POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS: |
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IN FOCUS: |
- Barbara Weinstein, Sean Wilentz, David Greenberg, Tony Michels: Historians for Kagan -
New Yorker, 6-7-10
- Controversy continues to dog Lincoln scholar Frank J. Williams -
HNN Staff (6-7-10)
- Flotilla raid could be fatal blow to Turkey-Israel friendship, says Israeli historian: "At the moment, the street and the government seem to be united in their antipathy for Israel," said Ofra Bengio,
a professor of history at Tel Aviv University and author of The Turkish-Israeli Relationship: Changing Ties of
Middle Eastern Outsiders...."It was our misfortune to play into the hands of militants,” Prof. Bengio said."There’s no doubt that Erdogan is riding high in the eyes of the public," Prof. Bengio said."If there's
going to be reconciliation between our countries, it will have to take place behind the scenes. The street
is just too volatile."...
Globe and Mail (6-3-10)
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HISTORY NEWS: |
- Scholar asks if the Crusaders had a Muslim ally in the First Crusade:
A new article is examining the relationship between Islamic states and the Crusader army during the First
Crusade (1096-99) and suggests that the Fatimid kingdom of Egypt did attempt to ally with the Crusaders.
The article,"Fatimids, Crusaders and the Fall of Islamic Jerusalem: Foes or Allies?" was written by Maher
Y. Abu-Munshar in the latest issue of Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean.... -
Medieval News (6-3-10)
- Leading Polish historian, killed in Katyn crash, now the victim of credit card theft:
The Russian Federal Investigation Committee of the prosecutor's office said four conscripts had been detained for
allegedly using the credit card of Andrzej Przewoznik, a leading historian who was killed in the accident.... -
Telegraph (UK) (6-8-10)
- Raza studies author says"occupied" does not mean"to take over" in Arizona embroglio:"Occupied America." It's the title of a textbook at the center of a new Arizona law that targets ethnic studies
programs in public schools. That textbook is used by TUSD in an ethic studies class. So, what exactly does"occupied" mean?
Rudy Acuòa, Ph.D., is the book's author. He says the word"occupied" means"to have a history" which he says his
book teaches. Acuna says"occupied" does not mean"to take over." Hence, the reason he says he titled his book"Occupied America" and not"Occupied Mexico."... -
KGUN 9 (AZ) (6-5-10)
- Arizona Immigration Law No Different from the Past, Says Texas Tech Historian:
Miguel Levario, an assistant professor of history, says that even since the days of the Gold Rush when Mexican-
American residents of California were required to carry ID cards, the Arizona law is just the latest in a series
of laws and events targeted specifically at Mexican-Americans.... -
Texas Tech Today (6-4-10)
- Historian tapped as running mate for GOP governor candidate in South Dakota:
South Dakota gubernatorial candidate Gordon Howie announced today that he has asked former Sioux Falls mayoral
candidate and alderman Kermit Staggers to be his running mate in his bid for governor of South Dakota on the
Republican ticket.
Staggers has served in the South Dakota legislature as well as the Sioux Falls city council. He has a PhD in
American History and is a professor of History and Political Science at the University of Sioux Falls.... -
Dakota Voice (6-2-10)
- Rightwing historian Niall Ferguson given school curriculum role:
Niall Ferguson, the British historian most closely associated with a rightwing, Eurocentric vision of western
ascendancy, is to work with the Conservatives to overhaul history in schools.... -
Guardian (UK) (5-30-10)
| OP-EDs: |
- Thomas J. Sugrue: The myth of post-racial America:
Was the election of Barack Obama the turning point in America’s racial development? Is the United States now
set on a path to realize all its hopes and dreams of the civil rights era and narrow the divisions between the
races? Thomas J. Sugrue, a professor of history and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, isn’t so sure.
In"Not Even Past: Barack Obama and the Burden of Race," Sugrue explores the question of race in Obama's
America and finds that much progress is still needed before the nation can truly call itself post-racial.... -
WaPo, 6-10-10
- Laurie Penny: Niall Ferguson and Michael Gove:
The Tories want our children to be proud of Britain's imperial past. When right-wing colonial historian Niall
Ferguson told the Hay Festival last weekend that he would like to revise the school history curriculum to include"the rise of western domination of the world" as the"big story" of the last 500 years, Education Secretary Michael
Gove leapt to his feet to praise Ferguson's"exciting" ideas - and offer him the job.
Ferguson is a poster-boy for big stories about big empire, his books and broadcasting weaving Boys' Own-style
tales about the British charging into the jungle and jolly well sorting out the natives.... -
Laurie Penny at The New Statesman (6-1-10)
- Jay Driskell: Petitioning the AHA to Use INMEX to Avoid Labor Disputes -
Jay Driskell in an Open Letter (5-31-10)
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REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS: |
- Nathaniel Philbrick, S. C. Gwynne: Men on Horseback
Nathaniel Philbrick: THE LAST STAND Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Excerpt
S. C. Gwynne: EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON
Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Exerpt
In"The Last Stand," Nathaniel Philbrick, the author of the popular histories"Mayflower" and"In the Heart of the Sea," offers an account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn that gives appropriate space
to Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Maj. Marcus Reno and others who fought that day. But really, Custer steals the show.
If Custer illustrates how the spotlight of history sometimes shines on the wrong actor, Quanah Parker exemplifies
the more deserving who get left in the shadows. One hopes a better fate awaits “Empire of the Summer Moon,” S. C.
Gwynne’s transcendent history of Parker and the Comanche nation he led in the mid- to late 1800s...
The deeper, richer story that unfolds in"Empire of the Summer Moon" is nothing short of a revelation. Gwynne, a
former editor at Time and Texas Monthly, doesn’t merely retell the story of Parker’s life. He pulls his readers
through an American frontier roiling with extreme violence, political intrigue, bravery, anguish, corruption,
love, knives, rifles and arrows. Lots and lots of arrows. This book will leave dust and blood on your jeans.... -
NYT, 6-13-10 - DAVID OSHINSKY: The View From Inside Review of
Wilbert Rideau IN THE PLACE OF JUSTICE
A Story of Punishment and Deliverance
Few people know this better than Wilbert Rideau. Convicted of the murder of a white bank teller in 1961,
Rideau, who is black, spent 44 years in prison, most of them at Angola, before being released. His painfully
candid memoir,"In the Place of Justice," is indeed, as its subtitle promises, “a story of punishment and
deliverance,” told by a high school dropout who escaped Angola’s electric chair to become an award-winning prison
journalist. As such, Rideau is the rarest of American commodities — a man who exited a penitentiary in better shape
than when he arrived.... -
6-13-10
Excerpt
- Justin Vaïsse: Leave No War Behind NEOCONSERVATISM
The Biography of a Movement
This definitional question, and in particular neoconservatism’s extraordinary transformation, is the principal
subject of"Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement," by Justin Vaïsse, a French expert on American
foreign policy who is currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. It is essential reading for
anyone wishing to understand the contours of our recent political past. Vaïsse is a historian of ideas."Neoconservatism" demonstrates, among other things, that ideas really do make a difference in our lives.... -
NYT, 6-13-10
- HISTORY: 'Last Call,' a history of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent: LAST CALL The Rise and Fall of Prohibition
As Daniel Okrent demonstrates in"Last Call," his witty and exhaustive new history of Prohibition, the so-called
Noble Experiment created nothing like a virtuous teetotaler's paradise. The 18th Amendment, in fact, didn't so much
end the country's drinking culture as merely change its ethos, replacing the male-dominated saloon with the
sexually integrated speakeasy and turning a public pastime into a surreptitious exercise in cynicism and
hypocrisy."The drys had their law," as Okrent observes,"and the wets would have their liquor." And the
bootleggers would have their obscene and blood-soaked profits, blissfully free of state and federal taxes.... -
WaPo, 6-11-10
- POLITICS Book review: 'The Upper House' by Terence Samuel:
THE UPPER HOUSE A Journey Behind the Closed Doors of the U.S. Senate
Terence Samuel's"The Upper House" explores the inner workings of the U.S. Senate through the lives of several current senators, including Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, Tennessee Republican Bob Corker and Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar. He describes the near impossibility senators face in fulfilling all the promises made during a campaign and explains why voters get frustrated when an election does not produce the immediate change for which they worked, voted and hoped.
WaPo, 6-11-10
- BIOGRAPHY Book review: Ronald M. Peters, Jr., and Cindy Simon Rosenthal:
'Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics,' reviewed by Norm Ornstein:
...We can expect a wave of books about Pelosi; the first to emerge since her health reform triumph is not by
journalists, either of the tell-all or political-beat variety, but by two political scientists from the University
of Oklahoma. Both Ronald Peters and Cindy Rosenthal are experts on congressional leadership and history; their book
is thus more than a biography of Pelosi, and more than an account of her tenure so far as speaker. Peters and
Rosenthal try also to put Pelosi into the broader context of contemporary American politics and Congress.... -
WaPo, 6-11-10
- The 1970s get a second look by historians: The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in
Perspective
Above all else, the 1970s marked the moment when world leaders and ordinary citizens alike woke up with a jolt to
their common status as inhabitants of an interconnected world -- and understood, in the process, that this didn't
necessarily make the planet a more predictable place."This is the decade when things start to unravel," says
Harvard historian Charles Maier, one of the editors of the new book The Shock of the Global: The 1970s in
Perspective. In his essay in the book, historian Daniel Sargent offers a citation from 1975:"Old international
patterns are crumbling ... The world has become interdependent in economics, in communications, and in human
aspirations." The writer was Henry Kissinger... -
Foreign Policy (6-1-10)
- Dan Epstein: How Green Was Their AstroTurf: BIG HAIR AND PLASTIC GRASS A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s
Incomprehensibly, if you read Dan Epstein’s"Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America
in the Swinging '70s," that singular event took place almost three years later, at the 1971 All-Star Game.
He gets Tiger Stadium right, but nothing else....
Baseball fans come factory-equipped with high expectations. We set ourselves up to be disappointed. But usually
that disappointment is delivered by $200 million cleanup hitters, overweight starters or Billy Beane. Not writers
entrusted to feed our baseball-history tapeworm. In a book that could and should have been a valuable compendium
of an underdocumented decade, the Feliciano gaffe appears on Page 38. When an author pulls that big a rock that
early, you start reading differently. We don’t want to be copy editors. We’d rather not keep score.... -
NYT, 6-6-10 - Nathaniel Philbrick breathes new life into the hoary tale of Custer's Last Stand: THE LAST STAND Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Nathaniel Philbrick's new book,"The Last Stand," is popular history, and it's not fair to expect him to bring
new evidence to light. To be sure, there's the more or less obligatory reference to a new source -- an unpublished
account by the daughter of one of Custer's soldiers, quoting from her father's private papers -- but Philbrick
wisely doesn't try to convince the reader that this is important material; it's a touch here and there of
marginalia. The only fair questions are whether his account is well researched, his judgments reasonable and
his writing engaging. The answers are yes, yes and yes. Moreover, the book is a model of organization, with
lots of maps and photographs and extensive endnotes properly delineating Philbrick's sources much more clearly
than is usual in this kind of work.... -
WaPo, 6-4-10
- Gary B. Nash's history of"The Liberty Bell":
It is an unlikely central character for a book: A silent, 250-year-old bell. Yet in"The Liberty Bell,"
a biography of our nation's"nearly sacred totem," Gary B. Nash provides a stirring historical account of
the icon that is America's"Rosetta Stone or . . . Holy Grail.".... -
WaPo, 6-6-10
- Jack Rakove: Looking for a 'New' Narrative of Founding Fathers: Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America
Into this hot fug comes Jack Rakove's new book,"Revolutionaries," which bears the subtitle"A New History of
the Invention of America." Mr. Rakove is a professor of history, American studies and political science at
Stanford University. He was also the winner, in 1997, of a Pulitzer Prize for his book"Original Meanings:
Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution." He sounds like an interesting man, the kind who sometimes
gets his boots muddy. He has been an expert witness in Indian land claims litigation.... -
NYT, 5-30-10
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FEATURES: | - Ruth Harris: Letters reveal key role played by 'passionate' wife in securing justice for Alfred Dreyfus:
Fresh light has been thrown on the Dreyfus Affair, the cause célèbre that divided France and shook the world in
the late 19th century, by the discovery of thousands of unpublished letters.
Following the exile of Captain Alfred Dreyfus after his wrongful conviction for spying for Germany against France,
his wife, Lucie, was portrayed as a bourgeois heroine, the epitome of the dutiful Victorian spouse. But, according
to her letters, she was a passionate woman whose undying love for her husband rescued him from the brink of
suicide... -
Guardian (UK) (6-6-10)
- Conservative class on Founding Fathers' answers to current woes gains popularity:
Earl Taylor has spent 31 years teaching that"the Founding Fathers have answers to nearly every problem we have
in America today." Only in recent months has he found so many eager students.
Two years ago, Taylor, who is president of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, made about 35 trips
to speak to small church groups and political gatherings. This year, he has received so many requests that he
enlisted 15 volunteer instructors, who are on pace to hold more than 180 sessions reaching thousands of people."We're trying to flood the nation . . . and it's happening," said Taylor, 63, a charter school principal.... -
WaPo (6-7-10)
- Shaping Gotham's Past with Richard Rabinowitz:
Elegantly dressed in a three-piece suit, gray hair framing his square-rimmed glasses, Richard Rabinowitz once
met me on a blustery spring afternoon outside the New-York Historical Society, the 206-year-old institution
where he has helped shape the way that hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers see their city's past.
Best known as curator of Slavery in New York, an acclaimed NYHS exhibit that exposed the ties between
enslaved African labor and New York City's wealth, the 65-year-old has spent more than four decades
creating history exhibits for general audiences in the United States and abroad.... -
The Atlantic (6-1-10)
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QUOTES: |
- American people cynical and uninvolved, says historian: "This spill, it's another blow to the body politic," says John Baick, professor of history at Western
New England College in Springfield, Mass. It is, he says, another excuse to be cynical and uninvolved —"exactly the opposite of what has always been the American zeitgeist, a sense that we, collectively and
through our institutions, can be something greater than ourselves."..."If people don't believe, if people don't give, if people don't trust, they will pick the politicians who
are the loudest rather than the most sincere," said Baick, the history professor."They will pick the rabble
rouser rather than the technocrat who gets things done."... -
AP (6-7-10)
- Randolph Roth says that Juárez murder rate like that of civil war: "Whenever you have a real struggle for power -- civil wars, revolutions -- organized gangs can get very, very
bad like you have in Juárez today," Roth said."It's very rare to see the rates like this in a developed country.
It's very sad."
Roth is a professor of history and sociology at Ohio State University who created a historical database examining
U.S. homicide rates from different time periods and places. He is author of the book"American Homicide."... -
El Paso Times (6-7-10)
- Tom Asbridge: Christians and Muslims are distorting crusades, says historian: "This is a manipulation of history, not a reality. I believe there is no division linking the medieval past and
the conflict of the crusades with the modern world," he said."[It's a] misunderstanding which goes back to the
19th century and western triumphalism in emerging colonialism, and the tendency of western historians to start to
glorify the crusades as a proto-colonial enterprise, an [obsession] with Richard the Lionheart and a burgeoning
interest in [Muslim leader] Saladin as almost the noble savage."... -
Guardian (UK) (6-2-10)
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INTERVIEWS: |
- 5 Questions for Patrick J. Charles on Gun Control and the Second Amendment:
Gun control and the Second Amendment are highly emotional and controversial issues in the United States. As a
potentially landmark ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago is shortly to be announced by the Supreme Court before
its current term ends in June, Patrick J. Charles, author of The Second Amendment: The Intent and Its
Interpretation by the States and the Supreme Court (McFarland, 2009) and Britannica’s new entries on both
subjects, has kindly agreed to answer the following questions posed by Britannica executive editor Michael Levy.... -
Britannica Blog (6-1-10)
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AWARDS &APPOINTMENTS: |
- John van Engen wins Grundler Prize:
Western Michigan University has awarded the prestigious Grundler Prize to a University of Notre Dame scholar for
his book, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages.... -
Medieval News (6-8-10)
- Historians among 2010 ACLS Fellows:
The American Council of Learned Societies recently announced the winners of its 2010 fellowship competition. Over
$15 million was awarded to more than 380 scholars, including many historians. ACLS fellowships and grants are
awarded to individual scholars for excellence in research in the humanities and related social sciences.
The complete list of winners is available on the ACLS web site. Among the winners are the following historians.... -
David Darlington at AHA Blog (6-8-10)
- Kiron K. Skinner International-Relations Professor to Advise on Bush Oral-History Project:
Skinner has been chosen to serve on the advisory board for
the George W. Bush Oral History Project, to be conducted by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University
of Virginia. The center has done similar projects on each president since Jimmy Carter.... -
CHE (5-30-10)
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SPOTTED: |
- Historian Spence Delivers 2010 NEH Jefferson Lecture:
On May 20, Jonathan Spence, one of the world's leading experts on Chinese history and culture, delivered
the 2010 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The annual lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment
for the Humanities (NEH), is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished
intellectual achievement in the humanities.
To read the lecture, click here.
In the lecture,"When Minds Met: China and the West in the Seventeenth Century," Spence explored the many
ways that one of the first Chinese travelers to reach Europe shared his ideas with the Westerners he met.... -
Lee White at the National Coalition for History (6-4-10)
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ANNOUNCEMENTS & EVENTS CALENDAR: |
- September 17-18, 2010 at Notre Dame University: Conference aims to bring medieval, early modern and
Latin American historians together:
An interdisciplinary conference to be held at the University of Notre Dame this fall is making a final call for
papers to explore the issue surrounding similarities between late-medieval Iberia and its colonies in the New World."From Iberian Kingdoms to Atlantic Empires: Spain, Portugal, and the New World, 1250-1700" is being hosted by the
university's Nanovic Institute for European Studies and will take place on September 17-18, 2010.
Medieval News, 4-29-10
- Thousands of Studs Terkel interviews going online:
The Library of Congress will digitize the Studs Terkel Oral History Archive, according to the agreement,
while the museum will retain ownership of the roughly 5,500 interviews in the archive and the copyrights to the
content.
Project officials expect digitizing the collection to take more than two years.... -
NYT, 5-13-10
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Digital Southern Historical Collection:
The 41,626 scans reproduce diaries, letters, business records, and
photographs that provide a window into the lives of Americans in the
South from the 18th through mid-20th centuries.
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BEST SELLERS (NYT): |
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BOOKS COMING SOON: |
- John Mosier: Deathride: Hitler vs. Stalin - The Eastern Front, 1941-1945,
(Hardcover), June 15, 2010
- Evan D. G. Fraser: Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations,
(Hardcover), June 15, 2010
- Ruth Harris: Dreyfus: Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century (REV),
(Hardcover), June 22, 2010
- James Mauro: Twilight at the World of Tomorrow: Genius, Madness, Murder, and the 1939 World's
Fair on the Brink of War, (Hardcover), June 22, 2010.
- William Marvel: The Great Task Remaining: The Third Year of Lincoln's War,
(Hardcover), June 22, 2010
- Suzann Ledbetter: Shady Ladies: Nineteen Surprising and Rebellious American Women,
(Hardcover), June 28, 2010.
- Julie Flavell: When London Was Capital of America, (Hardcover), June 29, 2010
- Donald P. Ryan: Beneath the Sands of Egypt: Adventures of an Unconventional Archaeologist,
(Hardcover), June 29, 2010
- Jane Brox: Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light, (Hardcover), July 8, 2010.
- Rudy Tomedi: General Matthew Ridgway, (Hardcover), July 30, 2010.
- Richard Toye: Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made,
(Hardcover), August 3, 2010.
- Alexander Hamilton: The Federalist Papers, (Hardcover), August 16, 2010
- Holger Hoock: Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War, and the Arts in the British World, 1750-1850,
(Hardcover), September 1, 2010
- Anna Whitelock: Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen, (Hardcover), September 7, 2010
- James L. Swanson: Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse,
(Hardcover), September 28, 2010
- Timothy Snyder: The Red Prince: The Secret Lives of a Habsburg Archduke (First Trade Paper Edition),
(Paperback), September 28, 2010
- Ron Chernow: Washington: A Life, (Hardcover), October 5, 2010
- George William Van Cleve:
A Slaveholders' Union: Slavery, Politics, and the Constitution in the Early American Republic,
(Hardcover), October 1, 2010.
- John Keegan: The American Civil War: A Military History, (Paperback),
October 5, 2010
- Bill Bryson: At Home: A Short History of Private Life, (Hardcover), October 5, 2010
- Robert M. Poole: On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery,
(Paperback), October 26, 2010
- Robert Leckie: Challenge for the Pacific: Guadalcanal: The Turning Point of the War,
(Paperback), October 26, 2010
- Manning Marable: Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, (Hardcover), November 9, 2010
- Elizabeth White: The Socialist Alternative to Bolshevik Russia: The Socialist Revolutionary Party,
1917-39, (Hardcover), November 10, 2010
- Elizabeth White: The Socialist Alternative to Bolshevik Russia: The Socialist Revolutionary Party, 1917-39,
(Hardcover), November 10, 2010
- G. J. Barker-Benfield: Abigail and John Adams: The Americanization of Sensibility,
(Hardcover), November 15, 2010
- Edmund Morris: Colonel Roosevelt, (Hardcover), November 23, 2010
- Michael Goldfarb:
Emancipation: How Liberating Europe's Jews from the Ghetto Led to Revolution and Renaissance,
(Paperback), November 23, 2010
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DEPARTED: |
- David Valaik, emeritus professor at Canisius College, dies at 74:
David Valaik, PhD, an emeritus professor of history at Canisius College, died on Friday, June 4. He was 74.... -
Canisius College (6-8-10)
- Honored scholar Norman A. Graebner dies at 94:
Norman A. Graebner, a former University of Virginia professor who was known for his love of teaching and esteemed
for his knowledge on American diplomatic history, died on May 10 at the Colonnades in Charlottesville. He was 94... -
Charlottesville Daily Progress (6-7-10)
- Lila Weinberg, Chicago historian and author, dies:
Lila Weinberg, a Chicago historian, author, teacher and editor, has died.
Weinberg, who died May 29 at the age of 91 from complications of cancer, collaborated with her late husband,
Arthur, on six books on social history, including two on attorney Clarence Darrow. One of the books,"Clarence
Darrow: Attorney for the Damned," spent 19 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list in 1957. Arthur Weinberg
died in 1989.... -
Jewish Telegraphic Agency (6-1-10)
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