Blogs > September 14-27 , 2009: Dan Brown "The Last Symbol" and Taylor Branch's "The Clinton Tapes"

Dec 2, 2009

September 14-27 , 2009: Dan Brown "The Last Symbol" and Taylor Branch's "The Clinton Tapes"



HISTORY BUZZ:

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:

  • Taylor Branch: Author, historian gives material for new Clinton book to UNC library - MyFox8.com (9-23-09)

  • A Q&A with Taylor Branch, author of 'The Clinton Tapes' - GQ (9-16-09)

  • Taylor Branch's secret interviews add insight to Clinton presidency - USA Today (9-21-09)

  • Taylor Branch about to publish secret project: The Clinton Tapes - Taegan Goddard's Political Wire (9-19-09)

  • Taylor Branch's oral history with Clinton comes under attack - Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria (9-30-09)

  • Rosh Hashana, Circa 1919: Mrs. Shapiro is actually Barbara Ann Paster, one of the actors here at the Strawbery Banke restoration, a living museum in which over 350 years of Portsmouth homes, stores, churches and history have been preserved. It is in Puddle Dock, which was a decrepit neighborhood destined to be razed under urban renewal until a campaign in the 1950s and '60s led by the town librarian saved 42 houses on 10 acres to create the museum.... - NYT, 9-17-09

  • Dan Brown: Da Vinci author's 'uproar' warning: The Lost Symbol is expected to make claims about the influence of secret organisation the freemasons on US leaders. And it is tipped to brand first President George Washington a TRAITOR.
    British historian and Masonic expert Ashley Cowie:"Dan Brown is about to make a huge controversy because he knows it sells. He's going to create uproar in America. But it's fiction, not fact."
    But fellow historian David Shugarts said:"It's true that some of the founding fathers were powerful Masons."... - The Sun (9-15-09)

  • The Economic Freeze on History: More than two-thirds of history departments are experiencing budget cuts that have"required real reductions in resources, faculty and staff," according to a survey released Friday by the American Historical Association.... - Inside Higher Ed (9-14-09)

  • Historian Rebecca Solnit talks about how 9-11 should be remembered - Free Speech Radio News (9-11-09)

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

IN THE NEWS:

OP-EDs & BLOGS:

REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:

  • Morris Dickstein: When Grave Years Fueled Grand Art DANCING IN THE DARK A Cultural History of the Great Depression - NYT, 9-16-09

  • Nicholas Thompson: Friends, Not Allies THE HAWK AND THE DOVE Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War - NYT, 9-13-09

  • Norman Podhoretz: Because They Believe WHY ARE JEWS LIBERALS? - NYT, 9-13-09

    • Alan Simons examines how Republic of Turkey saved Jewish lives Shoah: Turkey, the US and the UK - Jewish Info News (9-2-09)

  • Philip Smallwood: The Life of R. G. Collingwood - Times Higher Education (UK), (9-3-09)

PROFILED & FEATURED:

QUOTED:

  • Richard Norton Smith, Russell Riley: Historians weigh in: Historical parallels: Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq: "It's a test on multiple levels of what kind of leader and what kind of politician and what kind of historian he is," says Richard Norton Smith, a historian who has run four presidential libraries and is currently a scholar at George Mason University."This is a defining moment, and not only for the president, but for the country."...
    "It's hard not just because the generals are his, but it's hard because he's a Democrat," says Russell Riley, who leads the William J. Clinton Presidential History Project at the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs."He's a Democrat who to a large part of the public is still suspect on foreign policy credentials, because he doesn't have a lot of demonstrated experience in this arena."... - NPR (9-29-09)

  • John Hafnor: Historian Predicts Dan Brown Theme, Reveals New Lost Symbols: "The Da Vinci Code's overarching premise was an Old World clash of religion and science, while the fresh theme for The Lost Symbol is likely to be a uniquely American power struggle between secret societies and the experiment known as democracy." - USPRWire (9-10-09)

INTERVIEWED:

  • Q&A with author and historian Marcus Rediker The Slave Ship: A Human History - Denisonian.com (Denison University) (9-29-09)

  • An interview with Greg Robinson, author of A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America Columbia University Press website (7-1-09)

  • In Conversation with David Starkey: The historian with an opinion on everything explains to Iain Dale why he was joking when he called Scotland a feeble little nation, his theory on the Californisation of the world and how Aneurin Bevan was deranged... - Total Politics (9-20-09)

  • Anthony J. Badger: British historian says FDR has some complex lessons for Obama: Badger is a University of Cambridge historian and the author of several accessible and well-reviewed books about the South and the Depression, among them"North Carolina and the New Deal,""FDR: The First Hundred Days" and"The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940." Given the current economic situation, it seems especially appropriate that the University of South Alabama's Department of History has selected Badger as this year's N. Jack Stallworth lecturer (his topic:"The New Deal and the Creation of the Modern American South").... - al.com (9-14-09)

  • Peter Bance Sikh author short listed for historian award: A renowned Sikh author has been short listed for the annual EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards, for his book on Maharajah Duleep Singh... - The Sikh Times (9-14-09)

HONORED, AWARDED &APPOINTED:

SPOTTED:

  • Dipesh Chakrabarty: Bengali historian speaks of 'legacy' of India as a civilization "Whether India was industrialized or not, workers should get all their rights," Chakrabarty said."People in India, the poor, want to vote, making it difficult to change the democracy of India."... - University of Rhode Island (9-30-09)

  • Richard Norton Smith, Presidential Historian: The Clinton School invited Presidential Historian Richard Norton Smith to come speak on"Lincoln 200". It has been 200 years since Abraham Lincoln was born.... - TodaysTHV.com, 9-16-09

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

    EVENTS CALENDAR:

    • Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall: Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009. NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)

    ON TV:

    • BBC to launch new series on history of Christianity - Religious Intelligence, 6-19-09

    • C-SPAN2:BOOK TV Weekend Schedule

    • PBS History Detectives: Mondays at 9pm

    • History Channel: Weekly Schedule

    • History Channel: "Beyond The Da Vinci Code" - Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "Angels & Demons Decoded" - Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 10pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "Holy Grail in America" - Sunday, September 19, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "The Templar Code" - Monday, September 20, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Stalin's Secret Lair" - Monday, September 20, 2009 at 5pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: 09 - Freemason Underground" - Monday, September 20, 2009 at 6pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "Secrets of the Founding Fathers" - Monday, September 20, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "The Dark Age" - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT

    • History Channel: "Nostradamus Effect" Marathon - Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 2-5pm ET/PT

    BEST SELLERS (NYT):

    COMING SOON BOOKS:

    • Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, September 15, 2009

    • Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, September 2009

    • James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller, September 28, 2009

    • Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009

    • Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009

    • L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback), November 1, 2009

    • Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009

    • Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night (Paperback), December 8, 2009

    DEPARTED:


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