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: http://www.knoxnews.com
Apr 6, 2007
Twenty people executed. Nineteen hanged and one pressed to death by stones.
Historian Mary Beth Norton knew the outcome of the Salem witchcraft crisis and trials of 1692, but she didn't buy the story of how it all came about.
Her inquiry would result in a prize-winning book called "In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692." On Thursday, University of Tennessee students heard Norton's take on the subject during a lecture called "Salem Witc
Source: WaPo
Apr 6, 2007
An author who has researched the Cold War's most famous espionage case said new evidence suggests another U.S. diplomat, not Alger Hiss, was the Soviet agent who fed U.S. secrets to Moscow.
The claim was presented Thursday at a daylong symposium, "Alger Hiss & History," at New York University. It provided new information that, if true, could point toward a posthumous vindication of Hiss, who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union and spent nearly five years in pris
Source: Lee White in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
Apr 6, 2007
During a session at the Organization of American Historians (OAH) annual meeting last week, it was revealed that both the Chief Historian and Bureau Historian positions at the National Park Service (NPS) remain vacant, with no clear date set for when they will be filled. Dr. Martin Perschler, Acting Manager of the Park History Program at the NPS, provided this update to the OAH Committee on National Park Service Issues. The application period for the Chief Historian position had closed on Februa
Source: HNN Staff
Apr 6, 2007
Several historians at Southern Methodist University have signed a new petition to protest the establishment of an institute on the campus in tandem with the proposed Bush presidential library.
Source: http://ejpress.org
Apr 5, 2007
British Jewish leaders have spoken of their concern after
a Haifa University lecturer who has called for a boycott of Israeli
academics, was made Chair of History at Exeter University in the south of
England.
Ilan Pappe has published numerous books and essays accusing Israel of
?ethnically cleansing? the Palestinians.
"Zionism is far more dangerous to the safety of the Middle East than
Islam," Pappe said in one interview recently and two years ago he was a
major supporter of the
Source: Andrew Leonard at Salon.com
Apr 5, 2007
One of the oddities of history is that although Taiwan is separated from mainland China by only about 100 miles, the first outside power to exert political control over the island was the Netherlands. Even more peculiar, and delightful, is the thesis articulated in Tonio Andrade's "How Taiwan Became Chinese": The Dutch are ultimately responsible for the Sinification of Taiwan; the transformation of an island populated predominantly by Austronesian aborigines into a culturally Chinese d
Source: Bernard Gwertzman at the website of the Council on Foreign Relations
Apr 5, 2007
Juan Cole, an expert on Iran and other Middle East issues, says once the British sailors and marines were captured, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the incident “to whip up Iranian nationalistic sentiments” and garner popular support for the relatively unpopular government. Cole, who publishes the blog Informed Comment, says the captives were released when Khamenei was satisfied that Iran would not lose face and he could ensure the situation would not “spiral out of contro
Source: HNN Staff
Apr 5, 2007
The HISTORY NEWS NETWORK (http://hnn.us) recorded this appearance of Sean Wilentz at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians on March 31, 2007.
Mr. Wilentz, a professor of history at Princeton, is the author of The Rise of American Democracy. His book was the subject of a panel at the OAH.
In the course of the proceedings James Stewart of Macalester College gave Mr. Wilentz a t-shirt featuring the image of Karl Marx and
Source: http://www.diverseeducation.com
Apr 5, 2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A few years ago, historian Lisa Daniels discovered a fascinating morsel of buried history in her own family.
Daniels learned that her grandmother, Rita Hernandez, was a civilian riveter and blueprint reader during World War II, serving on the USS Franklin Roosevelt in the Brooklyn shipyard. Odessa Taylor-Marshall served as a medical technician with the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, which delivered backlogged mail to the troops in Europe from 1942-1
Source: Collegiate Times
Apr 4, 2007
A Virginia Tech history professor has recently released a book detailing the account of Virginia’s history.
The book, entitled “Cradle of America: Four Centuries of Virginia History,” was written by Peter Wallenstein and is the first account of modern history of Virginia written by a historian.
The book is also the product of a collaborative effort from his fall 2005 university Honors Program colloquium, consisting of nine undergraduate students. The students were broug
Source: AP
Apr 4, 2007
Iranian authorities detained a French academic [and historian of Islam] and have barred him from leaving the country since January, the French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
Stephane Dudoignon was arrested in the sensitive region of Sistan-Baluchestan, in southeastern Iran, on Jan. 30 after photographing a religious procession there, Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said....
Dudoignon, who is married to an Iranian woman, is living with his wife's family in Tehran, the
Source: Press Release -- Alfred University (NY)
Apr 3, 2007
Any student who has completed a basic science course knows what the periodic table of the elements is, but Dr. Eric R. Scerri, a lecturer in chemistry at the University of California-Los Angeles, has become an expert on the periodic table, which has been called “nature’s rosetta stone.”
He will share his thoughts about the significance of the periodic table during the ninth annual Samuel R. Scholes Jr. Lecture, scheduled for 8 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, in Nevins Theatre, Powell Campus
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Apr 3, 2007
Eleven scholars have published a full-page ad in The New York Review of Books to try to rally support for Ward Churchill, who is facing possible dismissal from his tenured job at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The text of the ad is available at a Web site called “Defend Critical Thinking,” and focuses on the way charges of misconduct were brought against Churchill, not the charges themselves. The ad warns scholars to “be wary of opportunistic attacks on scholarship that are disguised mea
Source: The Nation (Bangkok, Thailand)
Apr 3, 2007
A historian of Southeast Asian studies has launched a "Siam not Thailand" campaigning, urging constitution drafters to revert to the name used in the Kingdom's first constitution.
"People who have been part of our country have different ethnic, linguistic and cultural identities. Therefore, to reflect historical fact and the present reality, the name of the country should be Siam, not Thailand," historian Charnvit Kasetsiri wrote in an open letter issued yesterd
Source: Press Release -- UC Riverside
Apr 2, 2007
A statistical reference work co-edited by UCR economics professors Susan B. Carter and Richard Sutch has won multiple honors, including Dartmouth Medal, Honorable Mention, for creation of an outstanding reference work.
“Historical Statistics of the United States: Earlier Times to the Present, Millennial Edition” also was named one of the 2007 Outstanding Reference Sources for small and medium-sized libraries by the Reference and User Services Association, a division of the American
Source: Steve Paulson at Salon.com
Apr 2, 2007
As almost every child knows, Judas was the disciple who betrayed Jesus ; selling his life for 30 pieces of silver. If there's an arch villain in the story of Jesus, it's Judas Iscariot. Or is it? The newly discovered Gospel of Judas suggests that Judas was, in fact, the favorite disciple, the only one Jesus trusted to carry out his final command to hand him over to the Romans.
Rumors about the gospel have circulated for cen
Source: New Anatolian (Ankara, Turkey)
Apr 2, 2007
An Istanbul court decided late in January not to pursue charges against a Turkish historian for declaring a "genocide" of Armenians had been committed during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, daily Radikal revealed over the weekend.
In an article in Agos, a Turkish-Armenian weekly, historian Taner Akcam had written, "The 1915-1917 deportations and massacres of Armenians constituted a genocide."
The complaint against Akcam was filed by Recep Akkus
Source: Reuters
Apr 2, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- Newly released documents show that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger delayed telling President Richard Nixon about the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 to keep him from interfering, according to new book excerpted in Vanity Fair on Monday.
"Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power," is by presidential historian Robert Dallek, who spent four years reviewing the Nixon administration's recently opened archives, including 20,000 pages of Kissinger's telephone transcr
Source: Aaron Hanscom at frontpagemag.com
Apr 2, 2007
Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes calls himself a "soldier" in the war against radical Islam. This description is in keeping with Pipes' belief that the "war's center of gravity has shifted from force of arms to the hearts and minds of citizens." Because so many people in the West still don't believe that they are at war, specialists like Pipes are performing an essential role by warning of the dangers of radical Islam.
The most recent battlefield in the war of id
Source: Hugh Fitzgerald in the New English Review
Apr 1, 2007
Two weeks ago the American Enterprise Institute, with all kinds of its associated panjandrums -- members, friends, supporters, admirers -- present, gave the "Irving Kristol Prize" to Bernard Lewis.
In the audience was Vice President Cheney, who is reputed to be, if not an acolyte of Lewis, at least someone who thinks of him as the last word on Islam and how to deal with Islam. He apparently reveres Lewis' acuity, and accepts that "greatest-living-scholar-of-Islam"
