Things Noted Here and There
Our colleagues in the history department at Tulane are among the refugees from Katrina. On History News Network's mainpage, Rick Shenkman has set up a blog site, at which Tulane's refugee history faculty members and students can post in order to communicate with each other and the rest of us. Please spread the word. We've done this, following the example of Eric Muller at Is That Legal?, who is concerned with Tulane's refugee law faculty and students. Muller's site allows other law schools to announce their willingness to accommodate Tulane law students temporarily. See also: David Epstein,"Finding New Homes or Temporary Homes," Inside Higher Ed, 2 September, and Cranky Professor on"What To Do For Katrina Refugees." Is it possible for neighboring graduate programs in history to make accommodations available to Tulane's graduate students and faculty?
No city in the United States knew how to celebrate Carnival so zestfully as New Orleans. We'll remember our beloved New Orleans this weekend with History Carnival, the Carnival of Bad History, and Teaching Carnival. And, with Mr. Sun! my thoughts turn to John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces. You'd think that they've put Ignatius J. Reilly in charge of FEMA these days. [ ... ]
Charles C. Mann's"America's Pristine Myth," Christian Science Monitor, 1 September, suggests that the notion of a pre-Columbian America largely untouched by human hands continues to misinform our students.
Libertarian meets paleo-conservative in Jeff Hummel's review of Thomas E. Woods's The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History for Liberty & Power. Holding it up to a libertarian yardstick, Hummel concludes that The PIG is no more an adequate guide to American history than when it has been held up to neo-conservative and a variety of perspectives on the left.
In"All Booked Up" at Inside Higher Ed, Scott McLemee announces the new scheduling for his Intellectual Affairs columns. Tuesday's columns will continue to be the wonderful mix of things that we expect from Scott, but Thursday's columns will be devoted to, you know, books.