Roundup: Talking About History

January 18, 2005

Steven Ozment: Courses in Western Civ Are an Antidote to Contemporary Narcissism

From the newsletter of the Chronicle of Higher Education (1-17-05): A glance at the winter issue of "The Public Interest": Defending Western Civ It may smack of the old school, but the Western Civ survey course still fills a serious void in undergraduate history education, says Steven Ozment, a professor of ancient and modern history at Harvard University.Western Civ, Mr. Ozment says, is a time-tested antidote to what he perceives as

January 14, 2005

Ancient Astronomical Atlas Unveiled

Dan Vergano, USA TODAY, 1/12/05 An ancient star atlas lost for centuries and a cutting-edge atlas of the modern universe were unveiled Tuesday by scientists at the American Astronomical Society meeting. Hidden in plain sight for centuries, the star atlas was found on a statue in Italy's National Museum of Archaeology in Naples. Called the Farnese Atlas, the 7-foot-tall marble statue depicts one of the titans of Greek mythology, Atlas, holding a 2-foot-wide globe

January 14, 2005

Assessment Of Britain's New FOIA And Academic/Historical Research

John Crace, The Guardian (London), 1/11/05 On the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, while half the country was asleep and the other half might just as well have been, Britain could finally claim to be a fully paid-up member of the world's democracies. After years of campaigning by pressure groups - not to mention governmental procrastination - the UK joined more than 100 other countries in allowing public access to some official records as its new Freedom of Information A

January 14, 2005

Saturn V Rocket On Display

Guy Gugliotta, The Washington Post, 1/10/05 The tests are the stuff of legend: Towns complaining to NASA because of the noise. Seismographs quivering hundreds of miles away. China cabinets disgorging their contents when all five first-stage engines fired at once. You remember Saturn V. Maybe. If you're old enough. It was the Babe Ruth of rockets, bigger than life and way cool, a teeth-rattling, jaw-dropping, 363-foot, fire-breathing behemoth that could shoot three guys

January 14, 2005

Exceedingly Rare U.S. Coin Back On Display At Federal Reserve In NYC

Glenn Collins, The New York Times, 1/10/05 Until last week, the world's most expensive coin was hidden in the world's most valuable gold vault. That is to say, in the brilliantly lighted blue-and-white stronghold of E Level, the deepest sanctuary of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the city's bank of banks. The coin was locked in a compartment at bedrock, 80 feet below Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan, surrounded by $90 billion worth of gold

January 14, 2005

Burndy Library/Dibner Institute Of MIT May Move To Pittsburgh

Bill Schackner, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania), 1/9/05 Pittsburgh is a leading candidate to land a library and institute now located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that would bring to this city one of the nation's pre-eminent collections on the history of science and technology. The 50,000 rare books, 30,000 secondary titles and assorted other materials include one of the world's three greatest assemblages of works by and about Sir Isaac New

January 14, 2005

Pope Pius XII And The Saving Of Jewish Children

Elaine Sciolino and Jason Horowitz, The New York Times, 1/9/05 In October 1946, just a year after the defeat of the Nazis, the Vatican weighed in on one of the most painful episodes of the postwar era: the refusal to allow Jewish children who had been sheltered by Catholics during the war to return to their own families and communities. A newly disclosed directive on the this subject provides written confirmation of well-known church policy and practices at the t

January 14, 2005

The United Nations: A 60th Birthday Retrospective

Olivia Ward, The Toronto Star, 1/8/05 [Editor's Note: Warning, a longer than normal article.] Plagued by sluggishness, shortcomings and scandal, the United Nations limps toward its 60th birthday next week with many observers - including key supporters - questioning its effectiveness, and even its survival as a credible insititution. Most significantly, it is under attack from the country that once was its greatest booster."As the U.N. approaches

January 14, 2005

The Tainted Science Of Nazi Atrocities

Edward Rothstein, The New York Times, 1/8/05 [Editor's Note: Warning, longer than normal article.] The welcoming image could not be more inspiring. Or more creepy. It is a ''glass man'' standing in an alcove, his red veins lining his transparent shell, his multicolored organs neatly stacked in his abdomen, his arms raised aloft like his gaze, reaching toward the heavens, glorying in the display of his inner self. He was constructed in 1935 by the German Hy

January 14, 2005

Science Aims To Solve Mystery Of King Tut

Ben Hoyle, The Times (London), 1/7/05 Tutankhamun's mummified body has been removed from its tomb and subjected to a CT scan that may finally solve the 3,300-year-old mystery of how he died. A team of doctors and archaeologists conducted the 15-minute test in a specially equipped van parked in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. They hope to establish whether the boy king, made famous by the discovery of his dazzling sarcophagus in 1922, was in fact

January 14, 2005

An Historical Look At Asian Natural Disasters

David Hale, The New York Times, 1/7/05 ''Civilization exists by geologic consent, subject to change without notice,'' wrote the historian Will Durant. The tsunami that struck Asia last month, caused by an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia, is a reminder of the validity of Durant's thesis; so far it has left some 140,000 people dead. Throughout human history, earthquakes have set in motion great economic changes and political revolutions. Last month's tsunami

January 14, 2005

British Museum's "Crystal Skull" A Fake

Steve Connor, The Independent (London), 1/7/05 Some say it has mystical powers derived from its ancient origins as an Aztec symbol of death. Others believe it is one of 13 crystal skulls that will foretell the destiny of humankind when brought together in the same place. Whatever legends are attached to the crystal skull of the British Museum in London, one fact stands out. No other object in the museum's extensive collection has acquired such a cult following fr

January 14, 2005

Art, Christianity, And The Holocaust

Lucie Lehmann-Barclay, Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), 1/7/05 [Editor's Note: Warning - This is a longer than normal piece.] Two works of Christian art predating the Holocaust raise questions about whether they intentionally contributed to anti-Semitism. At first glance, a 20th-century mural and a 12th-century altar cross have little in common. But the controversy each has provoked reaches back into old Christian dogma itself, casting light on the role su

January 14, 2005

Inaugurations Used to Be Simpler Affairs

Jim Malone, in the VOA News (1-12-05): Preparations are nearly complete for President George Bush's second inauguration on January 20. Inauguration activities have grown considerably since the early days of the republic when a presidential inauguration consisted of a simple swearing-in ceremony.Presidential inaugurations are mandated by the U.S. Constitution. It requires that the president repeat a 35-word oath

January 14, 2005

NY Post's Review of C.A. Tripp's Gay Lincoln Biography

Eric Fettmann, in the NY Post (12-27-05):IN the pantheon of presidents, was Abraham Lincoln a queer eye among a bevy of straight guys? Yes, claims a new book, "The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln," which has received the imprimatur of a major publisher (Free Press) and a distinctly supportive article in The New York Times. The book's author, the late C.A. Tripp, was a longtime gay writer and former sex-researcher for Alfred C. Kinsey. And he insists that the

January 14, 2005

Interview with Abraham Rabinovich: The Yom Kippur War as a Turning Point

From Frontpagemag.com, an interview with Abraham Rabinovitch. He was interviewed by Jamie Glazov, the managing editor. Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Abraham Rabinovich, a reporter for the Jerusalem Post and a United States Army veteran. He is the author of the new book The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter that Transformed the Middle East. FP: Mr. Rabinovich, welcome to Frontpage Intervi

January 12, 2005

Richard Brookhiser's NYT Book Review of C.A. Tripp's Gay Lincoln Biography

Richard Brookhiser, in the NYT Book Review (1-9-05): This book is already getting noticed. In ''The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln,'' C. A. Tripp contends that Lincoln had erotic attractions and attachments to men throughout his life, from his youth to his presidency. He further argues that Lincoln's relationships with women were either invented by biographers (his love of Ann Rutledge) or were desolate botches (his courtship of Mary Owens and his marriage to Mary Todd). Tr

January 12, 2005

Inaugurations: New Exhibit at the Library of Congress

From the Washington Post (1-7-05):Top hat in hand, a beaming Woodrow Wilson is standing next to a smiling William Howard Taft. Captured for posterity by a photographer, the usually dour-looking Wilson seems to be enjoying this moment on March 4, 1913, the day of his first inauguration. Inaugurations are pleasant days for presidents and their supporters, and most

January 12, 2005

Andrew Sullivan: How Gay Was Lincoln?

Andrew Sullivan, in the New Republic (1-11-05):How gay was Abraham Lincoln? By asking the question that way, it's perhaps possible to avoid the historically futile, binary question of "gay" versus "straight." Futile, because we are talking about a man who lived well over a century ago, at a time when the very concepts of gay and straight did not exist. And C.A.

January 11, 2005

Hottentots and the Birth of Racism in Europe

From the Chronicle of Higher Education (1-11-05): In 1497, when Europeans first encountered the Khoikhoi people, popularly known as "Hottentots," of present-day South Africa, an important chapter in the cultural history of racism began, says Nicholas Hudson, a professor of English at the University of British Columbia. European explorers initially were repulsed by the Hottentots, who had very different ideas about how to dress, cook, and