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: Email sent to HNN
2-16-07
Hi, all,
Another busy week for many who are trying to avert the exclusion of Latinos in the Ken Burns documentary and there are several developments to report.
Please disseminate this email widely -- the more people voice their concern, PBS is getting the message that this problem will not go away and that it must be dealt with.
First off -- Burns will be speaking in San Francisco On March 1 and 2 -- screening a part of The War.. . If you know of people who might w
Source: Jeffrey Wasserstrom at MSNBC.com
2-12-07
Larry Gonick, a polymath with a sense of the absurd, has mastered the art of producing graphic, pun-filled books that simultaneously entertain readers and educate them about the past. Publishers Weekly aptly described his multivolume "Cartoon History of the Universe" as "hilariously informative," and his "Cartoon History of the United States" took playful potshots at many patriotic conceits. Now Gonick has re-entered the historical fray with "The Cartoon Histor
Source: Lee Formwalt in the OAH Newsletter
2-1-07
Sometime before his retirement party two months ago, Indiana University History Professor Lawrence J. Friedman informed the OAH that he had made provisions to include the organization in his estate plans. Larry and I have lunch every month or so at a local Bloomington restaurant, so at our last noonday repast, I suggested that we do an interview and talk about his career as a historian, his lifetime of balancing activism and scholarship, and his feelings about the OAH.
The earliest
Source: OAH Treasurer Robert Cherny at the OAH website
2-1-07
In my fourth report as treasurer, the news is once again mixed—we ended Fiscal Year 2006 (FY06) with an unanticipated deficit, but the finance committee and the board has worked with the executive director and staff to identify the sources of the problem and develop appropriate remedies....
The FY05 deficit of nearly $472,000 resulted primarily from unanticipated expenses involved in moving the annual meeting from San Francisco to San José, unanticipated office operations, and failu
Source: HNN Staff
2-16-07
The OAH annual meeting for 2007 will run from Thursday March 29 through Sunday April 1.
The convention starts at 1pm on Thursday, which means a lot of people will be arriving Wednesday night.
According to the OAH website "sleeping rooms in the OAH room block at the Hilton Minneapolis are sold out for Wednesday night." (Rooms are still available Thursday through Sunday.) That means you can't get the discount rate of $134 a night for Wednesday at the Hilton.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
2-16-07
A new book by an Italo-Israeli scholar of Jewish history that revisits violent controversies involving medieval and Renaissance Christians and Jews has been withdrawn from circulation at the request of the author, who now says that news accounts distort what he actually says.
The scholar, Ariel Toaff, is a professor of medieval and Renaissance history at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, in Ramat Gan. His book, Pasque di sangue: Ebrei d'Europa e omicidi rituali (Passovers of Blood: Euro
Source: HNN Staff
2-16-07
Charles Rappleye's Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution has won awards for the best book on the Revolution in 2006 from both the Philadelphia and New York City American Revolution Roundtables.
The book explores the lives of the divergent courses of the Brown brothers, who are associated with the founding of Brown University. Both started out as slave traders, but eventually one of them became an ardent abolitionist.
Rapp
Source: http://www.pantagraph.com
2-15-07
One of America’s best-known historians praised Illinois State University on Thursday for requiring that future history teachers actually study history.
“Almost no other institution is doing this,” David McCullough told more than 1,000 people gathered Thursday for ISU’s Founders Day convocation in Braden Auditorium.
The university, which kicked off a yearlong celebration of its 150th anniversary, boasts more alumni teaching in classrooms than any other U.S. college or un
Source: http://www.irischangmemorialfund.org
2-16-07
Objective:
To promote the awareness of the importance of remembering history. The essays will be in line with Iris Chang’s spirit and passion in seeking the truth and justice as well as defending human rights.
Topic:
The Denial and Its Cost
- Reflections on Nanking Massacre 70 years ago and beyond
(Please click the title for theme statement.)
Schedule:
Deadline of essay submission: June 30, 2007
Announcement of awards:
Source: JTA--Global news service of the Jewish people
2-13-07
A new book by an eminent Italian-Israeli historian that revives European blood libels has Jews in Italy and abroad in an uproar.
But the furor hasn’t hurt sales. “Bloody Passover: European Jews and Ritual Murder” sold out so quickly after its arrival in bookstores Feb. 8 that another edition is on its way.
Ariel Toaff, who teaches Medieval and Renaissance history at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel, wrote that Jews in the Middle Ages may have murdered Christian childr
Source: Dallas Morning News
2-15-07
Southern Methodist University's faculty senate went on record Wednesday as opposing an executive order that could limit access to presidential records – a concern since the George W. Bush Presidential Library is probably headed to SMU.
The senate voted to endorse a letter signed by SMU's history department, which states its opposition to an order that President Bush signed in 2001. The order allows current and former presidents, starting with President Ronald Reagan, and their heirs
Source: Statement issued by the SMU history department, reprinted by SMU Daily Press
2-8-07
As historians at SMU we have no collective position about bringing the Bush Presidential Library, Museum and Institute to this campus. Some of us favor it; others do not. We do believe, however, that there is one related issue on which we can speak. This is the matter of Presidential Order 13233, which gives current and former presidents the power to withhold records in presidential libraries virtually at their discretion.
Like many historians elsewhere, we are worried about several
Source: China Daily
2-15-07
"We have to 'unlearn' history if we want to know more about the past," says Richard L. Davis, head of the Department of History at Hong Kong's Lingnan University and an expert in the history of the Five Dynasties (AD 907- 960) and Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) periods.
"Chinese have a distinct sense of right and wrong towards history. They identify a historical figure by how they were taught in textbooks as either hero or villain," said Davis, who translated 'Histo
Source: Star Bulletin
2-14-07
A prominent historian has been selected as the first Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
John Hope Franklin, author of the book "From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African-Americans," is the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University. He will participate in various activities and events at UH-Manoa from March 15 to 25.
"As a historian, Franklin has raised our country's
Source: http://www.philly.com
2-14-07
Kim Sajet, 41, a vice president at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, has been named president and chief executive of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. A native Australian, Sajet will succeed David Moltke-Hansen, who is retiring after running the 183-year-old society for the last eight years.
"After conducting a national search and considering a number of highly qualified candidates, we found Kim was far and away the best person to lead HSP," Collin McNeil, s
Source: http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com
2-13-07
One of the first black students at Princeton; a 'left-wing' provost during a time of change. The two friends fought for racial equality at Princeton - and, years later, came to Philadelphia to leave their marks at the University, too.
Pulling up a chair at one of the long dining-room tables, Robert Engs, Princeton class of '65, sat down to enjoy a meal with some of his fellow undergrads. When the food came out, Engs recalls that Casper Ewing III, seated across from him, remarked, &q
Source: Heather Mac Donald at frontpagemag.com
2-9-07
The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard's Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university's Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers's all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the lea
Source: Seattle Times
2-9-07
With 12 hours left on his voice, Walt Crowley popped in a tape at the party in his Phinney Ridge home Thursday night. On it, a 20-years-younger Crowley delivered a speech to Vietnam veterans at Seattle Center, his tone true, his pitch sure.
When it stopped, he turned on the mic. Without it, the crowd would not have heard Crowley's voice. It's now just a gravelly rasp.
Crowley, the longtime chronicler of Seattle's people, places and things, has cancer of the larynx.
Source: http://www.jdnews.com
2-13-07
... The N.C. Maritime Museum will explore this intersection of the worlds of slavery and piracy at a symposium called Pirate Ships, Slave Ships and Colonial America set for Feb. 21 in Beaufort.
The program will include an address from one of the country's foremost experts on pirate ships, slave ships and maritime culture of colonial America. Marcus Rediker, author and professor of maritime history at the University of Pittsburgh, will speak about how so many and why so many slave sh
Source: Jerusalem Post
2-13-07
Controversial Israeli historian Ilan Pappe declared his warm friendship with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday afternoon.
When asked if he was nervous that Hamas's Haniyeh could be elected prime minister in a bi-national state, Pappe replied "Haniyeh doesn't make me nervous at all. He is a good friend of mine." With a slight smirk, Pappe then suggested that Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hizbullah, "should be put on the committee t
