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
7-12-08
Consuming vanquished enemies' mana had little to do with the underlying reason for Maori cannibalism, a new book by historian Paul Moon says.
Instead cannibalism, pre-colonialism, was simply about "rage and humiliation", he says in a book to be released next month.
This Horrid Practice is the title borrowed from Captain James Cook's journal entries on the topic during his expeditions here. While he largely treated the practice without sensationalism, there has
Source: Woody Holton at common-place.org
7-7-08
Bob Gross, the new editor of Ask the Author, asked me to write about how my recent book, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the American Revolution, was affected by the nearly ten years I spent as an environmental activist.
I had actually been a conservative when I entered the University of Virginia in 1977—the first club I joined was the College Republicans—but exposure to that right-wing student body pushed me far to the left. After graduation, I went to work for Congress Watch a
Source: CNN
7-10-08
Rick Perlstein could have called his book "Paranoia."
If Perlstein's history of the 1960s and early '70s in America has a throughline, it's mistrust. Parents don't trust their children. Enlisted men don't trust their officers. Blacks don't trust whites, Southerners don't trust Northerners, the Silent Majority doesn't trust the Intellectual Establishment, and -- soon enough -- nobody trusts the government.
And in the midst of it all was Richard Nixon: Red-baite
Source: http://www.cbc.ca
7-9-08
A history book about Adolf Hitler has been banned in Russia because it includes quotes insulting to Russians and Jews, according to a report.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that a Russian court has banned the 1953 book Hitler's Table Talk: 1941-1944 by British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. The book collects Hitler's opinions on a wide range of topics.
According to Reuters, prosecutors found that the book included statements from the Nazi leader that are of "an anti-Slavic
Source: NYT
7-10-08
John Y. Simon, a Civil War scholar whose mammoth effort in editing of the papers of Ulysses S. Grant created a new standard for the organization of historical documents, died on Tuesday in Carbondale, Ill. He was 75.
His wife of 51 years, Harriet Simon, confirmed his death.
For 34 years, Mr. Simon was on the history faculty of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, teaching courses on the Civil War, Reconstruction and the history of Illinois. But his true vocation wa
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
7-9-08
Educators in NSW have become so obsessed with Australian history that students can pass through school without learning about the Holocaust, the head of the education department has lamented.NSW Education Department head Michael Coutts-Trotter said he learned a month ago that the Holocaust had been omitted from the state's mandatory history course, he said in a speech to high school principals.
Professor of History and Politics at Wollongong University Gregory M
Source: CBC
7-9-08
Prosecutors said Tuesday that a Russian court has banned the 1953 book Hitler's Table Talk: 1941-1944 by British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. The book collects Hitler's opinions on a wide range of topics and has been banned in Russia because it includes quotes insulting to Russians and Jews.According to Reuters, prosecutors found that the book included statements from the Nazi leader that are of "an anti-Slavic and anti-Semitic character."
The book wil
Source: http://www.gainesville.com
7-8-08
University of Florida history professor Bill Link said it's no surprise that his biography subject, U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, continues to cause controversy after his death.
"It's quite indicative of the man," he said. "He was a lightening rod for all kinds of things."
Helms died July 4 at the age of 86.
The North Carolina Republican served 30 years in a congressional career marked by his strident opposition to civil rights, foreign aid and
Source: Anthony Grafton and Robert Townsend in the Chronicle of Higher Ed
7-11-08
The beginning of wisdom about the academic job market for historians is to realize that it has no default state. By examining the market's development over time, we can gain new understanding of the problems that historians, and humanists in other fields, now face. When history Ph.D.'s first entered academe in the late 19th century, the market was fraught with problems even for promising young men who rejoiced in elite educations and three names. John Franklin Jameson, the first history Ph.D. fr
Source: Bill Steigerwald at Frontpagemag.com
7-7-08
They don't make American presidents like George Washington anymore, and they never will. As Richard Brookhiser points out in his book "George Washington on Leadership," he did it all and he did it well:
"He ran two start-ups, the army and the presidency, and chaired the most important committee meeting in history, the Constitutional Convention. His agribusiness and real estate portfolio made him America's richest man. ... Men followed him into battle; women longed to
Source: http://www.mydailyregister.com
7-5-08
There will be a celebration Saturday, July 12 at the historic Virgil Lewis home, located along Brown Street in Mason.
Beginning at noon, there will be country music entertainment, and a local choral group from the Bend Area will sing. The guest speaker, who has yet to be confirmed, will deliver the main address. Refreshments of ice cream and cake then will be served.
The celebration is being planned in commemoration of the life and times of Virgil A. Lewis, noted West V
Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk
7-6-08
Famous historian Dr Mubarik Ali on Saturday said a prosperous Pakistan needed independent historians so that the recent past mistakes were not repeated. The Lahore-based historian said this while delivering a lecture on “Problems of Writing History in Pakistan” at South Asia Free Media Association (Safma) media center here. “No nation could prosper unless professional and independent historians and not government servants recorded its history,” Dr Ali said, adding that all politico-economic and
Source: http://griddle.baseballtoaster.com
7-1-08
Jules Tygiel, a history professor at San Francisco State University, passed away July 1 at age 59 from cancer.
Tygiel wrote two of the best baseball books I've ever read, along with numerous other works. He had a career that I only can dream I would have.
His greatest work was Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. The book came out in 1983 and has been republished numerous times. It was one of the first academic works examining the career of Robin
Source: http://nbs.gmnews.com
7-3-08
NORTH BRUNSWICK - The Tet Offensive. The assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. The Vietnam War. Space exploration. Rioting at the Democratic Convention. The Olympics in Mexico. The civil rights and women's movements. The Orangeburg Massacre.
The year was 1968, and the United States - and the world - was witnessing numerous political, social and economic events that changed the course of history. This is why three different classes at North Brunswick Township H
Source: Canwest News Service
7-4-08
Celebrations for Quebec City's 400th birthday began in earnest this week with a ceremony during which both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General Michaelle Jean hailed the founding of the historical city by Samuel de Champlain as the beginning of the French civilization in North America.
But a prominent Acadian historian suggested Friday that they both need to study their Canadian history.
"What they (Harper and Jean) are doing is pure historical revisionis
Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com
7-4-08
The last time Mike Childers talked to him, Hal Rothman was a month away from death.
Wheelchair-bound, Rothman needed a computer to speak for him. Lou Gehrig’s disease had robbed him of his voice and his ability to walk.
But illness couldn’t take away the ego or the ardor of the man whom colleagues called a force of nature.
“The legend still lives,” Rothman told Childers during their final conversation.
The UNLV professor was referring to the fa
Source: WaPo Editorial
7-4-08
WHEN DID the great American venture really get rolling? Was it in July 1776 in Philadelphia, as we tell ourselves this day to the accompaniment of fireworks and other patriotic noise? Or was it in fact nearly 40 years later, during a chill January in a swampy place in the Deep South? Daniel Walker Howe would argue that it was the latter. Mr. Howe is a historian, the author of a book, "What Hath God Wrought," describing the country's dramatic, nearly incredible, expansion, which culmina
Source: David Liebers
7-6-08
Mr. Liebers is an HNN intern.What started on H-SHEAR as an innocent discussion of recommended books for a graduate US history readings course recently became an active debate between respected scholars on the economics of the US Constitution. At issue: Charles Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States and, more generally, the historiographical staying power of economic histories that make bold claims.Calvin Johnson, Univ
Source: Inside Higher Ed
7-1-08
Scholars of the Armenian genocide have long accused Turkey of using its financial support to promote the idea that a genocide didn’t take place or that the jury is still out — views that have little credibility among historians of genocide.
An incident in 2006, only recently being talked about publicly, has some scholars concerned that Turkey and its supporters may be interfering in American scholarship. The chair of the board of the Institute of Turkish Studies, which is based at G
Source: Jerusalem Post
7-1-08
The diffusion of Nazi ideology in the Middle East during World War II via a well-oiled propaganda machine that was abetted by Arab nationalists was an important chapter in the history of radical Islam which reached full bloom only decades later, according to an American historian.
"A confluence of Nazi anti-Semitism and Muslim fundamentalism did take place during the war which was a mixture of ideological affinity and shared political interests," said Prof. Jeffrey Herf of
