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
Sep 1, 2006
Leonard W. Levy, an exacting, dogged, prolific and combative constitutional historian whose work was frequently cited by the United States Supreme Court and won him a Pulitzer Prize, died on Aug. 24 in Ashland, Ore. He was 83.
His death followed years of poor health and a recent stroke, said his wife, Elyse.
Professor Levy’s Pulitzer, the 1969 prize for history, was awarded for his “Origins of the Fifth Amendment.” He published almost 40 other books, on topics including religious liberty,
Source: Chris Lehmann interview with Michael Kazin for NPR
Sep 1, 2006
Q: Do you find -- as I did -- Hobsbawm's account of the public past disturbingly selective when it came to the abuses of the Soviet Union? He mentions the Gulags in a handful of brief passages, and says even less about the Stalin-era purges and show trials.
Certainly, Hobsbawm is too sympathetic to what used to be called "the Soviet experiment" -- the decidedly unscientific order that had a mostly deleterious impact on the history of the 20th century, particularly the hist
Source: Press Release--University of West Ontario
Aug 31, 2006
An internationally recognized historian and authority on Jewish history starts a five year term this fall as an adjunct research professor in the History Department at the University of Western Ontario.
Sir Martin Gilbert is a leading authority on Jewish history and the official biographer of Winston Churchill. He previously lived in London, England.
"It's very exciting," says Gilbert. "I've been coming to London on and off for a number of years. I like
Source: Sage Ross at Wikipedia
Aug 31, 2006
Roy Rosenzweig's recent article in the Journal of American History, Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past, seems to be having a powerful effect in turning the tide of academic opinion. Several posters suggested the article to naysayers. Said one, "Rosenzweig convinced me of the importance of this entity, which I had been trying unsuccessfully to ignore."
Source: David Greenberg at the New Republic blog, Open University
Aug 31, 2006
Whether you're a surfer in the blogosphere, a TNR junkie, or a fan of one of the many intellectuals who make up our illustrious contributor list--welcome! We hope you'll bookmark us and come back to visit as we get up and running.
To the best of our knowledge, this blog is unlike any other out there. It's dedicated to thinking about not just the news of the day but also the news from the academy: Controversies in campus politics that warrant thoughtful discussion. Scholarship from o
Source: News 8 Austin, TX
Aug 31, 2006
Betsy Gonzales has been teaching for 22 years. On Wednesday she was recognized for her efforts.
Gonzales, who teaches at Cedar Park Middle School in the Leander Independent School District, was named Teacher of the Year by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Preserve American Initiative. This is a national teaching award, voted on by her peers."It's long overdue," fellow teacher Phillip Sozansky said.
Sozansky learned
Source: Press Release--Rutgers (Newark)
Aug 28, 2006
Newly appointed Rutgers-Newark Professor of History Annette Gordon-Reed has attracted attention from fellow scholars and mainstream media due to her work on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and one of his female slaves, Sally Hemings. In many ways, this work reflects a central theme of her research and teaching.
“The issue of race has been at the heart of the American dilemma from the very beginning,” Gordon-Reed notes. “How do you develop a multicultural society when you h
Source: Ralph Luker (blog)
Aug 23, 2006
An internal investigating committee at the University of Cincinnati has found Don Heinrich Tolzmann guilty of plagiarism in his book, The German-American Experience. After reviewing charges first made three years ago on H-Ethnic, the committee has recommended that Tolzmann be dismissed as a faculty member in the Un
Source: Newsday
Aug 22, 2006
The Theodore Roosevelt Association has named a Boston University history professor as executive director.
Cathal Nolan, an international relations scholar, two weeks ago took over operations of the Muttontown-based group that has more than 2,000 members and is dedicated to promoting recognition of the 26th president.
Hiring Nolan, author of "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of International Relations" and other foreign policy books, is a critical part of a changeov
Source: E.J. Dionne, Jr. in the Wa Po
Aug 22, 2006
... David S. Brown's "Richard Hofstadter: An Intellectual Biography" offers us the life of one of our country's most revered historians. Hofstadter, the author of such enduringly popular works as "The American Political Tradition" and "The Age of Reform," shaped modern liberalism in ways that we must still grapple with today.
Anyone who loves American history owes a debt to Hofstadter, and that would include me. I was blessed with two inspiring high sch
Source: Press Release -- musicfortomorrow.org
Aug 22, 2006
On 18 September 2006, a fund raiser concert for the culture of New Orleans will take place in Dixon Hall, at Tulane University. The concert features Irvin Mayfield and members of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. Jazz legend Wynton Marsalis co-chairs the event along with concert host Jude Law, and historian Douglas Brinkley, who will speak before the concert. The concert will raise $1 million for the new National Jazz Center, and also to establish the "Music for Tomorrow" non-profit orga
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Aug 21, 2006
FRANCIS MADDISON, who died on July 12 aged 78, was an Arabist and an historian, and became Curator of Oxford's Museum of the History of Science.
A taste for the recondite, a love of languages, a delight in the bizarre or puzzling - these, allied to careful and accurate scholarship were the characteristics that led Maddison from his undergraduate studies in modern languages and history to the direction of the world-class collection of scientific and technical artefacts in Oxford.
Source: Bruce Kuklick in Christianity Today (July/Aug. 2006)
Aug 18, 2006
[Bruce Kuklick is Nichols Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has won four different teaching awards. He is preparing a short American political history, From Sea to Shining Sea. It roots the past story of the United States in an expansive Protestantism.]
... If professional historians are religious, they mostly hide their religion under a bushel. They are much more likely to proclaim that they are feminist or politically liberal than that they
Source: Blog
Aug 18, 2006
We created this blog for those of us (Mid East History PhD’s and ABD’s) who are on the academic job market, in an attempt to formalize the informal rumor mill through which most job applicants find out whether they've been accepted or rejected. -It is up to you to contribute to this site with information about jobs and to spread the word to other friends and acquaintances who are in the job market (in 2007/2008).
Source: Aron Hirt-Manheimer in Reform Judaism Online
Aug 18, 2006
Edwin Black is the author of IBM and the Holocaust, which in 2003 won the top two awards of the American Society of Journalists and Authors for best book and best investigative article; and of three other books, including War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race. His most recent book is Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives, from which the following is drawn. He was interviewed by Reform
Source: Desiree Cooper in The Free Press
Aug 17, 2006
... The automobile represents the American dream for everyone, but it has a special
sentimentality for African Americans, according to Thomas Sugrue, a historian
and sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in urban
history and race relations.
"African Americans from Detroit who could buy cars on company plans could
certainly make a show of going South in their new wheels," he said. "Until the
late 1960s, there was a huge wage gap between Northerner
Source: Toronto Star
Aug 17, 2006
The likely posthumous pardon of 306 soldiers, including 23 Canadians, shot for desertion and cowardice during World War I is "nonsense," says one of Canada's leading military historians.
"It means the British government is trying to demonstrate that it is deeply sensitive and no longer like its predecessors," Jack Granatstein, former director of the Canadian War Museum, said in an interview. "People did things the way they did 90 years ago. Trying to change
Source: Ben Fenton in the Telegraph (UK)
Aug 17, 2006
THE decision by the Defence Secretary Des Browne to seek a blanket pardon for 306 men shot for battlefield offences during the Great War was greeted with unease by many historians and experts yesterday.
"In one sense it is justified because we know a lot more about the psychological effects of war now than we did then and it would have been treated differently if they had had that information,'' said Sir Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King's College, London.
Source: Star Phoenix
Aug 16, 2006
CALGARY -- A desperate struggle for survival -- not the white man and his horse -- likely forced Plains Indians to band together in complex communities, at least 1,700 years before what is currently accepted.
And, the way they came together to ward off threats from southern bands from what are now the Dakotas and Minnesota may have resembled a very early form of North American diplomacy.
University of Calgary archeologist Dale Walde has proposed the controversial theory
Source: Melanie Eversley in USA Today
Aug 15, 2006
he old spiritual Swing Low, Sweet Chariot could soon be recognized for its role in black American history.
A historian recently learned that he is descended from the slave couple believed to have written the song, and now he wants to publicize the story of his ancestors.
Currie Ballard says he was browsing through a bookstore around Christmas when he found Via Oklahoma: And Still the Music Flows by the late Mabel Alexander. Inside, he was startled to find a story identical to
