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Cliopatria

  • May 9, 2005

    When Did the Vatican Change the Name of the Inquisition?

    by Cliopatria

    From the Vatican website:

    Founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III with the Constitution "Licet ab initio,"
    the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was originally called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition as its duty was to defend the Church from heresy. It is the oldest of the Curia's nine congregations.

    Pope St. Pius X in 1908 ch

  • May 9, 2005

    More War Bunk

    by Cliopatria

    President Bush is far from alone when it comes to dodgy historical claims about Yalta. Thanks to Ralph E. Luker's link below I was able to read Geoffrey Wheatcroft's extraordinary thesis in yesterday's Boston Globe:

    Great Britain did not go to war to save the Jews from Hitler’s torment (and did not succeed) but to protect the freedom and integrity of Poland, an a
  • May 9, 2005

    Noteworthy ...

    by Cliopatria

    All literature, says Christopher Booker, can be reduced to seven basic plots: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Denis Dutton,"Once Upon a Time," Washington Post, 8 May, reviews Booker's The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories (Continuum).

    Jews in America: Our Story is

  • May 9, 2005

    Neve Gordon: Review of Lisa Hajjar's Courting Conflict: The Israeli Military Court System in the West Bank and Gaza

    by Cliopatria

    Mr. Gordon teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University and is currently a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley’s Human Rights and Middle East Centers. He is the editor of From the Margins of Globalization: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights, and can be reached at neve_gordon@yahoo.com.

    An Israeli Jew and a Palestinian meet in transit right after having been sentenced in court. The Palestinian asks the Jew how much time he got. "Three years," says the

  • May 8, 2005

    George W. Bush, historian?

    by Cliopatria

    After ticking off the Russians with his comments on the Baltics, President Bush has now shifted. In a widely reported speech in Riga, Latvia, he denounced the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe as "one of the greatest wrongs of history." Bush stated that the United States shared responsibility for this tragedy because of America's signature of the Yalta agreements at the end of the War, permitting the division of Europe. Never again, he added, should America sacrifice freedom for the
  • May 8, 2005

    Jumping on Victor Davis Hanson ...

    by Cliopatria

    When Victor Davis Hanson published"What Happened to History?" Washington Times, 7 May*, it seemed to challenge history bloggers to give it a fisk. Here's mine:
    [Hanson's op-ed] is a conservative's apologia for what we do. On first reading, it seems moving; but on second reading it seems to have come from some op-ed generator. As a conservative, Hanson is clearly drawn to some of the"hooks," viz., 3,
  • May 6, 2005

    Religion and Politics

    by Cliopatria

    Among the year's more bizarre stories, but one that probably was inevitable given the increasing fusion between religion and politics: a pastor of a rural church in North Carolina sought to expel Democrats from his congregation.
  • May 6, 2005

    What's Behind Cinco de Mayo?

    by Cliopatria

    Dave Roos, in the NYT (5-4-05):

    TOMORROW is Cinco de Mayo, and while the rest of the country is overdosing on Corona and quesadillas, may we suggest cabernet and crepes? France, it turns out, has more to do with Mexican food than you might think.

    In November 1838, 26 French warships opened fire on the Mexican port city of Veracruz, sparking the Pastry War. Apparently, a patisserie was among many French businesses looted in the anarchy of post-Independence Mexico. Fra

  • May 6, 2005

    Carnivals

    by Cliopatria

    Ralph beat me to it with the notice of the latest Carnivalesque. It's a must for all those of you interested in the early modern period and also the middle ages.

    However, this is also a good time to remind you all of the next HISTORY CARNIVAL.

    This will be on 15 May 2005 at Saint Nate's Blog
  • May 6, 2005

    Weaklings

    by Cliopatria

    The German Open began with an unfortunate incident. A tennis club published a pamphlet of its history that describes the termination of Jewish membership in the 1930s as a"Golden Age."
    ... the brochure by the century-old LTTC Red White Berlin tennis club said the flight of Jewish tennis players from Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s only led to a brief drop in membership, and that it finally ushered in a"
  • May 6, 2005

    Some Noted Things ...

    by Cliopatria

    Carnivalesque: Our colleague, Nathanael Robinson, hosts Carnivalesque #7 at Rhine River. It highlights recent posts around the net focusing on early modern history, ca 1450-1800 CE. Have a look and click on links to your delight. Thanks to Nathanael for doing such a good job and being such a gracious host!

    Ah, the Irony of It: Scott McLemee's"

  • May 6, 2005

    Fulminating

    by Cliopatria

    In today's Wash Post Charles Krauthammer fulminates about the Democrats opposition to President Bush's Social Security proposal. What really exercises him is that Democrats keep saying there's no crisis in Social Security because the Trust Fund doesn't run out until 2052:

    As I have been writing for years with stupefying redundancy -- and obvious lack of success -- this idea is a
  • May 6, 2005

    Friday Afternoon Silliness

    by Cliopatria

    Maybe it is because it is Friday afternoon at the end of finals week. Or maybe I'm just a sucker for this sort of thing. But longtime rebunk reader Chris Pettit sent this along and I find it amusing. Everyone likes bubblewrap, after all.
  • May 5, 2005

    The Hooks of History

    by Cliopatria

    Without going the full Hayden White route and essentially reducing historical writing to the sum of its tropes, I have been thinking more simplistically about the basic rhetorical "hooks" that are common in contemporary historical writing, both scholarly and non-scholarly writing. I've come up with a list of ten: I'm curious to see if there are other identifiable strategies that ought to be on the list. These are the basic strategies that histories use to justify their own existence, t