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: Boston Magazine interview with Boston University Chancellor Emeritus John Silber
12-28-05
Q: I'd guess that some of that reputation for conservatism also stems from your record here at the university, where you've upheld certain classical traditions. You have been very distrustful of the theorists, the Frankfurt School, things like that, which have a sharply left-wing tinge.
A: We've got plenty of left-wingers. We've had plenty of left-wing professors at Boston University. And contrary to the statement that has been repeated in the newspapers ad nauseam, I never fired a
Source: NYT
11-26-05
An Austrian judge on Friday denied a request for bail for the British historian David Irving, who is accused of violating the country's laws against denying the Holocaust.
The ruling meant that Mr. Irving, 67, whose highly eccentric and widely rejected views of Nazi history have gained him worldwide notoriety, will remain in prison for at least four more weeks while Austrian prosecutors prepare an indictment against him.Austria, which was annexed to
Source: Guardian (UK)
11-27-05
Behind the neo-gothic town hall in the heart of Vienna sits the Josefstadt jail. This large prison, attached to the city's main criminal court, is a constant cause of complaint from the well-heeled burghers of the district, who would prefer to see the low life accommodated elsewhere.
Now the 1,200 inmates have been joined by an infamous foreigner; David Irving will be confined to a Josefstadt cell over Christmas and the New Year, pending trial on criminal charges deriving from his d
Source: The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
11-28-05
Benedikt Isserlin, who has died aged 89, was a philologist, archaeologist and historian with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cultures and languages of the ancient Near East.
In his popular but scholarly Israelites (2001), Isserlin synthesised the social, historical, geographical and archaeological evidence of ancient Israel from the earliest beginnings to the Babylonian exile. He analysed the culture and society of the nation in the wider context of near eastern civilisations, and
Source: Independent (London)
11-25-05
One of a series of outstanding scholars to hold the Camden Chair of Ancient History at Oxford, a position long associated with Roman History in particular, Peter Brunt made lasting contributions to the study both of ancient Greece and of Rome. He brought to the task not only an enviably clear mind, an elegant Gibbonian style, and an immunity to fashion and prejudice, but two striking attitudes that were features of the man as much as of his work. The one was a critical bent that rendered him cou
Source: scotsman.com
11-24-05
A lawyer for British historian David Irving said on the eve of a court hearing that Irving admitted past statements could be interpreted as denying the existence of Nazi gas chambers - but now acknowledges they existed.
Prosecutors charged Irving earlier this week under an Austrian law that makes denying the Holocaust a crime.
The charges stem from two speeches Irving delivered in Austria in 1989 in which he allegedly denied the existence of gas chambers. If convicted,
Source: NYT
11-24-05
Joseph J. Thorndike, a former managing editor of Life magazine who in 1954 helped found American Heritage magazine, died Tuesday at his home in Harwich, Mass. He was 92.
The cause was congestive heart failure and complications of Alzheimer's disease, his son John said.
Mr. Thorndike, the longtime editorial director of American Heritage, started the magazine with two Life colleagues, Oliver Jensen and James Parton. Mr. Jensen died in June, at 91.
A general-i
Source: China Radio International
11-22-05
Gavin Menzies, author of the best-selling and controversial "1421: The Year China Discovered America," claimed two more major pieces of evidence to prove his theory.
Gavin Menzies, author of the best-selling and controversial "1421: The Year China Discovered America," claimed two more major pieces of evidence to prove his theory. He presented the new findings during his Reading Month lecture in Shenzhen on Saturday.
Menzies said the latest evidence is a
Source: Matthew Abraham at logosjournal.com
Fall 2005
[Mr. Finkelstein is the author of the new book,Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.]
... Finkelstein debunks many favored pieties, and as a result, often faces high barriers to reaching a mass audience. As a Jew and the son of Holocaust survivors, Finkelstein has been battling the U.S. Zionist establishment for decades. Beyond Chutzpah is one of those rare books that has the potential to change the nature of the debate about the U.S.-Israel-Pales
Source: Haaretz
Austrian prosecutors on Tuesday filed charges against British historian David Irving for allegedly violating an Austrian law that makes Holocaust denial a crime, a prosecutor said.
Irving, an expert on the Third Reich who has claimed that Adolf Hitler knew nothing about the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews, was detained November 11 in the southern province of Styria on a warrant issued in 1989 that makes Holocaust denial a crime.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
[Allan M. Winkler is a professor of history at Miami University of Ohio. His most recent book is Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Making of Modern America (Pearson Longman, 2005).]
The first time I ever played my guitar in class almost ended my musical career. I was teaching American history for a year at the University of Helsinki, and as I prepared to lecture about the civil-rights movement, I decided to sing a couple of songs. I was not an accomplished guitarist. I had bought my fir
Source: Newsletter of the American Revolution Round Table
Stanley Weintraub, who entertained us superbly with his talk on his previous book, George Washington's Christmas Farewell, was equally fascinating in his discussion of his latest work, Iron Tears, America's Battle For Freedom, Britain's Quagmire -- the story of the British home front during the American Revolution. He startled everyone by suggesting that George III might be considered one of America's founding fathers. That was what he was called in America and in England before the Revolution.
Source: South China Morning Post
11-19-05
He's written a string of biographies, with prime ministers Tony Blair, John Major and Winston Churchill among his subjects and Margaret Thatcher next on his agenda. He directs plays with actresses such as Greta Scacchi, appears on television as a political commentator and writes profusely in the media.
Anthony Seldon, the master-elect of Britain's infamous Wellington College, is more than a principal. He is a personality who has no qualms about his high profile - he believes his out
Source: NYT
11-19-05
Bernard Lewis, the famed Middle East historian, has joined Jack Kemp, Steve Forbes and others in organizing a legal defense fund for I. Lewis Libby, the indicted aide of Vice President Cheney.
The goal is to raise about $5 million.
Source: BBC News
11-19-05
The revisionist British historian David Irving is likely to remain in custody in Austria for at least a week, prosecutors say.
The authorities are considering whether to put him on trial for denying the Nazi mass extermination of Jews, the public prosecutor's spokesman said.
He was detained a week ago on a warrant issued in 1989 under Austrian laws that make it a crime to deny the Holocaust.
Mr Irving was stopped in the southern province of Styria, en route to
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
11-18-05
Conrad Black, who once ran a media empire that included the Chicago Sun-Times, was indicted today on eight counts of mail and wire fraud. Three other former executives were also charged in a federal fraud indictment today involving the sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers.
Black, 61, fraudulently funneled $51.8 million to himself and three business associates, disguising them as “non-competition agreements” when he sold several hundred Canadian newspapers and half the N
Source: Council for Advancement and Support of Education
11-17-05
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching today named four university and college professors as national winners of the 2005 U.S. Professors of the Year Award. The professors, who each receive a $5,000 prize, were selected for their outstanding commitment to teaching undergraduate students and their influence on teaching. A state Professor of the Year was also recognized in 40 states, the District of Columbia and Guam.
Source: NYT
11-18-05
Paul Langdon Ward, a historian and former head of the American Historical Association who was president of Sarah Lawrence College in the 1960's, died last Sunday at his retirement home in Gwynedd, Pa. He was 94.
Dr. Ward became the fifth president of Sarah Lawrence College in 1960. He was also a member of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller's Commission on the Higher Education of Women. He left the college in 1965 when he was named executive director of the association of professional histor
Source: Gerald Vouga in Culture Cult
12-1-04
Now about ninety, with his fangs seemingly drawn, the old man spends his days peacefully pottering in an English garden. But Basil Davidson represents the most willful single-handed effort to mythologise African history, and his numerous books have misled millions on a continental scale.
Barbaric kingdoms were romanticised, tyrants whitewashed, and cruel and bloodthirsty customs expunged (or simply ignored) in order to impress well-meaning western middle-classes who wanted to believ
Source: AHA Perspectives
11-1-05
At an induction ceremony held on October 8, 2005, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences welcomed its 225th class of fellows, which included 10 historians (of whom seven are AHA members).
The historians who were inducted into the academy are: Omer Bartov, the John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University; John Henry Coatsworth, a former AHA president (1995) and the Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs
