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Cliopatria

  • Oct 26, 2005

    Onward and Outward

    by Cliopatria

    Fritz Lang seduced Weimar audiences (as well as a few contemporary film critics) with his bold vision of the future city and architecture in Metropolis (review). Tall towers reach to the sky; automobiles move high above the ground on raised highways; biplanes weaving between the buildings; the workers toil far below on the sunless surface. Lang had taken his impression of the New York cityscape to t
  • Oct 25, 2005

    Additionally Noted

    by Cliopatria

    Politics and Religion: Fritz Stern,"A Fundamental History Lesson," In These Times, 10 October. Stern teaches a lesson from the German experience.

    Farewell: To Rosa Parks. I did not know Mrs. Parks well, though I met her several times. She was a gracious, modest woman of rare courage. The whole nation owes her a debt of gratitude. Well d

  • Oct 25, 2005

    Kiosken Makes Me Happy

    by Cliopatria

    Think of it as a union between old and new media. On-line links to newspapers all over the world. Take Kiosken, for example. It's old-fashioned (web-wise, at least). It is full of broken links. It is hosted by fairly nutty Esperanto types. And yet, I love it. actualidad.com is a bit less clunky, but somehow lacks panache. Where else can you tour global newspapers from Nigeria to Fiji? If t
  • Oct 25, 2005

    A note on nepotism

    by Cliopatria

    I'm about to get myself in trouble again.   As regular readers know, I helped develop PCC's consensual relationships policy last year.  (See here.)  Now, I've been asked by the Academic Senate to chair a related committee looking into revamping the college's "nepotism" policy.  The problem is that some of my colleagues don't want to prohibit what I consider to be one of the most flagrant examples of nepot

  • Oct 23, 2005

    Cliopatria Symposium...on Sean Wilentz's Bush's Ancestors

    by Cliopatria

    Our [ir]regular Symposia series continues this month with a discussion of Sean Wilentz's essay Oct 16 essay in the New York Times Magazine, Bush's Ancestors. I thank all the participants - Cliopatrians and otherwise - who send me their responses and I hope that Prof. Wilentz will find some time to read and respond here.

    Click mo

  • Oct 22, 2005

    Times Endorses Bloomberg

    by Cliopatria

    The only question left in the New York mayoral race is whether incumbent Mike Bloomberg will prevail by more than 20 points. Just up on the web is an endorsement from the Times, which criticizes the mayor's refusal to submit to the city's campaign finance system but otherwise offers surprisingly strong praise.

    As for challenger Fernando Ferrer:"New York may be governable, but getting things done in a place this co

  • Oct 22, 2005

    Some Noted Things

    by Cliopatria

    Christopher Hitchens,"Free and Easy," Powells.com, 18 October, reviews Jerry Weinberger's Benjamin Franklin Unmasked: On the Unity of His Moral, Religious, and Political Thought and suggests that Franklin's been deeply misunderstood by many of his readers.

    Diane E. Dees,"When Sisterhood

  • Oct 20, 2005

    Marshall's Limit

    by Cliopatria

    In a discussion of the Valerie Wilson leak investigation over at Eric Muller's Is That Legal?, David Marshall proposes a new Cliometric:
    Let me make a prediction, I'll modestly call it the Marshall Maxim: When a sitting president falls to between 33 and 38% approval rating, a tipping point is reached at which
  • Oct 20, 2005

    Mark M. Anderson: Review of Books About Germany and WW II

    by Cliopatria

    Mr. Anderson is a professor of German at Columbia University.

    Are the former Allied nations willing to acknowledge German suffering and loss during World War II? Are they willing to question the morality of the means by which they won the war, even the firebombing that laid waste to 131 German cities and towns, and killed more than half a million people (most of them women, children and the elderly)? Or was the extremity of Nazi aggression so great, the urgency to defeat Hitler so c

  • Oct 20, 2005

    NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #40; 20 October 2005)

    by Cliopatria

    By Bruce Craig (editor) with Nathaniel Kulyk NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (NCH) Website at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~nch

    Attention Readers! H-Net, the networking organization that hosts H-NCH along with dozens of other history-related discussion communities, is running its fall funding campaign. The National Coalition for History relies on H-Net not only for distribution of our weekly postings of the NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE, but also for professional book reviews, commentary, teaching idea

  • Oct 20, 2005

    NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #38; 6 October 2005)

    by Cliopatria

    NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #38; 6 October 2005) by Bruce Craig (editor) rbcraig@historycoalition.org with Nathaniel Kulyk NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (NCH) Website at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~nch

    1. CONGRESS PASSES CONTINUING RESOLUTION -- KEEPS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OPERATING
    2. ISSO ISSUES STATUS REPORT ON FEDERAL AGENCY MANDATORY DECLASSIFICATION
    EFFORT 3. NEH KICKS OFF 40th ANNIVERSARY EVENTS
    4. NATIONAL HISTORY CENTER SELECTS ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER

  • Oct 20, 2005

    Things I Hadn't Yet Noted

    by Cliopatria

    Symposium: Tomorrow, Cliopatria will feature its fourth Symposia. This one focuses on Sean Wilentz,"Bush's Ancestors," New York Times, 16 October. Cliopatricians participating in the symposium should send their contributions to Manan Ahmed at manan*at*uchicago*dot*edu by this evening.
  • Oct 19, 2005

    Let's Bring Back Mediocrity

    by Cliopatria

    Barbara Bowen, president of the CUNY faculty union, the PSC, recently urged CUNY profs to take time away from their scholarship and teaching preparation to tend to union activities. As I walked onto campus today, I encountered around nine Brooklyn professors following Bowen's advice, carrying signs that indicated, “Great Contract=Great University." A slogan of"Bring Back the CUNY Culture of Mediocrity” would have been more appropriate.

    These so-called “informational picketers” were dis