Roundup: Talking About History
This is where we excerpt articles about history that appear in the media. Among the subjects included on this page are: anniversaries of historical events, legacies of presidents, cutting-edge research, and historical disputes.
SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Ed (10-31-06)
[Emily S. Rosenberg is a professor of history at the University of California at Irvine. Among her books is Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900-1930 (Harvard University Press, 1999).]
During the 1990s, a broad array of public commentators and scholars began to argue that America's "empire" could transform the world. Augmented by sophisticated new weapons and global military bases, extension of American reach could, they suggested, spread freedom and democracy, uplift women, energize markets, and stimulate economic prosperity. Was not a universalist American empire another name for the impending, inevitable globalization of progress and peace?
"Empire" remains a word of our time, judging from the flood of this year's popular and scholarly books that display some form of it on their covers. The war in Iraq, however, seems to have burst the bubble of imperial exuberance.
None of...
During the 1990s, a broad array of public commentators and scholars began to argue that America's "empire" could transform the world. Augmented by sophisticated new weapons and global military bases, extension of American reach could, they suggested, spread freedom and democracy, uplift women, energize markets, and stimulate economic prosperity. Was not a universalist American empire another name for the impending, inevitable globalization of progress and peace?
"Empire" remains a word of our time, judging from the flood of this year's popular and scholarly books that display some form of it on their covers. The war in Iraq, however, seems to have burst the bubble of imperial exuberance.
None of...
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 20:33
Comments
SOURCE: AAUP (9-18-06)
[Peter Kirstein is professor of history at Saint Xavier University. He won his university’s Teaching Excellence Award and is on the council of the Illinois state AAUP conference. Academe accepts submissions to this column. Write to academe@aaup.org for guidelines. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the policies of the AAUP.]
Many conservatives such as David Horowitz, Laura Ingraham, Roger Kimble, and Sara Dogan assert that the academy is dominated by leftwing professors who indoctrinate students with antiwar advocacy. I debated Horowitz last March in Chicago on the topic of the Iraq war “in the classroom and beyond.” He charged not only that professors impose antiwar views on students, but also do so indiscriminately in courses unrelated to war. Tactically, Horowitz wants to confine critical thinking on the war to relatively few courses.
Horowitz created Students...
Many conservatives such as David Horowitz, Laura Ingraham, Roger Kimble, and Sara Dogan assert that the academy is dominated by leftwing professors who indoctrinate students with antiwar advocacy. I debated Horowitz last March in Chicago on the topic of the Iraq war “in the classroom and beyond.” He charged not only that professors impose antiwar views on students, but also do so indiscriminately in courses unrelated to war. Tactically, Horowitz wants to confine critical thinking on the war to relatively few courses.
Horowitz created Students...
Tuesday, October 31, 2006 - 20:15
SOURCE: NYT (10-28-06)
[David Fromkin, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, is the author of “A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East.”]
FIFTY years ago tomorrow — on Oct. 29, 1956 — Israeli paratroops were dropped deep behind Egyptian lines in the Sinai peninsula, opening the way for the ground troops that followed. In a lightning campaign lasting less than five days, the Israelis took control of the entire peninsula. The Israelis had a rendezvous at the Suez Canal with the armed forces of Britain and France. But the British and French stopped short of their goal. Like out of shape ex-champions attempting a comeback, the Europeans were unable to get past the first round in their effort to return to the Middle East.
The Suez crisis was a divide in the history of the Middle East. It was the moment when America pushed out the Europeans and then tried to take their place — and the...
FIFTY years ago tomorrow — on Oct. 29, 1956 — Israeli paratroops were dropped deep behind Egyptian lines in the Sinai peninsula, opening the way for the ground troops that followed. In a lightning campaign lasting less than five days, the Israelis took control of the entire peninsula. The Israelis had a rendezvous at the Suez Canal with the armed forces of Britain and France. But the British and French stopped short of their goal. Like out of shape ex-champions attempting a comeback, the Europeans were unable to get past the first round in their effort to return to the Middle East.
The Suez crisis was a divide in the history of the Middle East. It was the moment when America pushed out the Europeans and then tried to take their place — and the...
Saturday, October 28, 2006 - 12:41
SOURCE: NY Review of Books (subscribers only) (11-2-06)
... What is to explain this apparent twentieth-century paradox: bloodshed and the obliteration of people and cities occurring at the same time as transnational prosperity, higher living standards, and much greater interconnectedness? ...
How, then, is one to understand why extremes of violence occurred chiefly in certain regions, and at certain times? They were caused, [Niall Ferguson argues in his new book, The War of the World]—persuasively, to this reviewer —by an explosive mix of three elements: "ethnic conflict, economic volatility and empires in decline." None of these elements is new, and each of them has often been advance to explain wars, past and present. The first reason is so ubiquitous that it scarcely requires explanation. Ethnicity or, if you like, racism, has been the cause of many of the heartless massacres of one group by another since time immemorial. And the ethnic mix across the land running eastward from the Elbe River in eastern...
How, then, is one to understand why extremes of violence occurred chiefly in certain regions, and at certain times? They were caused, [Niall Ferguson argues in his new book, The War of the World]—persuasively, to this reviewer —by an explosive mix of three elements: "ethnic conflict, economic volatility and empires in decline." None of these elements is new, and each of them has often been advance to explain wars, past and present. The first reason is so ubiquitous that it scarcely requires explanation. Ethnicity or, if you like, racism, has been the cause of many of the heartless massacres of one group by another since time immemorial. And the ethnic mix across the land running eastward from the Elbe River in eastern...
Saturday, October 28, 2006 - 12:37
SOURCE: NYT (10-22-06)
Not since the medieval church baptized, as it were, Aristotle as some sort of early — very early — church father has there been an intellectual hijacking as audacious as the attempt to present America’s principal founders as devout Christians. Such an attempt is now in high gear among people who argue that the founders were kindred spirits with today’s evangelicals, and that they founded a “Christian nation.”
This irritates Brooke Allen, an author and critic who has distilled her annoyance into “Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers.” It is a wonderfully high-spirited and informative polemic that, as polemics often do, occasionally goes too far. Her thesis is that the six most important founders — Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton — subscribed, in different ways, to the watery and undemanding Enlightenment faith called deism. That doctrine appealed to rationalists by being explanatory but not inciting: it made the universe intelligible...
This irritates Brooke Allen, an author and critic who has distilled her annoyance into “Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers.” It is a wonderfully high-spirited and informative polemic that, as polemics often do, occasionally goes too far. Her thesis is that the six most important founders — Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton — subscribed, in different ways, to the watery and undemanding Enlightenment faith called deism. That doctrine appealed to rationalists by being explanatory but not inciting: it made the universe intelligible...
Friday, October 27, 2006 - 18:15
SOURCE: Portside (10-22-06)
[Mark Solomon is Emeritus Professor of History at Simmons College.]
HNN Editor's Note: After Mr. Solomon posted the statement reprinted below at Portside's website, Jesse Lemisch submitted the following note to Portside on 10/22 (where it has not been posted):
In his comment on Portside 10/22/06, Mark Solomon selectively omits words surrounding those that he quotes from my "About the Herbert Aptheker Sexual Revelations," History News Network, 10/4/06, and thus precisely reverses what I said. Solomon writes: Lemisch urges the search for a connection between molestation and Aptheker's writings in African American history and other areas:"I continue to wish for discussion on how the attitudes expressed in Herbert's awful acts might have been reflected in books like the centrally important American Negro Slave Revolts and or the truly terrible The Truth About Hungary." In a note to Phelps,...
Friday, October 27, 2006 - 17:41
SOURCE: NYT (10-26-06)
[Allen Barra, a contributing writer for American Heritage magazine, is the author of “Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends.”]
EXACTLY 125 years ago today, about 2:40 p.m., three lawmen — Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan — and their friend Doc Holliday walked down Fremont Street, today Highway 80, in the silver-mining boom town of Tombstone, Ariz., and into a lot behind the O.K. Corral to confront four “cow-boys” (as cattle thieves were then called), the brothers Ike Clanton and Billy Clanton and Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury.
What happened next made newspapers across the country. The New York Times account, except for the misspelling of a few names, mostly got it right: “The marshal ordered them to give up their weapons, when a fight was begun, about 30 shots being rapidly fired. Both of the McLowery boys were killed; Bill Clandon was mortally wounded and died soon after.”
The street fight in Tombstone would...
EXACTLY 125 years ago today, about 2:40 p.m., three lawmen — Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan — and their friend Doc Holliday walked down Fremont Street, today Highway 80, in the silver-mining boom town of Tombstone, Ariz., and into a lot behind the O.K. Corral to confront four “cow-boys” (as cattle thieves were then called), the brothers Ike Clanton and Billy Clanton and Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury.
What happened next made newspapers across the country. The New York Times account, except for the misspelling of a few names, mostly got it right: “The marshal ordered them to give up their weapons, when a fight was begun, about 30 shots being rapidly fired. Both of the McLowery boys were killed; Bill Clandon was mortally wounded and died soon after.”
The street fight in Tombstone would...
Thursday, October 26, 2006 - 15:25
SOURCE: Japan Times (10-26-06)
[Hugh Cortazzi, a former British career diplomat, served as ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984.]
LONDON -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has the reputation of being a tough nationalist. So far, however, he has shown himself to be a pragmatist in foreign-policy issues. His early visits to China and South Korea demonstrated that he wants to improve bilateral relations, which have soured in recent years. He has wisely eschewed mention of the Yasukuni issue. He realizes the vital importance of the U.S. relationship and understandably takes a tough line on North Korea.
But there have recently been some developments, apparently reflecting a recrudescence of rightwing nationalism, that are potentially damaging to Japan's world image. I was disturbed to see recently a report of a discussion between Sophia University professor emeritus Shoichi Watanabe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso in which the foreign minister and his conservative interlocutor made remarks that suggest...
LONDON -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has the reputation of being a tough nationalist. So far, however, he has shown himself to be a pragmatist in foreign-policy issues. His early visits to China and South Korea demonstrated that he wants to improve bilateral relations, which have soured in recent years. He has wisely eschewed mention of the Yasukuni issue. He realizes the vital importance of the U.S. relationship and understandably takes a tough line on North Korea.
But there have recently been some developments, apparently reflecting a recrudescence of rightwing nationalism, that are potentially damaging to Japan's world image. I was disturbed to see recently a report of a discussion between Sophia University professor emeritus Shoichi Watanabe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso in which the foreign minister and his conservative interlocutor made remarks that suggest...
Thursday, October 26, 2006 - 14:04
SOURCE: NYT (10-25-06)
Murder in the city casts a peculiar spell, a mixture of horror, fascination and relief. One more member of the herd has been picked off, but it was somebody else who attracted the invisible, anonymous hand that could strike anyone at any time. When the victim is a beautiful woman, sex enters the equation, and you have front-page news.
That was certainly the case in the summer of 1841, when Mary Rogers, a young saleswoman at John Anderson’s Tobacco Emporium on Lower Broadway in Manhattan, disappeared and turned up a few days later floating in the Hudson River. Her baffling murder, a sensation at the time, attracted the attention not only of the city’s fire-breathing newspaper editors, but also of Edgar Allan Poe, who assigned his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the crime. Their converging stories are the twin strands that Daniel Stashower neatly ties together in “The Beautiful Cigar Girl,” his atmospheric, suspenseful re-creation of a crime, a city and a...
That was certainly the case in the summer of 1841, when Mary Rogers, a young saleswoman at John Anderson’s Tobacco Emporium on Lower Broadway in Manhattan, disappeared and turned up a few days later floating in the Hudson River. Her baffling murder, a sensation at the time, attracted the attention not only of the city’s fire-breathing newspaper editors, but also of Edgar Allan Poe, who assigned his fictional detective, C. Auguste Dupin, to solve the crime. Their converging stories are the twin strands that Daniel Stashower neatly ties together in “The Beautiful Cigar Girl,” his atmospheric, suspenseful re-creation of a crime, a city and a...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - 21:48
SOURCE: NYT (10-23-06)
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom saw children torn from their mothers’ arms and sold as slaves; he acquiesced as his master, whom he trusted with unwavering devotion, sold him downriver; he saw slaves beat into stupor and submission. And through it all, with Christian forbearance, he never withheld his forgiveness from those whose system of slavery brought on such evils, nor could he lift his hand in vengeance against the most horrific of masters.
But even Uncle Tom’s tolerance might have been strained by the assaults on his reputation during the last half century.
As Henry Louis Gates Jr. recalls in the introduction to “The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (Norton), during the militant 1960’s, when Mr. Gates was coming to maturity, Uncle Tom, far from being the hero he was to an earlier century, was a “negative stereotype” of a “black man all too eager to please the whites around him.”
Because of his refusal to rebel, because of his forgiveness that...
But even Uncle Tom’s tolerance might have been strained by the assaults on his reputation during the last half century.
As Henry Louis Gates Jr. recalls in the introduction to “The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (Norton), during the militant 1960’s, when Mr. Gates was coming to maturity, Uncle Tom, far from being the hero he was to an earlier century, was a “negative stereotype” of a “black man all too eager to please the whites around him.”
Because of his refusal to rebel, because of his forgiveness that...
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - 19:18
SOURCE: NYT (10-23-06)
[Kati Marton is the author of “The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World.”]
THE first time I saw deep joy on my father’s face — the kind that comes from within and which is a child’s most reassuring signal from a parent — was on Oct. 23, 1956. It was at Bem Square, on the right bank of the Danube, where thousands of students, a sprinkling of workers and even some young soldiers still in uniform had spontaneously gathered to hear the students’ list of demands for reform by Hungary’s Communist government.
I was holding tight to his hand when a woman appeared on the balcony of the Foreign Ministry, which faces the square, and waved the Hungarian tricolor. The hated Soviet hammer and sickle had been cut from the center. Thus was the symbol of the Hungarian revolution (and so many others still to come) born. When someone in the growing crowd brazenly shouted, “Ruszki haza!” — “Russians go home” — the revolution had its slogan, as well.
...
THE first time I saw deep joy on my father’s face — the kind that comes from within and which is a child’s most reassuring signal from a parent — was on Oct. 23, 1956. It was at Bem Square, on the right bank of the Danube, where thousands of students, a sprinkling of workers and even some young soldiers still in uniform had spontaneously gathered to hear the students’ list of demands for reform by Hungary’s Communist government.
I was holding tight to his hand when a woman appeared on the balcony of the Foreign Ministry, which faces the square, and waved the Hungarian tricolor. The hated Soviet hammer and sickle had been cut from the center. Thus was the symbol of the Hungarian revolution (and so many others still to come) born. When someone in the growing crowd brazenly shouted, “Ruszki haza!” — “Russians go home” — the revolution had its slogan, as well.
...
Tuesday, October 24, 2006 - 18:37
SOURCE: WSJ (10-23-06)
[Mr. Nádas, a novelist, is the author, inter alia, of "A Book of Memories" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).]
So, on that Tuesday afternoon, a single flow of humanity was moving down the avenues; they were coming on Váci Avenue, on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue, but on Marx Square many stopped in hesitation: Which way now? The piled-up streetcars stood motionless where they had gotten stuck in their tracks, with the lights burning in the empty compartments. There were about 80,000 people stranded around the edges of the square, on the banks of this vast intersection. They were singing, shouting demands, having visions, speechifying. A crowd, half a million strong, was already in front of the Parliament building. They demanded that the Russians go home, and clamored for Imre Nagy to make a speech.
Slowly it was getting dark. They kept coming from Buda on Margit Bridge, along Balassi Bálint Street, coming on Falk Miksa Street and pouring out to the square....
So, on that Tuesday afternoon, a single flow of humanity was moving down the avenues; they were coming on Váci Avenue, on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue, but on Marx Square many stopped in hesitation: Which way now? The piled-up streetcars stood motionless where they had gotten stuck in their tracks, with the lights burning in the empty compartments. There were about 80,000 people stranded around the edges of the square, on the banks of this vast intersection. They were singing, shouting demands, having visions, speechifying. A crowd, half a million strong, was already in front of the Parliament building. They demanded that the Russians go home, and clamored for Imre Nagy to make a speech.
Slowly it was getting dark. They kept coming from Buda on Margit Bridge, along Balassi Bálint Street, coming on Falk Miksa Street and pouring out to the square....
Monday, October 23, 2006 - 20:54
SOURCE: New Statesman (10-16-06)
[East and west face each other across a divide that some call a religious war. Suicide jihadis take what they see as defensive action and innocent people are killed. But this is 1857. William Dalrymple on lessons from the Raj for the neo-cons. William Dalrymple is the India correspondent of the New Statesman. His book "The Last Mughal: the fall of a dynasty (Delhi 1857)" is published by Bloomsbury (£25)]
... The Siege of Delhi was a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. Finally, on 14 September 1857, the British assaulted and took the city, sacking the Mughal capital and massacring swathes of the population. "The orders went out to shoot every soul," recorded Edward Vibart, a 19-year-old British officer. "It was literally murder . . . The women were all spared but their screams, on seeing their husbands and sons butchered, were most painful . . . I feel no pity, but when some old grey bearded man is brought and shot...
... The Siege of Delhi was a fight to the death between two powers, neither of whom could retreat. Finally, on 14 September 1857, the British assaulted and took the city, sacking the Mughal capital and massacring swathes of the population. "The orders went out to shoot every soul," recorded Edward Vibart, a 19-year-old British officer. "It was literally murder . . . The women were all spared but their screams, on seeing their husbands and sons butchered, were most painful . . . I feel no pity, but when some old grey bearded man is brought and shot...
Monday, October 23, 2006 - 20:02
SOURCE: Observer (10-22-06)
[Dominic Sandbrook is the author of Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles, published in paperback by Abacus, and White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties, published by Little, Brown]
October 1956 was a good time to be young. After years of gloomy austerity, Britain was gradually awakening to the glorious possibilities of postwar affluence, and it was as though a Technicolor rainbow had suddenly lit up a slate-grey sky. If you had the money, you might spend your evenings in one of the new 'expresso' bars in the south of England, where duffel-coated students huddled around coffees and cigarettes. You might be reading the latest novel by Kingsley Amis, or perhaps Colin Wilson's existentialist tract The Outsider. You might have just bought the latest single by that new American singer, Elvis Presley, or you might be looking forward to that new film, Rock Around the Clock.
You knew that things were changing: your...
October 1956 was a good time to be young. After years of gloomy austerity, Britain was gradually awakening to the glorious possibilities of postwar affluence, and it was as though a Technicolor rainbow had suddenly lit up a slate-grey sky. If you had the money, you might spend your evenings in one of the new 'expresso' bars in the south of England, where duffel-coated students huddled around coffees and cigarettes. You might be reading the latest novel by Kingsley Amis, or perhaps Colin Wilson's existentialist tract The Outsider. You might have just bought the latest single by that new American singer, Elvis Presley, or you might be looking forward to that new film, Rock Around the Clock.
You knew that things were changing: your...
Monday, October 23, 2006 - 19:40
SOURCE: Slate (10-20-06)
ne morning, my mother's grave appeared in my inbox. The grass had grown back around it after the burial. The stone looked pinker than I remembered. The "Beloved Wife and Mother" written on it struck me as odd. Was that inscription always there? It seemed antiquated, like something you'd see in a small town cemetery, and, in my mother's case, also a little limiting. These are the details you seize on when you're suddenly confronted by Section 3, Grave 1316-A-LH before your first cup of coffee.
I had asked for it. I was writing On Her Trail, a book about my mother, Nancy Dickerson, which was published this week. Early in the process, I instructed a few Internet search engines to make a daily pass of the Web and to e-mail me whenever they found something. Mom had been a famous reporter, so I knew I'd get some responses. That day, she was discovered on a Web site dedicated to those buried at Arlington Cemetery. (My stepfather, John Whitehead, was a commander in the...
I had asked for it. I was writing On Her Trail, a book about my mother, Nancy Dickerson, which was published this week. Early in the process, I instructed a few Internet search engines to make a daily pass of the Web and to e-mail me whenever they found something. Mom had been a famous reporter, so I knew I'd get some responses. That day, she was discovered on a Web site dedicated to those buried at Arlington Cemetery. (My stepfather, John Whitehead, was a commander in the...
Monday, October 23, 2006 - 19:20
SOURCE: Weekly Standard (10-23-06)
[Mark Stricherz is working on a book about how secular, educated elites transformed the Democratic party.]
Around the time Theodore H. White ended his Making of the President series, Jules Witcover emerged as his de facto successor. Witcover wrote big, sprawling books about the modern presidential campaign. By himself, he wrote three dealing with the 1968 presidential race--The Resurrection of Richard Nixon; 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy; and The Year the Dream Died--and one dealing with the 1976 election--Marathon. With Jack Germond he cowrote books about every presidential race between 1980 and 1992: Blue Smoke and Mirrors, Wake Us When It's Over, Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? and Mad as Hell. His latest tome, last year's The Making of an Ink-Stained Wretch, is a memoir of his time on the presidential campaign trail.
One virtue of Witcover's campaign coverage, as all this suggests, was his indefatigability. Another was his adroit...
Around the time Theodore H. White ended his Making of the President series, Jules Witcover emerged as his de facto successor. Witcover wrote big, sprawling books about the modern presidential campaign. By himself, he wrote three dealing with the 1968 presidential race--The Resurrection of Richard Nixon; 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy; and The Year the Dream Died--and one dealing with the 1976 election--Marathon. With Jack Germond he cowrote books about every presidential race between 1980 and 1992: Blue Smoke and Mirrors, Wake Us When It's Over, Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? and Mad as Hell. His latest tome, last year's The Making of an Ink-Stained Wretch, is a memoir of his time on the presidential campaign trail.
One virtue of Witcover's campaign coverage, as all this suggests, was his indefatigability. Another was his adroit...
Monday, October 23, 2006 - 15:03
SOURCE: NYT (10-21-06)
[Caroline Weber, an associate professor of French at Barnard College, is the author of “Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution.”]
WHY,” the French journalist wanted to know, “do you Americans insist on taking what is France’s and making it yours?”
Like the Cannes audiences who blasted Kirsten Dunst as the vapid, pampered party queen in Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” my interviewer seemed indignant that an American-born author of a book on the same historical figure would dare lay claim to this quintessentially French icon.
What these Gallic complaints overlook is that, throughout history, one thing has always remained true of Marie Antoinette: With her glittering rise and shattering fall, her ambiguous political allegiances and unmistakable personal style, the queen has proven multifaceted enough to accommodate most any interpretation, any ideology, any cultural bias. Reinvention and Marie Antoinette go together like...
WHY,” the French journalist wanted to know, “do you Americans insist on taking what is France’s and making it yours?”
Like the Cannes audiences who blasted Kirsten Dunst as the vapid, pampered party queen in Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” my interviewer seemed indignant that an American-born author of a book on the same historical figure would dare lay claim to this quintessentially French icon.
What these Gallic complaints overlook is that, throughout history, one thing has always remained true of Marie Antoinette: With her glittering rise and shattering fall, her ambiguous political allegiances and unmistakable personal style, the queen has proven multifaceted enough to accommodate most any interpretation, any ideology, any cultural bias. Reinvention and Marie Antoinette go together like...
Sunday, October 22, 2006 - 16:11
SOURCE: NYT (10-23-06)
SHE may never have said the words that got her in Bartlett’s — “Let them eat cake” — but she might as well have. Nevertheless, the image of Marie Antoinette — dauphine, villain, tea-party thrower in shepherdess garb — is in the midst of an extreme rehab.
What with Sofia Coppola’s movie, two sympathetic books (“Queen of Fashion,” a biography by Caroline Weber, and “Abundance,” a work of historical fiction by Sena Jeter Naslund); and a PBS documentary, we’re having a Marie Antoinette moment. And she doesn’t even have a publicist.
The question, then, might be less a matter of what to make of Marie Antoinette, than of why the makeover, and why now? Of all the victimizers in history, why are we suddenly flooded with these new narratives that show us Marie Antoinette — vain, selfish, solipsistic and venal — as a victim?
The simplest answer may be that most Americans don’t have even the flimsiest grasp of who she was.
“Never underestimate our...
What with Sofia Coppola’s movie, two sympathetic books (“Queen of Fashion,” a biography by Caroline Weber, and “Abundance,” a work of historical fiction by Sena Jeter Naslund); and a PBS documentary, we’re having a Marie Antoinette moment. And she doesn’t even have a publicist.
The question, then, might be less a matter of what to make of Marie Antoinette, than of why the makeover, and why now? Of all the victimizers in history, why are we suddenly flooded with these new narratives that show us Marie Antoinette — vain, selfish, solipsistic and venal — as a victim?
The simplest answer may be that most Americans don’t have even the flimsiest grasp of who she was.
“Never underestimate our...
Sunday, October 22, 2006 - 16:06
SOURCE: David Greenberg in the course of a debate with David Corn, posted at the website of the New Republic (10-20-06)
Dear David C.,
I'm pleased to have this debate with you as well, and I hope that, despite our differences, we can have a civil and enlightening exchange. I'll make some general remarks, then respond to some specifics.
Like you--and like most TNR readers, I suspect--I've been consistently outraged by Bush's rhetoric and policies. The columnists I admire most include people like Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal who bring insight and rigor to their criticisms of Bush's disastrous presidency. I say this to let readers know that I'm writing as an ideologically kindred soul to the many liberal pundits who have been bashing Woodward for years (long before his Bush books). But, on the issue of assessing Woodward's work, I part company from the liberal conventional wisdom.
The main critique of Woodward from liberals (and some others) has hardened into what now strikes me a cliché of elite punditry. In essence, the beef is that Woodward's reportorial skills...
I'm pleased to have this debate with you as well, and I hope that, despite our differences, we can have a civil and enlightening exchange. I'll make some general remarks, then respond to some specifics.
Like you--and like most TNR readers, I suspect--I've been consistently outraged by Bush's rhetoric and policies. The columnists I admire most include people like Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal who bring insight and rigor to their criticisms of Bush's disastrous presidency. I say this to let readers know that I'm writing as an ideologically kindred soul to the many liberal pundits who have been bashing Woodward for years (long before his Bush books). But, on the issue of assessing Woodward's work, I part company from the liberal conventional wisdom.
The main critique of Woodward from liberals (and some others) has hardened into what now strikes me a cliché of elite punditry. In essence, the beef is that Woodward's reportorial skills...
Friday, October 20, 2006 - 17:59
SOURCE: Slate (10-19-06)
[Joel Waldfogel is the Ehrenkranz family professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.]
A generation ago, Christopher Columbus was a hero. No longer. Even my preteen kids can tell you that Columbus' followers brought disease and death to many New World natives. But as the forerunner of European colonization, can Columbus also claim to have ushered in an era of higher standards of living?
One of the deep questions in economics is why some countries are rich and others are poor. It is widely believed that institutions such as clear and enforceable property rights are important to economic growth. Still, debates rage: Do culture, history, government, education, temperature, natural resources, cosmic rays make the difference? The reason it's hard to resolve this question is that we have no controlled experiments comparing otherwise similar places with different sets of legal and economic institutions. In new...
A generation ago, Christopher Columbus was a hero. No longer. Even my preteen kids can tell you that Columbus' followers brought disease and death to many New World natives. But as the forerunner of European colonization, can Columbus also claim to have ushered in an era of higher standards of living?
One of the deep questions in economics is why some countries are rich and others are poor. It is widely believed that institutions such as clear and enforceable property rights are important to economic growth. Still, debates rage: Do culture, history, government, education, temperature, natural resources, cosmic rays make the difference? The reason it's hard to resolve this question is that we have no controlled experiments comparing otherwise similar places with different sets of legal and economic institutions. In new...
Friday, October 20, 2006 - 14:59
