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: New Zealand Herald
2-16-11
Respected New Zealand historian Dame Judith Binney has passed away.
She was 70 years old and died at her home in Auckland late last night, Radio New Zealand reported.
Dame Judith nearly died after being hit by a truck while crossing Princes St in Auckland in December 2009. She suffered serious head injuries but was thought to have made a good recovery.
Dame Judith was one of New Zealand's most renowned historians. She was Emeritus Professor of History at th
Source: Newsweek
2-13-11
[Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University and a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School.]
The statesman can only wait and listen until he hears the footsteps of God resounding through events; then he must jump up and grasp the hem of His coat, that is all.” Thus Otto von Bismarck, the great Prussian statesman who united Germany and thereby reshaped Europe’s balance of power nearly a century and a half ago.
Last week, for
Source: Times of India
2-15-11
CHANDRAPUR: This Valentine's Day saw a unique commemoration, which for the first time brought public recognition to Veershah's mausoleum. The monument symbolises the eternal love of Gond queen Rani Hirai for her husband Raja Veershah.
Dozens of youths guided by social organisation Eco-Pro thronged the monument in the graveyard of the Gond dynasty on Valentine's Day and paid tributes at the majestic memorial of love. Built in early 18th century, this is the only memorial known to be
Source: Pravda
2-15-11
A fragile peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), established 15 years ago after the bloodiest massacre in postwar Europe, could be threatened. President of Croatia Ivo Josipovic has complained about the situation of his compatriots in Bosnia, and hinted at the need to revise the Dayton Accords that ended the war....
Until 1878 the territory of Bosnia was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and Croats (along with Serbs) were the oppressed minority. Then this land became a part of Austria-H
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
2-14-11
Recently, Archivist of the United States David Ferriero marked his first year in office and many of the initiatives he began since taking the helm are starting to bear fruit. Last summer, Ferriero created a staff task force to draft a plan for the “transformation” of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Ferriero recently unveiled Charting the Course
Source: Dissent Magazine
2-15-11
[Cynthia Fuchs Epstein is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Among her books are Woman’s Place, Women in Law, and Deceptive Distinctions.]
The “F” word (feminism) has been revived in academic and literary discourse with Stephanie Coontz’s A Strange Stirring, a widely publicized book that considers the intent and impact of Betty Friedan’s iconic The Feminine Mystique. Like other critics, Coontz claims that Friedan’s book sh
Source: WSJ
2-12-11
[Michael C. Moynihan is senior editor of Reason magazine.]
...[H]erein lies the most troubling flaw of [Dominic Sandbrook's "Mad As Hell: The Crisis of the 1970s and the Rise of the Populist Right" one that won't be apparent to the casual reader. It's only by consulting the book's footnotes that one discovers, by looking inside the books he cites, that Mr. Sandbrook shamelessly and repeatedly cannibalizes the work of others, offering what could be generously called a 400-p
Source: WaPo
2-14-11
Pat Nixon was long regarded as the subservient political wife who wanted only to help her husband President Richard Nixon achieve his goals for the nation.
But a new biography portrays the first lady as willful and combative in her relationship with her husband and his top advisers. She waged “a battle to retain control over her responsibilities,” writes Mary C. Brennan in “Pat Nixon: Embattled First Lady,” due out next month from the University Press of Kansas. “She found herself e
Source: Mineweb.net
2-14-11
For 500 years world history has been dominated by the economic ascent of the West. Now there is an epic shift taking place, one which is witnessed only once every half millennia, says Niall Ferguson, a professor of history at Harvard University. The era of western economic and political influence is waning, and will end within our lifetime, he says. The economies of the east have reawakened and East and West are converging in a competitive-dependency which has profound implications for Africa an
Source: Baltimore Sun
2-11-11
A Loyola University Maryland economics professor is denying ties to a group that endorses a second Southern secession after he came under fire from a Missouri congressman because of the alleged association.
Thomas DiLorenzo, a Loyola professor since 1992, was in Washington on Wednesday to testify at a House subcommittee hearing on the Federal Reserve Bank. But Rep. William Lacy Clay, a Democrat from St. Louis, quickly raised questions about DiLorenzo's ties to the League of the Sout
Source: LA Times
2-12-11
Reporting from Dunwoody, Ga. —
For more than half a century, biographers have treated Franklin Delano Roosevelt with Rushmore-like reverence, celebrating the nation's 32nd president as a colossus who eased the agony of the Great Depression and saved democracy from Nazi Germany.
Which never sat right with historian Burton Folsom Jr.
Growing up in Nebraska, Folsom remembers, his dad, a savings and loan executive, griped about high taxes and Roosevelt's voracious am
Source: ThyBlackMan.com
2-11-11
(ThyBlackMan.com) Though several years off, President Obama’s next gig is already shaping up to be a sweet deal.
He may be deep in the groove of his Presidency. But we do know he has given thought to what happens next. Before he even sat at the Resolute Desk, he inked a deal to deliver a post-presidency book, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Millions will follow, no doubt, because after you’ve pulled the nation back from the brink of economic disaster, and p
Source: CNN.com
2-11-11
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- For nearly 30 years, one man dominated Egypt.
Hosni Mubarak, 82, survived would-be assassins and ill health, crushed a rising Islamist radical movement, and maintained the peace with neighboring Israel that got his predecessor killed. His government's continued observance of the Camp David accords was the cornerstone of what peace has been achieved in the decades-long Arab-Israeli conflict....
Mubarak was a Soviet-trained pilot who was chief of sta
Source: Deutsche Welle
2-13-11
In late October, a group of historians published a surprisingly popular and controversial study of the German Foreign Ministry's complicity in Nazi crimes. DW spoke to one of the authors, Professor Norbert Frei.
The book, entitled "The Foreign Ministry and the Past," was commissioned in 2005 by then Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, after a minor scandal surrounding his decision not to pay the customary retirement honors to diplomats with Nazi pasts.
The
Source: Tulsa World
2-13-11
Virginia Scharff was being given a tour of the Autry National Center in Los Angeles when she was presented with an immediate curatorial challenge.
Scharff, a historian, novelist and professor of history at the University of New Mexico, had just been appointed to be the chair of the Women of the West studies at the Autry's Institute for the Study of the American West.
"I was brought in specifically to do exhibits about women's role in Western history," she said
Source: WaPo
2-10-11
Prominent historian Eric Foner will receive the 2011 $50,000 Lincoln Prize for his book, “The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery” according to an announcement this morning by prize sponsors Gettysburg College and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He will receive the award on May 11 at the Union League Club in New York.
Foner, the DeWitt Clinton professor of history at Columbia University, wrote in Fiery Trial about the evolving attitude of Lincoln towa
Source: CNN.com
2-10-11
The timing of Hosni Mubarak's speech Thursday night to the nation was no accident, said Prof. Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a sociologist and visiting scholar at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, who was imprisoned three times by Mubarak.
"He's trying to preempt a call for a general strike tomorrow," Ibrahim told CNN Thursday in a telephone interview, noting that workers began joining the demonstrations early this week and were calling for demonstrations throughout Egypt on Fr
Source: The Times Leader (MD)
2-11-11
The city’s Fine Arts Fiesta has lost one of its board members, King’s College has lost a professor, but most important the area has lost a gentleman.
Howard B. Fedrick of Laflin, a prolific member of the downtown festival who pioneered the fiesta’s Internet audience, and a member of the history department at King’s College, passed away Wednesday at the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. He was 67.
David Kerr, president of the board of the Fine Arts Fiesta, had known Fedrick
Source: Crosscut (Seattle)
2-9-11
By chance, I met independent historian Ed Diaz as he finalized details for the 2011 Black History Conference in Seattle on Feb. 5. He has been working on the event for the better part of year, issuing a Call for Papers and coordinating all logistics involving 40-plus presenters from his Ballard apartment. After attending all 10 hours of presentations I can sum up the experience with words repeated over and over by the participants, “How could I not know about this before?”
That appl
Source: Jerusalem Post
2-10-11
Tel Aviv University Professor Michael Harsegor, one of Israel's most-prominent historians, passed away on Thursday at the age of 87.
For decades Harsegor taught history at Tel Aviv University and was considered an expert on Late Middle Ages European History. He was most well-known to the Israeli public for hosting the long-running Army Radio program "historical hour"....
