Historians in the News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

Source: Alex Pareene for Salon
11-24-11

Thank you, Diane Ravitch

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon.Admittedly, I spend a lot of time grousing and naysaying. Today, though, we put that negativity briefly aside, as we celebrate a day of thoughtful reflection, and a night without a GOP presidential debate. I thought it appropriate, on the occasion of Thanksgiving, to thank some of the people who’ve worked to make the country and the world a better place over the least 12 months....

Source: Vancouver Sun
11-22-11

American historian likens Laura Secord's heroism to 'Sunday walk'

A U.S. historian who unearthed new evidence about the life of a War of 1812 heroine from New York has dismissed Laura Secord's famous midnight dash to save Canada from invasion as a mere "Sunday walk" in the woods compared to the exploits of Betsy Doyle, her American counterpart.Catherine Emerson, official historian for Niagara County north of Buffalo, has unravelled a 200-year-old mystery surrounding Doyle, known to War of 1812 experts as the wife of a captured American artillery officer who bravely threw herself into the fighting but then disappeared from the historical record.Doyle — better known by the given name "Fanny" because of a 19th-century scribe's erroneous writings — earned a respectable footnote in U.S. military history after briefly assuming her husband's role in the war and loading red-hot cannonballs into Fort Niagara's guns during a fierce November 1812 battle against allied British, Canadian and First Nations troops....

Source: NYT
11-22-11

Embattled Intellectual Historians Make a Stand

Were the 1970s the most boring decade in history?Anyone reading the popular press at the time might have been forgiven for thinking so. In 1972, The New York Times reported on the Ford Motor Company’s plan to fight boredom on the job and an alternative boredom-reduction plan put forward by the United Auto Workers. The Washington Post, meanwhile, fretted that boredom might be fueling interest in the occult. In 1976, Reader’s Digest declared boredom “the disease of our time.”But boredom isn’t just boring, Jordan Grant, a graduate student at American University, said in a paper called “Meaning in the Malaise: Boredom and the Remaking of the American Mind in the Seventies,” delivered last week at an intellectual history conference held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Boredom is also a window into important shifts in American intellectual life — not to mention a new research frontier for the sometimes-embattled scholars who study it....

Source: Guardian (UK)
11-21-11

Leave UK history curriculum alone but teach it for longer, says U.S. historian

Towards the end of a typically barnstorming performance at the Hay Festival in May last year, during which Niall Ferguson had rubbished the way history was taught in this country, the spotlight was turned towards the audience to reveal that the new education secretary, Michael Gove, had snuck into the event and was sitting somewhere near the back. And after a few not entirely convincing exchanges of surprise along the lines of "Fancy seeing you here!", "You're marvellous", "No, you're marvellous", Gove offered Ferguson a job on the spot to help reform the history curriculum....Wisely, perhaps, Gove chose to consult not just Ferguson. Instead, using the contacts book that mysteriously opens up for new ministers, he also invited several other well-known historians, including Simon Schama and Richard Evans, to contribute their suggestions for the wholesale reform of history teaching. Somewhere not far into the process, he also asked David Cannadine, Dodge Professor of History at Princeton – and, with Ferguson and Schama, yet another of the UK's top academic exports to the US – for his thoughts. Eighteen months down the line, Gove might rather be wishing he hadn't.

Source: Scientific American
11-21-11

Historian Hunts for Motives Behind Climate Change Doubt-Mongering: A Q&A with Naomi Oreskes

Naomi Oreskes is a science historian, professor at the University of California, San Diego, and co-author (with Erik Conway) of "Merchants of Doubt," a book that examined how a handful of scientists obscure the facts on a range of issues, including tobacco use and climate change. Her seminal paper in the journal Science, "Beyond the Ivory Tower: The Scientific Consensus on Climate Change," challenged – back in 2004 – the notion that climate change science was uncertain. Her work has documented the spread of doubt-mongering from an industry practice to a political strategy.Dr. Oreskes did her undergraduate work at the Royal School of Mines in London and received her graduate degree from Stanford University. With her husband, Ken Belitz, and daughter, Clara, the family lives in San Diego. Her older daughter, Hannah, attends Stanford.Question:  Somewhere between your undergraduate and graduate degrees, you became interested in the history of science. What drew you to that field?Answer: I was always interested in the human side of science, especially why people disagreed about evidence, and the strong  - yet divergent -  opinions that my professors had about what constitutes good science. Beyond that, it is a long story.Q:  What attracted you to the climate change deniers?

Source: Mediate
11-20-11

George Will Dismisses Newt Gingrich, Scoffs At Idea That He Is A ‘Historian’

George Will really doesn’t like Newt Gingrich. On the This Week round table this morning, Will began his comments on Gingrich, now a frontrunner, by stating that his candidate “embodies everything disagreeable about modern Washington,” going on to laugh at the idea that Gingrich was hired by Freddie Mac as a “historian,” and, as a final blow, speaking more glowingly of even Rep. Ron Paul than of Gingrich.

Source: Buffalo News
11-20-11

A War of 1812 mystery has been solved by historians

LOCKPORT — A nearly 200-year-old missing-person case has been solved by the Niagara County historian’s office.Historian Catherine L. Emerson told the County Legislature this week that she and her staff have traced the post-War of 1812 whereabouts of Betsy Doyle, a local heroine of the war.Doyle was lionized for hauling red-hot cannonballs to gunners at Fort Niagara during a November 1812 cannon duel with the British forces in Fort George on the other side of the Niagara River.However, no one seemed to know what happened to her after that.Emerson discovered that Doyle, with her four children in tow, survived what could have been a winter death march across New York State after Fort Niagara fell to the British in December 1813....

Source: WSJ
11-19-11

Modern New York Historians With Street Smarts

Although their titles range from location scout to urban planner, the participants of "Block By Block: New York Street Historians," a photo-lecture event set for Sunday at the Brooklyn media-arts center UnionDocs, all have one thing in common."They're each out there on foot exploring these obscure corners of New York and coming back with their own observations about what they've seen," said Nathan Kensinger, filmmaker and curator of the event.The roots of this homegrown blend of vocation and avocation can be traced back to journalist George Foster's after-hours city walking tour "New York By Gaslight," published in 1850. ...

Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
11-19-11

Historian Doug Brinkley gets into it with Don Young during Congressional hearing

Rep. Don Young and historian Douglas Brinkley argued during a Congressional hearing Friday after Brinkley testified in support of keeping the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off-limits to oil development and Young used the word "garbage" and called him "Dr. Rice," confusing Brinkley's name with that of the university where he teaches, Rice University in Texas.Brinkley, who recently wrote a book about the conservation movement in Alaska, said he would like to see President Obama create a new national monument in ANWR to prevent future development on the coastal plain, which geologists say is the most promising on-shore prospect for oil development in the nation.He said the monument should be named after President Eisenhower, for his role in creating the wildlife range.... Watch Brinkley video here.

Source: NYT
11-19-11

David Greenberg profiled in the NYT

“When I was a kid,” David Greenberg recalled in a recent e-mail, “my perceptions of Nixon were shaped as much by ‘Saturday Night Live’ and songs like ‘Ohio’ (‘Tin soldiers and Nixon coming. . . . ’) as by political journalism, which I didn’t read until I was older.” In the intervening years, Greenberg, whose book “Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image” was published in 2003, has had plenty of opportunity to consider the various ways we view the presidency...

Source: Fox News
11-18-11

Historians Claim New Research Shows Oswald Acted Alone in JFK Assassination

Few historical events have received more attention or been more carefully reenacted than the assassination of President Kennedy. Yet as the country approaches the 48th anniversary of that tragic day in Dallas, a team of historians and retired Secret Service officers claims to have used new technology on old evidence to solidify the judgment that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The NatGeo channel will air the new tests as part of a one-hour documentary this Sunday night called "JFK: The Lost Bullet." Historian Max Holland led the team that applied digital technology to a number of home movies taken on Nov. 22, 1963, including the famous Zapruder film....

Source: Spiegel Online
11-18-11

Ian Kershaw on the Last Days of the Third Reich

In a SPIEGEL interview, the best-selling British historian Ian Kershaw talks about the last days of the Third Reich, why the Germans persevered when it was clear that all was lost and the devastating consequences of the failed July 20, 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler.SPIEGEL: Professor Kershaw, you have spent the last three years studying the collapse of Nazi Germany. In the end, are we left to shake our heads in amazement at the absurdity of the final phase, or do you, as a historian, also feel something akin to admiration for the perseverance of the Germans?Kershaw: The head-shaking predominates, at any rate. I'm convinced that we English would have given up much earlier. It's certainly unusual for a country to continue fighting to the point of complete self-destruction. It's the sort of thing we usually see in civil wars, but not in conflicts in which hostile nations are at war with one another.SPIEGEL: The question of why the Germans persevered for so long is the starting point of your new book. What would have been the obvious thing to do?

Source: Slate
11-17-11

Cornel West Leaves Princeton

Cornel West, the public intellectual, activist and Ivy League professor, is taking a "significant pay cut" to leave Princeton and return to where he began his teaching career: Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.His new title: Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practices....

Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
11-17-11

Steven Volk, historian at Oberlin, named one of 4 professors of the year

Four professors who have changed their teaching approach to engage their students in the learning process and have provided research opportunities for undergraduates are being honored today as U.S. Professors of the Year....Mr. Volk, a professor of history and chair of the Latin American studies division, has been teaching Latin American political history for 26 years. To maximize discussion time in the classroom, he posts video lectures on the Web that students can watch before the class. Mr. Volk said he started doing that so that students can actively participate in their own learning."Every class is a discussion, because that is the way that students can construct their own understanding and knowledge, rather than me telling them what's going on," he said....

Source: Cambridge Student Online
11-17-11

Dr. David Starkey in (another) racism row

Dr David Starkey has ignited conflict with his fellow academics by calling a Trinity history Fellow an "immigrant who was trying to push a multicultural agenda in education", and arguing that most of Britain was a "white mono-culture."Starkey, who is an honorary fellow at Fitzwilliam College, became involved in the dispute with Dr Joya Chatterji and Professor Richard Evans, Regius Professor of History and President of Wolfson College, at a recent historians' conference debating the future of history teaching in schools.Dr Starkey made the argument that the national curriculum should consist of "a serious focus on your own culture" echoing Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove's recent announcement that he aimed to put "our island story" at the heart of Britain's national curriculum....

Source: Daily Eastern News
11-15-11

Former Eastern Illinois history department chair Hennings dead at 86

The former chairman of the history department for 16 years, died on Friday at the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Charleston.Robert Edward Hennings, 86, served as the chairman of the history department from 1974-1990 and helped steer the department through challenging times and was responsible for many excellent hires, said Anita Shelton, chair of the history dept.Hennings came to Eastern when the history dept. had recently been created out of the old social science department.He was also one of several faculty members to launch the very successful Historical Administration masters program in 1974, Shelton said....

Source: WEAU.com
11-17-11

UW-La Crosse history professor named Wisconsin Professor of the Year

La Crosse, Wis. – A UW-La Crosse Professor who has been named the state’s top educator says his students deserve the recognition. “This award, in the end, belongs to them. I wouldn’t be here without them,” says Greg Wegner, UW-L professor of history. “My ability to teach, research, write and publish is refreshed and renewed through teaching students.”Wegner will accept the 2011 Wisconsin Professor of the Year award today in Washington, D.C. He was selected from college educators across the U.S. for the award from The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Wegner, a UW-L graduate, says questions are what ‘make a university tick’ and a good teacher respects the power of the question....

Source: Bloomberg News
11-17-11

Harvard Professor Greenblatt Wins $10,000 National Book Award

Nov. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Stephen Greenblatt won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in New York last night for "The Swerve: How the World Became Modern" (Norton), the history of an ancient Roman book, Lucretius's "On the Nature of Things," and how its rediscovery fueled the Renaissance."I find myself fighting back tears," said Greenblatt, a humanities professor at Harvard. "My book is about the power of books to cross boundaries, to speak to you impossibly across space, time and distance. To have someone long dead seem to be in the room with you and speaking into your ear."...

Source: Talking Points Memo
11-17-11

Abramoff On Gingrich’s Freddie Payments: Come On, Historians Don’t Make That Much

Notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff — like the D.C. lobbying reform world — is calling B.S. on Newt Gingrich’s claim that he was paid handsomely as a “historian” for Freddie Mac.“I know he says they paid him as a historian to give a historic lesson, but I’m unaware of any history professor being paid that much money to give someone a history lesson,” Abramoff told NBC’s David Gregory....

Source: CBC
11-15-11

Italian historian wins $75K Cundill Prize

A book about controversial 20th century saint Padre Pio has won the Cundill Prize, a $75,000 award from McGill University for historical literature.Italian historian Sergio Luzzatto won the top award on Sunday in London for his book Padre Pio: Miracles and Politics in a Secular Age.Padre Pio was an Italian Capuchin priest famous for his stigmata who was declared a saint because of his popularity, despite much skepticism at the Vatican. The Cundill jury called the book “masterful” and acclaimed it as an examination of the politics of sainthood and the persistence of mysticism in the modern world....