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: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
11-28-07
Political-science and history professors throughout Iowa, New Hampshire, and even in states without early causes and primaries, are mining the real-life political lessons of the 2008 election season for class assignments, projects, and reading lists.
In Iowa, Rachel P. Caufield, an associate professor of politics and international relations at Drake University, has made the 2008 presidential race a key topic in her honors class about satire.
Her students, for instance,
Source: Telegraph (UK)
11-26-07
A group of protesters have broken through a security cordon and forced their way into the Oxford Union where BNP leader Nick Griffin and controversial historian David Irving were due to speak about the limits of free speech.
After pushing and shoving their way through the doors into the hall, around 20 demonstrators staged a sit down protest and began chanting at the debating table.
The two controversial speakers had arrived early, accompanied by bodyguards, in a bid to
Source: Inside Higher Ed
11-27-07
In the weeks approaching the 2004 and 1992 elections, among others, groups of educators issued formal statements of support for the Democratic nominees for president, taking public stands as members of their profession. In recent elections, groups of scientists have also weighed in — after the party nominations were settled.
But in a move that is unusually early and specific, a group of prom
Source: BBC
11-24-07
The Oxford Union has voted to allow the British National Party (BNP) leader and a controversial historian to speak at a free speech event on Monday.
Despite opposition, the Oxford Union Debating Society members voted by a margin of 2 to 1 to continue to extend an invite to the BNP's Nick Griffin.
David Irving, who was jailed for Holocaust denial, will also be invited.
The move was opposed by the Oxford Student Union and the university's Muslim and Jewish societie
Source: Peter Steinfels in the NYT
11-24-07
At this moment, there may be no more important story than the one Europeans and Americans proudly tell themselves about the rise of religious toleration. So please take note of Benjamin J. Kaplan’s argument that the story may be dangerously flawed.
Mr. Kaplan makes that argument in “Divided by Faith,” just published by Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. The book’s subtitle is “Religious Conflict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe.” The crucial word is “pra
Source: AHA Blog
11-26-07
Devoted C-SPAN watchers probably already know that each Sunday night the channel airs their Q & A series, showcasing interviews with “interesting people who are making things happen in politics, the media, education, and science & technology.” But non-devotees and casual watchers alike may be pleased to learn that past episodes of this series can be viewed online
Source: Japan Today
11-27-07
Researchers of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa agree that the Japanese military "forced and steered" civilians in Okinawa to commit mass suicide during the only full-scale ground battle in Japan during World War II, an authority on modern Japanese history said Tuesday.
Hirofumi Hayashi, professor at Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, said he conveyed the view in a statement submitted to the Japanese government's textbook-screening panel, which is considering requests by publi
Source: Jaime Antúnez at http://www.zenit.org
11-27-07
When a society loses its religion, sooner or later it loses its culture. This is one of the reflections of English historian Christopher Dawson, highlighted in a book on his philosophical contribution to the study of history.
Jaime Antúnez Aldunate, editor of the Chile-based review Humanitas, is the author of "Filosofía de la historia en Christopher Dawson" (Philosophy of History in Christopher Dawson), a man he says was the best Catholic historian of the 20th century. The
Source: Barry Rubin & Judith Roumani at the website of Covenant: The Global Jewish Magazine
10-1-07
C: Your family has a very interesting background in Poland, would you mind telling us about it?
W: My parents were both born in Imperial Austria, my mother in Krakow and my father in southern Poland, and I myself spoke Polish until the age of 10. My mother came from a Modern Orthodox family, studied horticulture at university, and moved in artistic circles. My father was a doctor. In September 1939 they took a vacation and, because of a sense of foreboding that they had, they went e
Source: Martin E. Marty in Sightings, the newsletter of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
11-26-07
Torture, including torture by Americans: Who could have predicted that this would be a live topic here in the twenty-first century? We know how to associate torture with the accused and accusing other, with Inquisitors and witch hunters five centuries ago, or with far-away twentieth century totalitarian regimes and religious terrorists. But today the theological, humanistic, and tactical themes connected with torture have appeared close to home, giving new significance to those distant times,
Source: Nikki Keddie & Joyce Appleby at the website of Inside Higher Ed
11-26-07
[Joyce Appleby and Nikki Keddie are emerita professors of history at the University of California at Los Angeles.]
The World War II slogan, “Is this trip necessary?,”, should be revived for all Americans now that we know the disastrous effects of air travel on global warming. Just as patriotic Americans then cut back on unnecessary trips, so should we now limit ours.
Such a commitment should come from nearly all organizations and individuals, but would be especially app
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
11-26-07
These three excerpts are from articles featured in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education.Marcus B. GriffinMarcus B. Griffin is an assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at Christopher Newport University. He is serving with the Second Brigade of the First Infantry Division in Baghdad.
When I arrived in Baghdad in August, I became the first Human Terrain System anthropologist to serve in Iraq. HTS is an innovative new program that embeds social scien
Source: NYT
11-25-07
HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., whose PBS special “African American Lives” explores the ancestry of famous African-Americans using DNA testing, has done more than anyone to help popularize such tests and companies that offer them. But recently this Harvard professor has become one of the industry’s critics.
Mr. Gates says his concerns date back to 2000, when a company told him his maternal ancestry could most likely be traced back to Egypt, probably to the Nubian ethnic group. Five years lat
Source: Center for History and New Media
11-12-07
Roy Rosenzweig co-founded the Center for History and New Media in 1994 and directed the Center until he passed away last month. In the early years, the Center was just Roy and a few others, but in the last seven years the number of projects, size of the staff, and overall ambition of the Center has grown exponentially. Presently there are over forty people working full or part time at CHNM on over two dozen active projects, from landmark history education projects like History Matters and the ne
Source: http://www.aaanet.org/blog
10-31-07
The American Anthropological Association’s Executive Board recently passed a Statement regarding ethical aspects of the U.S. Military’s Human Terrain System (HTS) project. The project, which has received widespread national and international media coverage, embeds anthropologists and other social scientists in military teams in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ethical and procedural concerns regarding anthropologists working with U.S. Military and Intelligence agencies have been under investig
Source: Max Holland & Johann Rush in an NYT op ed
11-22-07
[Max Holland is the author of “The Kennedy Assassination Tapes.” Johann Rush, a television photographer, filmed Lee Harvey Oswald demonstrating in August 1963. This article in the Times was first published in extended form on Mr. Holland's website, Washington Decoded. It was republished by HNN in February 2007..]
FORTY-FOUR years ago today, a clothing company owner named Abraham Zapru
Source: http://www.newscientist.com
11-24-07
DANIEL SMAIL is a relatively new history professor at Harvard University. So it is appropriate that his On Deep History and the Brain was inspired by a bothersome question for historians: when exactly does history begin?
For scholars embedded in what he calls "western civ", the answer was simple for nearly 2000 years: begin with Creation, dated by Bishop James Usher at 4004 BC, or with the Flood. Then modern naturalists such as the Comte de Buffon, Charles Lyell and Charle
Source: BBC
11-22-07
The power of America's "Jewish lobby" is said to be legendary.
Commentators the world over refer to it, as though it were a well-established fact that US Jews wield far more influence than their numbers (2% of the population) would suggest.
But this presumed influence is also a delicate issue in the US, and is rarely analysed.
How does the lobby work? Is its power truly legendary, or just a legend?
Two US academics, John Mearsheimer o
Source: http://www.in-forum.com
11-18-07
A handful of faculty at North Dakota State University question whether one of their colleagues is truly distinguished.
Four faculty members have protested to administrators about history professor Tom Isern receiving the distinguished professor award, a new NDSU initiative that honors top faculty with a $20,000 raise and prestigious title.
While the critics say Isern’s character doesn’t measure up, his supporters say his accomplishments make him deserving of the award.
Source: NYT
11-18-07
IT was an “O captain! My captain!” moment.
Andrew Trees had been informed that his contract at the Horace Mann School, one of the nation’s most academically respected high schools, would not be renewed, and this May he was in his final days. A history teacher who had taught at the private school for six years, Mr. Trees had written a satirical novel, “Academy X,” about an elite school where students and parents resort to bribery and blackmail to ensure Ivy League college admission.
