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Cliopatria

  • Jul 14, 2007

    From Wilson Moses

    by Cliopatria

    Knowledge and Ignorance: Two Barriers to Learning
    Wilson J. Moses†
    Paris Bastille Day, 2007

    Yesterday in French class the subject of conversation was" complaining," and the teacher asked how we might react to a train's being late. I offered an anecdote, relating how many years ago, having boarded a train in Rome, I waited twenty minutes for the train to leave the station, and how throughout the carriage, one could hear people from many different nations, impatientl

  • Jul 13, 2007

    Apocrypha Now?

    by Cliopatria

    A friend has asked about a story that may be the academic equivalent of an urban legend. I had never heard it. I asked some journalists who cover higher education, and they also say it does not ring a bell.

    But the thing sounds just plausible enough that it might really have happened. So at my friend's request, here is a call for leads in case there is anything to it.

    I will avoid naming the university in question, leave gender uspecified, and say only tha

  • Jul 13, 2007

    Friday Notes

    by Cliopatria

    At Mystery Man on Film, you can download for free the six-hour series on the first twenty years of European cinema,"Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood," by Kevin Brownlow and David Gill. It covers the silent film era in Scandinavia, Germany, France, and Great Britain. It would be nice to have a supplemental series on the early film industry in southern and eastern Europe. Thanks to Dale Light
  • Jul 12, 2007

    Footnote to Folly

    by Cliopatria

    A very good explanation of the basic LaRouche template is given in a chapter of Architects of Fear, a book from the early 1980s by George Johnson, who I believe is still a science writer for The New York Times.

    World history boils down to a war between the anti-technology agrarian oligarchs (reductionist followers of Aristotle, every one) and the city-building forces of scientific progress (who
  • Jul 12, 2007

    Bush & Congress

    by Cliopatria

    I watched the Bush press conference this morning, and was particularly struck by his repeated statements that it was the job of Congress to"fund" the war (but to have no input into how the war was waged).

    That the assertion passed unchallenged from the media probably isn't surprising--few people any longer defend the abstract powers of Congress. But it was a chilling interpretation of constitutional theory, well beyond anything offered even by LBJ (who conceded Congress had the right to repe

  • Jul 12, 2007

    Thursday Notes

    by Cliopatria

    Dan Cohen,"The Perils of Anonymity," Dan Cohen, 10 July, argues that PhDinHistory invited the attempts to out him or her by blogging anonymously and urges the blogger to return to the net in her or his own name. It's a thoughtful post, well worth the read, but the ‘sphere would be immensely impoverished without some of our anonymous bloggers. They are entitled to an
  • Jul 11, 2007

    Lady Bird

    by Cliopatria

    The AP is reporting that Lady Bird Johnson has died, at age 94.

    Perhaps the most interesting experience for me in working with the LBJ tapes came not with listening to the President but getting to hear the person on the other end of the line. Sometimes, the figure would be far less impressive than his historical reputation--Hubert Humphrey comes to mind. Sometimes, especially in conversations with Southern memb