Historians in the News Archive
This page includes, in addition to news about historians, news about political scientists, economists, law professors, and others who write about history. For a comprehensive list of historians' obituaries, go here.
SOURCE: Salon (7-7-10)
[Joe Conason writes a weekly column for Salon and the New York Observer. His new book is "It Can Happen Here: Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush."]
Before the inquiring minds at the Aspen Ideas Festival go totally gaga over Niall Ferguson, perhaps they ought to know a little more about the British historian's keen desire to punish our pampered working families, and how he would prefer to see us spend our dollars.
As a celebrity intellectual, Ferguson much prefers the broad, bold stroke to the careful detail, so it is scarcely surprising that he endorsed Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's "wonderful" budget template, confident that his audience in Aspen would know almost nothing about that document. For Ferguson, the most beguiling quality of Ryan's budget must be its bias against the working and middle classes and in favor of the wealthy. But as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities revealed in a scorching review, the plan doesn't work even on its own terms....
Before the inquiring minds at the Aspen Ideas Festival go totally gaga over Niall Ferguson, perhaps they ought to know a little more about the British historian's keen desire to punish our pampered working families, and how he would prefer to see us spend our dollars.
As a celebrity intellectual, Ferguson much prefers the broad, bold stroke to the careful detail, so it is scarcely surprising that he endorsed Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's "wonderful" budget template, confident that his audience in Aspen would know almost nothing about that document. For Ferguson, the most beguiling quality of Ryan's budget must be its bias against the working and middle classes and in favor of the wealthy. But as the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities revealed in a scorching review, the plan doesn't work even on its own terms....
Thursday, July 8, 2010 - 09:42
Comments
SOURCE: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (7-7-10)
Lawrence Harris, who had careers as an American diplomat, an army officer and a college professor, visited 52 countries and every continent.
But the Roswell resident always returned to his roots. He was the son of Southern Baptist missionaries, raised in China during the 1920s and ’30s.
That background gave him a lifelong affection for Asia – his wife, Thelma Harris, is from the Philippines – a commitment to God and respect for the Baptist faith, said his family and friends.
His pastor, Ron Bradley of Roswell First Baptist Church, said Dr. Harris was “an ambassador for Christ” who had a “heart for the world.”...
Lawrence Holiday Harris, 89, of Roswell, died July 2 at his home as a result of a weakened heart caused by an aortic dissection, his wife said. A memorial service will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at Roswell First Baptist Church, 710 Mimosa Blvd. Northside Chapel and Crematory in Roswell is in charge of arrangements....
Dr. Harris, who had a doctorate in political science, taught at numerous other colleges and universities. He retired after 19 years at Savannah State University as director of international studies and professor of history and political science....
But the Roswell resident always returned to his roots. He was the son of Southern Baptist missionaries, raised in China during the 1920s and ’30s.
That background gave him a lifelong affection for Asia – his wife, Thelma Harris, is from the Philippines – a commitment to God and respect for the Baptist faith, said his family and friends.
His pastor, Ron Bradley of Roswell First Baptist Church, said Dr. Harris was “an ambassador for Christ” who had a “heart for the world.”...
Lawrence Holiday Harris, 89, of Roswell, died July 2 at his home as a result of a weakened heart caused by an aortic dissection, his wife said. A memorial service will be Thursday at 11 a.m. at Roswell First Baptist Church, 710 Mimosa Blvd. Northside Chapel and Crematory in Roswell is in charge of arrangements....
Dr. Harris, who had a doctorate in political science, taught at numerous other colleges and universities. He retired after 19 years at Savannah State University as director of international studies and professor of history and political science....
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 21:37
SOURCE: El Paso Times (7-6-10)
As far as historian David Romo is concerned, the streets of South El Paso represent a living textbook that can help students understand the complexities of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.
"The role of El Paso in the revolution by any criteria should be part of not only the El Paso school curriculum but the national curriculum," Romo said. "Unfortunately, it's mostly ignored by the textbooks."
Romo, author of the book "Ringside Seat to a Revolution," recently escorted teachers from El Paso, Austin, Chicago and Los Angeles on a walking tour of revolution-era sites on South Oregon Street. This was part of lectures and workshops co-sponsored by the University of Texas at El Paso's Center for History Teaching and Learning, El Paso Library and El Paso Museum of History....
TEP history professor Samuel Brunk reminded teachers the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) was the first big social revolution of the 20th century. "It's hard to make sense of the revolution no matter what vantage point you take because it's a complicatedhistorical puzzle," Brunk said. "It also doesn't make a lot of sense to end the revolution in 1920 when the fighting ends because part of the revolutionary process is the change it produces." Keith A. Erekson, an assistant professor of history at UTEP and one of the summer institute organizers, was optimistic that handling original sources in the library vault, standing on the roof of the historic Paso del Norte Hotel (now Camino Real) and talking with experts had excited teachers about the topic.
"Our overarching goal was to provide teachers with the inspiration and resources to teach students about the Mexican Revolution in particular and the international connections between the U.S. and Mexico in general," Erekson said....
"The role of El Paso in the revolution by any criteria should be part of not only the El Paso school curriculum but the national curriculum," Romo said. "Unfortunately, it's mostly ignored by the textbooks."
Romo, author of the book "Ringside Seat to a Revolution," recently escorted teachers from El Paso, Austin, Chicago and Los Angeles on a walking tour of revolution-era sites on South Oregon Street. This was part of lectures and workshops co-sponsored by the University of Texas at El Paso's Center for History Teaching and Learning, El Paso Library and El Paso Museum of History....
TEP history professor Samuel Brunk reminded teachers the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) was the first big social revolution of the 20th century. "It's hard to make sense of the revolution no matter what vantage point you take because it's a complicatedhistorical puzzle," Brunk said. "It also doesn't make a lot of sense to end the revolution in 1920 when the fighting ends because part of the revolutionary process is the change it produces." Keith A. Erekson, an assistant professor of history at UTEP and one of the summer institute organizers, was optimistic that handling original sources in the library vault, standing on the roof of the historic Paso del Norte Hotel (now Camino Real) and talking with experts had excited teachers about the topic.
"Our overarching goal was to provide teachers with the inspiration and resources to teach students about the Mexican Revolution in particular and the international connections between the U.S. and Mexico in general," Erekson said....
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 16:04
SOURCE: NYT (7-6-10)
Ann Waldron, who wrote biographies of Southern writers and books for children and young adults, but then — at 78 — decided that she’d rather concoct tales about gruesome murders on the campus of Princeton University, died Friday at her home in Princeton, N.J. She was 85.
The cause was heart failure, her son Tom said.
A daughter of the South, Ms. Waldron wrote three biographies about Southern writers and editors. One, “Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist” — about the editor of a progressive newspaper in Greenville, Miss., at the height of the civil rights struggle — was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times in 1993.
“Ann Waldron outlines in rich and intriguing detail the price paid by the editor for questioning the tradition of white supremacy,” Claude Sitton wrote in The New York Times Book Review.
While researching the Carter biography, Ms. Waldron met Eudora Welty, the Southern writer. Her later request for Welty’s cooperation in a biography was rejected. Reviews of her unauthorized work, “Eudora: A Writer’s Life” (1998), were mixed, but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it “a judicious account, written against the odds” and said Welty was “lucky that Ann Waldron is her first biographer.”...
The cause was heart failure, her son Tom said.
A daughter of the South, Ms. Waldron wrote three biographies about Southern writers and editors. One, “Hodding Carter: The Reconstruction of a Racist” — about the editor of a progressive newspaper in Greenville, Miss., at the height of the civil rights struggle — was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times in 1993.
“Ann Waldron outlines in rich and intriguing detail the price paid by the editor for questioning the tradition of white supremacy,” Claude Sitton wrote in The New York Times Book Review.
While researching the Carter biography, Ms. Waldron met Eudora Welty, the Southern writer. Her later request for Welty’s cooperation in a biography was rejected. Reviews of her unauthorized work, “Eudora: A Writer’s Life” (1998), were mixed, but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called it “a judicious account, written against the odds” and said Welty was “lucky that Ann Waldron is her first biographer.”...
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 15:59
SOURCE: USA Today (7-6-10)
As hundreds of thousands of workers knock on doors this summer to collect information for the 2010 Census, momentum is mounting to drag future Censuses into the 21st century....
"Using the Postal Service was an enormous innovation in 1970" when Census forms were first mailed (previous Censuses were door-to-door surveys), says Margo Anderson, a professor of history and urban studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an expert on Census history. "We're 40 years later, and the mail isn't the official way most people get their information or communicate. It's really outmoded."...
Getting a jump-start on the 2020 Census is vital, says Anderson, the history professor.
"Should we change this? If so, how?" she says. "Ultimately, a really, really big change might need legislation. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in 2017 saying, 'Gee, we should've done this years ago.' "...
"Using the Postal Service was an enormous innovation in 1970" when Census forms were first mailed (previous Censuses were door-to-door surveys), says Margo Anderson, a professor of history and urban studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an expert on Census history. "We're 40 years later, and the mail isn't the official way most people get their information or communicate. It's really outmoded."...
Getting a jump-start on the 2020 Census is vital, says Anderson, the history professor.
"Should we change this? If so, how?" she says. "Ultimately, a really, really big change might need legislation. Otherwise, you'll find yourself in 2017 saying, 'Gee, we should've done this years ago.' "...
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 - 14:21
SOURCE: Aspen Daily News (7-6-10)
Harvard professor and prolific author Niall Ferguson opened the 2010 Aspen Ideas Festival Monday with a stark warning about the increasing prospect of the American “empire” suddenly collapsing due to the country’s rising debt level.
“I think this is a problem that is going to go live really soon,” Ferguson said. “In that sense, I mean within the next two years. Because the whole thing, fiscally and other ways, is very near the edge of chaos. And we’ve seen already in Greece what happens when the bond market loses faith in your fiscal policy.”
Ferguson said empires — such as the former Soviet Union and the Roman empire — can collapse quite quickly and the tipping point is often when the cost of servicing an empire’s debt is larger than the cost of its defense budget.
“That has not been the case I think at any point in U.S. history,” Ferguson said. “It will be the case in the next five years.”
“I think this is a problem that is going to go live really soon,” Ferguson said. “In that sense, I mean within the next two years. Because the whole thing, fiscally and other ways, is very near the edge of chaos. And we’ve seen already in Greece what happens when the bond market loses faith in your fiscal policy.”
Ferguson said empires — such as the former Soviet Union and the Roman empire — can collapse quite quickly and the tipping point is often when the cost of servicing an empire’s debt is larger than the cost of its defense budget.
“That has not been the case I think at any point in U.S. history,” Ferguson said. “It will be the case in the next five years.”
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - 22:04
SOURCE: WaPo (7-6-10)
Historians do not do breaking news. Historians do not do the latest scandal scoops, election-night projections, or instant updates of Washington's winners and losers. So it is no surprise that the media's demand for historians is scant. But every now and then, when the breaking political news from Capitol Hill is in dire need of historical context, journalists and politicians alike go looking for Fred Beuttler.
In May 2006, as news unfolded about the controversy over an FBI raid on the House offices of William Jefferson, a Louisiana congressman later to be convicted on corruption charges, several reporters and congressional observers sought guidance from Beuttler, the House's deputy historian. By then, both the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), had signed a rare joint letter criticizing the raid authorized by the Bush administration -- the executive branch's first break-in of a congressional office in the nation's history.
Why were congressional figures in both parties getting so hot and bothered about it? Beuttler was asked....
In May 2006, as news unfolded about the controversy over an FBI raid on the House offices of William Jefferson, a Louisiana congressman later to be convicted on corruption charges, several reporters and congressional observers sought guidance from Beuttler, the House's deputy historian. By then, both the House speaker, J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and the minority leader, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), had signed a rare joint letter criticizing the raid authorized by the Bush administration -- the executive branch's first break-in of a congressional office in the nation's history.
Why were congressional figures in both parties getting so hot and bothered about it? Beuttler was asked....
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - 18:30
SOURCE: NYT (7-5-10)
...The unassuming date could also merit respect for providing a pair of tidy bookends in the United States labor movement. In 1934, police officers in San Francisco opened fire on striking longshoreman in one of the country’s most significant and violent labor clashes. On the same date a year later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing the rights of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers.
“That’s a big moment in American labor history, absolutely,” said Joshua B. Freeman, a labor historian at the City University of New York....
With the all festivals and flags and family, it is easy to forget that all was not wine and roses in America on July 5, 1776.
On that day, it was not even widely known yet that independence had been declared. Americans had enjoyed a period of advantage in the war, but a British armada would soon arrive and change the war’s course, said Jack Rakove, a professor of history at Stanford University and the author of a new book, “Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America.”
“It’s a funny period in one sense,” Mr. Rakove said. “The war goes terribly for the Americans for the rest of the year.”
“That’s a big moment in American labor history, absolutely,” said Joshua B. Freeman, a labor historian at the City University of New York....
With the all festivals and flags and family, it is easy to forget that all was not wine and roses in America on July 5, 1776.
On that day, it was not even widely known yet that independence had been declared. Americans had enjoyed a period of advantage in the war, but a British armada would soon arrive and change the war’s course, said Jack Rakove, a professor of history at Stanford University and the author of a new book, “Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America.”
“It’s a funny period in one sense,” Mr. Rakove said. “The war goes terribly for the Americans for the rest of the year.”
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - 13:15
SOURCE: NYT (7-5-10)
For a 14th straight year, James S. Kaplan spent the Fourth of July walking in the middle of the night among ghosts of the American Revolution....
Mr. Kaplan, a tax and estate lawyer for whom history is an avocation, feels that the general has been slighted for far too long. This goes beyond the unmarked grave. Historians today are more likely to give Benedict Arnold — yes, that Benedict Arnold, before he became synonymous with treason — the credit for victory at Saratoga.
Arnold was a field commander. Gates wasn’t. “But the whole organization of the battle was really Gates’s,” Mr. Kaplan said after completing this year’s tour. What turned things around for faltering American forces, he said, was Gates’s ability to persuade New England militias to join up with the New York troops....
HE has sparked interest among some in the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. One of them is Denise Doring VanBuren, who lives in Dutchess County and will be installed on Sunday as regent, or chief officer, of the society’s New York State Organization....
Mr. Kaplan, a tax and estate lawyer for whom history is an avocation, feels that the general has been slighted for far too long. This goes beyond the unmarked grave. Historians today are more likely to give Benedict Arnold — yes, that Benedict Arnold, before he became synonymous with treason — the credit for victory at Saratoga.
Arnold was a field commander. Gates wasn’t. “But the whole organization of the battle was really Gates’s,” Mr. Kaplan said after completing this year’s tour. What turned things around for faltering American forces, he said, was Gates’s ability to persuade New England militias to join up with the New York troops....
HE has sparked interest among some in the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. One of them is Denise Doring VanBuren, who lives in Dutchess County and will be installed on Sunday as regent, or chief officer, of the society’s New York State Organization....
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 - 11:58
SOURCE: CHE (7-4-10)
Some time this fall, the U.S. Education Department will publish a report that documents the death of tenure.
Innocuously titled "Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009," the report won't say it's about the demise of tenure. But that's what it will show.
Over just three decades, the proportion of college instructors who are tenured or on the tenure track plummeted: from 57 percent in 1975 to 31 percent in 2007....
Innocuously titled "Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009," the report won't say it's about the demise of tenure. But that's what it will show.
Over just three decades, the proportion of college instructors who are tenured or on the tenure track plummeted: from 57 percent in 1975 to 31 percent in 2007....
Monday, July 5, 2010 - 23:30
SOURCE: NJ.com (7-5-10)
Princeton University historian John Haldon, a leading authority on medieval Byzantine history, can't really remember a time when history didn't intrigue him....
These days, Haldon is a professor of Byzantine history and Hellenic studies at Princeton....
...[O]ne of the ambitious enterprises in which he is currently engaged, which began four years ago, is the Euchaita/Avkat Project in Turkey, near the current-day village of Beyozu....
One of the project's unusual aspects is that it has integrated GIS (geographical information system) technology and mapping right from the beginning of the research.
"We can basically reconstruct the medieval landscape, land-use patterns, communications network, hydrology" and other information into computer models, he said....
These days, Haldon is a professor of Byzantine history and Hellenic studies at Princeton....
...[O]ne of the ambitious enterprises in which he is currently engaged, which began four years ago, is the Euchaita/Avkat Project in Turkey, near the current-day village of Beyozu....
One of the project's unusual aspects is that it has integrated GIS (geographical information system) technology and mapping right from the beginning of the research.
"We can basically reconstruct the medieval landscape, land-use patterns, communications network, hydrology" and other information into computer models, he said....
Monday, July 5, 2010 - 16:25
SOURCE: NYT (7-5-10)
Sedick Isaacs approached the infamous and windswept prison here, now closed, and pounded the door knock. His first trip here, on Dec. 1, 1964, had not been so voluntary or droll. He was bound in chains at the time and dumped out of the back of a truck, not to leave for 13 years.
“When you got here, you were no longer a person, you were a thing,” Isaacs said.
One way that political prisoners maintained their humanity during the apartheid years in this notorious place was to form a soccer league, called the Makana Football Association, which operated from 1969 until 1991 and has received international attention in retrospect during the World Cup....
“These men believed that there would be a free South Africa while they were still alive,” said Chuck Korr, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and the author of a book about the soccer league called “More Than Just a Game.”
“They had every reason to believe that if it wasn’t them, it would be people like them who would have to provide the administrative backbone,” Korr said. “The cliché that sport trains you for life — no it doesn’t, but in this case it did.”...
“When you got here, you were no longer a person, you were a thing,” Isaacs said.
One way that political prisoners maintained their humanity during the apartheid years in this notorious place was to form a soccer league, called the Makana Football Association, which operated from 1969 until 1991 and has received international attention in retrospect during the World Cup....
“These men believed that there would be a free South Africa while they were still alive,” said Chuck Korr, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Missouri at St. Louis and the author of a book about the soccer league called “More Than Just a Game.”
“They had every reason to believe that if it wasn’t them, it would be people like them who would have to provide the administrative backbone,” Korr said. “The cliché that sport trains you for life — no it doesn’t, but in this case it did.”...
Monday, July 5, 2010 - 16:15
SOURCE: AScribe.org (7-1-10)
Soviet photojournalists working for the country's most important newspapers were among the first to document the unfolding Holocaust in their homeland, and they were also witnessing and recording the slaughter of Soviet citizens who, like the photographers themselves, were Jewish.
But the extent to which the Nazis targeted Jews was obscured in the dominant Soviet press during World War II and was suppressed in the Cold War era, during which the Soviets dwelled on the depravity of "fascist troops" murdering "peaceful Soviet citizens."
The Soviet Union's collapse allowed scholars to see a fuller picture of what happened, and to understand the overlapping narratives of Soviets and Jews.
David Shneer, associate professor of history and director of the Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, benefited from that openness. He began researching the issue in 2002, when he visited a photography gallery in Moscow....
But the extent to which the Nazis targeted Jews was obscured in the dominant Soviet press during World War II and was suppressed in the Cold War era, during which the Soviets dwelled on the depravity of "fascist troops" murdering "peaceful Soviet citizens."
The Soviet Union's collapse allowed scholars to see a fuller picture of what happened, and to understand the overlapping narratives of Soviets and Jews.
David Shneer, associate professor of history and director of the Program in Jewish Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, benefited from that openness. He began researching the issue in 2002, when he visited a photography gallery in Moscow....
Thursday, July 1, 2010 - 18:13
SOURCE: Middle East Forum (7-1-10)
The Middle East Forum is pleased to announce that Efraim Karsh, the distinguished historian, will become editor of the Middle East Quarterly starting with the Fall 2010 issue.
Mr. Karsh has taught at King's College London since 1989, where he has just ended a sixteen-year stint as founding director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Studies Program and is now a research professor.
Previously, Mr. Karsh held various academic posts at Columbia University, the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics, Helsinki University, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in Washington D.C., and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel-Aviv University. In 2003 he was the first Nahshon Visiting Professor in Israel Studies at Harvard.
He earned his undergraduate degree in Arabic language and literature and modern Middle Eastern history from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his graduate and doctoral degrees in international relations from Tel Aviv University....
Mr. Karsh has taught at King's College London since 1989, where he has just ended a sixteen-year stint as founding director of the Middle East and Mediterranean Studies Program and is now a research professor.
Previously, Mr. Karsh held various academic posts at Columbia University, the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics, Helsinki University, the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in Washington D.C., and the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel-Aviv University. In 2003 he was the first Nahshon Visiting Professor in Israel Studies at Harvard.
He earned his undergraduate degree in Arabic language and literature and modern Middle Eastern history from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his graduate and doctoral degrees in international relations from Tel Aviv University....
Thursday, July 1, 2010 - 11:30
SOURCE: U.S. News & World Report (7-1-10)
Ten years before President Ronald Reagan stood in Berlin to demand,"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" communism's demise was in no way assured. Decades of proxy wars saw communist and capitalist powers bargaining and competing for footholds around the world. British historian and former Oxford University professor Norman Stone's book The Atlantic and Its Enemies: A History of the Cold War begins just as World War II allies become Cold War competitors. He follows the successes and failures on both sides of the Iron Curtain until communism finally falls, along with the Berlin Wall. Stone, who lives in Oxford and Istanbul, recently talked with U.S. News about the Cold War and its lessons for today. Excerpts:
Why did you decide to write this now?
If you were writing in the 1990s, you could write the most awful romantic guff about the emergence of free nations. The formula for bringing capitalism and free markets to the ex-Communist countries didn't go as planned, so that perspective saved me from writing a lot of cheesy propaganda.
What surprised you in writing about the Cold War period?
I was impressed by the resilience of the Anglo-American world, its propensity for change.
Thursday, July 1, 2010 - 11:25
- « first
- ‹ previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
