Historians in the News

Source: Politico

1-24-13

Evan Thomas writing Nixon bio for Jon Meacham

“Random House is announcing that Evan Thomas will be writing a new life of Richard Nixon for editor Jon Meacham. ‘Evan is the best,’ said Meacham. ‘He writes with sensitivity and honesty, two indispensable qualities in capturing Richard Nixon.’ The deal was brokered by ICM's Amanda Urban....

Source: Humanities at Stanford

1-17-13

Clayborne Carson: Interview with Stanford

Stanford historian Clayborne Carson has been researching and documenting the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. for nearly three decades.From Carson's trip to Washington, D.C., in 1963 to hear King give his famous "I Have a Dream" speech to his personal relationships with members of the King family, Carson's involvement with the American civil rights movement has been much more than an academic pursuit.In 1985, Coretta Scott King asked Carson to edit and publish her late husband's papers. Carson subsequently founded the King Papers Project, which is producing the definitive record of King's writings, from speeches and sermons to personal correspondence and unpublished manuscripts.Drawing from his personal journals and records, Carson offers a personal and candid account of his evolution from political activist into a self-described "activist scholar" in his new book Martin's Dream.In a conversation with Corrie Goldman of the Stanford Humanities Center, Carson talked about the book and his experiences.

Source: Irish Times

1-19-13

Renowned English historian of Ireland dies at 102

Robert Kee, Born: October 5th, 1919 Died: January 11th, 2013 In February 2005 the then British prime minister Tony Blair made a long-awaited public apology to the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven when he met members of the Conlon and Maguire families, victims of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.During an emotional meeting Blair signed a copy of Robert Kee’s book, Trial and Error: the Maguires, the Guildford pub bombings and British Justice, belonging to Patrick Maguire (13 when he was arrested) with the inscription “I am sorry it took so long.”Many people believe it would have taken a lot longer but for the campaigning work of Kee, the British historian and journalist who died on January 11th aged 93.

Source: Allen Mikaelian for AHA Today

1-22-13

Exclusive content from AHA online earlier than expected

Allen Mikaelian is editor of the AHA magazine Perspectives on History.Responding to the high level of interest in the article on History Harvests in Perspectives on History, we are opening it to all readers ahead of schedule.William G. Thomas, Patrick D. Jones (both of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln), and Andrew Witmer (James Madison University) describe the History Harvest as “exciting and rewarding work at the intersection of digital history and experiential learning.” History Harvests are “community events in which students scan or photograph items of historical interest, brought in by local institutions and residents, for online display.”“Every family and community has a history,” the authors explain, “a connection to the larger story of the American experience, and in the History Harvest we explore those connections, talk about them, and document their meaning in partnership with the participants. Our aim is to make invisible archives and stories more visible, bringing them into the public realm to be shared, heard, and seen.”

Source: Examiner (Chicago)

1-20-13

Historian honored by city of Chicago

In his 94 years, historian and civil rights activist Timuel Black never had a week like this."This has been a busy week for me. I was honored Friday (Jan. 18) with the Champion of Freedom Award at city's Annual Interfaith Breakfast with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and today (Jan. 19) I am being given my very own street," Black said as he fought back tears. "It is always good to be given your 'roses' while you can smell them. And seeing all these people here today smells so good."A crowd of about 100 people gathered Saturday at the intersection of 50th and State streets as Ald. Pat Dowell (3rd) unveiled the honorary Dr. Timuel Black St. sign....

Source: Michigan Live

1-20-13

David McCullough calls Gerald Ford one of history's great presidents for Nixon pardon

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — The decision by Grand Rapids native and former President Gerald R. Ford to pardon his disgraced predecessor after the Watergate scandal has put him in the pantheon of great presidents.That's according to noted historian David McCullough, speaking to CBS News's Barry Petersen, who cited Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon as "one of the bravest decisions ever" as reason for his claim.McCullough was interviewed by CBS for a segment on the legacies of great presidents as President Barack Obama's second inauguration draws near....

Source: College of William & Mary

1-17-13

Robert F. Engs, professor at UPenn and William & Mary, dies

William & Mary Provost Michael R. Halleran sent the following message to the campus community on Jan. 17, 2013 - Ed.I write with great sadness to share the news that Robert F. Engs, former Visiting Professor of History at William & Mary, and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, died on Monday, January 14, 2013.

Source: Alexis Coe in The Atlantic

1-17-13

Being married helps historians get ahead, but only if they're male

Alexis Coe is a writer in San Francisco and a columnist for SF Weekly.When I was a graduate student in history, I loved to read the acknowledgements sections of books. If you looked carefully, all the trade secrets kept within the small, competitive field were revealed, from who was the most helpful specialist in an archive to creative means of financing research.Inadvertently, I also learned quite a bit about historian's marriages. Consider For Cause and Comrades, in which Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson writes, "The person most instrumental in helping me produce this volume has also been the most important person in my life for the past forty years, my wife Patricia. In addition to enriching my life every day, she has been a superb research assistant, having read almost as many soldiers' letters and diaries as I have."...Despite all this, my cohorts and I believed that we were entering a radically different kind of history department, one where women could forge their own careers, rather than merely supporting their husbands'. Surely, the changing of the guard in progressive institutions had already occurred. A new study from the American Historical Association suggests, however, that many of the field's problems remain unresolved.

Source: NYT

1-20-13

A White House Aware of Second-Term Perils

WASHINGTON — As he tucked into a salad and a beef pastry, President Obama looked around the family dining room in the White House and stared into his future. By some forecasts, it may not be a pretty sight.Gathered with him that evening were several of the nation’s leading historians, who reminded him of the sorry litany of second terms — the cascade of scandal, war, recession, political defeat and other calamities that afflicted past presidents after the heady crescendo of re-election.For Mr. Obama, who will be sworn in for another four years in a quiet ceremony on Sunday and then again in more public fashion on Monday, the lessons were familiar if daunting. Embarking on the next half of his presidency, he and his advisers are developing a second-term strategy intended to avoid the pitfalls of his predecessors with a robust agenda focused on the economy, gun control, immigration and energy....

Source: WaPo

1-21-13

Jim Bendat on the history of presidential inaugurations

Jim Bendat is an expert on U.S. presidential inauguration history, and has written the book “Democracy’s Big Day: The Inauguration of Our President 1789-2013.” Bendat spoke with Tom Fox, who is a guest writer of the Washington Post’s Federal Coach blog and vice president for leadership and innovation at the Partnership for Public Service. Fox also heads up the Partnership’s Center for Government Leadership.Can you reflect on some of your favorite leadership moments from past inaugurations?

Source: WSJ

1-17-13

Q&A: Roosevelt Biographer Recalls an Earlier Top Cop

...But with a crowded race for City Hall this year and some likely candidates suggesting they would like appoint a different top cop, it remains unclear what’s might come next for the long-time commissioner. Metropolis spoke with historian Edmund Morris, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a trilogy about Teddy Roosevelt, on how Kelly compares with New York’s other famous police commissioner. Here is the edited interview:Metropolis: What drew TR into the police force? And how was policing different back then?Morris: TR came back to the city of his birth in 1895, after six long years as a civil service commissioner in Washington, ambitious to be a moral force in the reform administration of Mayor William L. Strong.Ironically, his restless progressivism ran into even more opposition here than it had been in the nation’s capital. This was partly because TR was just one member of the city’s four-man board of police commissioners (as president of the board, he had only titular preeminence). But it was also because he seemed to go out of his way to alienate such entrenched, conservative interests as the saloon industry, Wall Street, and indeed the corrupt ranks of the police force itself.

Source: Inside Higher Ed

1-3-13

History prof's tirade against class-skippers draws attention

When students failed to show up for a lecture given by Guy Halsall, professor of history at the University of York, you might imagine that he suffered a flicker of self-doubt and that the empty seats bruised the confidence of a sensitive scholar.Not a bit of it: Professor Halsall berated his students for missing a lecture from "probably the most significant historian of early medieval Europe under the age of 60."He posted the comments within the university's virtual learning environment, which is used for online contact between students and tutors.According to York student newspaper Nouse, Professor Halsall responded to an underattended second-year lecture by telling students they were failing to make the most of the "obscene amounts of money" that "mummy and daddy" were paying for their education....

Source: Alfred University

1-9-13

Ostrower named ‘SuperProfessor’ of history by FacultyRow.com

Gary Ostrower, professor of history at Alfred University (AU), has been named a “SuperProfessor” by FacultyRow.com.FacultyRow, with 91,000 members in 103 countries, was launched in 2011 and is increasingly gaining recognition in traditional academic institutions throughout the world. “SuperProfessors” has become a prominent platform highlighting achievements of leading academics; instructors given the title “SuperProfessor” are considered the most admirable in their field. They demonstrate excellence, passion, and clarity, and have a wide range of knowledge within their respective field of study.Ostrower was chosen out of a pool of 4,000 applicants for the official 2013 list of SuperProfessors. Currently, there are about 400 SuperProfessors nationwide.Currently the Joseph K. Kruson Distinguished Professor at the University, Ostrower is an AU alumnus. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history at AU and a master of arts degree and Ph.D. in history from the University of Rochester. He has spent most of his teaching career at Alfred, but previously taught at Vassar College and the University of Pennsylvania....

Source: Evanston Patch

1-10-13

Prolific author, Northwestern professor Jan Carew dies at 92

Northwestern University issued the following obituary of former professor Jan Carew, who died Dec. 6:Jan Carew, professor emeritus of African American studies at Northwestern University, died Dec. 6 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was 92.Professor of African American Studies from 1973 to 1987, Carew was described as the “quintessential Renaissance Man – an author, historian, internationalist, public intellectual, social justice activist and pioneer in experimenting with sustainable lifestyles for people of color.”Darlene Clark Hine, Board of Trustees Professor of African American studies and professor of history at Northwestern, said Carew was an important leader of Black studies....

Source: Cutting Edge News

1-15-13

Edwin Black at Fordham University traces Farhud and the roots of the Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust

Award-winning, bestselling author Edwin Black will chronicle the centuries of intersection between Islam and Jewry that led to the Farhud pogrom in Baghdad in 1941 and the ensuing Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust in a major address at Fordham University 6 PM January 31, 2013. Black's presentation is based on his recent bestselling and critically acclaimed book, The Farhud: Roots of the Arab-Nazi Alliance in the Holocaust. The event at the Lincoln Center campus of Fordham is sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy. Black's presentation will be followed by a 28-minute filmed testimony by actual victims in the documentary "The Farhud," screened by Professor Haim Shaked.Dr. Shaked is flying in from Miami for the special event. He is the director of The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies at the University of Miami. Black's presentation and the film are predicted to "completely re-define people's perception of mideast history, the Palestine conflict, and the basis for the robust international Arab alliance with the Nazis," said author Black.

Source: Cornell Universty Tumblr

1-14-13

America’s own Downton Abbey: Five history lessons based on the series by Katherine Howe

With the American premier of Downton Abbey, season three, here are five history lessons based on the popular television series provided by Katherine Howe, author and lecturer of American studies at Cornell University. The paperback of Howe’s novel, “The House of Velvet and Glass,” takes place in the same time period and will be released on Jan. 29 by Hyperion/Voice.The real women behind Cora, Countess of Grantham and her mother, Martha Levinson

Source: HNN Staff

1-14-13

Historian Martin Kramer to head Israel's first liberal-arts college

Middle Eastern historian Martin Kramer, author of various works on the Middle East and Islam -- including The Islamism Debate (1997), The Jewish Discovery of Islam (1999), and Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America (2001) -- has been officially named president-designate of Shalom College in Jerusalem, Israel's first degree-granting liberal arts college.The college will teach a core curriculum based on key texts in Western and Jewish history.Shalem College will begin its first semester in October.From Mr. Kramer's blog:

Source: NYT

1-9-13

Claude-Anne Lopez Dies at 92; Told of Franklin’s Private Life

He was a postmaster-inventor-diplomat-founding father — just another American revolutionary. She was two centuries younger but plenty worldly as well, with a blend of verve and pragmatism that had helped her escape Nazi-occupied Belgium by taxicab. Their first meetings were hardly memorable.“I must admit that your words of wisdom left me cold,” Claude-Anne Lopez would write many years later. “But I had no choice: it was your papers or nothing.”It was academia in the 1950s, and she was a woman in a man’s world. She took what she could get: a job transcribing the 30,000 documents that constitute the Papers of Benjamin Franklin at Yale University. She started as a transcriber at 65 cents an hour. She would become an authority — and an admirer....

Source: WaPo

1-12-13

John C. Reilly Jr., Navy historian and author

John C. Reilly Jr., 79, a Navy historian and author who retired in 2001 as director of the Naval Historical Center’s ship history branch, died Dec. 17 at his home in Fairfax County.He had Parkinson’s disease, said his wife, Anna Reilly.Mr. Reilly joined the Naval Historical Center in the mid-1960s and became branch head in the mid-1980s.During his time at the center, he was the author or co-writer of several books, including “United States Navy Destroyers of World War II in Action” (1985)....

Source: NYT

1-8-13

Klemens von Klemperer Dies at 96; Wrote of Nazi Era

Klemens von Klemperer, a refugee from Nazi Germany who wrote what is widely considered the seminal history of the movement among the country’s conservative elite to overthrow Hitler, died on Dec. 23 at his home in Easthampton, Mass. He was 96.His death was confirmed by his son, James.Dr. von Klemperer, an emeritus professor of history at Smith College, was one of a generation of refugee historians who helped lay the groundwork for modern German and European studies in the United States, a group that also included Hajo Holborn, Fritz Stern and Peter Gay.A privileged child who came from a family of German bankers and industrialists, he had taken a leading role in demonstrations against Hitler as a student in Vienna before fleeing to the United States in 1938....