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Cliopatria

  • Nov 9, 2005

    Gould and the Senate

    by Cliopatria

    I noticed on the home page that Rick Shenkman has an interview with Lewis Gould, who has just published an overview of the 20th century Senate. Gould informed Shenkman, “I found no golden age in the 20th century . . . For the most part, however, senators spend time reminiscing about past decades when the body was more collegial and responsible. Yet, when I explored these supposed ages of comity and mutual respect, such as the 1930s or the 1940s, th
  • Nov 8, 2005

    John Derbyshire: Review of Nicholas Ostler's Empires of the Word: A Language History of the World

    by Cliopatria

    Most of us have, at one time or another, puzzled over such historical-linguistic conundrums as: Why did only Britain, of all the Roman provinces overrun by Germans, end up speaking a Germanic language? Why did the Portuguese language “take” in Brazil, but not in Africa, while Dutch “took” in Africa but not in Indonesia? If the Phoenicians were so important in Mediterranean history, how is it that they left not a single work of literature behind? Since we know of no nation named Aramaia, whence c
  • Nov 8, 2005

    Knowledge is Powerless

    by Cliopatria

    (Cross-posted at Historiblography)

    David Hackworth fought in three wars before he turned to writing about military affairs:
    At 14, as World War II was sputtering out, he lied about his age to join the Merchant Marine, and at 15 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Over the next 26 years he spent fully seven in combat. He
  • Nov 8, 2005

    History Carnival Notice

    by Cliopatria

    The next History Carnival will be hosted on 15 November by Joanna at Tigerlily Lounge. The History Carnival is not just for academics and specialists and entries don't have to be heavyweight scholarship, but they do have to uphold basic standards of factual accuracy and integrity in the use of sources.

    You can email your nominations for recently-published posts about historical topics, researching or teaching history, etc, to: myth
  • Nov 8, 2005

    Better than Fiction

    by Cliopatria

    It appears as if some NYU graduate students are planning to strike, to protest the university's refusal to recognize their representation by the UAW. The issue is an unusually clear-cut illustration of the broad ambitions of the academic unionization movement: the university had previously offered to negotiate with the union on economic issues alone, but the union refused, creating the current impasse.

    Anyhow, according to today's New York Sun, a group of NYU faculty has

  • Nov 8, 2005

    Self-Promotion: Korean Frog Launch!

    by Cliopatria

    With the official launch of Frog In A Well: Korea (a.k.a. 우물 안 개구리), the Frog In A Well project is officially fully operational. This is what we wanted from the start: three blogs, representing the major East Asian cultures, with significant numbers of scholars and discussions crossing between the blogs.

    Konrad Lawson and I are members o

  • Nov 7, 2005

    More Noted Things

    by Cliopatria

    Patricia Ward Biederman and Jason Felch,"Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning," LA Times, 7 November, reviews threats by the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, because of a sermon preached against the war in Iraq shortly before the 2004 presidential election.
  • Nov 7, 2005

    NYC Students to Study the Holocaust--Through Cartoons

    by Cliopatria

    News Alert: November 7, 2005

    contact: rafaelmedoff@aol.com / 215-635-5622

    On the anniversary of the Nazis' Kristallnacht pogrom (Nov. 10), hundreds of New York City high school students will learn about the Holocaust--through cartoons.

    The students will take part in "Cartoonists Against the Holocaust: Art in the Service of Humanity," a unique program and exhibit, at the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, 5
  • Nov 7, 2005

    All Saints and the IRS

    by Cliopatria

    Ralph Luker notes below that the LA Times reports that an anti-war sermon at my home church, All Saints Pasadena given just before last November's election has attracted the attention of the IRS.

    The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar serm

  • Nov 7, 2005

    An Evolutionist's Evolution

    by Cliopatria

    It may seem that the American Museum of Natural History is cruising for controversy in presenting "Darwin," the most comprehensive exhibition any museum has offered on the naturalist's life and theories. It is a time, after all, when the theory of evolution by natural selection seems as newsworthy as it was back in the days of the Scopes trial 80 years ago.

    According to a CBS News poll last month, 51 percent of Americans reject the theory of evolution, saying that God cre
  • Nov 7, 2005

    The French, Cyberspace, and the Riots

    by Cliopatria

    Consider this Spiegel Online article. Cyberspace is the place for learning about the French riots. It is also the place where rage is shared, where rage counters rage, and where the plans for new violence are made.

    In fact, the rapid spread of these unplanned riots (unplanned, that is, before October 27 when the riots began) has a lot of

  • Nov 6, 2005

    William Grimes: Review of Sean Wilentz's The Rise of American Democracy

    by Cliopatria

    It is attractive to think that once the ink dried on the Constitution, democracy in the United States took wing like the bald eagle. Attractive but wrong. Democracy was not in the cards, and that is exactly as intended by the framers, for whom the word implied mob rule and, as one Federalist leader put it as late as 1804, "the government of the worst." A severely limited franchise and restricted access to the levers of government ensured that decision-making power remained in the hands
  • Nov 6, 2005

    Wood on Ackerman

    by Cliopatria

    For those who missed it, this weke's New Republic had a review by Gordon Wood of Bruce Ackerman's new book, The Failure of the Founding Fathers: Jefferson, Marshall, and the Rise of Presidential Democracy. The review is lukewarm, contending that Ackerman overstates his thesis (which contends that the outcome of the 1800 election was reminiscent of a banana republic and
  • Nov 6, 2005

    More Noted Things

    by Cliopatria

    Carnivalesque!Carnivalesque #10, an early modern edition with special attention to plots and forensics, is up at Early Modern Notes. Our colleague, Sharon Howard, is its host and you know what that means. Enjoy its feast of riches.

    Mediocrity Time:"Darn Historibloggers!" says Brandon Wa