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Interviews with Historians

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Phil Katz - 12/15/2003

Two items:
1) A long interview with Kenneth Stampp (part of a large oral-history project at UC Berkeley): http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt258001zq/
2) A short 1993 interview with Roy Rosenzweig (from "Left History"): http://www.yorku.ca/lefthist/online/interview/rosenzweig.html

Greg Tingle - 6/30/2003

I/V: Rick Shenkman, Editor and Journalist - History News Network / HNN.us 23rd June 2003 (interview by Greg Tingle)

What's your background and that of the History News Network?

All of my adult life I have worked as both a journalist and a historian.

At History News Network I finally have the chance to be both simultaneously. I'm not sure if at heart I am one or the other.

Am I a historian who's moonlighting as a journalist or the other way around? Don't know. I established HNN in 2001. We went online in June of that year--the fulfillment of a dream that began, I suppose, with an op ed I wrote for the New York Times in 1980 in which I chastised the media for the shallowness of its coverage of news. I suggested that to remedy the defect the media should begin ringing up historians for their views just as often as they call upon economists or political scientists. We have hundreds of historians to write for us. Most are in the US but some live overseas. HNN gives historians a national platform. We can't afford to pay anybody but we do offer them visibility. Most historians are happy with that. Anyway, they hold paying jobs so don't rely on their writing for income.

What were the world's most important news media milestones?

In the past century there were 3 important inventions that had an impact on the media: radio, TV and the Internet......

Full interview at:

http://www.mediaman.com.au/interviews/shenkman.html