May 18, 2009

May 18, 2009: Phillip Zelikow Testifies on Torture

HISTORY BUZZ:

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

This Week's Political Highlights
May 15, 2009: President Obama & Health Care Reform
May 11: President Obama Unrolls Budget, Credit Card and Health Care Plans

BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:

Philip Zelikow: Historian testifies that US adopted torture as a practice under Bush - Source: Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists (5-14-09)

Mother Jones: Philip Zelikow torture memo has been located and will be declassified - Source: HNN Staff (5-13-09)

CIA Historical Review Panel: Critic scores outside CIA history panel for secretiveness - Source: Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood, Federation of American Scientists (5-11-09)

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

On This Day in History....
This Week in History.... May 18-24, 2009

IN THE NEWS:

Charles-Philippe Courtois: Historian gives Quebec high school history class a failing grade - Source: Globe and Mail (5-14-09)

Is the Google book search deal good for historians? - Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed (5-15-09)

Snags Hit Google Settlement With Authors and Publishers, and Antitrust Worries Rise - AHA Blog (5-7-09)

William Worger: LSU Graduate School dean ousted - Source: http://www.2theadvocate.com (5-7-09)

Michael Oren: New Israeli ambassador to US, outlines 7 threats to Israel's existence Source: Commentary (5-1-09)

OP-EDs & BLOGS:

CAROLYN EISENBERG: Rusty Eisenberg defends Mark Rudd - Source: CAROLYN EISENBERG in a letter to the editor of the NYT Book Review (5-13-09)

Slavery was indeed root of the Civil War - Source: Hilton Head Island Packet, 5-15-09

REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:

Richard J. Evans: 'We Are All Guilty' THE THIRD REICH AT WAR - Source: NYT, 5-17-09

Bruce Kuklick: America's First Legal Coup IMPEACHED The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy - Source: WaPo, 5-15-09

David C. Frederick: LAW SCOTUS Seizes Power THE GREAT DECISION Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court - Source: WaPo, 5-15-09

Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager: WORLD WAR II Targeting Hitler VALKYRIE Source: WaPo, 5-15-09

Ronald Hutton: Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain By Ronald Hutton: review As Ronald Hutton's Blood and Mistletoe makes clear, we like the idea of the Druids so much that we've made up almost everything we know about them, says Noel Malcolm - Source: Telegraph, UK, 5-14-09

QUOTES:

William R. Pinch"No Food for Thought: The Way of the Warrior": You have to marvel at how Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a former Special Operations commander and the newly appointed leader of American forces in Afghanistan, does it....
"The Christians grafted notions of piety and reverence onto asceticism, but the Greeks saw it as about power," said William R. Pinch, a history professor at Wesleyan University."They believed you could create power by disciplining the body." - Source: NYT, 5-16-09

PROFILES & FEATURES:

David M. Kennedy, Jon Christensen: Stanford Historians Revive an Agrarian Tradition: Walking the Farm - Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed (5-15-09)

Leicester University: The PhD students who are giving history a lift - Source: Independent (UK) (5-14-09)

Top Ph.D. Programs, Shrinking--including history - Source: Inside Higher Ed (5-13-09)

INTERVIEWS:

Frank Partnoy: Describes Ivar Kreuger as the man responsible for one of the top five financial schemes of all time - Source: Jon Stewart The Daily Show (5-11-09)

Donald Cole: Historian reflects on his life, career, and experiences as a member of the Grant Study - Source: Atlantic (5-12-09)

HONORS, AWARDED &APPOINTED:

Light Townsend Cummins: Texas gets new state historian - Source: Austin American-Statesman (5-12-09)

SPOTTED:

John Dittmer: "DePauw and Recent History Have Prepared You," Prof. John Dittmer Tells Class of 2009 - Source: Depau University, 5-17-09

Mormon History Association: Historians examine links between Lincoln and Mormonism - Source: Salt Lake Tribune (5-14-09)

EVENTS CALENDAR:

June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual"Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York), Annual summer history institute at Barnard College - Source: Press Release (4-21-09)

ON TV:

C-SPAN2:BOOK TV Weekend Schedule

PBS American Experience: Mondays at 9pm

History Channel: Weekly Schedule

History Channel: "The Hitler Conspiracy" - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT

History Channel: "Nostradamus: 2012" - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

History Channel: "Life After People: The Invaders" - Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 10pm ET/PT

History Channel: "God vs. Satan" - Wednesday, May 20, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT

History Channel: "Ku Klux Klan: A Secret History" - Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT

History Channel: "he True Story of Charlie Wilson" - Friday, May 22, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT

History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Alcatraz Down Under" - Friday, May 22, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

History Channel: "Band Of Brothers" Marathon - Saturday, May 23, 2009 at 12-11pm ET/PT

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

NYT Non-Fiction Best Sellers List - May 24, 2009

COMING SOON BOOKS:

Simon Schama, American Future: A History, May 19, 2009

Geoffrey Blainey, Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals in the South Pacific, May 25, 2009

Richard Ben-Veniste: Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate To 9/11, May 26, 2009

Douglas Brinkley, Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 1858-1919, June 30, 2009

DEPARTED:

Professor Norman Gash: Gash, who died on May 1 aged 97, was one of the foremost scholars of 19th–century Britain and an acknowledged authority on Sir Robert Peel - Source: Telegraph, UK, 5-17-09

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