Oct 9, 2005

Things Noted Here and There

by Cliopatria

Blake Gopnik,"The Keen Art Insight of Svetlana Alpers: It's All on the Surface," Washington Post, 9 October, explores the retired art historian's continuing influence in understanding the Old Dutch Masters.

Until the 1960s, the world's oldest political party had little trouble celebrating Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson as its founders. But, er, they were both slaveholders, among other things. In the intervening years, Jefferson's reputation has been rethought many times. Now, with the publication of Sean Wilentz's Andrew Jackson and H. W. Brands' Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, says Ted Widmer, Old Hickory is getting another look.

Between 1943 and 1945, the German government sent photographers to make a record of ceiling and wall art in central European castles and churches. Much of the art was destroyed in the last years of the war, but the photographers' archive of nearly 40,000 slides at Munich's Central Institute of Art History is a record of what was lost. Now, according to this report, it is being digitized and made available on the net. Thanks to Dale Light at Light Seeking Light for the tip.

Hamish McDonald,"Throwing the Book at Mao," The Age, 8 October, reviews the controversy over Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and her husband, British historian, Jon Halliday. The new biography has been a non-fiction bestseller in Great Britain and Australia, but according to Columbia University's Thomas Bernstein it is"a major disaster for the contemporary China field." Thanks to Alfredo Perez at Political Theory Daily Review for the tip.

June Kronholz,"Congress Wades into Campus Politics," Wall Street Journal, 4 October, reported on a resolution in the House of Representatives supporting David Horowitz's"Academic Bill of Rights," but in"Academic Rights and Wrongs," Wall Street Journal, 7 October, conservative journalism's flagship newspaper declares its opposition to congressional interference in academic freedom. Of course, Horowitz's Front Page Rag trumpeted the article and failed to mention the editorial.

More Comments:

Oscar Chamberlain - 10/10/2005

Ralph,

No I do not mean that. There's a short essay that I may write one day on the relationship between misconceptions of history--for example our revolutionary ancestors' vision of Anglo-Saxon liberty--and postive results.

It was my musing on that topic that led to this posting.

Jonathan Dresner - 10/10/2005

There are plenty of bios of Mao circulating that are better sourced, less vengeful, balanced, but nonetheless damning. Most of them, like Chang/Halliday, don't circulate in China legally. But the Chinese authorities best efforts to stop the free flow of information on-line and in-print has never been completely effective, and is likely (if people keep at it) to become less so.

I don't know if it's exactly parallel, but there's a rising number of Russians who think well of Stalin, and a movement to canonize Ivan III "the terrible."

The complete repudiation of Mao is highly unlikely, and nothing less would satisfy Chang; I predict no retreat, no corrections, just a passionate defense and attacks on critics as "apologists" and "fellow travelers" and worse.

Ralph E. Luker - 10/10/2005

Oscar, Surely you don't mean to suggest that the primary concern of a historian is the social consequences of published work.

Oscar Chamberlain - 10/10/2005

Sounds like bad history. But bad history can sometimes do good work.

If "Unknown Story" circulated widely (though probably illicitly) in China, and helped to break down the cult of Mao, I think that would be a step forward for the truth. And would a less angry book be as likely to spread?