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: Readex Press Release
1-5-11
Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971, will be released by Readex, a division of NewsBank, in spring 2011. Featuring more than 130 fully searchable newspapers in 10 languages from 25 states—including many rare 19th-century titles—this online collection will provide extensive coverage of many of the most influential ethnic groups in U.S. history. With an emphasis on Americans of Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Jewish, Lithuanian, Polish, Slova
Source: AHA Blog
1-4-11
The AHA’s 125th Annual Meeting kicks off in Boston this Thursday, January 6th and will continue through Sunday, January 9th. To help attendees prepare, we’ve rounded up general information, Program highlights, ideas on what to do in Boston, Job Center tips, Perspectives on History articles, and more.Starting Thursday, we’ll be posting annual meeting daily overviews, events coverage, and updates.
Source: SF Chronicle
12-28-10
Kitty Lam thinks it's more likely the explosion that sank the battleship Maine in Cuba's Havana harbor in 1898 was an accident rather than an act of sabotage by Spain.
While the cause is still a historical mystery, Lam says that documents she has read, including contemporary "Remember the Maine" news reports that looked to use the deadly blast to promote war against Spain, prompted her to look deeper into the incident.
Lam, however, isn't a historian. She's a
Source: Pif Magazine
2-1-01
Thomas Fleming’s most recent book, The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, examines the women at the center of the lives of George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.The History Book Club has named The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers as a main selection for the month of December.The author of more than 40 books of fiction and nonfiction, Fleming has received wide acclaim for his revisionis
Source: University of Manchester (UK)
1-4-11
The contribution of a University of Manchester historian to the study of French history was recognised last month by the University of Paris-Sorbonne.
Professor Bergin
Professor Joseph Bergin was the first-ever recipient of the silver Richelieu Medal, awarded to scholars who have contributed to promoting the values of scholarly excellence.
It is the latest of a series of accolades honouring Professor Bergin’s work: in February 2010 he received the ‘Antiquit
Source: Inside Higher Ed
1-3-11
...The report on the history job outlook -- prepared by Robert B. Townsend, assistant director of research and publications at the AHA -- not only provides the bad news about job openings, but offers context that suggests that the situation is even more dire.
In 2009, the number of new history doctorates awarded rose to its highest level in nine years -- 989, up from 969 the year before. Given that many of those who earned doctorates in the past few years have failed to find the ten
Source: Yellow Spring News
12-23-10
Irwin M. Abrams, a longtime professor of history at Antioch College, a pioneer in the field of peace research and a global authority on the Nobel Peace Prize, died on Dec. 16 at the Friends Care Center, just a block away from the house on Xenia Avenue where he had lived for almost 60 years. He was 96.
Abrams, who had not been ill, had become frail in recent years. He died peacefully, just as he had lived his life, according to his daughter, Carole Morrill, who was his primary caregi
Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
1-3-11
For Leonard Siegel, meeting Harry Truman was a life-changing experience.
In fall 1948, Siegel was a freshman at John Carroll University near Cleveland when he went with a group of friends to see the president on a campaign swing around Ohio.
Having ascended to the White House upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945, the former vice president wasn't given much of a chance in that year's presidential election against Republican Thomas E. Dewey....
Siegel
Source: Salt Lake Tribune
12-29-10
Brigham Dwaine Madsen had only two books in his Pocatello, Idaho, childhood home — Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe — and he yearned for more.
Finances were tight, but one Christmas when “Brig” was in fifth or sixth grade, his mother bought a set of encyclopedia through the Book-of-the Month Club. The future professor eventually read all 20 volumes — twice.
Madsen, who died Dec. 24 at 96 of natural causes, had an ever-expanding interes
Source: Tehran Times
1-3-11
A prominent Iranian historian has criticized the interference of British officials in Iran's internal affairs, saying Britain has always inflicted damages on Iran.
“The British Ambassador to Tehran Simon Gass is the nephew or grandchild of Neville Gass, a notorious English element in Iran whom the Iranians have a bad memory of,” Khosrow Motazed told Fars news agency on Saturday.
The historian cited the 1901 oil contract between Iran and Britain, signed through offering
Source: Arizona Republic
1-2-11
When historians at the end of the 21st century look back at the impact of 20th-century Baby Boomers on entertainment and the arts, two things will stand out: TV and rock and roll.
This generation of Americans, totaling about 78 million, has certainly influenced other art forms. But when it comes to television and rock music in particular, neither would have emerged, flourished and dominated without the consuming and creative power of those Americans born from 1946 to 1964 - the larg
Source: CHE
12-29-10
David F. Noble, a prominent critic of the corporatization of academe and of distance education, died on Monday evening of natural causes, the Toronto Globe and Mail reports. He was 65.
Mr. Noble taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later at York University in Toronto, where he became known for his political activism....
Source: E.J. Dionne Jr. at the WaPo
1-3-11
[E.J. Dionne Jr. is a columnist for the WaPo.]
...From its inception, the Tea Party movement has treated the nation's great founding document not as the collection of shrewd political compromises that it is but as the equivalent of sacred scripture.
Yet as Gordon Wood, the widely admired historian of the Revolutionary era has noted, we "can recognize the extraordinary character of the Founding Fathers while also knowing that those 18th-century political leaders wer
Source: HNN Staff
1-3-11
Thursday, January 6
3:00-5:00 pm
AHA Session #1: Climate Change and Its Contested Histories
Friday, January 7
9:30-11:30 am
AHA Session #57: Aviation, Spaceflight, and the Culture of American Technological Development in the Twentieth Century
AHA Session #61:
12-20-10
Editor's Note: The views expressed in this petition do not necessarily reflect those of HNNThe PetitionDear colleague,
The sorry spectacle of one bill after another being defeated in the Senate despite having a majority of senators voting for it impels us to circulate this petition. We are asking our senators to change the rules that have empowered a minority of 41 senators and undermined the democratic principle of majority
Source: World Mag
1-15-11
Daniel Pipes founded the Middle East Forum in 1994. The author of 12 books, with a Ph.D. in medieval Islamic history, he is the most prominent American scholar of radical Islam; even CBS said he was"years ahead of the curve" in identifying the radical threat.Many people associate Islam with terrorism, but you also examine a long-term threat that would be peaceful but transformative. In this country, mostly because of 9/11, we focus on terrorism, but in Europe the
Source: NYT
12-24-10
Dan Kurzman, who wrote military histories that illuminated little-known incidents in World War II and an exhaustively reported account of the first Arab-Israeli war, died Dec. 12 in Manhattan. He was 88 and lived in North Bergen, N.J....
His books include “Ben-Gurion: Prophet of Fire,” a biography of David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister; “A Special Mission: Hitler’s Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII,” about an episode in which Nazi officials in Ita
Source: WaPo
12-23-10
If you had somehow managed to filter out all the news of November's midterm elections, you could be forgiven for thinking in the past few weeks that perhaps Congress had finally buckled down, stopped posturing and gotten to work - maybe started early on some new year's resolutions.
Look at all that was passed: a huge compromise tax bill, the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," a major food safety bill, the New START treaty and the 9/11 first responders health-care measure.
Source: BBC News
12-22-10
Academics at Queen's University have been paying tribute to Belfast historian ATQ Stewart who died at home at the age of 81 after a long illness.
Dr Stewart worked as a lecturer in Stranmillis College of Education, before becoming a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast.
He was also a best-selling author and a contributor to BBC history programmes and to the Irish Times.
Professor Lord Paul Bew, from Queen's School of Politics, International Studies and Ph
Source: University of Wyoming
12-20-10
December 20, 2010 — An inventory of papers and correspondence of Bruce Catton, widely regarded (along with Shelby Foote) as the most popular of America's Civil War historians, is now accessible online through the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center.There are no access restrictions on the materials for research purposes, and the collection is open to the public.Catton (1899-1978) was a newspaper reporter in Cleveland and Boston before working for the War Pro
