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Cliopatria

  • Sep 11, 2005

    Don't Rebuild, Regrow

    by Cliopatria

    New Orleans is one of the most interesting cities in the world, and I say this as someone who's never personally experienced the city, but I'm familiar with the art, literature, music, food and joy it has spread into American culture. New Orleans is the Id of America: energetic, sensual, emotional, creative, disorganized, risky, fun. New Orleans was post-modern, in a pre-modern sort of way; perhaps it would be more true to say that it was archaic and traditional, in a cutting-edge, ever-chang

  • Sep 11, 2005

    The Comments Section

    by Cliopatria

    I've done a few pieces for Inside Higher Ed, and have been quite interested in the comments section, in which the critics have often unintentionally enhanced my case. (This was particularly true with the last piece I published, which discussed this issue directly.)

    That said, I was particularly struck by the comments section in the recent Inside Higher Ed article by Greg Lukianoff and Azhar Majeed, which discusses

  • Sep 9, 2005

    James Boyden: The Latest List of the Missing

    by Cliopatria

    Among those still unaccounted for:

    Laura Kelley
    Michael Mizell-Nelson
    Jeff James (emeritus)
    Hermann Freudenberger (emeritus)
    Reginald Spann (grad student)
    Miles Doleac (grad student)
    Pamela Smith (Tulane history secretary)
    Darlene Oliver (Hebert Hall custodian)
    Teresa Toulouse (English/American Studies, Tulane)
    Dan Purrington (Physics, Tulane)
    Michael Ross (History, Loyola)
    Jacqueline Woodfork (Loyola)
  • Sep 8, 2005

    Awash in Civilization

    by Cliopatria

    David Sucher, an author on urban planning and community development, wrote the following to me in a comment:
    Do you folks think it is worth rebuilding if it requires massive and expensive flood control measures? How much will you pay?

    It seems to me that much of the city is in a place which current"sustainable growth" thinking would reject out of hand.

    Despite th

  • Sep 8, 2005

    Ruwa, Ya Yi Gyara

    by Cliopatria

    Or, in Hausa,"Rain, it does the Fixing." This year's rains have been better than the previous year's and it looks as if a decent harvest will come to pass in Niger. That, however won't help things until October at the earliest. So... even if you are feeling tapped out by Katrina, it certainly wouldn't be a bad thing to consider offering aid to your fellow people in Niger. The New York Times offers a list of agencies
  • Sep 7, 2005

    Daniel Lazare: Review of 3 Books on the American Revolution

    by Cliopatria

    Review of:

    • Gary Nash, The Unknown American Revolution (Viking)

    • Harvey Kaye, Thomas Paine and the Promise of America (Hill and Wang)

    • David McCullough, 1776 (Simon & Schuster)

    Although undoubtedly one of the most glorious events in history, the American Revolution was also a bloody mess. It gave rise to a war that raged for fully half a dozen years, claiming the life of one colonist in a hundred. Proportionally speaking, it generated five times as many politica

  • Sep 7, 2005

    on McCloy's Justification

    by Cliopatria

    In his July 23, 1942 memo, John McCloy ascribes the military removal of West Coast Japanese Americans to the influence of “our white citizens in California” who were out of control. Although Bruce Ramsey considers this remark to refer to their extreme political demands for the exile of their ethnic Japanese fellow citizens, I believe that McCloy’s comment refers to the government’s need to move Japanese Americans in order to protect them from mass violence. While this seems plausible, it is not
  • Sep 7, 2005

    Katrina's Political Effects

    by Cliopatria

    Given the solid nature of President Bush's political base, I remain somewhat skeptical about the ability of the administration's failed response to the hurricane to cause him long-term political harm. But a couple of events in the last couple of days offer a glimpse of the hurricane's impact on broader political forces.

    First, in Missouri, the Dems' strongest possible Senate candidate, Auditor Claire McCaskill, has announced

  • Sep 6, 2005

    Fire Michael Brown, Now

    by Cliopatria

    When the Federal Emergency Management Agency prevented the Red Cross from going into New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina, the desperate conditions at the Superdome, the convention center and elsewhere became inevitable. When it repeatedly promised and failed to deliver aid to desperate people throughout the Gulf coast, FEMA embodied the worst in bureaucratic incompetence. Uncounted numbers of men, women, and children died while an unqualified administrator of FEMA prevented food, water, and
  • Sep 6, 2005

    Ivan Eland Reviews 3 Books on Foreign Policy

    by Cliopatria

    Review of:

    The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War By Andrew Bacevich

    Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden By Steve Coll

    Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11 By Richard A. Posner

    Most books on American foreign policy reflect the underlying and unstated consensus assumptions of the U.S. foreign-affairs establishment. Democrats and Republicans are passionate in
  • Sep 6, 2005

    mckinley enters the hall of martyrs

    by Cliopatria



    ... is just one of the fine illustrations Alan Lessoff and his editorial staff picked to accompany an article on historians' reassessments of William McKinley's presidency in the current Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (
  • Sep 6, 2005

    The Good Flood

    by Cliopatria

    One of those odd synchronicities that accompany natural disasters like spooked horses and whining dogs: the week before Katrina, I happened to be reading up on the Louisiana flood of 1927, in James Cobb’s The Most Southern Place on Earth and John Barry’s Rising Tide. The American Studies course I’ll be teaching this year is built around a
  • Sep 6, 2005

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is offering full tuition scholarships to students affected by Hurricane Katrina.

    by Cliopatria

    President Prof. Menachem Magidor of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has announced that full tuition scholarships at the Rothberg International School will be offered to students affected by Hurricane Katrina. The autumn semester begins on October 9, so there is still plenty of time to make arrangements to attend. Courses are offered in English, and no prior knowledge of Hebrew is required. Dormitory accommodation on the University's Mount Scopus campus is available.
    Interested stude