Roundup: Talking About History

October 8, 2004

Skeleton Find Stumps Kapiti (New Zealand)

Kay Blundell, The Dominion Post (Wellington, New Zealand), 04 Oct. 2004 A subdivision in Paraparaumu has been stopped dead in its tracks by the discovery of skeletons in shallow graves believed to be more than 100 years old. The skeletons -- believed to be of at least four or five bodies, including that of possibly a younger person -- were discovered by workmen using a digger and have historians, police and local Maori stumped. They were found on a 20-hectare block of land

October 8, 2004

Mission To Vindicate North Pole 'Conqueror'

Lee Glendinning, The Guardian (London), 02 Oct. 2004 Near the start of the last century, US Commander Robert Peary claimed he had mastered a seemingly unreachable feat: after 20 years of trying, he had reached the north pole in 38 days - the fastest time anyone had trekked to the top of the Earth. But how was this possible? Surely, at 54, he was too old for the way the arctic ravages the body. He had lost all his toes in previous expeditions and was travelling with a wooden sled

October 8, 2004

Beatification Stokes Controversy Over Charles I's Legacy

Tony Barber, Financial Times (London, England), 02 Oct. 2004 In the eyes of his critics, Emperor Charles I, the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian empire, was at best an incompetent fool, at worst a war criminal. But in the Vatican's opinion he was a miracle-worker, and on Sunday Pope John Paul II will hold a ceremony in St Peter's Square at which Charles will be beatified, putting him on the home stretch to sainthood. Since he became pope in October 1978, John Paul has c

October 8, 2004

First King Of Scots Thought To Be A Pict

Ian Johnston, The Scotsman, 02 Oct. 2004 In 843AD, the kingdom of Scotland was created when Kenneth MacAlpine led an army of Scots to victory over the Picts. There have even been calls for a field near Stirling where the battle is said to have been fought - which attracts scores of tourists from America and elsewhere - to be officially recognised by the Scottish Parliament as the"birthplace of the nation". But a forthcoming book by St Andrews University historian Alex Wool

October 7, 2004

Theodor Herzl: On the Anniversary of His Death 100 Years Ago

CenterAustria, University of New Orleans Press Release Herzl Symposium (Oct. 3rd/4th in New Orleans) CenterAustria of the University of New Orleans and the Program for Jewish Studies at Tulane University, with the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, jointly organized a small symposium on Theodor Herzl on the occasion of the anniversary of his death 100 years ago (3 July 1904). The symposium suggested that Herzl as a founding father of Zionis

October 5, 2004

How Kissinger Snookered Journalists: What New Transcripts Show

Jack Shafer, in Slate (Oct. 4, 2004):During his years as national security adviser and secretary of state, Henry Kissinger wooed the Washington press corps with the flowers and chocolate of flattery and access. As Walter Isaacson writes in his 1992 biography, Kissinger, opinion columnists and the reporters who covered the State Department or the White House grew especially captivated by his charms....All t

October 1, 2004

Caribbean Slave Ship 'Trouvadore' Explored

Carol J. Williams, Los Angeles Times, 30 Sept. 2004 Lobster fisherman Dolphus Arthur spotted the wooden hull 25 years ago, nearly buried in the fine silt between two massive hydras of coral just off the coast of uninhabited East Caicos. Over the years, he'd occasionally see the shipwreck as he piloted his open boat around the craggy reef or dived for his spiny prey. But he didn't know until archeologists discovered the ruin this month that the ship probably carried his own ances

October 1, 2004

The Notion Of 'Apology' In (British) History

Allan Massie, The Independent (London), 30 Sept. 2004"Never explain: never apologise." The sentiment is attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, and, though it may run counter to the Biblical adage,"a soft answer turneth away wrath", is usually good advice for politicians. At least it was till recently. Now, in the age of Oprah, apologies are thought to be in order. Say"sorry" and all is forgiven. So, in Brighton on Tuesday, Tony Blair seemed for a moment to have apologised for taking us to wa

October 1, 2004

The Final Days Of IL Duce, By His Son

Richard Owen, The Times (London), 29 Sept. 2004 Mussolini drove his wife to attempted suicide, considered"abandoning" Hitler and thought that if captured by the Allies he would be put on trial in Madison Square Garden, according to his youngest son. The revelations emerge from Il Duce, My Father, a memoir by Romano Mussolini, 77, the last of the dictator's five children still living. Signor Mussolini, a respected jazz musician who rarely speaks publicly about his father, s

October 1, 2004

Revisiting Japanese Internment Of WWII

Suzi Parker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 29 Sept. 2004 Little Rock --- When Glenn Nomura was a child, he never felt a part of any community. A Japanese-American, he grew up amid hushed murmurs about an era when his parents and grandparents lived in internment camps in southeastern Arkansas. He never quite grasped the entire story --- until this past weekend. "I never felt part of the American fabric," said Nomura, now a chemistry professor at Georgia Perimeter College."And I

October 1, 2004

Scottish Seaside Explored For Clues On Scotland's History

Vicky Collins, The Herald (Glasgow), 27 Sept. 2004 THE towering columns of rock dotted around Scotland's coastline have long fascinated climbers and historians, due to their inaccessibility. Now a team of archaeologists is using climbing equipment to scale the sea stacks around Lewis and Shetland, some of the hardest to reach areas in Scotland. The Severe Terrain Archaeological Campaign (Stac) began as a pilot project in June 2003. Since then Chris Barrowman and his

October 1, 2004

White House's Lincoln Bedroom Being Remodeled

Linda Hales, The Washington Post, 25 Sept. 2004 Whatever Election Day holds for her husband, Laura Bush is about to establish her own White House legacy in a bold transformation of the Lincoln Bedroom. When completed later this fall, the nation's most famous guest room will retain the celebrated rosewood bed bought by Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861 as its centerpiece. Flamboyant rococo revival furniture by renowned cabinetmaker John Henry Belter will remain. And a copy of the Emanc

October 1, 2004

Library Of Congress Exhibit Celebrates Three Centuries Of U.S. Jewish Heritage

Bill Broadway, The Washington Post, 25 Sept. 2004 A larger-than-life image of conductor Leonard Bernstein greets visitors to a major new exhibit at the Library of Congress, followed by portraits of 1945 Miss America Bess Myerson, 1930s boxing champion Barney Ross, an unnamed girl protesting child labor in 1909, 19th-century statesman Judah P. Benjamin and 18th-century matriarch Abigail Franks. Those and other figures dominate the entrance hall to"From Haven to Home: 350 Years o

October 1, 2004

The Development Of Freedom In Germany And Japan

A.C. Grayling, The Times (London), 25 Sept. 2004 After the Allies conquered Germany and Japan at the end of the Second World War they were able to administer and rebuild both countries peacefully, within a few years allowing each to resume independent and stable self-government and economic progress. The example thus set is rare in history. Almost every other documented precedent, from Roman Britain to today's Central Asia and Iraq, teaches a woefully different lesson: that when

October 1, 2004

Germany Finally Honours Spy Who Gave Nazi Secrets To America

Tony Paterson, The Independent (London), 25 Sept. 2004 Berlin - Fritz Kolbe, a German bureaucrat described by the CIA as the most important spy of the Second World War, has won recognition at last from his country Reuters/Peter Kolbe FEW VISITORS to Berlin's vast concrete and glass foreign ministry building take much notice of the brass plate bearing the name Fritz Kolbe, affixed just three weeks ago to the door of one of its elegant wood-panelled conference rooms. Most Germans

October 1, 2004

Spanish Novelist,Camilo Jose Cela, Spied For Franco's Regime

Giles Tremlett, The Guardian (London), 25 Sept. 2004 Madrid - One of Spain's greatest modern novelists was an informer for Franco's fascist regime and betrayed fellow intellectuals during the 1960s, according to recently discovered official records. Camilo Jose Cela, the last Spaniard to win the Nobel prize for literature, continued to inform against other authors and academics even when they thought he had joined an emerging front of dissident writers. The revelations hav

September 30, 2004

George Washington And Whiskey Production

Peter Carlson, Washington Post, 30 Sept. 2004"Whiskey," said Peter Cressy,"has played a very important role in our national history." ... Cressy, president of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, was at Mount Vernon, standing next to a copper whiskey still and two wooden barrels labeled"George Washington Distillery," explaining his historic mission. "This is about more than the distillery," he said."It's about bringing George Washington to life." ... Whi

September 29, 2004

What History Museums Try to Accomplish in the 21st Century

Julia M. Klein, in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Sept. 28, 2004): What is a museum for? Most art museums remain pristine repositories of beautiful objects, lovingly displayed. Science museums, by contrast, tend to worship at the altar of interactivity, wowing visitors with technology. History museums fall somewhere in the middle, and they are changing rapidly. The latest are neither mere cabinets o

September 29, 2004

The Founder of the New Historicism Has a New Book Out ... About Shakespeare

Richard Byrne, in the Chronicle of Higher Educaton (subscribers only) (Sept. 28, 2004): ... [T]he overall narrative thread of Shakespeare's life is frayed in many places, and broken completely in others.Tying that thread back together is the goal of Stephen Greenblatt's new biography, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare (W.W. Norton). In the book, Mr. Greenblatt seeks to combine the scholarsh

September 24, 2004

China Gives No Ground In Spats Over History

Edward Cody, The Washington Post, 22 Sept. 2004 With diplomats jetting off for marathon negotiations and editorial writers fulminating about national honor, a recent quarrel between China and South Korea had all the trappings of a modern diplomatic crisis. Except for one thing: The dispute was over a kingdom last heard from in A.D. 668. Chinese researchers participating in a government-funded project on ancient societies in northern China had concluded that Goguryeo, in its ear