Historians in the News

West Point history department head reprimanded, removed after sexual harassment investigation

Colonel Matthew Moten was accused of attempting to kiss and touch female subordinates.

Historians seek unrecovered Japanese soldiers from Pearl Harbor attack

What happened to the 29 Japanese airmen and 4 sailors whose remains were never recovered?

'Porn Professor' Hugo Schwyzer Admits He Had Sex With Several Students

Schwyzer is now under review by his college.

AAAS issues humanities "report card"

The new release is a "snapshot" of the lengthier "Heart of the Matter" report.

AHA issues call for proposals for 2015 Annual Meeting

by Debbie Doyle

The 2015 meeting will be in New York City.

Ben Urwand's "The Collaboration" profiled in Wall Street Journal interview

The young Harvard scholar's book argues that Hollywood willingly censored popular movies to cater to the Nazi regime.

Food historian: African cultures have long history of artisanal brewing. So why aren't there more African Americans in the U.S. craft beer scene?

Is it because craft beer, like so many other things, has become merely "stuff white people like"?

David S. Landes, Historian and Author, Is Dead at 89

David Landes saw history as a tidal movement of seemingly small things.

Carol K. Bleser, former Colgate prof, dies

She taught from 1970 to 1985 and was the university's first female full professor.

David S. Landes, 89, dies

The eminent Harvard economic historian passed away August 17.

Seton Hall Professor Appointed Co-editor of Catholic Studies Journal

Thomas Rzeznik, Associate Professor of History, has been appointed co-editor of "American Catholic Studies". Originally known as the "Records of the American Catholic Historical Society," the journal has the distinction of being the "oldest, continuously-published Catholic scholarly journal in the United States." It features articles that explore Catholicism in its American context, including work drawn from history, theology, art, literature, sociology, political science, and related disciplines. Like Seton Hall's own Catholic Studies program, the journal reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field....

Mitch Daniels wanted to replace Howard Zinn with Bill Bennett in history curriculum

When former Gov. Mitch Daniels was pushing to keep liberal historian Howard Zinn’s readings out of Indiana classrooms three years ago, he had a definite idea of what should be there instead: conservative education leader Bill Bennett’s review of American history.News that the new Purdue University president tried to have Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” kept from classrooms has sparked a surge in demand for the 1980 book at Indiana libraries. It also put Daniels on the defensive over the past month, drawing condemnations from academics nationwide and having him reiterate his support for academic freedom in higher education even as he is steadfast in his belief that Zinn is wrong for lower grades.Emails obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request show Bill Bennett had much more favor among Daniels and his advisers. In January 2010, when Daniels discovered the board of education had changed the state’s textbook rules to allow Bennett’s book, he quickly asked how soon his advisers could get copies of “The Last Best Hope” in classrooms....

Richard White: Elon Musk's Hyperloop's $6 billion price tag "just pie in the sky"

Elon Musk, a serial entrepreneur who was a co-founder of PayPal and the electric car company Tesla Motors, sent people in California into a tizzy on Monday when he released a white paper outlining a hypothetical high-speed transportation system called the Hyperloop.There were a number of curious questions about the Hyperloop, which Mr. Musk’s white paper claims will be able to travel at up to 800 miles an hour and transport people from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 30 minutes. While physicists agree that technically, on paper, this is possible, economists seem to agree that technically, on paper, the price tag of $6 billion is impossible.

CCP document condemns Western ideas; Chinese historian says "ramifications very serious"

...Condemnations of constitutional government have prompted dismayed opposition from liberal intellectuals and even some moderate-minded former officials. The campaign has also exhilarated leftist defenders of party orthodoxy, many of whom pointedly oppose the sort of market reforms that Mr. Xi and Prime Minister Li Keqiang have said are needed.The consequent rifts are unusually open, and they could widen and bog down Mr. Xi, said Xiao Gongqin, a professor of history at Shanghai Normal University who is also a prominent proponent of gradual, party-guided reform.“Now the leftists feel very excited and elated, while the liberals feel very discouraged and discontented,” said Professor Xiao, who said he was generally sympathetic to Mr. Xi’s aims. “The ramifications are very serious, because this seriously hurts the broad middle class and moderate reformers — entrepreneurs and intellectuals. It’s possible that this situation will get out of control, and that won’t help the political stability that the central leadership stresses.”...

James Sterling Young, oral historian, dies at 85

James Sterling Young, who established the country’s only program dedicated to compiling comprehensive oral histories of the American presidency, and who also amassed a vast oral history of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s career, died on Aug. 8 at his home in Advance Mills, Va. He was 85.His death was announced by the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, which studies politics, policy and the presidency. The center houses the Presidential Oral History Program, of which Professor Young was the founder and longtime chairman.An award-winning historian of 19th-century American politics, Professor Young, who retired in 2006, was at his death an emeritus professor of government and foreign affairs at Virginia. He was previously a faculty member and administrator at Columbia University....

Stanford professor Clayborne Carson reflects on March on Washington

BERKELEY -- Clayborne Carson was 19 when he ignored warnings about the dangers and propensity for violence before hitching a ride with the Indianapolis NAACP to attend the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 50 years ago this month.The threats didn't deter him from becoming a part of the largest political rally for civil rights in U.S. history and witnessing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "I have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial."I decided that I was going to go, and I wasn't going to tell my parents," Carson said. "They found out later."Two decades later, Carson would receive an unexpected phone call from Coretta Scott King asking him to serve as the editor of the King's Papers project....

Historian Richard Toye: Many thought Churchill drunk during wartime speeches

Winston Churchill's powerful speeches have long been credited with helping to win the war, but one leading academic says there is 'little evidence' his oratory inspired the British to beat Nazi Germany.Professor Richard Toye also claims that the Second World War leader's 'finest hour' radio address, one of his most famous, lacked impact 'because many people thought that he was drunk'.The University of Exeter academic claims in a new book that Churchill was not a decisive influence on the nation's willingness to fight on against Hitler when Britain was almost on its knees in 1940.His research also found that when Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, one Londoner said his rallying speech was 'f****** bull****' and a 'f****** cover-up'....

Duke military historian I.B. Holley dies at 94

Longtime history professor I.B. Holley, who spent more than six decades on the Duke campus, died last week.  He was 94.One of the nation's leading military historians, Holley remained active in the classroom and in research even following his retirement in 1989. He still frequented Duke University Libraries and, until recently, still taught in the freshman seminar program, according to department chair John Martin. In 2008, at age 89, he published "The Highway Revolution, 1895-1925: How the United States Got Out of the Mud."...

UMaine history prof. loses leg in freak accident

BANGOR, Maine — A University of Maine history professor’s left leg has been amputated after what police called a “freak accident” in Passadumkeag over the weekend, according to the chairman of the university’s history department.Professor Nathan Godfried, who specializes in 20th-century American history, was riding his bike along Route 2 Sunday afternoon when a blade from a lawnmower being towed on a trailer struck Godfried’s leg, according to Richard Judd, chairman of UMaine’s history department.Judd said he has been told that Godfried’s left leg has been amputated since the crash. An Eastern Maine Medical Center spokesperson said Monday that Godfried is listed in fair condition.“Nathan’s not up for visitors yet today, so we’re hoping to go see him tomorrow,” Judd said....

The Atlantic profiles Diane Ravitch ... and her successful struggle against the school reform movement

Sara Mosle, who teaches writing at Philip’s Academy Charter School in Newark, N.J., has written about education for The New York Times, Slate, and other publications.The survival of the school-reform movement, as it’s known to champions and detractors alike, is no longer assured. Even a couple years ago, few would have predicted this turn of events for a crusade that began with the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983, gathered momentum as charter schools and Teach for America took off in the 1990s, and surged into the spotlight with No Child Left Behind in 2001. As a schoolteacher, I know I didn’t anticipate this altered landscape. If one person can be credited—or blamed—for the reform movement’s sudden vulnerability, it’s a fiercely articulate historian, now in her 70s, named Diane Ravitch.