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Cliopatria

  • Jan 20, 2005

    Noted Here and There ...

    by Cliopatria

    Belle's Pony: On this inauguration day and on most days, I am a democrat. But some authoritative voices have, well, more authority than others. If John Holbo, Jacob T. Levy, Ralph Luker, and P. Z. Meyers all say that Belle Waring's"If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride" is the most humorous post, who's to say otherwise? But we need votes! Where are Tim Burke, Adam Kotsko, and Scott McLemee? You
  • Jan 20, 2005

    America, Africa, and Paris (Hilton)

    by Cliopatria

    How is this for a sad, disturbing, factoid?: In 2004 the New York Times gave substantially more coverage to Paris Hilton than to the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan.

    Sean Jacobs' story in the Mail & Guardian is one of the better I have seen on the American indifference toward Africa. It may not get it right in all of the particulars, but it is more sophisticated than si

  • Jan 19, 2005

    New Republic Rebuttal

    by Cliopatria

    Needed correctives to the strange take on the Columbia story from the Times come in the most recent New Republic and Village Voice.

    TNR correctly notes (scroll down) that"a university with ideologically uniform appointments on a subject as controversial as Middle Eastern history and politics itself threatens scholarly standards and intellectual liberty. And it is those who bludgeon students into si

  • Jan 19, 2005

    The Rice Hearings

    by Cliopatria

    Institutionally, the congressional response to foreign policy issues changed dramatically during the Cold War. Immediately following World War II, the Senate possessed far greater influence on international matters than did the House; and within the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee was the dominant force on foreign policy issues. By the end of the Cold War, the House had become at least equal to the Senate in importance when handling international issues. And the Foreign Relations Committ
  • Jan 19, 2005

    That was The Conference that Was

    by Cliopatria

    Ten days ago, our conference on Iraqi history and identity came to an end. It was full of surprises. I had asked two journalists from internationally renowned papers not to attend because I was worried that our Iraqi participants would feel threatened by Western exposure which might reflect badly on them on their return. Instead, the opening session, chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Hassan bin Talal, attracted a frenzy of television reporters, and at least one Arab satellite channel. I wa
  • Jan 19, 2005

    A HistoryKeeping Matter ...

    by Cliopatria

    If you look over to Cliopatria's righthand column, just under our list of Contributing Editors, you'll see a new tab for Cliopatria's History Blog Roll. We had kept the History Blog Roll on our mainpage, below the regular Blog Roll, but the numbers of History Blogs have grown far more rapidly than we anticipated. When we finally listed 65 history blogs and still had 15 more to add, we realized that we needed to make some other arrangement. So, we've established a separate page for Cliopatria's H
  • Jan 19, 2005

    "Mississippi, God Damn ..."

    by Cliopatria

    There's long been a contrast in the national perceptions of deep South states like Alabama and Mississippi. The contrasts have often not been to the credit of either of them. With its major urban centers and stronger black middle class, Alabama won the spotlight, headlines, and national media attention during the years of the civil rights movement. Only the grossest of abuses, whether in the murder of civil rights workers or the notoriety of its state prison at Parchman, drew national attention
  • Jan 18, 2005

    The Times Chimes In

    by Cliopatria

    Over the past two months, publications ranging from the left-of-center Village Voice and New York Daily News to the non-ideological New York to the right-of-center New York Sun and New York Post have explored events in Columbia’s MEALAC Department. While they have disagreed on some minor factual details about the case, and have differed on points of interpretation, they all have generally portrayed this case as one of a rogue department that has, for years, hir
  • Jan 17, 2005

    Inaugurations Are Supposed to Be Boring

    by Cliopatria

    A reporter called up. Aren't inaugurations kind of boring, he asked?

    Why do we pay attention?

    I don’t mean to be flip, but they're supposed to be boring.

    That's the point.

    If they were exciting--really exciting, it would be because the transition from one presidency to another was fraught with an element of danger.

    The main danger at American inaugurals is boredom.

    Only once in our history was there genuine fear that the transition might not tak

  • Jan 17, 2005

    Zhao Ziyang and Victor Hugo

    by Cliopatria

    As we have said, the great city resembles a piece of artillery; when it is loaded, it suffices for a spark to fall, and the shot is discharged. In June, 1832, the spark was the death of General Lamarque.
    -- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
    "Lamarque is dead." With the notice of the passing of this beloved, heroic figure, the musical goes into high gear (in the book his funeral takes place first, and honor guard troops fire on agitated crowds, then b
  • Jan 17, 2005

    Ukraine Follow-up

    by Cliopatria

    A great piece of reporting in today's New York Times, detailing the behind-the-scenes struggle between the intelligence agencies, the Interior Ministry, and the Army as Ukraine's Orange Revolution unfolded. Reporter C.J. Chivers makes a convincing case for the importance of the intelligence agencies--who, in a remarkable br
  • Jan 17, 2005

    Wrong Side of the Pond

    by Cliopatria

    Only slightly less vexing than the Why do they hate us? scholarship is the Why don't they like us? scholarship. Tackling the latter issue with regards to Europe is Niall Ferguson. Since 1989, says Ferguson in the latest Atlantic, Europe and America have drifted apart and are unlikely to unite anytime soon. The reason is that the end of Cold War finished off the impending (and unifying) threat of Communism. Europe sees no reason to continue to stand with America in the afterm
  • Jan 17, 2005

    Dear Chris ...

    by Cliopatria

    My friend, Chris, is a remarkable man. As a young African American, he grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the South's most race conscious cities. But his mother married a white man when Chris was a child and, as a result, he moves with an ease and grace between race cultures in the region that few others of us achieve. At a major private university in the South, he was elected student body president and, after spending the summer as a counselor at a camp for handicapped children, i
  • Jan 16, 2005

    Fearless Predictions

    by Cliopatria

    Everybody makes them, no one remembers, and if you are wrong they slide into that dustbin that most know-it-all pundits' opinions end up inhabiting; if you're right you get to gloat for years, never mind how often before you were butt naked wrong. With that as my preface, here we go with predictions for the Divisional playoffs:

    AFC:

    I do not think that the Steelers are that good. But they are good enough to beat a Jets team that will come up short in yet another big game. Personall