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: Press Release -- U. of Washington, Tacoma
12-18-07
On a miserable, wet February day in Memphis, Tennessee, 1968, two sanitation workers lost their lives—crushed to death in the back of their truck—due to outdated equipment and the indifference of their white supervisors. Their deaths would touch off one of the most significant labor strikes in the history of the nation, one that before its end would rock the plantation mentality of Memphis's government to its core and, on April 4, 1968, see the tragic death of Martin Luther King, Jr. Going Down
Source: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN
1-12-07
At the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Atlanta one panel was devoted to Katrina. Fifteen people showed up for the discussion, which was held at the unappealing time slot of 9am on Saturday morning. (4800 attended the convention.)
Pessimism pervaded the room. The chair, Tulane's Lawrence Powell, confessed that the only bright spot was the passion with which volunteers from across the country had descended on the city to extend a helping hand. The federal g
Source: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN
1-12-07
A patently distraught Felipe Fernandez-Armesto told HNN today in a phone interview that the Atlanta policeman who arrested him at the annual convention of the American Historical Association for jaywalking has provided the media with a twisted version of events. He indicated he may sue to clear his good name.
Source: NYT
1-11-07
Roberta Wohlstetter, a military and foreign policy analyst whose work on the intelligence failures before the attack on Pearl Harbor was cited by the 9/11 commission, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 94.
The cause was pneumonia, said her daughter, Joan Wohlstetter-Hall.
“What does Pearl Harbor tell us about the possibility of a surprise attack today, with possible consequences of an even greater and perhaps more fatal magnitude?” Mrs. Wohlstetter asked 45 years ag
Source: Robert Townsend at the AHA blog
1-12-07
In addition to the resolutions adopted at the annual business meeting, the governing Council of the American Historical Association adopted a number of other policy and professional resolutions at its meeting this past weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. The Council adopted new policy guidelines on when the AHA should take a public position, endorsed the idea of including history in the No Child Left Behind Act, and rejected some of the underlying assumptions about history in Florida’s A++ Plan for Edu
Source: Editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1-12-07
Other than librarians, it's hard to imagine a less rambunctious group than historians. Yet, one of the world's premier historians ended up in jail during last week's American Historical Association convention in downtown Atlanta.
It was not an academic debate gone amok that sparked the arrest of British historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. It was jaywalking.
The arrest prompted a letter of protest from the historical association; a photo posted on the Internet shows the
Source: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN
1-11-07
Two of the country's leading biographers of TR, Edward Renehan and Edmund Morris, have advised The Theodore Roosevelt Association to disband.
The Association has been largely leaderless since the death of its longtime head, John Gable. (Renehan stepped in as a temporary replacement for 16 months.)
Both now argue in letters to the Association that the organization should declare victory and close up shop. There is no longer any danger, they contend, that TR will ever b
Source: Jason Leopold at the website of Truthout.org
1-11-07
[ Jason Leopold is a former Los Angeles bureau chief for Dow Jones Newswire. He has written over 2,000 stories on the California energy crisis and received the Dow Jones Journalist of the Year Award in 2001 for his coverage on the issue as well as a Project Censored award in 2004. ]
One of the key architects of President Bush's disastrous Iraq war policy was responsible for writing the president's new plan calling for an increase in US troops in the region.
By relyi
Source: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN
1-9-07
Historians critical of limits on free speech on college campuses had been somewhat hopeful that this year they could persuade their peers at the AHA Annual Convention in Atlanta to approve a resolution at Saturday's Business Meeting opposing "the use of speech codes to restrict academic freedom."
But in the end the body approved a weak sister resolution critical only of free speech zones.
Source: AHA Blog
1-10-07
In a letter to Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, Georgia, AHA President Barbara Weinstein, Past President Linda K. Kerber, and Executive Director Arnita A. Jones, expressed the AHA Council’s concern over an incident between historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto and an Atlanta police officer, that began with jaywalking and escalated to an 8 hour ordeal in jail. Below is an excerpt from the letter, and a link to the full text.
Dear Mayor Franklin:
We write to you on behalf
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1-11-07
As accusations mount about overzealous jaywalking enforcement by the Atlanta Police Department, city officials are standing behind the officer who arrested distinguished academic Felipe Fernandez-Armesto last Thursday for disorderly conduct.
When asked about the ongoing controversy during a Wednesday news conference, Mayor Shirley Franklin refused comment until the investigation of Officer Kevin Leonpacher's treatment of the history professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts is
12-31-69
These pictures of the arrest of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto were taken by HNN Assistant Editor Jonathan Dresner on January 4, 2007, shortly after noon.
Source: Rick Shenkman, reporting for HNN
1-10-07
It took a few days, but the story of the arrest of historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto for jaywalking in Atlanta at the AHA has now been picked up by the media around the world.
HNN broke the story on Sunday morning. On Tuesday the Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran its first story.
On Wednesday morning (EST) the London Evening Standard put the story on its frontpage, emphasizing Professor Fernandez-Armesto's British credenti
Source: Antoon De Baets at the website of Network of Concerned Historians
1-10-07
Dear colleagues,
Scholars at Risk (SAR), New York, is disbributing the summary profile of an Uighur historian and anthropologist at risk of persecution when returning to China and currently seeking assistance (see below). I invite you to read it carefully and, in the event that you could assist, to ask SAR for his CV and other supporting materials. Thank you.
With best wishes.
Antoon De Baets
(Network of Concerned Historians)
PS: For oth
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
1-10-07
The Atlanta police officer being investigated for his treatment of a prominent British historian said Tuesday that Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is not the innocent abroad he claims to be.
The Tufts University professor, who was arrested last Thursday and charged with disorderly conduct, contends he was assaulted without provocation for merely jaywalking across Courtland Street. But Officer Kevin Leonpacher insists he is no rogue cop and suggests perhaps the professor is a bit of a scoff
Source: Rick Shenkman reporting for HNN.
1-7-07
UPDATED 1/10/07 Activists who celebrated the passage of an antiwar resolution at the Business Meeting of the American Historical Association on Saturday may now wonder how significant the vote actually was.
Source: Press Release -- U. of Richmond
1-1-07
The Board of Trustees of the University of Richmond has elected Edward L. Ayers, currently Buckner W. Clay Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia, to be the institution’s ninth president. Ayers will take office effective July 1, 2007.
“This is a great day for the University of Richmond. Ed Ayers is an outstanding teacher, a distinguished scholar and a proven leader with a vision and passion for making the University of Richmond the best it can be,” said George W. We
Source: Znet
1-7-06
1) Can you tell ZNet, please, what your new book with, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress, is about? What is it trying to communicate?
The book assembles my most recent writings on a variety of subjects, from the war in Iraq to essays on Eugene Debs, Henry David Thoreau, and Sacco and Vanzetti. The central theme is probably best expressed in the final essay, "The Optimism of Uncertainty," in which I draw upon historical experience to suggest that the apparent power of go
Source: Sadanand Dhume in Philadelphia Magazine
1-1-07
[Sadanand Dhume is a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society in Washington, D.C. He has finished a book about the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia.]
The first thing that strikes you about Daniel Pipes is his size. He's six feet, four inches tall, with a slight stoop and a wingspan that would send a piano teacher into rapture. The second remarkable thing about Pipes is something you notice only after he has led you into his book-lined corner office at the Middle East Forum, the
Source: WSJ editorial
1-9-07
When Roberta Wohlstetter set out, in the early 1960s, to explain why the U.S. had been surprised by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, she confronted a puzzle that to some seemed like a conspiracy.
Unlike classic military surprises, the U.S. had received ample intelligence that the Japanese were prepared to attack the Hawaiian base. That nothing was done to remove American ships to safety was proof, for Clare Booth Luce among others, that Franklin Roosevelt had "lied us into
