Current

Following is a list of historians who have been the subject of news stories. The list is arranged in reverse chronological order, as are the entries within each section.

RICHARD MCCORMICK:

• Seattle Times: Historian Richard McCormick was pressured to resign as president of the University of Washington following an affair with an employee; left to take post as president of Rutgers at twice the salary.

CARLOS MESA: The Historian Who Became the President of Bolivia

• Under Bolivia's constitution, Vice President Carlos Mesa has replaced embattled President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. A former television reporter, Mesa is a political independent and a respected historian.

DAVID McCULLOUGH: Wins Boston Patriot Award

• The Freedom Trail Foundation today announced that David McCullough has been named the recipient of the 2003 Boston Patriot Award.
• The National Endowment for the Humanities has named David McCullough as the 2003 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities.
• Mr. McCullough: Invited to attend the Bush State of the Union Address, 2003
• Philip Nobile, The David McCullough Nobody Knows

RICHARD NORTON SMITH: Picked to Run the Lincoln Presidential Library

• Richard Norton Smith recruited to become the first director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

KENNETH T. JACKSON: Leaving the NY Historical

• Decides to return to Columbia University at the end of his 3 year contract.

DANIEL PIPES: Nominated by President Bush.

• Wall Street Journal endorses Pipes's nomination.
• LAT endorses Pipes's nomination.
• Washington Post: Is his nomination in trouble?
• frontpagemag.com:"The Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its allies are working to turn the hearings [on Pipes's nomination] into a lynching party of Borkian proportions."
• Pipes sued by sociology professor at the University of Oregon who claims he was faslely depicted as an anti-Semite.
• Bush makes a recess appointment; Pipes is in.
• Wall Street Journal: Pipes is the victim of Muslim slanders.
• Washington Post recommends the Senate reject Pipes's nomination.
• "Muslims Protest Bush Nominee"
• President Bush has nominated Middle East expert Daniel Pipes to the board of directors at the U.S. Institute of Peace.
• "York Center for International and Security Studies, withdrew last week as a co-sponsor of the forum and canceled a private luncheon with Mr. Pipes because of his involvement with Campus Watch" (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 27, 2003).
• Stanley Kurtz defends Pipes in an article in National Review (January 7, 2003).

DAVID GARROW: Not Teaching this Semester at Emory

• Last year Garrow was suspended for 6 months; this semester he's not teaching.
• Arrested for Simple Battery: Emory Wheel's Account

JOSEPH BRAUDE: Arrested for Allegedly Smuggling in Iraqi Artifacts

• A Cambridge expert in Islamic history was arrested after he allegedly smuggled stolen artifacts from Iraq and then lied about his travels. He's the author of The New Iraq: Rebuilding the Country for its People, the Middle East, and the World.

GEORGE CHAUNCEY: Fighting for Civil Liberties for Gay People

• How his history of gay rights helped shape the Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas.

RASHID KHALIDI: Criticized for his views on the Middle East.

• NY Sun reports that Khalidi called on Palestinians to kill Israeli soldiers.
• Mr. Khalidi is the new Edward Said Professor of Middle East Studies at Columbia University and the new head of the university’s Middle East Institute. Critics charge that he has made incendiary statements about Israel.

JAMES F. BROOKS: Takes Home 3 History Prizes

• "In the 44 years that the Bancroft, Parkman, and Turner awards have run concurrently, it has occasionally happened that a single book received two of the prizes -- but never, until now, all three." The winner is James F. Brooks, author of Captives and Cousins.

JOHN ESPOSITO: Feeling Under Attack

• How John Esposito Mangled a Quotation from Bernard Lewis.
• John Esposito acknowledges the fact that in the US he is"a controversial figure."

PHILIP FONER: Guilty of Plagiarism?

• Labor historian accused of plagiarism.
• A review of the H-Net debate regarding allegations of plagiarism.

CHRISTINE HEYRMAN: Trouble Counting?

• Did Another Bancroft Winner Have Trouble Counting?

KEITH WINDSCHUTTLE: Under Attack in Australia

• Establishment historians in Australia attack Windschuttle; conservatives rally to his defense.
• Blogger Erin O'Connor reviews the controversy and defends Windschuttle.
• Windschuttle defended from plagiarism charge.
• Controversial Australian historian Keith Windschuttle has been accused of plagiarism by one of his critics, La Trobe University professor Robert Manne.
• Keith Windschuttle , author of The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, argues that"the genocide of Aborigines in Tasmania is a myth, perpetrated by left-wing apologists and based on distorted or fabricated historical evidence."

STEPHEN HOWARTH: Victim of Plagiarism?

• Allegations that a novelist plagiarized passages from historian Stephen Howarth.

ROBERT CARO: Jumps into the Filibuster Fight

• Robert Caro jumps into fight over the use of the filibuster in Senate confirmation battles; opposes tampering with the rule.
• Finally, after decades of stony relations, Robert Caro and the LBJ Library (under new leadership), have agreed to set aside past differences. (NYT)

BRIAN VANDEMARK: Accused of Plagiarism

• The NYT reports that VanDeMark, a professor of history at the US Naval Academy, plagiarized more than 30 passages.

ILAN PAPPE: Haifa University Nixes His Conference

• Mr. Pappe explains what happened.
• The University of Haifa has blocked a controversial academic conference organized by Pappe concerning the history of the 1948 war of independence. (Subscribers only.)

ROBERT DAVID"KC" JOHNSON: Awarded tenure.

• Johnson explains what happened to him.
• Johnson awarded tenure by special vote of the board of trustees of Brooklyn College.
• Johnson defended by New York Sun
• Media Coverage of the Case
• KC Johnson, Why I Was Denied Tenure
• Ronald Radosh, The Sandbagging of Robert"KC" Johnson
  
  

NIALL FERGUSON: TV historian accused of romanticizing British imperialism.

• The revisionist argument over empire.
• False and dangerous: Revisionist TV history of Britain's empire is an attempt to justify the new imperial order.
• "'It's like being naked in the street' Niall Ferguson is the latest historian to strike it rich on television. So why, asks Cassandra Jardine, is he so afraid of poverty?"

NICHOLAS DeGENOVA: Calls for a Million Mogadishus

• Columbia resists call of Republican congressmen to fire DeGenova.
• 104 House members demand firing of Columbia Assistant Professor DeGenova.
• At an antiwar rally De Genova, who teaches history and anthropology, began by denouncing U.S. flags as the"emblem of the invading war machine in Iraq today. They are the emblem of the occupying power. The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military." He then called upon American troops to murder their officers and expressed the hope"for a million Mogadishus."

GEORGE CHAUNCEY: Challenging the Anti-Sodomy Laws

• "A group of historians, led by University of Chicago Professor George Chauncey, filed an amicus (or friend of the court) brief for the appellants, pointing to errors and confusion in the Bowers court's interpretation of the historical record on state anti-sodomy laws, including its definition of"sodomy" itself."

MILITARY HISTORIANS: Reservists Who Are Collecting the History of the War in Iraq

• A media account of the reservists who are assembling"a record of the conflict through documents, photographs and the oral accounts of soldiers and sailors, grunts and admirals."

IAN KERSHAW: Breaks with TV producers of movie based on his book.

• "Sir Ian Kershaw has severed all connection with the American producers of a television mini-series that was to have been based on his biography of Hitler."

HENRY KAMEN: Under attack in Spain.

• "The respected American historian Henry Kamen has been accused of"rubbishing the history of Spain" and"destroying the foundations of the Spanish empire" in his book, Spain's Road to Empire."

JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN: Joing the lawsuit filed by victims of the Tulsa Race Riot.

• Mr. Franklin"electrified" Tulsa when it was revealed recently that he had joined a lawsuit to help the victims win restitution.

JOERG FRIEDRICH: The Germans were victims of Allied bombing in WW II.

• The NYT asks if his book is being used as a springboard for complaints about the American role in a war with Iraq.
• Mr. Friedrich is the author of a new book, The Fire -- Germany and the Bombardment 1940-1945.

ANDREW ROBERTS: Host of a new BBC series on history.

• "Andrew Roberts, the acclaimed historian, whose new BBC series will propel him into the ranks of popular presenters, is an unashamed master of self-promotion. But he still finds time for 'the woman of my dreams.'"
• "The BBC, he is pleased to report, has not forced him to dumb down when discussing Hitler and Churchill."

CHRISTOPHER HILL: Was he a Soviet mole?

• Continuing fall-out from charge that Hill was a Soviet agent.
• "ONE of the most influential historians of the 20th century, who went on to be Master of Balliol College, Oxford, stands accused today of taking a dark secret to his grave: he was a Soviet mole."

BENNY MORRIS: Disenchanted

• Benny Morris, the Israeli revisionist, is stunned when an Arab historian charged that Jews do not have any claim to sites their ancestors once possessed.

ERIC HOBSBAWM: Still Likes the Soviet Union

• Feature article in the Boston Globe on the occasion of his memoirs.

DONALD KAGAN: Awarded National Humanities Medal

• "Donald Kagan, a professor of classics and history and a former dean at Yale University. Mr. Kagan has written many books and articles, and is particularly known for his scholarship on war in the classical world and his commentary on the challenges faced by contemporary America."

BASHEER NAFI: Accused of being an Islamic terrorist.

• Dr Basheer Nafi, 50, a lecturer in Islamic history in London, is charged with being a key figure in Islamic Jihad; says the accusations are"nonsense."

JACK GRANATSTEIN: Testifies in favor of war with Iraq.

• Canada must join the United States in a war on Iraq in order to protect its independence and its economic interests, respected historian Jack Granatstein told a parliamentary committee.

CHRIS ANDREW: Professor chosen to write official history of MI5.

• Cambridge professor of modern history, Mr. Andrew has been appointed to write the official history of MI5; will have access to all records.

LOUIS MENAND: Orwell was"honest, decent, wrong."

• Mr. Menand takes on the acolytes of George Orwell, in a debate with Christopher Hitchens, among others.

ALLEN MURPHY: Dispute about his claim that Justice Douglas wasn't entitled to be buried at Arlington.

• In the matter of Justice William O. Douglas's claim to a soldier's grave at Arlington National Cemetery, the plot thickens.

DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN: Her son may be going off to fight in Iraq.

• How she and her husband, who both opposed the Vietnam War, feel about their son, a Harvard grad, upon his graduation from the Army's Air Defense Artillery School. Referring to her own scandal, she told the NYT that that"is happily in the past."
• Following the Goodwin Story

HASHEM AGHAJARI: Death sentence revoked.

• Iran's Supreme Court on Friday Feb. 14, 2003 revoked the death sentence imposed in November against the chairman of the history department at Tarbiat Modarres University, in Tehran. (Subscribers only.)
• Juan Cole, The Historian Sentenced to Death

JAN GROSS: Historian who revealed the truth about a Polish town's where hundreds of Jews were killed.

• Jan Gross in 1999 revealed that"Jedwabne's pogrom was not, as local legend had it, the work of Polish townsmen acting on orders from occupying Nazi soldiers. Instead, documents and eyewitness accounts showed that Catholic Poles organized and carried out the massacre of their Jewish neighbors." Local prosecutor now says no one will be brought to trial.

ALEX ROLLAND: Historian of NASA

• Following the destruction of the Columbia shuttle, Mr. Roland was on TV and quoted in the newspapers constantly.
• Interviewed on NPR.

PHILIP ZELIKOW: Appointed executive director of the 9-11 commission

• Mr. Zelikow, the director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at Virginia,"held a similar job in a bipartisan commission on electoral reform that had been led by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford."

• Mr. Lindgren, a professor of law who played a key role in the Bellesiles saga, now aims his guns at pro-gun economist John Lott (Slate).
• Mr. Lindgren's own report on his findings.
• Mr. Lindgren comments on allegations that his findings are part of a grand conspiracy against gun owners.

JAMES E. JENNINGS: Leads delegation to Iraq to protest war.

• Jennings, president of Conscience International and a former professor of history and Islamic studies, just returned from a trip to Iraq where he opposed war.

AHARON BREGMAN: Discovers identity of the Egyptian who tipped off Israel about invasion that led to the Six Day War

• Headlines in Israel after an Israeli historian reveals that Nasser's son-in-law tipped off officials about Egyptian plans to invade.

JORG FRIEDRICH: Assailed for Claiming Germans Were Victims Too

• Friedrich questions Allies' motives in slaughter of 635,000 civilians. (Houston Chronicle)

HOWARD ZINN: Peacemaker

• Howard Zinn protests U.S. war on Iraq. ( Montreal Gazette).
• Howard Zinn at 80 is helping lead the anti-war movement (Village Voice).

DAVID IRVING: Denied Visa to Australia

• Irving denied permission to visit daughter in Australia; officials say he lacks character.

PAUL BUHLE: Accused of Misrepresenting the History of Communism

• Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes challenge the accuracy of Paul Buhle's Encyclopedia of the American Left; in HNN (January 14, 2003).

BRIAN VICTORIA: Credited with Exposing the Violent History of Zen

• Brian Victoria revealed in his 1997 book about Zen Buddhism"a shockingly dark and unfamiliar picture of Zen during World War II"; in the NYT (January 11, 2003).

LYNDALL RYAN: Accused of Mangling Evidence

• After Keith Windschuttle accused Ryan of faulty research, the author met with her publisher (January 11, 2003).

BRENT GLASS: Profile of the Historian Who Has Taken Over the Smithsonian

• A profile of Brent Glass in the Washington Post (January 3, 2003).
• An interview with Glass on NPR (January 7, 2003).

JOY HAKIM: New PBS Series Based on Her Books

• Her books form the basis of a new PBS series organized around the theme of freedom (January 3, 2003).

PETER KIRSTEIN: In Public Brawl with Instapundit

• Instapundit.com and Kirstein in a polite brawl (January 9, 2003).
• Media Coverage

MILAN BULAJIC: Yugoslav Historian Apologizes for Holocaust Quotes

• "Milan Bulajic, who for many years headed the Museum of Genocide Victims in Belgrade and has written many books on the Holocaust in Yugoslavia and particularly on Jasenovac, made a dramatic apology Sunday for failing to present the historical context of testimonies published in his 1989 book Ustaski Zlocini Genocida (The Genocide Crimes of the Ustasha)."

ERIC FONER: His Fight with Daniel Pipes

• Defending himself from the charge that he is anti-American (Los Angeles Times).
• Defending himself from the charge that he tried to suppress evidenceagainst Michael Bellesiles (National Review.

GLENDA GILMORE: Her Fight with Daniel Pipes

• Defending herself from the charge that she is anti-American (Los Angeles Times)
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• "Yale professors doubling as thought-police"

NECIP HABLEMITOGLU: Assassinated in Ankara

• Necip Hablemitoglu, 48, a historian at Ankara University, whose career was spent exposing anti-secularist Islamic sects, was shot in the head outside his home, days after receiving anonymous death threats.

CHRISTOPHER ANDREW: Appointed Official Historian of MI5

• "MI5 has taken the safe option by choosing Christopher Andrew, professor of history at Cambridge University and well-known writer on the security and intelligence agencies, as its first official historian."

EUGENE M. TOBIN: President of Hamilton College Resigns

• " The president of Hamilton College [and former chairman of the History Department] resigned on Tuesday, less than two weeks after admitting that he had failed to properly attribute the sources used in his Sept. 1 convocation speech to incoming freshmen."

ALAN CHARLES KORS: On Bias in Academia

• Alan Kors, Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, is attracting national attention with his new book, The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America's Campuses, co-authored with Harvey Silverglate. Kors, President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), argues that the left has taken over college campuses.

HENRY REYNOLDS: Caught Misquoting

• "The most influential Australian historian of his generation, Henry Reynolds has admitted misquoting the colonial governor of Van Diemen's Land in a history of the Aboriginal-settler relations."

RICHARD BERTHOLD:"Anybody Who Blows Up the Pentagon Gets My Vote"

• Richard Berthold, My Five Minutes of Infamy

ROBERT DALLEK: On Kennedy's Medical Ailments

• Media Reaction to Robert Dallek's Disclosures About JFK's Medical Records

DANIEL GOLDHAGEN: His Publisher Sued By The Catholic Church

• NYT,"Holocaust Writer in Storm Over Role of Roman Catholic Church"

MICHAEL BELLESILES: Misuse of Records, Bad Scholarship, etc.

• Following the Bellesiles Story

PETER KIRSTEIN: Denounces a Cadet as a Baby-Killer

• Media Coverage

ANN LANE: Her Dissertation

• Nathan Williams, Her Dissertation

JOYCE APPLEBY: Historians' Petition on Iraq

• Media Coverage

STEPHEN AMBROSE: Accused of Plagiarism

• Following the Ambrose Story

JOSPEH ELLIS: Inventing Stories About His Past

• Following the Ellis Story

LOUIS ROBERTS: Accused of Plagiarism

• John Monfasani, The Case of Louis Roberts

• Dinitia Smith, Challenging the History Of a Slave Conspiracy (NYT)
• Edward A. Pearson, Trials and Errors: Denmark Vesey and His Historians
• Winthrop D. Jordan, The Charleston Hurricane of 1822; Or, the Law's Rampage