Roundup: Talking About History

China Beat: Reflecting on Tiananmen, 20 Years Later

China Beat sent out a note to a few scholars and journalists who have carefully watched and written about the events of 1989, asking them to send in short commentaries detailing what they wish more people knew, associated with, or remembered about that spring. Here is the first of their responses. ### John Gittings is a research associate with the Centre for Chinese Studies at the School of Oriental & African Studies and a former writer and editor at The Guardian. He is

Hugh Eakin: Who Should Own the World's Antiquities?

Last June, the directors of the leading art museums of the United States agreed to limit their acquisitions of antiquities to works that have left their "country of probable modern discovery" before 1970, or that were exported legally after that date. On the face of it, the decision, issued by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), did no more than update guidelines for ancient art—one of a number of such policy refinements by the association in recent years. In fact, however,

Timothy W. Ryback: Hitler's Private Library

[Mr. Ryback is the author of Hitler's Private Library.] FOR HIM THE LIBRARY represented a Pierian spring, that metaphorical source of knowledge and inspiration. He drew deeply there, quelling his intellectual insecurities and nourishing his fanatic a

Martin Shaw: A century of genocide, 1915-2009

[Martin Shaw is a historical sociologist of war and global politics, and professor of international relations and politics at the University of Sussex.] When Armenian leaders in Constantinople (now Istanbul) were massacred on 24 April 1915, it was the signal for killings and deportations of Armenians across eastern Anatolia, then the heartland of the Ottoman empire and the core territory of what was in 1923 to become the Republic of Turkey.... That the genocide remains

Charles Stanish: How I learned to stop worrying and love eBay

A little over a decade ago, archaeologists experienced a collective nightmare--the emergence of eBay, the Internet auction site that, among other things, lets people sell looted artifacts. The black market for antiquities has existed for centuries, of course, with devastating consequences for the world's cultural heritage. But we could at least take some comfort that it was largely confined to either high-end dealers on one end of the economic spectrum or rural flea markets on the other. The she

Simon Heffer: Thank Henry VIII for laying those foundations of freedom

History is now a multi-media theme park through which many choose to pass for light entertainment. The journey is often superficial and conducted by the inexpert. Occasionally one travels first class, such as with Dr Richard Holmes, the peerless military historian, or Dr David Starkey, the Tudor titan. However, these men who rely on serious documentary research in order to present the public with a version of the past no less entertaining for being true and revelatory find themselves jostled by

Stacy Schiff: Who’s Buried in Cleopatra’s Tomb?

[Stacy Schiff, the author of “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America,” is working on a book about Cleopatra.] WHAT becomes a legend most? If you’re a woman, the formula is straightforward. Your best bets are the three D’s: delusion (Joan of Arc), disability (Helen Keller), death (Sylvia Plath). You get extra points for the savage, sudden or surprising demise, as Evita, Amelia or Diana attests. At the head of the list of untimely self-destructors comes of co

Simon Heffer: Thank Henry VIII for laying those foundations of freedom

[Simon Heffer is a British journalist, columnist and writer.] History is now a multi-media theme park through which many choose to pass for light entertainment. The journey is often superficial and conducted by the inexpert. Occasionally one travels first class, such as with Dr Richard Holmes, the peerless military historian, or Dr David Starkey, the Tudor titan. However, these men who rely on serious documentary research in order to present the public with a version of the past no

Dominic Sandbrook: Why we love history in 10-year chapters

Until a few years ago, travellers into our national past spent little time in the territory closest to us. They set the co-ordinates of their time machines for the glamour and danger of the Tudors, or the high drama of Britain Alone in 1940, whizzing past the social and cultural changes of the post-war years without a second thought. But in the last few years, with the success of books like David Kynaston's Austerity Britain 1945-51, a wonderful evocation of everyday life under the Attlee govern

Philip J Cunningham: The Forgotten Meaning of Tiananmen

[Philip J Cunningham marched with student protesters in 1989 at Tiananmen Square and conducted interviews with student activists for BBC and ABC news. His memoir, Tiananmen Moon; Inside the Chinese Student Uprising in 1989, will be published in May by Rowman Littlefield.] “Tiananmen” is a taboo topic in China. But even in places where it is remembered and commemorated, the Beijing student movement of 1989 is best known for its bloody ending on June 4, a tragic turning point of unque

Hasia R. Diner : Postwar American Jews did not ignore the Holocaust

[Hasia R. Diner is a professor of history and Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University. This essay is adapted from her book We Remember With Reverence and Love: American Jews and the Myth of Silence after the Holocaust, 1945-1962, published this month by New York University Press.] ...In the years following the end of World War II, which witnessed the destruction of one-third of the Jewish people, American Jews found numerous times and places to publicly express their anguis

Tom Grunfeld: Uncle Ho and Uncle Sam

[ Tom Grunfeld is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor at Empire State College and is the author of many works, including The Making of Modern Tibet.] Uncle Ho and Uncle Sam, Produced by Richard Bradley, BBC/Arts and Entertainment Networks co-production, 1995. 50 minutes. A TimeWatch film. [BBC documentary series]During

David McCullough: A Masterpiece in Jeopardy (Re: Brooklyn Bridge)

The most long lasting of great American works, the structure destined "to convey some knowledge of us to remote posterity," said a New York writer long ago, was "not a shrine, not a fortress, not a palace, but a bridge." That was in the spring of 1883, 126 years past, when the completed Brooklyn Bridge opened to the most exuberant public celebration of the era, complete with the president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, leading the grand parade on foot from New Yor

Editorial in the Times (UK): Bush Bears Blame for Torture

George W. Bush authorised the use of torture. He did so using the most cowardly means: the legal loophole. The Obama Administration yesterday released details of memorandums drawn up by officials that outline the kinds of stress positions, physical abuse and mental punishments that US interrogators could use while remaining within the letter of the law. These practices, of course, far from comply with the spirit of the law. They make disturbing reading. They detail the simulated dro

Humberto Fontova: Remembering the Bay of Pigs

[Humberto Fontova is the author of Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him. Visit www.hfontova.com] "Freedom is our goal!" roared commander Pepe San Roman to the men assembled before him 48 years ago this week. “Cuba is our cause! God is on our side! On to victory!” Fifteen hundred men crowded before San Roman at their Guatemalan training camps that day. The next day they’d embark for a port in Nicaragua, an

David Clark: Ten Years On, Kosovo Still Contentious

[David Clark served as Europe adviser at the Foreign Office, 1997-2001.] Ten years after Nato jets went into action against Serbia, the Kosovo war remains as controversial as ever. Welcomed by many at the time as evidence of a humanitarian world order in the making, its legacy has been overtaken, subsumed and ultimately distorted by the debate about the war on terror. What Vaclav Havel called "the first war for values" is now more often described as a dangerous precedent.

Annette Gordon-Reed: Thomas Jefferson is still relevant today

[Annette Gordon-Reed won the 2008 National Book Award for "The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family." A law professor at New York Law School and a history professor at Rutgers University, she will speak at the dedication of a new visitors center Wednesday at Monticello.] Does the legacy of Thomas Jefferson speak to Americans today? Or perhaps we should ask about Jefferson's legacies, for there are many. His fingerprints are everywhere. Politics, governm

Grover G. Norquist: Did Reagan Win the Cold War?

[Grover G. Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform.] Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1976 and 1980 challenging the establishment's views on domestic economic policy and foreign policy vis-à-vis the Soviet Empire. Reagan first defeated and then largely absorbed the Republican establishment on both domestic and foreign policy. Howard Baker, once a contender for the 1980 Republican nomination did vote for the Reagan income tax rate reductions, while callin

Richard Cohen: Delving Into Bush's Legacy

[Richard Cohen writes for the New York Daily News.] Former President George Bush and some of his White House aides are gathering in Dallas to plan the future George W. Bush Policy Institute. There, I guess, they will ponder grand themes and marble foyers, but I propose they begin by simply renaming the place. I suggest the "George W. Bush Institute of Management Failure" and dedicate it to studying how this presidency went so wrong - a task as big as Texas. Bu

Barbara Mahany: Gettysburg Address: Four score and one 7-year-old's tears ago

[HNN Editor: In this article reporter Barbara Mahany recalls a recent trip she and her family took, at her young son's insistence, to Gettysburg, where he delivered the famous address as his parents and older brother looked on.] ... We looked in, each of us, zeroed our eyes on his face, trying to read the root of the slowed-down reading. Only then, as the next few words sputtered, did I see what I thought looked like a tear. And then another and another. H