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: The Atlantic (9-30-10)
[Steven Stark is a former cultural commentator for CNN, National Public Radio, and the Voice of America.]
The big story as golf's Ryder Cup begins isn't the selection of Tiger Woods for the American team or the captainship of Colin Montgomerie for the Europeans. It's the choice of Maj. Dan Rooney—an F-16 pilot who started Patriot Golf Day to raise money for families of military casualties—to address the squad to psych them up for the encounter....
Sports and war have been closely linked in the minds of Americans for generations, which many Europeans find unusual. The first colleges to make sports a major part of student life, in addition to the Ivies, were the military academies. They did so for some of the same reasons as the elite schools—athletics instilled character, etc.—but also because Army and Navy endorsed the old General Wellington idea that battles were won and lost on the playing fields of youth. The better the sports program, they reasoned, the...
The big story as golf's Ryder Cup begins isn't the selection of Tiger Woods for the American team or the captainship of Colin Montgomerie for the Europeans. It's the choice of Maj. Dan Rooney—an F-16 pilot who started Patriot Golf Day to raise money for families of military casualties—to address the squad to psych them up for the encounter....
Sports and war have been closely linked in the minds of Americans for generations, which many Europeans find unusual. The first colleges to make sports a major part of student life, in addition to the Ivies, were the military academies. They did so for some of the same reasons as the elite schools—athletics instilled character, etc.—but also because Army and Navy endorsed the old General Wellington idea that battles were won and lost on the playing fields of youth. The better the sports program, they reasoned, the...
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 14:55
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SOURCE: Owen Sound Sun-Times (9-29-10)
[Dennis Thompsett writes for the Owen Sound Sun Times (Canada).]
DENNIS THOMPSETT
In June of 1956, Horace Mitchell Miner, a noted American anthropologist, published a short paper in the American Anthropologist, entitled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema."
It stunned the anthropological community at the time and has since been included in numerous textbooks and become the most requested article in the history of The American Anthropologist.
Although Miner's work was certainly pivotal, he only concentrated on the Nacirema people who, he said, were "living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico"
Inexplicably, Miner ignored the legendary Naidanac tribe, who lived in the same geographical area, during the exact same time period (The Boreal Age of the Holocene Epoch).
Yet we now know that the seldom studied Naidanac people were totally dominant in this time....
DENNIS THOMPSETT
In June of 1956, Horace Mitchell Miner, a noted American anthropologist, published a short paper in the American Anthropologist, entitled "Body Ritual among the Nacirema."
It stunned the anthropological community at the time and has since been included in numerous textbooks and become the most requested article in the history of The American Anthropologist.
Although Miner's work was certainly pivotal, he only concentrated on the Nacirema people who, he said, were "living in the territory between the Canadian Cree, the Yaqui and Tarahumare of Mexico"
Inexplicably, Miner ignored the legendary Naidanac tribe, who lived in the same geographical area, during the exact same time period (The Boreal Age of the Holocene Epoch).
Yet we now know that the seldom studied Naidanac people were totally dominant in this time....
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 14:36
SOURCE: Guardian (UK) (9-26-10)
[Jim Al-Khalili is professor of physics, and professor of the public engagement in science, at the University of Surrey. His latest book is Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science.]
The Bab al-Sharji district in the centre of Baghdad derives its name, which means east gate, from the medieval fortifications of the city. These walls were probably built around the first half of the 10th century. During the brief British stay at the end of the first world war, its gatehouse was used as a garrison church. Nothing of those medieval walls, or the east gate, remains today; I remember Bab al-Sharji as a sprawling, noisy and bustling square, with its food stalls and secondhand record shops scattered around the busy bus depot and taxi ranks. But its name is a reminder of the expansion and transformation of this proud city over the years since its...
The Bab al-Sharji district in the centre of Baghdad derives its name, which means east gate, from the medieval fortifications of the city. These walls were probably built around the first half of the 10th century. During the brief British stay at the end of the first world war, its gatehouse was used as a garrison church. Nothing of those medieval walls, or the east gate, remains today; I remember Bab al-Sharji as a sprawling, noisy and bustling square, with its food stalls and secondhand record shops scattered around the busy bus depot and taxi ranks. But its name is a reminder of the expansion and transformation of this proud city over the years since its...
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 11:03
SOURCE: Foreign Policy (9-30-10)
[Paul D. Miller is Assistant Professor of International Security Studies at The College of International Security Affairs.]
In response to my last post about why realists should support nation building, some readers responded with a curious argument: Afghanistan (they believe) is failing, therefore nation building is impossible. Set aside the fact that this is does not respond to my argument -- which was not about Afghanistan and did not argue that nation building is easy, only that it can serve our interests when done right -- it strikes me as a lazy argument to condemn nation building on the basis of a single example. I call this the Somalia Fallacy.
According to the Somalia Fallacy, the failure of the U.N.'s effort to rebuild Somalia in the 1990s proves that all nation building interventions are doomed to fail. It is the favored argument of pundits who want to argue against overseas interventions. Fareed Zakaria gave perfect expression to the Somalia...
In response to my last post about why realists should support nation building, some readers responded with a curious argument: Afghanistan (they believe) is failing, therefore nation building is impossible. Set aside the fact that this is does not respond to my argument -- which was not about Afghanistan and did not argue that nation building is easy, only that it can serve our interests when done right -- it strikes me as a lazy argument to condemn nation building on the basis of a single example. I call this the Somalia Fallacy.
According to the Somalia Fallacy, the failure of the U.N.'s effort to rebuild Somalia in the 1990s proves that all nation building interventions are doomed to fail. It is the favored argument of pundits who want to argue against overseas interventions. Fareed Zakaria gave perfect expression to the Somalia...
Thursday, September 30, 2010 - 08:40
SOURCE: I.H.T. (9-29-10)
[Charles King is professor of international affairs and government at Georgetown University and author of “Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams,” to be published in February.]
“I’ll be waiting for you,” she said, almost at the door of the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. “It will be as if you’ve gone to Odessa ... only there won’t be any letters.” Those were among the last words of Antonina Pirozhkova to Isaac Babel, her common-law husband and the father of her child.
It was the summer of 1939. Babel had just been taken into custody by Stalin’s henchmen for his alleged involvement with Trotskyists and spying for France and Austria. He was executed less than a year later.
Pirozhkova, who died this month at the age of 101, worked tirelessly to keep Babel’s memory alive and to discover the true history of his incarceration and murder. She was also the last living link to a different Russia: A place that once prized the odd and the unusual; a place...
“I’ll be waiting for you,” she said, almost at the door of the Lubyanka prison in Moscow. “It will be as if you’ve gone to Odessa ... only there won’t be any letters.” Those were among the last words of Antonina Pirozhkova to Isaac Babel, her common-law husband and the father of her child.
It was the summer of 1939. Babel had just been taken into custody by Stalin’s henchmen for his alleged involvement with Trotskyists and spying for France and Austria. He was executed less than a year later.
Pirozhkova, who died this month at the age of 101, worked tirelessly to keep Babel’s memory alive and to discover the true history of his incarceration and murder. She was also the last living link to a different Russia: A place that once prized the odd and the unusual; a place...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 - 09:56
SOURCE: Jerusalem Post (9-28-10)
[The writer served as ambassador to the United Nations between 1997 and 1999 and as foreign polcicy advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during his first term. He is the author of The Fight for Jerusalem (Regnery: 2007).]
Right after the War of Independence, prime minister David Ben-Gurion faced inexorably difficult pressures over the future of Jerusalem.
The UN planned to press its case for internationalization. Its grounds were General Assembly Resolution 181, adopted in 1947 and known as the partition plan, which not only advocated the establishment of Jewish and Arab states in former British Mandatory Palestine, but also recommended putting Jerusalem under UN control as a corpus separatum, or separate entity.
True, the resolution was not legally binding; it had been forcibly rejected by the Arab states. Moreover, the UN never established the special regime for Jerusalem that it proposed. In fact, it failed to dispatch any forces to save...
Right after the War of Independence, prime minister David Ben-Gurion faced inexorably difficult pressures over the future of Jerusalem.
The UN planned to press its case for internationalization. Its grounds were General Assembly Resolution 181, adopted in 1947 and known as the partition plan, which not only advocated the establishment of Jewish and Arab states in former British Mandatory Palestine, but also recommended putting Jerusalem under UN control as a corpus separatum, or separate entity.
True, the resolution was not legally binding; it had been forcibly rejected by the Arab states. Moreover, the UN never established the special regime for Jerusalem that it proposed. In fact, it failed to dispatch any forces to save...
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 - 08:08
SOURCE: NearSay NY (9-28-10)
[Pearl Duncan covered Newport-Bermuda Yacht Races, Miami-Montego Bay Yacht Races, Caribbean Ocean Racing Circuit (CORC) Races and others, for Sailing, Sail, and Yacht Racing/Cruising Magazines. Now she writes about historic New York and New Yorkers.]
On this the week trailing the weekend of the movie, Wall Street: “II” Money Never Sleeps, it would be absolutely delicious to revisit the conflicts of Olde Wall Street. Wall Street’s amoral characters then were wilder than any we see today, because they ended their disputes in duels. When I researched and found the name of the World Trade Center ship, I found lots more about the disputes of the early Wall Street residents. Two well-known villains in colonial clothing were business rivals on Wall Street.
Before there was a stock exchange or boardrooms on Wall Street, there were coffee-houses; they were the pits where traders met and traded. What these guys traded then was not much different from that they...
On this the week trailing the weekend of the movie, Wall Street: “II” Money Never Sleeps, it would be absolutely delicious to revisit the conflicts of Olde Wall Street. Wall Street’s amoral characters then were wilder than any we see today, because they ended their disputes in duels. When I researched and found the name of the World Trade Center ship, I found lots more about the disputes of the early Wall Street residents. Two well-known villains in colonial clothing were business rivals on Wall Street.
Before there was a stock exchange or boardrooms on Wall Street, there were coffee-houses; they were the pits where traders met and traded. What these guys traded then was not much different from that they...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010 - 18:38
SOURCE: Slate (9-24-10)
[David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers and author of three books of political history, has written the "History Lesson" column since 1998. He is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for 2010-11.]
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 26, 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first-ever televised general-election presidential debate. Within days, if not hours, the event gave rise to a mythology so well-known by now that it scarcely needs repeating. Handsome, dapper, poised, and articulate, Kennedy dispelled with his appearance any nagging worries that he might be too callow for the presidency. Clammy-faced, awkward, and plagued by his gloomy five-o'clock shadow, Nixon reinforced what he called "the Herblock image," in reference to his nemesis, the Washington Post cartoonist, who had already immortalized Nixon's menacing mug. As the story goes, the winner that night was not just Kennedy...
Fifty years ago, on Sept. 26, 1960, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon squared off in the first-ever televised general-election presidential debate. Within days, if not hours, the event gave rise to a mythology so well-known by now that it scarcely needs repeating. Handsome, dapper, poised, and articulate, Kennedy dispelled with his appearance any nagging worries that he might be too callow for the presidency. Clammy-faced, awkward, and plagued by his gloomy five-o'clock shadow, Nixon reinforced what he called "the Herblock image," in reference to his nemesis, the Washington Post cartoonist, who had already immortalized Nixon's menacing mug. As the story goes, the winner that night was not just Kennedy...
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 15:05
SOURCE: Boston Globe (9-26-10)
[Francie Latour is an associate editor at Wellesley magazine and a former Globe reporter.]
In the year 1755, a black slave named Mark Codman plotted to kill his abusive master. A God-fearing man, Codman had resolved to use poison, reasoning that if he could kill without shedding blood, it would be no sin. Arsenic in hand, he and two female slaves poisoned the tea and porridge of John Codman repeatedly. The plan worked — but like so many stories of slave rebellion, this one ended in brutal death for the slaves as well. After a trial by jury, Mark Codman was hanged, tarred, and then suspended in a metal gibbet on the main road to town, where his body remained for more than 20 years.
It sounds like a classic account of Southern slavery. But Codman’s body didn’t hang in Savannah, Ga.; it hung in present-day Somerville, Mass. And the reason we know just how long Mark the slave was left on view is that Paul Revere passed it on his midnight ride. In a fleeting mention...
In the year 1755, a black slave named Mark Codman plotted to kill his abusive master. A God-fearing man, Codman had resolved to use poison, reasoning that if he could kill without shedding blood, it would be no sin. Arsenic in hand, he and two female slaves poisoned the tea and porridge of John Codman repeatedly. The plan worked — but like so many stories of slave rebellion, this one ended in brutal death for the slaves as well. After a trial by jury, Mark Codman was hanged, tarred, and then suspended in a metal gibbet on the main road to town, where his body remained for more than 20 years.
It sounds like a classic account of Southern slavery. But Codman’s body didn’t hang in Savannah, Ga.; it hung in present-day Somerville, Mass. And the reason we know just how long Mark the slave was left on view is that Paul Revere passed it on his midnight ride. In a fleeting mention...
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 15:04
SOURCE: The Root (9-21-10)
[Mary C. Curtis is an award-winning, Charlotte, N.C.-based national correspondent for PoliticsDaily.com, and a commentator on Fox News Rising Charlotte. Follow her on Twitter.]
Rosa Parks was a demure seamstress who defied a Montgomery, Ala., bus driver's order to give up her seat to a white man because -- on that particular day -- she was tired. Her spontaneous act sparked a 1955 bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement.
Sound familiar? It should. It's the tale told in history books. It's also just a tiny sliver of the truth. The flesh-and-blood Rosa Parks is a lot more interesting. "It's sad, I think," author Danielle L. McGuire told me. "We tend to like our heroes simple and meek."
"If we had a larger sense of who she was, a radical activist and warrior for human rights," instead of a powerless individual struck by chance, said McGuire, it would show the work and the time she put in over many years.
...
Rosa Parks was a demure seamstress who defied a Montgomery, Ala., bus driver's order to give up her seat to a white man because -- on that particular day -- she was tired. Her spontaneous act sparked a 1955 bus boycott that launched the civil rights movement.
Sound familiar? It should. It's the tale told in history books. It's also just a tiny sliver of the truth. The flesh-and-blood Rosa Parks is a lot more interesting. "It's sad, I think," author Danielle L. McGuire told me. "We tend to like our heroes simple and meek."
"If we had a larger sense of who she was, a radical activist and warrior for human rights," instead of a powerless individual struck by chance, said McGuire, it would show the work and the time she put in over many years.
...
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 14:45
SOURCE: History Today (9-23-10)
[Charlotte Alston is Senior Lecturer in History at Northumbria University.
Lecturer.]
Leo Tolstoy, c.1905In October 1910 Leo Tolstoy left his home at Yasnaya Polyana, 120 miles south of Moscow, in a final attempt to separate himself from his wealth, possessions and family. Just over a week after his departure he died of pneumonia in the stationmaster’s house at Astapovo railway station. While his journey lasted, the drama held the attention of the media in Russia and beyond and sparked a momentary revival of interest in Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical teachings, which had receded since the high tide of his influence in the last decades of the 19th century.
This year is the centenary of Tolstoy’s death. The anniversary was marked by the UK release of the film The Last Station, based on the novel of the same name by Jay Parini, which depicts the last months of Tolstoy’s life as the chronic tensions in his relationship with his wife Sophia came to a...
Lecturer.]
Leo Tolstoy, c.1905In October 1910 Leo Tolstoy left his home at Yasnaya Polyana, 120 miles south of Moscow, in a final attempt to separate himself from his wealth, possessions and family. Just over a week after his departure he died of pneumonia in the stationmaster’s house at Astapovo railway station. While his journey lasted, the drama held the attention of the media in Russia and beyond and sparked a momentary revival of interest in Tolstoy’s religious and philosophical teachings, which had receded since the high tide of his influence in the last decades of the 19th century.
This year is the centenary of Tolstoy’s death. The anniversary was marked by the UK release of the film The Last Station, based on the novel of the same name by Jay Parini, which depicts the last months of Tolstoy’s life as the chronic tensions in his relationship with his wife Sophia came to a...
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 14:03
SOURCE: CHE (9-26-10)
[William Germano is dean of the faculty of humanities and social sciences at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. A longer version of this essay was presented as a talk at the annual meeting of the Association of American University Presses this summer.]
I've been wondering lately when books became the enemy. Scholars have always been people of the book, so it seems wrong that the faithful companion has been put on the defensive. Part of the problem is knowing what we mean exactly when we say "book." It's a slippery term for a format, a technology, a historical construct, and something else as well....
In the sense of having been around a long time, the book has a long story to tell, one that might be organized around four epochal events, at least in the West. In the beginning was the invention of writing and its appearance on various materials. The second was the development during the first years of the Christian era of the codex—the...
I've been wondering lately when books became the enemy. Scholars have always been people of the book, so it seems wrong that the faithful companion has been put on the defensive. Part of the problem is knowing what we mean exactly when we say "book." It's a slippery term for a format, a technology, a historical construct, and something else as well....
In the sense of having been around a long time, the book has a long story to tell, one that might be organized around four epochal events, at least in the West. In the beginning was the invention of writing and its appearance on various materials. The second was the development during the first years of the Christian era of the codex—the...
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 13:57
SOURCE: Findlaw (9-17-10)
[John W. Dean, a FindLaw columnist, is a former counsel to President Nixon.]
"A key piece of Watergate history that remains shrouded in secrecy -- former President Richard Nixon's grand jury testimony of 1975 -- should be made public, historical experts have told a court," the press release from Public Citizen stated earlier this week. Public Citizen's Litigation Group, representing a number of prominent American historians and archivists, is seeking this information under a developing body of law that has led to the release of historically-important information, freeing the material from the bonds of traditional grand-jury secrecy when its significance outweighs the reasons for secrecy.
Historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Stanley Kutler, the American Historical Association, the American Society for Legal History, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Archivists together petitioned the U.S....
"A key piece of Watergate history that remains shrouded in secrecy -- former President Richard Nixon's grand jury testimony of 1975 -- should be made public, historical experts have told a court," the press release from Public Citizen stated earlier this week. Public Citizen's Litigation Group, representing a number of prominent American historians and archivists, is seeking this information under a developing body of law that has led to the release of historically-important information, freeing the material from the bonds of traditional grand-jury secrecy when its significance outweighs the reasons for secrecy.
Historian and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin Stanley Kutler, the American Historical Association, the American Society for Legal History, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Archivists together petitioned the U.S....
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 13:22
SOURCE: City Journal (9-26-10)
[Guy Sorman, a City Journal contributing editor, is the author of Empire of Lies: The Truth about China in the Twenty-First Century and other books. This article was translated by Alexis Cornel.]
The four surviving leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, including the former head of state, Khieu Samphan, have been imprisoned in Phnom Penh since 2007 and will be brought to justice in their own country. On September 16, a United Nations-backed Cambodian tribunal indicted them for genocide, crimes against humanity, and other crimes. The tribunal has already established its credibility with its first trial: this past July 26, it sentenced Kaing Guek Eav (better known as Duch), a cog in the Khmer Rouge’s extermination machine, to 35 years in prison. Duch ran a torture center from 1975 to 1979 that produced 15,000 victims. Unlike the Nuremberg tribunal that judged Nazi leaders in 1945, the Phnom Penh tribunal is not run by the victorious powers; it functions within the...
The four surviving leaders of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge regime, including the former head of state, Khieu Samphan, have been imprisoned in Phnom Penh since 2007 and will be brought to justice in their own country. On September 16, a United Nations-backed Cambodian tribunal indicted them for genocide, crimes against humanity, and other crimes. The tribunal has already established its credibility with its first trial: this past July 26, it sentenced Kaing Guek Eav (better known as Duch), a cog in the Khmer Rouge’s extermination machine, to 35 years in prison. Duch ran a torture center from 1975 to 1979 that produced 15,000 victims. Unlike the Nuremberg tribunal that judged Nazi leaders in 1945, the Phnom Penh tribunal is not run by the victorious powers; it functions within the...
Monday, September 27, 2010 - 07:57
SOURCE: WaPo (9-25-10)
[Marc Fisher is The Washington Post's enterprise editor for local news and the author of "After the Wall: Germany, the Germans and the Burdens of History."]
On a snowy evening four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I made a return visit to Baerbel Bohley's apartment on Fehrbelliner Strasse in what used to be East Berlin. The building was a typical relic of World War II shrapnel damage, Communist-era neglect and post-Berlin Wall materialism -- satellite dishes hanging over a urine-stenched entrance hall.
Inside, Bohley, an abstract painter and the mother of the East German revolution of 1989, had transformed her home into a bohemian mix of East and West, past and present. She had added a new white Siemens clothes washer in the kitchen since I'd last seen her. But she still lived without central heating. "Like a real Ossi," a real East German, she said.
As the events of 1989 have moved from journalism to history, Bohley's...
On a snowy evening four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I made a return visit to Baerbel Bohley's apartment on Fehrbelliner Strasse in what used to be East Berlin. The building was a typical relic of World War II shrapnel damage, Communist-era neglect and post-Berlin Wall materialism -- satellite dishes hanging over a urine-stenched entrance hall.
Inside, Bohley, an abstract painter and the mother of the East German revolution of 1989, had transformed her home into a bohemian mix of East and West, past and present. She had added a new white Siemens clothes washer in the kitchen since I'd last seen her. But she still lived without central heating. "Like a real Ossi," a real East German, she said.
As the events of 1989 have moved from journalism to history, Bohley's...
Sunday, September 26, 2010 - 17:04
SOURCE: NearSay NY (9-23-10)
[Pearl Duncan covered Newport-Bermuda Yacht Races, Miami-Montego Bay Yacht Races, Caribbean Ocean Racing Circuit (CORC) Races and others, for Sailing, Sail, and Yacht Racing/Cruising Magazines. Now she writes about historic New York and New Yorkers.]
When Wall Street was the northern border of New York City, the 18th-century ship found at the World Trade Center saw dramatic colonial real estate and war stories. When Fulton Street was named Partition Street, because everything north of today’s Financial District was untamed bushes and farms, separating the wealthy colonials’ mansions from unpaved, undeveloped lands, the ship sailed. Whatever other issues are involved in today’s battles to redevelop the World Trade Center site, or the debate to build or not build a mosque near the site, the central battle is still real estate, New York style. Modern style. But the battles are not very different from earlier colonial dramas.
So as Wall Street and Lower...
When Wall Street was the northern border of New York City, the 18th-century ship found at the World Trade Center saw dramatic colonial real estate and war stories. When Fulton Street was named Partition Street, because everything north of today’s Financial District was untamed bushes and farms, separating the wealthy colonials’ mansions from unpaved, undeveloped lands, the ship sailed. Whatever other issues are involved in today’s battles to redevelop the World Trade Center site, or the debate to build or not build a mosque near the site, the central battle is still real estate, New York style. Modern style. But the battles are not very different from earlier colonial dramas.
So as Wall Street and Lower...
Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 15:44
SOURCE: The New Nixon Blog (9-23-10)
[David R. Stokes is a minister, broadcaster, columnist, and author. His current project is a book entitled, Checkers—The Speech That Saved Nixon & Changed Politics at the Dawn of the Television Age. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia.]
One day in 1974, as Spring began to give way to Summer, Frank Gannon—wordsmith and White House Fellow—took a walk in Washington, largely to get away from the stress induced by the Nixon White House’s ever-increasing Watergate milieu. He found his way to an old theater—one that happened to be featuring a triple billing of anti-Nixon films. He felt uncomfortable—even somewhat guilty—for being there, but for whatever reason even this was a welcome break from what was happening a few blocks away. He looked around and, though the lights were out, sensed the crowd’s unmistakable derision every time Richard Nixon’s familiar image appeared on the screen.
Then something curious happened.
The final feature of the odd...
One day in 1974, as Spring began to give way to Summer, Frank Gannon—wordsmith and White House Fellow—took a walk in Washington, largely to get away from the stress induced by the Nixon White House’s ever-increasing Watergate milieu. He found his way to an old theater—one that happened to be featuring a triple billing of anti-Nixon films. He felt uncomfortable—even somewhat guilty—for being there, but for whatever reason even this was a welcome break from what was happening a few blocks away. He looked around and, though the lights were out, sensed the crowd’s unmistakable derision every time Richard Nixon’s familiar image appeared on the screen.
Then something curious happened.
The final feature of the odd...
Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 10:23
SOURCE: openDemocracy (9-20-10)
[Oleg Pavlov is a journalist in the Tatarstan capital Kazan. Local correspondent of the Liberty Radio (Russian Service)]
The school is in a busy Kazan street. It’s a massive four-storey school building of standard design, the kind that was built all over the Soviet Union in the 1930s-50s. For some reason all these schools have their facades painted in pale egg powder yellow. The building has big high steps leading up to the main entrance, big windows and doors, and high ceilings. It’s a classic example of the Stalinist style of architecture.
Today there is to be a history lesson for students in the 11th and final year. The topic is collectivization in the countryside. There have been so many attempts to justify Stalin recently that, to be quite honest, I expected the attitude of the teacher and the students towards him to be quite loyal. You can’t find any newspapers in Kazan which offer an opinion at variance with the official viewpoint. We’ve never been able...
The school is in a busy Kazan street. It’s a massive four-storey school building of standard design, the kind that was built all over the Soviet Union in the 1930s-50s. For some reason all these schools have their facades painted in pale egg powder yellow. The building has big high steps leading up to the main entrance, big windows and doors, and high ceilings. It’s a classic example of the Stalinist style of architecture.
Today there is to be a history lesson for students in the 11th and final year. The topic is collectivization in the countryside. There have been so many attempts to justify Stalin recently that, to be quite honest, I expected the attitude of the teacher and the students towards him to be quite loyal. You can’t find any newspapers in Kazan which offer an opinion at variance with the official viewpoint. We’ve never been able...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - 16:42
SOURCE: Washington Decoded (9-11-10)
[is the editorial assistant for Washington Decoded.]
He is almost totally forgotten now. But for more than 30 years, Robert Sharon Allen was among the most influential columnists of his time, as celebrated as I. F. Stone, Walter Lippmann, or Drew Pearson. Allen rose to prominence in the 1930s as a political liberal, yet by the 1960s, he was one of the more conservative mainstream columnists in America, an unabashed nationalist who consistently emphasized the need for a stout defense during the Cold War. He counted among his good friends J. Edgar Hoover, the highly controversial director of the FBI.
Robert S. Allen also worked for Soviet intelligence.
In 1933, Allen was a fully recruited and undoubtedly witting Soviet agent. Under the assigned cover name of “George Parker,” he covertly exchanged privileged...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - 12:20
SOURCE: openDemocracy (9-20-10)
[Oleg Pavlov is a journalist in the Tatarstan capital Kazan. Local correspondent of the Liberty Radio (Russian Service).]
The school is in a busy Kazan street. It’s a massive four-storey school building of standard design, the kind that was built all over the Soviet Union in the 1930s-50s. For some reason all these schools have their facades painted in pale egg powder yellow. The building has big high steps leading up to the main entrance, big windows and doors, and high ceilings. It’s a classic example of the Stalinist style of architecture.
Today there is to be a history lesson for students in the 11th and final year. The topic is collectivization in the countryside. There have been so many attempts to justify Stalin recently that, to be quite honest, I expected the attitude of the teacher and the students towards him to be quite loyal. You can’t find any newspapers in Kazan which offer an opinion at variance with the official viewpoint. We’ve never been able...
The school is in a busy Kazan street. It’s a massive four-storey school building of standard design, the kind that was built all over the Soviet Union in the 1930s-50s. For some reason all these schools have their facades painted in pale egg powder yellow. The building has big high steps leading up to the main entrance, big windows and doors, and high ceilings. It’s a classic example of the Stalinist style of architecture.
Today there is to be a history lesson for students in the 11th and final year. The topic is collectivization in the countryside. There have been so many attempts to justify Stalin recently that, to be quite honest, I expected the attitude of the teacher and the students towards him to be quite loyal. You can’t find any newspapers in Kazan which offer an opinion at variance with the official viewpoint. We’ve never been able...
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 - 07:39
