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Cliopatria

  • Aug 12, 2005

    presidents as analysts and actors

    by Cliopatria

    Greetings and many thanks. Let me start with a quick gloss on Rick's post on TR's Cromwell and the self-awareness of leaders.

    Stuart Pratt Sherman concluded his essay on TR in Americans (1922) with TR's own critique of Cromwell.

    His strength, his intensity of conviction, his delight in exercising powers for what he conceived to be good ends; his dislike for speculative reforms and his i
  • Aug 12, 2005

    Hackett for Senate?

    by Cliopatria

    Paul Hackett, the Iraq war veteran who just missed a stunning House upset in a recent special election in Ohio, is being touted by some for the Senate nod in next year's race against incumbent Mike DeWine. On paper, Hackett would seem a great choice--especially given that the Buckeye State party really hasn't fielded a Senate candidate with a chance at winning since John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum retired.

    One place you won't see Hackett is CNN's <

  • Aug 12, 2005

    All Gussied Up and Noted ...

    by Cliopatria

    If you haven't noticed some changes at History News Network, you may want to see an eye doctor. All of us owe JeremyBoggs, Simon Kornblith, and HNN's Rick Shenkman a big round of applause for the major rehab of the site. And, just when I was beginning to get used to being all
  • Aug 11, 2005

    Majority-Rules Curricula

    by Cliopatria

    In Title U of the arts and cultural affairs law, Article 57-B, the New York legislature just passed a bill to create an “Armistad Commission.” This group, to be appointed by legislative leaders and the secretary of state, will operate under the premise that “it is the policy of the state of New York that the history of the African slave trade, slavery in America, the depth of their impact in our society, and the triumphs of African-Americans and their significant contributions to the development
  • Aug 10, 2005

    The scholar as living dead

    by Cliopatria

    Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian is one of the summer's more-hyped novels.  At 642 pages, it certainly carries literal heft, and it aims for figurative heft as well: a revisionist take on the Dracula legend in general and Bram Stoker's Dracula in particular.  Like Dracula, the novel relies heavily on a generic mixture of letters and journals;

  • Aug 10, 2005

    History Carnival: Call for Contributions

    by Cliopatria

    History Carnival ButtonThe next History Carnival will be hosted on 15 August by Natalie Bennet at Philobiblon.

    Email your nominations for recently published posts (preferably since the last carnival) about history, which can be your
  • Aug 10, 2005

    Virgins as Prime Ministers ...

    by Cliopatria

    Max Boot,"Boy Premier," Weekly Standard, 15 August, reviews William Hague's William Pitt the Younger. In Parliament at 21, William Pitt the Younger was Chancellor of the Exchequer at 23 and Prime Minister at 24. He served as Prime Minister for almost 19 years, longer than anyone other than Sir Robert Walpole. Thanks to Eugene Volokh for the tip. But Volokh missed this oddity: Boot says that
  • Aug 9, 2005

    Cliopatria Symposium...on Empires

    by Cliopatria

    For this issue of the symposium, we are focusing on Akira Iriye's Beyond Imperialism: The New Internationalism. Niall Ferguson's The Unconscious Colossus: limits of (and alternatives to) American empire is a companion piece that we couldn't get reprint rights to. Hence, I don't think it will get addressed directly. Without further ado, below are the responses from the Cliopatria crowd. I will add any I receive after this post goes live. Clic
  • Aug 9, 2005

    "TRANSBLOGRIFICATION" ...

    by Cliopatria

    It isn't that you are no longer"Welcome To My World ...," but I knew others who could spread a more generous banquet for us. So, "Welcome To My World ..." is transblogrifying into"Cliopatria". Please adjust your blogrolls and browsers accordingly. Our name, with its allusions, is found in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. As with much else in Fi
  • Aug 8, 2005

    The PSC Strikes Again

    by Cliopatria

    Ellen Schrecker (last heard from making the fantastic claim that untenured faculty might not feel comfortable, given the current ideological climate on campuses, speaking out against U.S. military involvement overseas) and the Professional Staff Congress (last heard from making the even more fantastic claim that academic freedom protects those CUNY adjuncts accused or convicted o
  • Aug 8, 2005

    Obfuscating Intellectual Diversity

    by Cliopatria

    Today's Globe has two important articles on the intellectual diversity debate. The first, from Cathy Young, represents a strong conservative argument against the teaching of"intelligent design" as part of an intellectual diversity campaign. As Young points out,"'intelligent design' is not science. A scientific hypothesis must be testable -- meaning that, if it is wrong, ther
  • Aug 8, 2005

    Reflections on the community college

    by Cliopatria

    Jonathan Dresner sends me this link to a Jay Mathews piece in the Washington Post in praise of community colleges:  The Workhorse of Higher Education.

    It's hard for me to believe that it's been over eleven years since I was hired for a full-time position here at Pasadena City College.   I still remember the date of my first-level interview, April 8, 1994.&n

  • Aug 8, 2005

    Dems Opposed to Nader Pack a Meeting

    by Cliopatria

    Michael Janofsky and Sarah Kershaw, in the NYT (July 1, 2004):

    In his search for access to the ballot, Ralph Nader can sometimes seem as if he has never met a third party he did not like.

    After all, Mr. Nader, the left-leaning consumer advocate

  • Aug 8, 2005

    Bill Clinton's Memoirs

    by Cliopatria

    So Bill Clinton's memoirs are about to hit the market. Should we expect them to be great? Or will they be, like his presidency, a bit of a disappointment?

    There is only one memoir by a president that historians have paid much attention to. It's Grant's memoirs. Ironic, because Grant is usually listed as one of the two failed presidents in our history (the other is Harding; see yesterday's blog entry). To no one's s

  • Aug 8, 2005

    What Event Does Cinco de Mayo Celebrate?

    by Cliopatria

    Eun-Kyung Kim, in the Kansas City Star (May 3, 2004):

    It's a holiday often mistakenly celebrated as the Mexican Fourth of July, to the surprise of many Mexican natives.

    "Cinco de Mayo has nothing to do with Mexican independence from Spain, far from it," said Guillermo Rosas, who grew up in Mexico City. "If you were to rank the most important celebration