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: Amy Lavoie at the website of the Harvard Gazette
Jul 24, 2008
Donald Fleming, an intellectual historian who studied the impact of science on American thought and was a member of the Harvard faculty for more than 40 years, passed away at his Cambridge home on June 16. He was 84.
Fleming, who was known for his vibrant and engaging presence in the classroom and on the Harvard campus, came to Harvard as professor of history in 1959, and was named the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History in 1970. He was the chair of the Department of His
Source: WaPo
Jul 24, 2008
Max Holland, who appears to be coherent, is in his book-lined study, just off the kitchen in his house in Silver Spring. He's going over the Zapruder film. Again. And again. And . . .
Birds are chirping outside. The sun is out. Inside, it's dark, quiet among the filing cabinets.
He's been at work on his book about the Warner Commission investigation into President Kennedy's assassination for 12 years.
For. Twelve. Years.
And right here -- in ju
Source: Times (UK)
Jul 23, 2008
Ann Lambton, known as Nancy to her friends, devoted the greater part of her life to Iran and the study of Iran. Iranians who knew her thought she was either a saint, a scholar, a spy or all three. She was tough, physically and mentally, and almost an ascetic. She was a walker, a climber, a horsewoman and a squash player. She was a scholar who wrote some of the standard works on Iranian language, agriculture, land tenure and history. She was involved in some of the most dramatic of 20th-century I
Source: http://www.defenselink.mil
Jul 23, 2008
July 26 marks the 60th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman’s executive order that integrated the U.S. armed forces.
Conrad Crane, director of the U.S. Army Military History Institute at Carlisle Barracks, Pa., said the order recognized a basic tenet of warfare.
“When your life depends on your buddy, the color of their skin tends to become less important; it’s how good they are,” he said.
The order came five years before the Supreme Court’s decision in Brow
Source: http://www.news.wisc.edu
Jul 23, 2008
Is the sun beginning to set on America's scientific dominance?
Much like the scientific superpowers of France, Germany and Britain in centuries' past, the United States has a diminishing lead over other nations in financial investment and scholarly research output in science and engineering, say a group of historians and sociologists led by University of Wisconsin-Madison emeritus history professor J. Rogers Hollingsworth.
Massive investments in recent decades by the Eu
Source: http://www.newswise.com
Jul 23, 2008
Berlin is a much different city today than it was when presidents Kennedy and Reagan delivered iconic remarks there, but it remains an appropriate setting from which Barack Obama can deliver an important message about global relations, according to a University at Buffalo history professor who wrote a book about John F. Kennedy's famous speech in Berlin.
"A spectacle is guaranteed on Thursday when Obama gives his speech, but the more serious question is: How will the United Sta
Source: phillyburbs.com
Jul 22, 2008
The 17-year-old Lumberton resident beat out more than 260 applicants to be one of 17 rising high school seniors participating in "Now Debate This," a national challenge in discovering history and sharing it not only with their communities, but world-wide through extensive online blogging and multimedia presentations.
The gold at the end of this rainbow, however, is a $150,000 scholarship for the winner of the final debate that rounds out the student's history-filled summer
Source: Scott Jaschik at the website of Inside Higher Ed
Jul 22, 2008
Many anthropologists were horrified in 2006, when Seymour M. Hersh in The New Yorker explored how the work of the late cultural anthropologist Raphael Patai — in particular The Arab Mind — was used by the military officials who set up Abu Ghraib and the humiliations that took place there. By reading about sexual taboos that Patai studied, some in the military were able to come up with what they viewed as ideal ways to dehumanize prisoners. The article was much discussed among anthropologists who
Source: Press Release--Washington College
Jul 22, 2008
He is a renowned author, a prodigious researcher, and a compelling speaker, whose work has been praised by literary critics and academic historians alike. And now Henry Wiencek, whose honors include the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History, has been named the first Patrick Henry Fellow at Washington College, launching a new program that will provide annual writing fellowships to nationally prominent historians.
The highly c
Source: Boston Globe
Jul 20, 2008
THE IRAQ OF today seems to be defined by nothing so much as the hatreds and rivalries of its two main Muslim sects, Sunnis and Shi'ites. After the extraordinary violence of recent years, some pundits wonder if Iraq's various factions could ever share enough good will to live together in a democracy. If they can't, the alternatives are grim: another ruling strongman like Saddam Hussein, or a Shi'ite theocracy akin to the regime in Iran. Some question whether Iraq even has enough internal coherenc
Source: Letter to the editor of the NYT (unpublished)
Jul 19, 2008
Re: NYT: New York's Birth Date: Don’t Go by City's Seal
Dear Editor:
There is, in fact, a great deal of evidence in support of 1625 as the date on the City Seal, since 1625 marked the start of the first permanent settlement of what is now New York City. In June, 1625, Cryn Fredericksz, an engineer and surveyor, arrived in New Netherland with instructions issued on April 25, 1625 from the Directors of the Du
Source: Benny Morris in an op ed in the NYT
Jul 18, 2008
ISRAEL will almost surely attack Iran’s nuclear sites in the next four to seven months — and the leaders in Washington and even Tehran should hope that the attack will be successful enough to cause at least a significant delay in the Iranian production schedule, if not complete destruction, of that country’s nuclear program. Because if the attack fails, the Middle East will almost certainly face a nuclear war — either through a subsequent pre-emptive Israeli nuclear strike or a nuclear exchange
Source: David Liebers, HNN intern
Jul 18, 2008
Bruce Kuklick is Nichols Professor of American History at the University of
Pennsylvania. He has written ten books ranging in subject from baseball to
American philosophy, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in
2004. His most recent book Black Philosopher, White Academy is a bio
Source: NYT
Jul 17, 2008
George B. Hartzog Jr., whose political skills as director of the National Park Service in the 1960s and early ’70s led to the addition of nearly 50 million acres to the park system, more than doubling its size, died on June 27 in Arlington, Va. He was 88 and lived in McLean, Va.
The cause was kidney disease, his wife, Helen, said.
In his nine years as parks director, Mr. Hartzog was attuned to President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society aspirations and the environmental
Source: Sheldon M. Stern in an email to HNN
Jul 17, 2008
[Stern served as historian at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston
from 1977 through 1999. He is the author of Averting ‘the Final Failure’: John F.
Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis Meetings (2003), and The Week
the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis (2005) in the Stanford
University Press Nuclear Age Series.]
During a recent visit to our local public library, I spotted a copy of Joseph Persico’s new book, Franklin & Lucy: President Roose
Source: Brendan Trembath at http://www.abc.net.au
Jul 17, 2008
There are about 30 civil wars being fought around the world, from Afghanistan to Uganda.
And there's a lot of debate about whether Iraq is on the grip of civil war.
An authority on civil wars from ancient to modern times is the Harvard University Professor of History, David Armitage.
He says the cost of the wars currently being waged is about $100-billion a year.
Professor Armitage is visiting Australia and next week is due to speak at the Uni
Source: Episcopal News Service
Jul 17, 2008
Rhoda Elizabeth Armstrong Hackler, Ph.D., historian, researcher, writer, and teacher in Hawai'i for 43 years, died on July 7. She was 84.
Hackler was a lecturer in Hawai'ian history at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and a prolific writer on historical subjects, including Hawai’ian history and culture, Asian art and the Episcopal Church in Hawaii.
An active member of Church of the Holy Nativity and later of St. Clement’s Church, both in Honolulu, Hackler served on vestries
Source: Martha Kinney at the website of Inside Higher Ed
Jul 17, 2008
[Martha Kinney is an assistant professor of history at Suffolk County Community College and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves.]
Thirteen years ago I began graduate school, and 24 years ago I was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Of the two institutions — graduate school and the Army — perhaps surprisingly, my military experience has been most important in shaping my practices in the classroom. That may be because I teach survey courses at a community college
Source: Scripps Howard News Service
Jul 16, 2008
From the publication of the lesson-filled "New-England Primer" to the midnight bookstore parties for the latest "Harry Potter" volume, children's books have provided a valuable -- and fascinating -- window into American culture.
That's the premise of "Minders of Make-Believe" (Houghton Mifflin, $28), the newest book by children's-book historian Leonard S. Marcus. In this highly readable book aimed at adults, Marcus details the rise (and, often, the fall
Source: HNN Staff
Jul 16, 2008
To the surprise of many historian H.R. McMaster has been nominated by President Bush for a promotion from colonel to brigadier general.
Only last year critics of the army were saying that McMaster's being passed over twice for promotion indicated army leaders opposed his kind of soldier: strong and independent-minded. An article by Slate's Fred Kaplan in the
