Historians in the News

Vanderbilt student objections to honoring historian Doris Kearns Goodwin

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Richard McCarty maintains his support for Vanderbilt's decision to honor historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in spite of criticism from students. Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and well-known historian, is the recipient of the 2009 Nichols-Chancellor's Medal and will be the keynote speaker on Senior Class Day. Goodwin was also the center of a plagiarism scandal. "I have looked into this very carefully and I've s

Complaint: David Starkey’s criticism of female historians is wrong

[Natasha is a British historian and writer living in Switzerland. She graduated from Oxford with a degree in History and German and has a Masters in Russian with International Relations from UCL.] David Starkey’s recent pronouncements on female historians, which I came across on April 1st, did at first seem to be a bad joke. Apparently, history, especially that of Tudor times, has been feminized by waves of women analysts focusing on Henry VIII’s love life at the expense of the real

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. pays homage to John Hope Franklin

For decades, John Hope Franklin railed against the often segregated academic field of ‘black studies,’ deriding it as intellectual Jim Crow. But there would be no black studies without him, and for that, I am eternally grateful. ### When I was 20, I decided to hitchhike across the African continent, more or less following the line of the equator, from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. I packed only one pair of sandals and one pair of jeans to make room for the three hef

Satire: San Francisco Historians Condemn 1906 Earthquake Deniers

SAN FRANCISCO—In an event that sparked outrage across the historical community, deniers of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake convened last weekend to share their controversial theories about what actually occurred on that tragic day more than a century ago. The 1906 Earthquake Deniers, a group reviled by Californians and scholars alike, held three days of lectures and roundtable discussions over what they call a "century-long hoax" of exaggerated seismic activity in the Ba

The War of 1812 Revisited at Conference

The Fort La Présentation Association of Ogdensburg, NY is sponsoring a War of 1812 War College Saturday, May 2, 2009. The daylong series of five seminars will examine aspects of the war affecting Sackets Harbor and Ogdensburg, NY and Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. “We have lecturers from New York and Ontario who are experts in their own right on the history and archaeology of the War of 1812,” said Project Director Doug Cubbison. “Thei

Scholars will share perspectives on amendment ratified in 1865

University faculty and leading scholars from across the nation will gather Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18 at the Law School for a conference on the U.S. Constitution’s 13th Amendment, to debate the meaning of liberty, rights, oppression and race. Adopted in 1865, the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. “Slavery, Abolition and Human Rights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Thirteenth Amendment” is a two-day confe

UCSB Historian Wins Bancroft Book Prize

Pekka Hämäläinen, associate professor of history at UC Santa Barbara, has won the coveted Bancroft Prize for his book "The Comanche Empire" (Yale University Press, 2008). He is one of three scholars to receive 2009 awards. The others are Thomas G. Andrews, assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado, Denver; and Drew Gilpin Faust, the president of Harvard University and the Lincoln Professor of History in Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Bancrof

Historian, Army officer hired to teach military history at UW-Madison

[HNN: The delay in filling this post has drawn considerable Internet chatter for several years.] John Hall, a gifted historian and an active-duty career U.S. Army officer, has been named the Ambrose-Hesseltine Professor in U.S. Military History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A Wisconsin native, Hall holds the rank of major and currently works in the Future Warfare Division of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command in Virginia. He received his doctorate from

David McCullough Opposes Tower Near Brooklyn Bridge

In the latest chapter of a hot dispute over the building of a proposed tower near the Brooklyn Bridge, the historian and Brooklyn Bridge expert David McCullough is voicing his opposition to the plan. At a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. McCullough spoke to a crowd of more than 50 local advocates and politicians about why he opposed plans by the developer Two Trees Management to construct a tower called Dock Street Dumbo so close to the Brooklyn Bridge. Mr. McCullough

Martin J. Klein, Historian of Physics, Dies at 84

Martin J. Klein, a historian of modern physics and the editor of a vast collection of papers that documented the years in which Albert Einstein completed his revolutionary work on the general theory of relativity, died Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 84 and lived in Chapel Hill. His death was confirmed by his daughter Rona. Dr. Klein, originally a physicist, was editor of “The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein” (Princeton University Press) from 1988 to 1998. The

Andrew Bacevich calls for NATO to disband

[Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. The paperback edition of his book, "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism," comes out.] When he visits Strasbourg, France, this week to participate in festivities marking NATO's 60th anniversary, President Obama should deliver a valedictory address, announcing his intention to withdraw the United States from the alliance. The U.S. has done its job. It's time fo

Professor George Kane, medievalist, dies aged 92

A towering scholar among medievalists, George Kane was for half a century and more the acknowledged authority on Piers Plowman. He spent most of his career in the University of London, where he was an influential and greatly respected figure. After retiring from King’s College, he accepted a chair in the University of North Carolina, retiring in 1987. His first London appointment was as an assistant lecturer at University College in 1946, where he became a lecturer with tenure in 1

Fox News hounds Alan Brinkley

This morning, Fox and Friends praised producer Griff Jenkins for stalking and ambushing Columbia University professor Alan Brinkley to grill him on portions of his book Jenkins found objectionable. Jenkins — who perfected his harassment

Ward Churchill's and David Irving's self-generated problems

[Walter Plywaski lives in Boulder.] The self-generated problems of ex-professor Ward Churchill carry an interesting parallel to those of David Irving. In 1996 British Holocaust denier David Irving sued Professor Deborah Lipstadt for alleged libel. Three courts found for Lipstadt, concluding that Irving was a Holocaust denier, an anti-Semite and a racist. Irving, a British writer, specialized in military history of World War II, but proved to be highly controversial, due

John Hope Franklin: 2 surprising stories about a great historian

Related Links HNN: In Memory of John Hope Franklin (1915-2009) John Hope Franklin, the black historian whose towering intellect was matched only by his dedication to his craft, was one of those people whose passing makes me sigh and feel this gut-remorse that I never made the time to call or write to say something like: "Professor Franklin, I've read your stuff, and, well, I love you,

Greece: Historian cleared over holocaust denial

Court officials say judges have overturned a far-right Greek historian's conviction for inciting racial hatred with a book that denies the Holocaust took place. A five-member panel of appeals court judges has voted 4-1 to overturn a lower court's decision that sentenced historian Costas Plevris to 14 months in prison for his book "The Jews: The whole truth." Court officials say the Athens appeals court ruled Friday that Plevris was entitled to express his view

Archie Green, 91, Union Activist and Folklorist, Dies

Archie Green, a shipwright turned folklorist whose interest in union workers and their culture transformed the study of American folklore and who single-handedly persuaded Congress to create the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, died last Sunday at his home in San Francisco. He was 91. The cause was kidney failure, his son Derek said. Mr. Green, a shipwright and carpenter by trade, drew on a childhood enthusiasm for cowboy songs and a devotion to the

NYT editorial takes note of John Hope Franklin's death

Every death leaves a conversation unfinished. The one I regret not finishing with the historian John Hope Franklin, who died Wednesday at the age of 94, focused on what it was like to be a rising black intellectual in the Jim Crow South. In particular, I wanted to hear more about Dec. 7, 1941, the day he and his wife, Aurelia, drove from Charleston, S.C., to Raleigh, N.C. — covering the better part of two states — before they reached home and learned that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: William Polk on Afghanistan

With reports that the Obama Administration will unveil its Afghanistan strategy as early as Friday--and one senior Senate staffer telling me that Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, will hold a Senators-only briefing on Afghanistan/Pakistan today--it was good timing that yesterday the Congressional Progressive Caucus kicked-off its six-part forum, Afghanistan: A Road Map for Progress. In his opening remarks, Caucus Co-Chair Raul Grijalva described the significan

Rick Perlstein assesses Obama's performance so far