This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: The Times (UK)
August 21, 2005
With the 700th anniversary of the death of William Wallace looming, Scots are preparing for a festival of misty-eyed commemoration. However, one of Scotland’s leading historians is about to spoil the party by claiming that the country’s greatest nationalist icon could equally be regarded as a unionist hero. Professor Tom Devine will argue that Wallace’s reputation has significantly changed over the centuries and that middle-class Victorians viewed him as responsible for the Union of 1707.
Source: Daniel Pipes Blog
August 18, 2005
Daniel Pipes reports that the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C. has removed a question from an exam that implied that Abu Nidal, an infamous terrorist, was a freedom fighter.
Source: NCH SUMMARY
August 21, 2005
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) reports that cultural anthropologist Yektan Turkyilmaz was released from prison on 16 August 2005.NCH SUMMARY
On 17 June 2005, Yektan Turkyilmaz (?1972-), a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin, a Ph.D. student of cultural anthropology and a fellow at the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States, was arrested at Yerevan airport and imprisoned for at
Source: BBC
August 20, 2005
An original Albert Einstein manuscript has been unearthed at a university in the Netherlands by a student. Rowdy Boeyink stumbled on the document while he was researching papers belonging to an old friend of Einstein. The paper shows the German genius working on his last major theory -- the Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas.It examines how atoms of a gas behave at extremely low temperatures, in a theory developed in collaboration with Indian physicist Satyendra Nath
Source: NYT
August 21, 2005
More and more people are claiming to have discovered their indigenous ancestries. But what, exactly, makes someone a Native American?On a crisp morning in March at the Jaycee Fairgrounds near Jasper, Ala., the powwow was stirring. Amid pickups with bumper stickers reading ''Native Pride'' and ''The earth does not belong to us. We belong to the earth,'' small groups gathered to check out the booths selling Indian rugs, dancing sticks, homemade knives and genealogy books. On o
Source: CNN
August 20, 2005
The major general was so well known that even his abbreviated signature -- "B. Arnold" -- was sufficient on a pass to ensure anyone safe passage. Now, thanks to a nearly $164,000 matching grant from Save America's Treasures, a public-private partnership between the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the NY State Museum can work to preserve fragile artifacts. Those include the Arnold note that led to his undoing as a traitor.
Source: CNN
August 19, 2005
Move over, Mark Felt. Just three months after the identity of "Deep Throat" was finally made public, authorities are chasing a new lead in one of the 20th century's other great unsolved mysteries: What ever happened to Judge Joseph Crater?A recently discovered letter asserting that Crater was murdered and buried near the Coney Island boardwalk prompted tabloid headlines Friday about a case that has puzzled authorities ever since the newly minted judge entered
Source: New Yorker
August 22, 2005
Bruce Lawrence, a professor of Islamic studies at Duke University, has agreed at the request of Verso Books, to edit and write an introduction to “Messages to the World,” a compendium of bin Laden's communiqués from 1994 to 2004. (This is the first time that the major texts will be available in English in their entirety.) In November, Verso—an independentpress known for publishing leftist writers such as Slavoj Zizek and Alexander Cockburn—will issue twenty thousand copies of the book, in paperb
Source: Newsweek
August 22, 2005
Ah, the glory that was Rome. The temples. The togas. The toilets. Rome in 52 B.C. usually means emperors and palaces and dudes with bad haircuts, and you'll see plenty of those when HBO debuts its new drama "Rome" on Aug. 28. "Rome" is a show that will make every history teacher proud. It cost $100 million, and you can see every denariuson the screen—even the coins themselves, which were minted in the basement of the actual Vatican. The entire Forum has been reconstructed (at
Source: Reason
August 19, 2005
At its height, the empire founded by Genghis Khan stretched from Southeast Asia to Europe and encompassed half the world’s population. Eight hundred years later, he may not have the reach he once enjoyed, but in his country of origin he is once again everywhere.
Forbidden under seven decades of Soviet rule, newly abundant images of the Universal Leader cast him as a popular hero and familiar trademark.Mongolians can buy Grand Khaan vodka at the Genghis Khan nigh
Source: History Today
Sept. 2005
Leo Amery (1873-1955), Secretary of State for India in Churchill’s wartime Cabinet, had a Jewish ancestry which was not publicly known despite his strong pro-Zionism. Through the war years, however, he suffered a personal and political tragedy, as his son John allowed himself to be used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis and was finally hanged for treason in December 1945. Details of Leo’s attempts to do his best for his son over this difficult period have just come to light.
Source: Russian News and Information Agency
August 19, 2005
Archaeologists have discovered two profanity-inscribed ancient birch bark pieces in Veliky Novgorod in northwestern Russia. Experts said they dated back to the first part of the 12th century, based on the occupation layer and other signs. Historians said half-jokingly if the authors had known these works would be found nearly a thousand years later, they would have signed them and thereby gone down in Russian history as the first foul mouths. Archaeologists did not disclose
Source: Independent (South Africa)
August 19, 2005
The Vatican has forcefully rejected accusations that wartime Pope Pius XII was an anti-Semite and Nazi sympathiser who turned a blind eye to the Holocaust during the second world war. "He certainly was not. He helped the Jews," said Father Pierre Blet, the Vatican's leading historian on the period.Father Blet, a French Jesuit, was responding to a point-blank question - "Was Pius an anti-Semite?" - asked at a news conference launching the Itali
Source: BBC
August 19, 2005
A rare TV interview with Adolf Hitler's sister will be screened for the first time since 1959, having been found in a hunt for missing shows. Paula Wolf was filmed talking about her brother for hour-long ITV documentary Tyranny: The Years of Adolf Hitler, which also interviewed his chauffeur. It was rediscovered in ITN's archives as part an ongoing search for footage by the British Film Institute (BFI). It will be screened from November by the BFI to mark ITV's 50th anniversary.
Source: Reuters
August 19, 2005
A German Jewish leader touched a sore spot in relations with Catholics on Friday when he urged Pope Benedict to open up all the Vatican's archives dealing with World War Two and the Holocaust. Welcoming him on a historic visit to a synagogue in Cologne, Abraham Lehrer told the German-born pontiff he had a special responsibility to open files that critics say would show how much Pope Pius XII knew about the Nazi slaughter of Jews.Jewish groups accuse Pius of turning a deaf ea
Source: Reuters
August 18, 2005
Israel is urging the United Nations to establish an annual international holocaust memorial day, a top Israeli diplomat said on Thursday. More than 30 European countries support Israel's plan, British Deputy Ambassador Adam Thomson said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Assembly President Jean Ping made public on Thursday.An Israeli draft resolution, which it hopes will be adopted by the 191-member General Assembly during its 60th session opening nex
Source: Times (UK)
August 7, 2005
Niall Ferguson, professor of history at Harvard University, thinks that today’s investors have a great deal to learn from the events that led up to the first world war — and his ideas are gaining followers in the London. Ferguson’s argument is that while analysts usually look to the Great Depression of the 1930s or the oil shock of the 1970s to understand impending crises, they should in fact be looking back almost 100 years. While he does not suggest we ar
Source: NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #31; 18 AUGUST 2005)
August 18, 2005
On 18 July, the White House submitted to the Senate the nomination of Bruce Cole for another four-year term as Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.Cole's current term, which began in 2001, expires at the end of 2005. However, assuming Cole is reconfirmed two of his top aides -- his current deputy, Lynn Munson and his Senior Counselor and Congressional affairs officer, Cherie Harder -- won't be there to assist him. Harder is leaving to become one of six policy
Source: Gazette (Montreal)
August 17, 2005
Newly released British archival documents are prompting calls for the Canadian government to investigate whether previously unidentified war criminals were sent to this country in the 1940s after Home Office officials in London tried to "get rid of" certain "less desirable" Ukrainian prisoners who had fought with a notorious Nazi unit during the Second World War.The documents, brought to light by British amateur historian Stephen Ankier while resear
Source: FrontPageMag.com
August 18, 2005
Tony Blankley, former top aide to Newt Gingrich, argues in a column today that leaders of the anti-war movement are trying to pull a Munich.Quote:
Those people today calling for a quick exit from Iraq after the shortest possible decent interval apparently can't imagine anything worse than the sad loss of American troops at the current level in Iraq. Just"stop the killing" and"return to sanity." I don't accuse such people of being foolish -- merely lacking
