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: NYT
7-27-10
...America’s growing population of food historians have similar instincts, if gentler research habits. The exploding interest in who ate what, and when, has them ransacking old cookbooks, menus, novels, letters and grocery lists, looking to see what strange news about our earlier culinary habits flutters to the floor.
I am prepared to be cynical about this new food historicism. I await the titles that pare this subject into micro-thin slices, books I suspect will be on the order of
Source: Media Matters
7-27-10
Experts on the history of lynching are criticizing an American Spectator report which claimed that Shirley Sherrod's statement that her relative Bobby Hall was lynched was "factually, provably untrue."
In his article, Jeffrey Lord, a former Reagan administration official, said that because Hall was beaten to death, rather than hanged, Sherrod's statement that Hall had been lynched was a "straight out fabrication." Lord's article has come under fire, both from oth
Source: Medieval News
7-27-10
According to a recently published study, women could be found working on construction sites, if only occasionally, including in specialized roles such as carpenters and masons. The research is found in the article, “Appropriate to Her Sex?” Women’s Participation on the Construction Site in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, by Shelley E. Roff.
She surveyed a wide variety of records from throughout Western Europe, including tax records, inventories of wages paid on construction sites,
Source: AHA Blog
7-20-10
The AHA welcomes the Construction History Society of America as its newest Affiliated Society.
Our new affiliate has the following statement of purpose:
The Construction History Society of America is dedicated to the study of the history and evolution of all aspects of the built environment—its creation, maintenance, and management. It is a forum for scholars and professionals in the field to share, meet, and exchange ideas and research. Membership is open to a wide
Source: SD Union-Tribune
7-26-10
Pride in his heritage helped spark an interest in history and led Ramon Eduardo Ruiz to a life of teaching, researching and writing about the past.
The native San Diegan and widely renowned historian made it his goal to convey the triumph and tragedy of Mexican history as well as the great cultural richness of the life and literature of his parents’ homeland. Along the way, he helped develop the fledgling history department at the University of California San Diego, wrote several re
Source: The Australian
7-27-10
ONE of the world's leading economic historians has slammed Labor's "needless pseudo stimulus" spending.
Niall Ferguson has also criticised the election campaign's "pathetic" debate over capping immigration and population growth.
The visiting Harvard history professor said yesterday Australia's budget stimulus -- the third biggest in the developed world -- had not been justified by the size of the global financial crisis hit to this country's economy.
Source: AP
7-23-10
When Joe McGill spreads his sleeping bag on the floor of a slave cabin, he knows that spending the night there will conjure the specter of slavery.
"If I were a firm believer in ghosts and spirits and things of that nature, I don't think I could do this," said McGill, a preservationist who is working to preserve buildings that are part of a past that many prefer to forget....
McGill, a program officer with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will sp
Source: Express Buzz (India)
7-24-10
The writings of historian A Sreedhara Menon who died here on Friday are the most important references on Kerala history.
Sreedhara Menon was born on December 18, 1925 at Ernakulam. After securing a first class in SSLC exam, he proceeded to the Madras University and passed the Intermediate Examination. In 1944, with the support of a Maharaja's scholarship, he completed his BA from the Maharaja's College, Ernakulam winning the Gold Medal. He completed the MA from Madras University in
Source: NYT
7-25-10
The White House switchboard — able to conjure up Santa Claus at a moment’s notice for a young Caroline Kennedy — is famous for its ability to track down anyone, anywhere, anytime.
But last week, both the White House and the secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, were unable to muster that switchboard magic to reach Shirley Sherrod....
Some presidential historians said they were shocked at how long it took a White House that prides itself on being tech savvy — President
Source: NYT
7-25-10
Richard K. Lieberman lifted the lid on the piano and asked the roomful of lecturers at LaGuardia Community College, “Who’s going to play?” No hands went up, but one of the teachers sneaked across the hall and found Eric Anderson, a 26-year-old history major who turned out to be a pretty good pianist.
“This is too cool,” he said, weaving together melodies like “The Entertainer,” the Scott Joplin rag that was used as the theme for the Robert Redford-Paul Newman film “The Sting,” and s
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
7-25-10
..."As historians, most of us just love 'Mad Men' -- it is so realistic, not just in the details, but in the gender dynamics," said Stephanie Coontz, a sociologist and professor at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash. "But, I think in this case they've gotten it wrong."
Discovering Don was not the man she thought she knew was merely the last straw for Betty, who surely suspected her husband's many dalliances. So she began a flirtatious relationship with Henr
Source: Dunn County Record (WI)
7-25-10
John Paul Gerber of Quincy, Mass., passed away suddenly on Saturday, June 12, 2010, after a valiant year-long fight against pancreatic cancer. He was born in Sioux Falls, S.D., on Feb.12, 1945, and grew up in Stillwater, Okla., and Menomonie.
...John received academic degrees from the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin, where he received his PhD in history under the direction of well-known professor of history, Harvey Goldberg.
Among John's scholar
Source: Mark Bauerlein at the Chronicle of Higher Education
7-20-10
[Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University.]
On April 19, 2010, Robert Paquette, professor of history at Hamilton College, in New York, published an article entitled “Dictatorships and Double Standards” on the Web site of the National Association of Scholars. It’s a biting piece on dogmatic liberal/progressivist attitudes among professors, and it takes as a prime example the fate of Christopher Hill, a medieval historian hired to teach at Hamilton on a “term appointment”
Source: Tablet
7-22-10
Though it has long played a central role in the popular history of the Holocaust, survivor testimony has for decades been seen as marginal by Holocaust historians. The issue has preoccupied scholars since Raul Hilberg’s landmark 1961 book, The Destruction of the European Jews, in which he largely discounted the “usefulness” of survivor accounts.
Hilberg’s pioneering work established a methodological orthodoxy with regard to survivor testimony that was long adhered to by historians l
Source: Mitchell Republic (SD)
7-21-10
Gilbert Fite devoted a great deal of his life to uncovering and preserving South Dakota history.
In doing so, he became a part of it. Fite, 92, a history professor and acclaimed author, died July 13 in Fort Meyers, Fla.
“He’s kind of legendary in South Dakota history,” said Nancy Tystad Koupal, the director of the South Dakota State Historical Society Press. “He was very interested in the history of, and the preservation of the history of, South Dakota.”
F
Source: NYT
7-17-10
Amid the horrors of the Holocaust, the atrocities perpetrated by a few brutal women have always stood out, like aberrations of nature.
Enlarge This Image
Bettmann/Corbis
Female guards, like these with the SS at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, constituted up to 10 percent of concentration camps’ personnel.
There were notorious camp guards like Ilse Koch and Irma Grese. And lesser known killers like Erna Petri, the wife of an SS officer and a mother who was convicted
Source: Oxford Press (OH)
7-15-10
OXFORD — A select group of 30 kindergarten through 12th grade educators from across the country will spend July 18-24 with Miami University Distinguished Professor of History Andrew Cayton and Fred Anderson, professor of history at University of Colorado, Boulder, focusing on the events of the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War — three wars overlooked or simplified by many textbooks.
This weeklong seminar, “New Perspectives on American Wars, 1750-18
Source: College of William & Mary
7-15-10
With real sadness, I share the news that George Robert Healy died on July 8th in Auburn, Maine. He was 87. A marvelous leader and cherished friend to those who worked with him, Dr. Healy was described as "a man Thomas Jefferson would have respected."
George Healy (Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center)George Healy (Photo courtesy of the Special Collections Research Center)
George Healy joined William & Mary as professor of history and vice
Source: Hot Indie News
7-19-10
Fourteen million out of work! Sixteen notable economists and historians have joined in a consensus statement for The Daily Beast demanding urgent action on unemployment and the faltering recovery. Joseph Stiglitz, Alan Blinder, Robert Reich, Richard Parker, Derek Shearer, Laura Tyson, Sir Harold Evans, and other thought leaders have produced a manifesto calling for more government stimulus and tax credits to put America back to work....Daniel Kevles is the former facu
Source: Earth Times
7-20-10
The legacy of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States, faded into the annals of history after he left office in 1929 and for decades was largely ignored by historians and scholars. But at a time when partisan politics increasingly supersedes the business of a Nation — from rural town council meetings to the halls of the U.S. Capitol — a new book published by the National Notary Association (NNA), Why Coolidge Matters, revisits the ideals, integrity and commitment to public servi
