Roundup: Talking About History

Nick Barratt: Britain's "Great Exhibition" 1851 Cenus Information Available Online

On Thursday, the 1851 census was made available online by Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk). This is the earliest set of census records to contain detailed information about our ancestors - the 1841 returns merely provide name, approximate age and occupation - and it provides a snapshot of the British population in one of the most important periods of our nation's history. The Great Exhibition took place in the same year, showcasing the cream of British talen

Max Holland: The Politics (and Profits) of Information: The 9/11 Commission One Year Later

... Traditionally ... final reports of important commission have been supplemented by publication of the public and private hearings, staff reports and the actual documents used to compile the findings. Take a look at the shelf space occupied by some major probes since 1945: these include the 1946 congressional inquiry into the Pearl Harbor attack (40 volumes); the 1964 Warren Commission investigation of President Kennedy's assassination (27); and the 1975-76 Church Committee investigation of th

Mary Braid: Britain Hunting Memories From Last Of WWI Veterans

'I could never take it in,' says Henry Allingham, shaking his head. 'Men you had been speaking to but half an hour before burning alive and there was nothing you could do to help.' At the age of 109, the UK's oldest man and First World War veteran, is talking in his Eastbourne flat about the war that was supposed to end all wars. A jolly, optimistic old man, Mr Allingham finds it very painful to remember the conflict, but as Remembrance Sunday approaches he is prepared to recall the

Jamie Stiehm: Americans Honor Frenchmen Who Fought In Revolutionary War

Forty U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen arrived at the St. John's College campus under an autumn sky on a mission: to honor French soldiers who fought side by side with Americans during the Revolutionary War. Like everything else in the 42nd annual Wreath Laying Ceremony at the National Monument for French Soldiers and Sailors on Thursday, midshipman Brian Chadwick's speech hit a trans-Atlantic note - delivered in both French and English. Addressing the gathering of about 2

Gary Y. Okihiro: Japanese Americans and the Making of U.S. Democracy During World War II

Gary Y. Okihiro is Professor of International and Public Affairs and Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia University. He is the author of numerous books including The Columbia Guide to Asian American History. Written for Japan Focus, October 26, 2005.[This i

Juan Williams: The Long History of a Bus Ride

ROSA PARKS led an inspiring life. Unfortunately, we rarely hear about it. That may sound surprising at a time when Rosa Parks is probably mentioned in every American history textbook and is the subject of dozens of biographies. The problem is that her story is usually presented as a simplistic morality tale. It is a paint-by-the numbers picture of virtue that goes like this: On Dec. 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks is an ordinary 42-year-old seamstress in downtown Montgomery, Ala.

Paul Rogat Loeb: The Real Rosa Parks

[Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, named the #3 political book of fall 2004 by the History Channel and the American Book Association, and winner of the Nautilus Award for best social change book of the year. His previous books include Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. See www.paulloeb.org To receive his monthly articles email sympa@onenw.org with the subject line: subscribe paulloeb

Martin E. Marty: Multiple Choices from the Founders

The "Founding Fathers," or "Founders," are getting worked over in public affairs, and especially in religious matters, more than ever before. With courts wrestling with issues of church and state, educators fighting over ways to treat faith and faiths in public institutions, and communities battling over the place of religious symbols on "everybody's spaces" like courthouse lawns and walls, we often find citations from figures like Washington, Jefferson, Ad

Ira Berlin: The Surprising Importance of Slavery in NY's History

... For decades [University of Maryland Professor Ira Berlin] has researched parts of slavery's history that were often overlooked. Now he has helped organize the exhibit Slavery in New York that opened at the New York Historical Society this month, telling the surprising tale of the vital importance of slaves in the history of the country's most important city. ...Did you learn anything surprising about slavery in your hometown while working on this exhibit and catalog?

Patrick Buchanan: Nelson Mandela Doesn't Belong in Trafalgar Square

“Partial firing continued until 4:30, when a victory having been reported to the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Nelson, KB and commander in chief, he then died of his wound.” So reads the simple entry in the log of HMS Victory for Oct. 21, 1805, the day of Trafalgar, one of the greatest sea battles of history, in which Admiral Horatio Nelson, architect of the Royal Navy victory over the French and Spanish fleets, lost his life. On this month’s 200th anniversary of that batt

David J. Garrow: History Almost Passed Parks By

[David J. Garrow, DAVID J. GARROW, a senior fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge, is the author of "Bearing the Cross" (Quill, 1999), the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Martin Luther King Jr.] Rosa Parks, who died Monday at 92, was the U.S. civil rights movement's most famous heroine. Her refusal to give up her seat on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 initiated a successful yearlong bus boycott that marked the onset of Southern direct-action protests. A decade

Carle Nolte: Arcadia Publishing Makes Money On Nostalgia/History

[Carl Nolte is the author of "The San Francisco Century," published by the San Francisco Chronicle Press.] The biggest thing in the history book business these days is Arcadia Publishing -- a company that thinks small. Arcadia's specialty is a line of standardized little books about city neighborhoods, small towns, fire and police departments, and obscure railroads. Arcadia is the master of the niche market, with a huge list of books (2,367 titles in its "

Douglas Brinkley: Rosa Parks, Reluctant Hero

GAZING ACROSS the Detroit River at the skyline of Windsor, Ontario, one late afternoon in 1999, Rosa Parks reminisced about her heroes. ''That's where Harriet Tubman found freedom," she said, pointing to Canada. ''Just down the river was one of the most popular crossings for escaped slaves fleeing America." She mused at the fact that Tubman -- the driving force of the Underground Railroad -- had died one month after her birth in Tuskegee, Ala. It was as if the freedom baton had been pa

Elaine Woo: Rosa Parks Set Wheels Of Justice In Motion

Rosa Parks, the Alabama seamstress whose simple act of defiance on a segregated Montgomery bus in 1955 stirred the nonviolent protests of the modern civil rights movement and catapulted an unknown minister named Martin Luther King Jr. to international prominence, died Monday of natural causes at her home in Detroit. She was 92. Often called the mother of the movement that led to the dismantling of institutionalized segregation in the South, Parks became a symbol of human dignity whe

1905 Portsmouth Treaty A Team Effort

Lecturing on the historical significance of the Portsmouth Treaty, a U.S. historian said pluralistic diplomacy, comprising the cooperation of local residents together with mediatory efforts of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt induced Japan and Russia to reach a compromise and sign the treaty that ended the 1904-5 Russo-Japanese War. Peter Randall, 64, of Portsmouth, N.H., spoke on the treaty at the lecture held in Tokyo on Tuesday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the treaty.

Elanor Cowie: Lord Nelson A Hero Who Is Worth The Hype

The annals of history are strewn with the names of great men and women who were born into their generation at precisely the right moment to achieve great things. In doing so, they cement their lives and legacies in the public consciousness and the cultural identity of their homelands. For Great Britain - or, some might argue, England - one man who accomplished this feat was Horatio Nelson. His decisive victory at Trafalgar in 1805 lifted the threat of invasion by Napoleon's armies and helped ens

Peter Whitfield: Maps Were Originally Works Of Art

[Peter Whitfield is author of "Cities of the World: A History in Maps" (British Library).] The names of the great cities of the ancient world echo in the mind like evocative fragments of poetry: Babylon, Nineveh, Persepolis, Thebes, Rome, Athens, Alexandria. Historians have told us repeatedly that the earliest cities were the fountainheads of civilisation, that their founding signalled the end of the pastoral and nomadic life and the beginning of law, government, architect

Stuart Scott: Australian Gangster's Moll's 1930s Rolls-Royce Up For Auction

Gangster's moll Cecilia Hall had poor taste in men, but fine taste in cars. A colourful figure in the Melbourne underworld in the 1930s, she drove a rare Rolls-Royce. Though Cecilia has disappeared -- she fled Australia with a price on her head after being unfaithful -- the Rolls has re-appeared in all its former glory and will be one of the star attractions at a classic-car auction in Sydney today. Melbourne auto historian Michael Browning this week said t

Kevin Moran: Analysis Of Historical Menus Reveal Fishing Patterns

Scientists trying to document worldwide commercial fishing trends in the last 150 years are turning to a seemingly unscientific data source - thousands of old restaurant menus. Odd as it seems, the menu analysis by Texas A&M University-Galveston oceanographer Glenn Jones is drawing international interest. He is scheduled to present data from initial studies at a conference of ocean historians in Denmark this week. Some of the information Jones has gleaned might shoc

David Ross: Famous English Battle Site, Brunanburh, Perhaps Mis-Located

THE battle which historians regard as England's greatest may have been fought on Scottish soil, it is claimed. The location of the tenthcentury battle of Brunanburh has long been considered one of history's greatest unsolved mysteries. It was there that Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great, destroyed the combined armies of the Scottish king, Causantin mac Aeda, Owain, king of Strathclyde, and Viking king of Dublin, Anlaf Guthfrithson, to confirm his supremacy over th