. It must also withdraw the press release from its website. While Noble failed to win an apology from York for the press release and was awarded a

Victor Davis Hanson: Bush Awards Historian Who Downplayed Abu Ghraib, Said We Need To Bomb "Paper Tiger" Iran

In an East Room ceremony this morning, President Bush awarded “the recipients of this year’s National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals.” Among the scholars and artists recognized by the President was military historian and author Victor Davis Hanson, who received the National Humanities Medal. The National Humanities Medal is designed to honor those who “deepen” and “broaden” the humanities in America: "The National Humanities Medal, inaugurated in 199