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: UPI
11-28-08
The struggles associated with a credit crunch have been suffered by other societies in history -- just look at the Roman republic, a British historian says.
Oxford University historian Phillip Kay said the first-ever recorded credit crunch took place in 88 B.C., when a civil war decimated the Roman economy and credit system, The Guardian (Britain) said Friday.
Kay noted comparisons between the current credit crunch facing Britain and other parts of the world and such historic
Source: Salon
11-26-08
For sheer number of innocent people exterminated under an infamous regime, Hitler is no match for Stalin. Yet our fascination with the fiery, scary Führer as "the incarnation of absolute evil," as Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel once called him, far surpasses our interest in practically all other hateful villains in modern history. In his highly imaginative novel "Winnie and Wolf," prolific British novelist and historian A.N. Wilson has taken an intriguingly dispassionate look at
Source: OAH Newsletter
11-1-08
The Obama Phenomenon in Historical PerspectiveLawrence J. FriedmanObama in Global PerspectiveJoseph GersonObama through the Eyes of Middle Easterners
and North AfricansMiray ZakiThe Obama Phenomenon in Great BritainRic
Source: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk
11-25-08
Culture Wars examines the fate of heritage in the wake of 21st-century
military conflict. Focusing on historical monuments, archaeological
sites, and cultural and human landscapes that have been put at risk or
destroyed in recent conflicts, this timely conference brings together
speakers** from museums, libraries and NGOs; archaeology, classics,
and law; and experts from Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Coinciding
with the Babylon exhibition at the British Museum, it also presents
the Br
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
11-24-08
Faculty members and students in Iraq and Iran continue to face a severely repressive climate, two exiled scholars said Saturday during a panel discussion held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association. The scholars called on faculty associations around the world to do more to promote academic freedom in the Middle East.
More than 300 Iraqi university professors have been assassinated by sectarian militias since the U.S. invasion in 2003, said Abdu
Source: Esther Ferington at the website of the NEH
11-17-08
With the approach of the 2009 Lincoln bicentennial, Americans’ interest in Abraham Lincoln has surged, with dozens of new books appearing on the president. But it wasn’t always that way, recalls Gabor Boritt, director and founder of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and the Robert Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies. Lincoln and the Civil War were far less popular in the 1970s than they are today. People “were sick of war, tired of war,” Boritt believes. For a while, he says, Linc
Source: Robert Messenger at the website of the NEH
11-17-08
Harold Holzer’s new book, Lincoln President-Elect, is the thirty-first he has authored, coauthored, or edited on the subject of our sixteenth president. Yet, even after decades of research, writing, and lecturing, Holzer’s appreciation for Lincoln hasn’t flagged. “Lincoln remains a unique touchstone not only because every president in recent memory identifies with him, and draws strength from him, but also because so many ordinary Americans regard him as the symbol of the American dream.”
Source: http://www.thestar.com
11-23-08
Historian Niall Ferguson offers no apologies to disapproving colleagues and other naysayers who insist that he should keep his formidable and wide-ranging intellect fixed firmly on the past.
The high-profile, 44-year-old Glasgow-bred author and academic, who holds down prestigious posts at both Oxford and Harvard, has written vividly and provocatively about what has come before. His new book, The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World, is a rigorous but accessible survey
Source: Independent (UK)
11-24-08
John North's work illuminated the history of science from its earliest beginnings to the present day. As well as making important contributions to the history of astronomy and cosmology, he used his remarkable powers of scholarship to recover lost worlds of thought in archaeology, literature and art, publishing strikingly original interpretations of Stonehenge, Chaucer and Holbein.
Born in Cheltenham in 1934, North spent most of his early life in Yorkshire. From Batley Grammar Schoo
Source: http://www.thehindu.com
11-23-08
James Heitzman (October 27, 1950-November 15, 2008), historian of SouthAsia and urban studies scholar, passed away in Stanford hospital, California, while receiving treatment for cancer.
He received his Doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and an M.S. in Information Studies from Drexel University in 1989.
He held numerous professional appointments including as a research analyst in the Library of Congress (1987-1988); a history professor in C
Source: NYT
11-21-08
SHILOH, TN | James M. McPherson probably knows more about the Civil War than anyone who was actually there. He talks about people like Leonidas Polk, the Episcopal bishop turned not very effective Confederate general, as if they were old acquaintances. This is partly because Mr. McPherson, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for “Battle Cry of Freedom,” his one-volume history of the war, has spent most of his career studying that conflict, and partly because, as he remarked recently at the site
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
11-20-08
On November 17, President George W. Bush awarded the National Humanities Medals for 2008 during a ceremony held in the White House East Room. Nine distinguished Americans, one museum, and a philanthropic foundation were honored for their contributions to the humanities. Three historians, Gabor S. Borritt,
Source: Inside Higher Ed
11-21-08
Enrollment drives many hiring decisions — so prospective faculty members tend to watch trends in their disciplines. If students flock to departments, jobs follow — at least in theory. And that explains job openings in fields as diverse as nursing, forensics and Spanish — deans and department chairs need teachers for all the sections.
But new data and analysis from the American Historical Association
Source: CBC News
11-20-08
Deposed media baron Conrad Black is hoping George W. Bush will grant him clemency during the U.S. president's final weeks in office.
The Department of Justice in Washington has confirmed that Montreal-born Black requested that his 6½-year sentence be commuted.
"The Office of the Pardon Attorney received an application for commutation of sentence from Conrad Black," a department official wrote in an e-mail to CBC News.
In March, Black began serving
Source: Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria
11-20-08
Ted Sherman and Josh Margolin,"Report says Rutgers failed to properly oversee athletics department," Newark Star-Ledger, 20 November, says a newly released report lays the blame for the out-of-control and still foundering athletic program at the feet of the University's president, historian Richard L. McCormick, and the sc
Source: Willamette Week
11-19-08
Google “Joel Beinin” and prepare for a war of words.
“If one individual can showcase all the flaws of Middle East Studies in academia, Joel Beinin is that man,” proclaims Campus-watch.org, a right-wing website affiliated with the neoconservative activist David Horowitz.
A tenured Stanford University professor who is Jewish and a Middle Eastern history expert, Beinin has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies toward Palestine. As a result, he has been a frequent t
Source: Juan Cole at his blog, Informed Comment
11-20-08
Below is a statement on Iran that I and others are hoping will be adopted in Washington as a way forward. Any of my readers who has a way of getting this statement to decision-makers in Washington should please do so. Just Foreign Policy is doing it as a petition. Also, my blogger colleagues should please comment widely on it.It was carried by wire services
Source: ABC4 (SLC, Utah)
11-18-08
With the passage of Proposition 8 in California - the one banning gay marriage - the LDS Church is now facing a "perfect storm" of negative publicity.
So said one of the nation's leading historians on the LDS Church.
Dr. Jan Shipps has been studying and writing about the LDS Church for decades and decades.
She was also the first non-Mormon to be elected president of the Mormon History Association.
She now suggests the Church is facing
Source: WaPo
11-20-08
Annette Gordon-Reed won the National Book Award for nonfiction Wednesday night for "The Hemingses of Monticello," her multigenerational portrait of a family once lost to American history.
Accepting the award, Gordon-Reed spoke of "the journey that black people in this country have been on" since the Hemingses were owned by Thomas Jefferson. Referring to the election of Barack Obama, she added that all of America is "on a great journey now."
Source: Politico.com
11-19-08
Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln” (Simon & Schuster, 944 pp.) was a commercial success when it was published in 2005, but starting with the 2008 presidential election cycle, it took on new significance as a touchstone for political debate. Long before either party’s nomination was decided, candidates and commentators were referencing Goodwin’s Lincoln biography as a tale of how one president brought former competitors together in a single govern
