Cliopatria

• Jan 22, 2006
  

  Tim Harford: Review of Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson's Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Economic and Political Origins (Cambridge)

  by Cliopatria

  The birth of British democracy was protracted, as the ruling classes slowly allowed the voting franchise to expand. In 1832 the first reform act increased the electorate from about 8 per cent of the population to 15 per cent; several further reform acts continued the process, and it was completed with near-universal suffrage in 1928. While the concessions were gradual, designed to stave off reform rather than hasten democracy, they all moved in the same direction.
  
  Argentine democrac
  

• Jan 21, 2006
  

  Presidential War Powers

  by Cliopatria

  Over at Potus Jeff Kimball has issued this cry of the heart concerning what he considers the silence of historians concerning many of President Bush’s actions. Although I did not agree with everything he said about, and against, President Bush, he has moved me to respond with this comment on presidential war powers, which I am cross-posting, with only slight changes, here.

  The grant of power in

  

• Jan 21, 2006
  

  Things Noted Here and There

  by Cliopatria

  Andrew Adam Newman,"How Should a Book Sound? And What About Footnotes?" New York Times 20 January. More on translating forms.

  David Montgomery,"The Author Who Got a Big Boost from bin Ladin," Washington Post, 21 January. Forget Oprah. Bin Ladin's the sales booster for this historian.

  Megan Twohey,"

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  Top 21 Books in Middle East Studies [Modern]

  by Cliopatria

  The enterprising scholars at American University Cairo thought it worthwhile to poll M.E. professors [and sundries] on the"most interesting, informative and readable" books in the field of Modern Middle East Studies. 52 scholars of the M.E. responded and below is the top 21. I thought it would be useful for our readers as well. I have hyperlinked the entries to Amazon.
  

  
  
  1. 

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #2; 13 JANUARY 2006) by Bruce Craig

  by Cliopatria

  1. HUMANITIES ADVOCACY DAY PLANS ANNOUNCED
  2. FUNDING NEWS -- SOME GOOD, SOME BAD
  3. AHA MEETS IN PHILADELPHIA
  4. NATIONAL HISTORICAL PUBLICATIONS AND RECORDS COMMISSION SWITCHES
  TO GRANTS.GOV
  5. NEH TEACHER WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCED
  6. BITS AND BYTES: National History Day Theme Set
  7. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: "Libraries as Places to Linger and Mingle"
  (Christian Science Monitor)

  1. HUMANITIES ADVOCACY DAY PLANS ANNOUNCED Once again it is time

  

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #3; 20 JANUARY 2006) by Bruce Craig

  by Cliopatria

  1. THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET -- WHAT TO EXPECT
  2. NIXON LIBRARY AGREES TO DEED OF GIFT FOR NIXON POLITICAL MATERIALS
  3. SUNSHINE WEEK EVENTS ANNOUNCED
  4. HISTORIAN LOUIS GALAMBOS APPOINTED TO KLUGE CHAIR
  5. BITS AND BYTES: Copyright Roundtables Scheduled; Unpublished Congressional Hearings Tally Available
  6. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: "America By the Numbers" (Washington Post)

  1. THE PRESIDENT'S BUDGET -- WHAT TO EXPECT Early next month President Bush will

  

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  TWU Says No

  by Cliopatria

  Wow. The MTA (correctly, in my opinion) came under heat for elements in the contract that seemed to reward the illegal strike. I can't imagine the city or state providing a more generous offer. The final vote was 11,234 to 11,227: are there any hanging chads?
  

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  Political History Or Not?

  by Cliopatria

  Richard White, The Middle Ground
  
  Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution
  
  John Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment
  
  Kenneth Greenberg, Masters and Statesmen
  
  Stephanie McCurry, Masters of Small Worlds
  
  David Laitin, Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Change Among the Yoruba
  
  Alan Taylor, William Cooper’s Town
  
  Jack Rakove, Original Meanings
  
  James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom
  

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  "Conservative" and "Radical" in the Academy

  by Cliopatria

  The problem in a nutshell:
  
  Compare this and this.
  
  Then compare this and this.
  

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  Hawaii Surprise

  by Cliopatria

  Just after a poll from New Jersey that showed interim senator Bob Menendez trailing Republican Tom Kean, Jr. by 11 points (though with more than 30 percent of the electorate undecided), a surprising piece of bad news for Democrats from Hawaii: incumbent Daniel Akaka is going to face a primary challenge from Democratic congressman Ed Case. (Akaka is 81
  

• Jan 20, 2006
  

  Well, yah, ... So What _is_ Wrong with the UCLA History Department?

  by Cliopatria

  Poor Andrew Jones. His moment in the national spotlight is so disappointing. Google up his name and he's trumped by a transgendered Andrew Jones, who'll be speaking at the University of North Texas. Hiram Hover points out that three prominent members of the advisory board of his Bruins Alumni As
  

• Jan 19, 2006
  

  fear-mongering and bias at UCLA

  by Cliopatria

  UCLA Law professor Jerry Kang, another of the targets of Andrew Jones's infamous hit list, has responded with a lucid analysis of the question:
  
  http://www.law.ucla.edu/kang/Teaching/Blacklist/blacklist.html
  
  I think the problem goes beyond the rather loose standard for who gets called a "radical" and the legality of invasion of professors' copyright through unauthorized taping of their
  

• Jan 19, 2006
  

  What's Benjamin Franklin's Birthday?

  by Cliopatria

  On Tuesday, Jan. 17, the city of Philadelphia celebrated Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday. According to the Boston Globe, Franklin was actually born on Jan. 6, 1706, but that was before the colonies switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. When Great Britain updated to the new system by skipping 11 days in 1752, Franklin dutifully moved his birthday. Did everyone change birthdays in 1752?
  
  No. Most people were happy to keep their original dates. The Gregorian calendar ha
  

• Jan 19, 2006
  

  So why did Medicare itself start so smoothly?

  by Cliopatria

  ... The administration's initial response [to complaints about the new Medicare prescription drug program] will be familiar to anyone who recalls the early months of the Iraqi insurgency or the first few days after Hurricane Katrina. "This is going very well," a spokesman at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said on January 4, with apparent seriousness. When the difficulties became too widespread for even the Bush administration to ignore, officials fell back on another well-rehearsed excuse: Glitches were inevitable given the nature of the task. "We know there are going to be bumps in the road," another CMS spokesman said. "It's a new program."
  

  

• Jan 19, 2006
  

  When the Attack Dog is Blind

  by Cliopatria

  Andrew Jones is either very sloppy, or a willing liar. Maybe both.
  
  This point is apparently unclear. In a comment about another post, KC Johnson writes this:"A good part of the reasoning in the UCLAprofs site is unconvincing. But as far as I can tell, there's nothing untrue said about any of these professors."
  
  Not so. There's untruth all over the place. Professors Joan Waugh and Naomi Lamoreaux are prominently pictured on
  

• Jan 19, 2006
  

  More Noted Things

  by Cliopatria

  Eugene Volokh addresses the UCLA Profs controversy. The largest numbers of professors specifically targeted by Brother Andrew Jones and his Bruin Alumni Association are in the Law School and the history department. The historians specifically cited: Eric Avila, Ellen DuBois, James Gelvin, Juan Gomez-Quinones, Russell Jacoby, Vinay Lal,
  

• Jan 18, 2006
  

  Scalia and Thomas bid farewell to 10th Amendment

  by Cliopatria

  Interesting Supreme Court ruling on Oregon’s assisted suicide law. The law was upheld by a 6-3 vote. Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion. The three dissenters were Scalia, Thomas, and the new chief justice, Roberts. The transcript of the decision does not seem to be posted yet; I’ll put a link up later. For the moment I’ll assume the journalist descriptions are accurate.

  On the face of it, the decision is a logical follow up to the

  

• Jan 18, 2006
  

  Happy 300th Birthday, Benjamin Franklin!

  by Cliopatria

  My fellow historians, professional and armchair alike, should note that today is the 300th anniversary of the birth of the quintessential American, Benjamin Franklin. Joyce Chaplin, one of my committee members, writes about Franklin and she suggests the following list of activities in celebration of the day:
  
  1. eat an apple,
  2. launch a
  

• Jan 18, 2006
  

  Lending a Hand

  by Cliopatria

  After some careful reflection, I have realized that I now agree wholeheartedly with Andrew Jones, the president of UCLA Profs. Disregard my previous post; I've decided to lend a land as the young Mr. Jones sets out to monitor campus discussions and punish people in the university community for expressing incorrect opinions. Toward that end, I've starte
  

• Jan 18, 2006
  

  Toward a New Purity in Academic Culture

  by Cliopatria

  Seeking to expose the rising red menace on a campus infested with an"increasingly radical faculty," the website UCLA Profs offers students a payment of $100 for"Full, detailed lecture notes, all professor-distributed materials, and full tape recordings of every class session, for one class." Better yet, they'll even wire their stoolies prior to the informant's face-to-face with the perp:"If the class