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Cliopatria

  • Dec 2, 2005

    Sheila Johnston: The astonishing war story that a nation chose to forget

    by Cliopatria

    Christian Carion grew up in Northern France, "surrounded,'' he says, "by the permanent memory of the First World War''. Yet, for all France's war cemeteries and monuments to the fallen, one event has been repressed and forgotten there: the exceptional acts of friendship that erupted all along the Western Front at Christmas, 1914, when British, French and German soldiers put aside their arms to exchange gifts, sing, celebrate Mass, play football and bury their dead.

    Carion,
  • Dec 2, 2005

    Rosemary Righter: Review of Robert Conquest's The Dragons of Expectation: Reality and Delusion in the Course of History

    by Cliopatria

    LIKE CAESAR’S GAUL, Robert Conquest’s world is divided into three parts: “the civilised, the semi-civilised and the uncivilised (or decivilised) countries”.

    It is an oddly cut-and-dried categorisation from a scholar whose exposure of the evils of Soviet communism has been informed by a steadfast belief in tolerance, pluralism and the open society. It may seem to sit oddly, too, with his insistence that a tolerably accurate guess at the future is possible through informed understand
  • Dec 1, 2005

    NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #46; 2 DECEMBER 2005)

    by Cliopatria

    by Bruce Craig (editor) with Nathaniel Kulyk (contributor)
    NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (NCH)
    Website at http://www.h-net.org/~nch/

    1. JEFF TRANDAHL STEPS DOWN ­ NEW CLERK OF THE HOUSE ANNOUNCED
    2. NATIONAL HISTORY CENTER TO SPONSOR CONGRESSIONAL SEMINAR ON “NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND”
    3. REPORT: MEETING OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE RECORDS OF CONGRESS
    4. JOHN DICHTL TO LEAD NCPH
    5. BUSH CLOSE TO SELECTING PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY SITE
    6. NU

  • Dec 1, 2005

    A Different Take on Wikipedia

    by Cliopatria


    When it comes to reference and scholarly authority, I disagree to some extent with my fellow Cliopatrians Jonathan Dresner and Oscar Chamberlain that "the odds are better when you're in the stacks", in relation to Wikipedia.

    Pick a topic that's been written about by historians or social scientists for fifty years or so. Now go start pulling books off the shelf at random that are concerned with that topic. Start reading the older ones. Some of th

  • Dec 1, 2005

    2005 Cliopatria Awards: Nominations are Closed, and Thank You

    by Cliopatria

    The nomination period for the awards is officially over.

    Many thanks to those who took the time to nominate one or more blogs, bloggers, posts, etc. Now we hand it over to our illustrious and wise (well, except for me) judges to pick out the flawless gems among the wealth that history blogging has become.

    If you want to see what the judges are up against, feel free to

  • Nov 30, 2005

    Wiki-libel

    by Cliopatria

    I’ve always had mixed feelings about Wikipedia. I do use it, particularly when I want a quick summary of how some technology works. I like the way that thousands of people post and correct posts on thousands of topics simply for the love of it. I guess my 1960s roots are showing there. However, I don’t allow my students to use it as a source. There’s just too much room for falsehood, particularly on the controversial topics that many of t
  • Nov 30, 2005

    What we do and Why we do it

    by Cliopatria

    Via our ever-topical Breaking News link, I just noticed this story on Post University's decision to eliminate their majors in both History and English.

    Sadly, this isn't a terribly unfamiliar situation for me. The tiny History program I tought for at Livingstone College was threatened with disillusion on an annual basis by the administrat
  • Nov 30, 2005

    Still More Noted

    by Cliopatria

    Today is the last day for nominations for The Cliopatria Awards. Nominations close whenever Jon Dresner says that it's midnight in Hawaii.

    This is fund-raising month for Cliopatria's host, History News Network. Rick Shenkman needs to raise $25,000 in this appeal from the thousands of us who hang out here. Whether you are an appreciative lurker with deep pockets or an impoverished professor who

  • Nov 30, 2005

    Congressional Hypocrisy

    by Cliopatria

    It turns out that Congresswoman Jean Schmidt's infamous attack on John Murtha was only her second address on the House floor. Norman Ornstein in yesterday's Roll Call has an excerpt from her maiden House speech, from 9/6:

    This House has much work to do. On that we can all agree. We will not always agree on the details of that work. Honorable people can certainly agree to disagree. However, here today I accept a second oa
  • Nov 29, 2005

    Joe McCarthy DVD

    by Cliopatria

    Culled from discarded kinescopes of the Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, Emile de Antonio's 1964 documentary, "Point of Order," offers both a complement and a contrast to "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's docudrama treatment of the McCarthy era currently in theaters. Where Mr. Clooney's hero is a television newsman, Edward R. Murrow, who pushed back against the smear and scare tactics of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign, Mr. de Antonio's protago
  • Nov 29, 2005

    More on Colonel Westhusing

    by Cliopatria

    The story of Colonel Ted Westhusing is spreading through the web due to people like Ralph, and to others as well. To what long term effect? I do not know. I present here some links (an overview of sorts):

    1. The initial story of his death in June from a more or less official source.

    2. A fairly interesting blog entry from June.

    3.

  • Nov 29, 2005

    More Noted Stuff

    by Cliopatria

    Personal Stuff: At Fascinating History, Alterior has a link-rich post on"The History of Tampons." Cliopatria has treated this subject more raggedly than periodically, but David Salmanson's"Summer Reading" did call for closer examination of it. Thanks to
  • Nov 28, 2005

    Falling Short: some thoughts on teaching Western Civ and driving a bus

    by Cliopatria

    I'm back in the office after the long weekend.  We're into our final two weeks of the semester.  Folks are returning to campus this morning in various stages of mid-holiday exhaustion, anxiety, and satiety.  Few times of year in the academic calendar are as potentially frantic as the two weeks of school that remain after Thanksgiving and before the Christmas holidays!  'Twill be a busy time.

    Once again, I have failed to get as far as I had hoped in my Western Civiliz

  • Nov 28, 2005

    More Noted Things

    by Cliopatria

    David Epstein,"Not Just Child's Play," Inside Higher Ed, 28 November, looks at the use of video games* in the classroom.
    *In comments, Rob MacDougall suggests that I should specify: Civilization (i.e., crack).

    There was a time, says Ronald Wright, when the word"American" referred to its native peoples, as the words"Asian" or"African" still do -- not to its European settlers. In"

  • Nov 28, 2005

    Reading Signs

    by Cliopatria

    In Michigan, an American Sign Language (ASL) teacher named Ryan Commerson is in the seventh day of a hunger strike. [via Penny Richards] He is starving himself (and outside in Detroit in November, to boot) to draw attention to practices and personnel in state-run education for the deaf which he (and quite a few other people) believe is doing a grave disservice

  • Nov 27, 2005

    Things Noted Here and There

    by Cliopatria

    British historian David Irving was denied bail on Friday and will remain in an Austrian jail through the holidays on charges of Holocaust denial. His attorney says that Irving will not contest the charges, but his agent sends word that his next book will argue that Austria has no jails.

    Russell Jacoby,"