Roundup: Talking About History

June 6, 2004

The Commemoration of D-Day Forgot One War Veterans' Group: Indians

David Yeagley, adjunct professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Liberal Studies, in frontpagemag.com (June 1, 2004):I’m still an American Indian patriot. Even after watching CNN’s 90 minute program featuring the May 29 dedications of the new National WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C., I still love this country, more than ever. No, I didn’t hear one mention of the American Indian. No one acknowledged themore than 190,000 livi

June 4, 2004

A Frenchman's View of the Meaning of D-Day

Andre Glucksman, in the WSJ (June 4, 2004):... It wasn't until the middle of the 1970s that a President of the Federal Republic clearly and distinctly admitted that Germany had been "liberated" rather than "invaded" at the end of the Second World War. It was to display the crucial difference between these two words that people -- both close to me and

June 3, 2004

Hudson Bay Blankets--Used to Infect Indians with Smallpox?

Rita Trichur, in the Montreal Gazette (May 25, 2004):For most Canadians, the Hudson's Bay blanket is a symbol of Canadian identity; a cherished emblem of the fur trade representing exploration, wilderness survival and the birth of a nation. But as the Hudson's Bay Co. relaunches its historic multi-stripped blanket as part of a new Hbc Signature collection, a provocative Canadian art exhibit touring the country is suggesting the icon is tainted by contro

June 3, 2004

D-Day--As Kids Remember It (Prepare Yourself)

Chris Hasting and Julie Henry, in the Sunday Telegraph (London) (May 30, 2004):IT IS 1899 and Denzel Washington, the American president, orders Anne Frank and her troops to storm the beaches of Nazi-occupied New Zealand. This may not be how you remember D-Day but for a worrying number of Britain's children this is the confused scenario they associate with the events of June 6, 1944.A survey of 1,309 pupils aged between 10 and 14 and from 24 diffe

June 3, 2004

The 18th Century Spanish Sailor Everybody's Ignored--Until Now

John Noble Wilford, in the NYT (June 1, 2004):Capt. James Cook needs no introduction. Son of the commonest soil of Yorkshire, he rose to command three voyages that opened European minds to the wide world of the Pacific Ocean and epitomized maritime exploration in the 18th-century Enlightenment. Even his cruel death, in 1779, only magnified his heroic reputation. Then there is Alejandro

June 3, 2004

The Myth of Tiananmen Square

Bao Tong, former director of the Office of Political Reform of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, was the highest party official imprisoned for opposing the Tiananmen Square crackdown, in the WSJ (June 1, 2004):It's fashionable in some quarters today to argue that China owes its present prosperity, at least in part, to the Tiananmen crackdown. That the supposed

June 3, 2004

Theodore Rabb: History Is Being Left Behind as Schools Rush to Comply with the No Child Left Behind Act

Theodore K. Rabb, a professor of history at Princeton University, in the Chronicle of Higher Education (June 4, 2004):...Appalled by what has happened to historical literacy, three years ago Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia persuaded his colleagues in Congress to support a program, Teaching American History, to enable school districts around the country to enhance teachers' knowledge an

May 31, 2004

Why We Argue So Much About War Memorials

Philip Kennicott, in the Wash Post (May 30, 2004):Americans find the making of large national monuments so contentious and painful that it's surprising we build any at all. From 1987, when the idea was proposed in Congress, through this weekend's opening festivities, the National World War II Memorial has provoked so much controversy that it would be tempting to dismis

May 30, 2004

In Memory of the First Black Columnist at the Chicago Tribune

Les Payne, in memory of Vernon Jarrett, the first black columnist at the Chicago Tribune; in Newsday (May 30, 2004):Two hours away from my lecture at Stillman College, I needed a grenade. Speakers should always arm themselves with this percussion device when steadying the wandering minds of students at college, even a Presbyterian one like Stil

May 29, 2004

Anniversary of the Single Most Consequential Law in American History

From the Associated Press (May 29, 2004):Take out your pencils and a clean sheet of notebook paper. Sunday being the 150th anniversary of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, here's a pop history quiz.Pretend the act died in Congress instead of being signed by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854. With that in mind, answer these three questions:When was slavery abolished in

May 29, 2004

Are History Teachers Up to the Task of Educating Students About War?

Marissa Nelson, in Canada's London Free Press News (May 29, 2004):Teachers are the key to keeping our country's history alive, but at least one noted historian questions their ability to handle the responsibility. "It's a bleak picture . . . I wish they were up for the job," says Jack Granatstein, chairperson of the Council for Canadian Security in the 21st Century

May 28, 2004

Thomas Fleming: The Real Story Behind Napoleon's Sale of Louisiana

From the American Revolution Roundtable (June 2004): On Tuesday, March 30, Tom Fleming treated Round Tablers to a highly unorthodox version of how the United States persuaded Napoleon Bonaparte to sell the United States the vast territory of Louisiana. He began with President Thomas Jefferson's startling 1801 offer to the French government to help it regain the island of Santo Domingo, and incidentally eliminate its black revolutionary ruler, Toussaint L'Ouverture. From there

May 28, 2004

Students Don't Know Much About WW II Except the Internment Camps

Jay Matthews, in the Wash Post (May 28, 2004): Tiffany Charles got a B in history last year at her Montgomery County high school, but she is not sure what year World War II ended. She cannot name a single general or battle, or the man who was president during the most dramatic hours of the 20th century.Yet the 16-year-old does remember in some detail that many Japanese American fami

May 28, 2004

Charles Krauthammer: The WW II Memorial Is a Failure

Charles Krauthammer, in the Wash Post (May 28, 2004):Those of us who publicly opposed placing the National World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington argued that doing so was a prescription for failure. If the memorial were to respect the sight lines, symmetries and elegance of the Mall, it would be too small to do justice to the grandeur of the Second World War. And if t

May 27, 2004

Fact & Fiction in the Movie Troy

Rachel Browne, in the Australian Sun Herald (May 23, 2004):DR Blanche Menadier is an honorary research associate at Macquarie University who has excavated at Troy nine times. She gives her verdict on how the film Troy compares with The Iliad. * Fact: The area believed to be Troy is situated near two rivers, overlooking a fertile plain.* Fiction: The film Troy was shot in a sandy, barren area of Malta which looks nothing like Turkey's Aegean coast

May 26, 2004

The Battle that Made Great Britain Great ... The Battle of the Plains of Abraham?

Randy Boswell, in the Gazette (Montreal) (May 22, 2004):Canada was the Ground Zero of modern history, says a controversial new book by a bestselling British author. Historian Frank McLynn says the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, long understood by Canadians to be the pivotal event in this country's past, should really be seen as the turning point in the entire history of the modern world.The victory over the French not only marked the birth of the B

May 26, 2004

Slate's Timothy Noah: Why I Like the New WW II Memorial

Timothy Noah, in Slate (May 24, 2004): What is so godawful about Washington's new World War II Memorial? Not even Pappy Chatterbox, a card-carrying member of the Greatest Generation (he had a desk job in Florida, but still can't bring himself to laugh at Mel Brooks'"Springtime for Hitler") c

May 24, 2004

How Your Generation Affects How You Think About Events

Liz Taylor, in the Seattle Times (May 24, 2004):Over a decade ago, William Strauss and Neil Howe wrote a timeless book,"Generations," (Perennial, $16.95) in which they discussed the intriguing phenomenon they call the"peer personality" of the generations. That is, every birth group has a personality, shaped by events that happened to its members w

May 22, 2004

The Supreme Court Case that Got Right What Brown Got Wrong

Ian Haney Lopez, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, in the NYT (May 22, 2004):With commemorations from coast to coast to remind them, most Americans already know that this week was the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. Unfortunately, what they don't realize is that the country missed an equally important anniversary two weeks ago, that of Hernandez

May 22, 2004

Joel Beinin: The Golden Age of the Israeli Military

Joel Beinin, in the Nation (May 13, 2004):For the last three and a half years the Israeli army has deployed American-supplied F-16 fighter jets, Apache helicopters, armored Caterpillar bulldozers and Merkava tanks powered by engines made in the USA in an unsuccessful effort to suppress the second Palestinian uprising. According to both Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, Israel is engaged in a wa