Historians in the News

AHA to create online database

But don’t commit hara-kiri just yet, because your friends at the AHA are trying to make it easier for you to get your research published. How? By creating an online database that provides helpful links to English-language journals that publish in various fields of history. We call it the “Publish Your Paper!” website. Once it’s up and running, you’ll be able to click on a category (African-American history, for example) and the submission information for several journals related to that specialt

Historians convene to rewrite church history

Church historians from across the country convened in Indianapolis last week to start a monumental task: rewriting nearly 150 years of American religious history.      Their goal is to agree upon a single history that describes a 19th-century movement that tried to break down denominational walls but splintered itself into what became the Churches of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Independent Christian Churches. Historians representing each

Historians concerned about the murder of Turkish writer

Dear colleagues, International PEN issued a statement after the appalling murder yesterday of Armenian-Turkish writer Hrant Dink. Below it is reproduced and preceded by a NCH summary of Dink's case. In addition, NCH wants to draw your attention to the fact that, sadly, historians and others concerned with the past are sometimes assassinated. Some recent examples from Iraq, Sudan, and Colombia: **Last week, NCH circular #47 contained details about five historians assassinat

Harriet Washington: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

Medical scholar Harriet Washington joins [Amy Goodman] to talk about her new book, “Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.” The book reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and the roots of the African American health deficit. It also examines less well-known abuses and looks at unethical practices and mistreatment of blacks that are still taking place in the medical establishment today. ...

Zachary Schrag: Professor starts blog to examine institutional review boards

To hear it from Zachary Schrag, assistant professor of history at George Mason University, getting clearance from an institutional review board to conduct an oral history project is not only onerous, but it can place demands on a researcher that compromises professional ethics. An IRB must approve any study that involves human subjects, and IRBs at some institutions have asked oral historians to destroy primary sources of information such as taped interviews. “I once had to fill out

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Atlanta concerned its reputation has been harmed abroad by jaywalking incident

Some English newspapers are taking aim at Atlanta because a visiting history professor, who previously taught at Oxford, was arrested for jaywalking. In London, the Evening Standard newspaper plastered news of the arrest of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto — accompanied by a photo of the handcuffed professor surrounded by several police officers — on its front page. The Mirror chided Atlanta police for their recent success in jailing "Public Enemy No. 1." "The st

What happened to a historian

... A few weeks ago, I saw an odd comment on Paul Halsall's English Eclectic:"I moved, and have been trying out as a mortgag[e] broker." If you don't know who Paul Halsall is or why that struck me as so unusual, you should. He is the creator of the remarkable Internet History Sourcebooks Project. It includes primary source documents i

Distinguished Yale Historian Wins Award for Scholarly Distinction

David Brion Davis, a preeminent scholar of the history of slavery and abolition, was honored with an American Historical Association (AHA) Award for Scholarly Distinction at the recent annual meeting of the AHA in Atlanta. One of the most respected historians in his field, Davis is the Sterling Professor Emeritus of History and the founding director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale. Among the 18

Michael Oren: Video of his appearance on Jon Stewart's Daily Show

Michael Baigent and Richard Leig: Historians Appeal ‘Da Vinci Code’ Case

The two historians who lost their plagiarism case against the British publishers of the best seller “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown turned to the Court of Appeal in Britain yesterday in an effort to reverse their loss in a case that also saddles them with a legal bill of more than $2 million, The Associated Press reported. Lawyers for the historians, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, argued that the “vast amount of skill and labor” they expended in writing their book “The Holy Blood and the Ho

Alistair Horne: Bush is reading his book on Algeria (on Kissinger's recommendation)

... During his “60 Minutes” interview, Mr. Bush mentioned that he was reading Alistair Horne’s classic history, “A Savage War of Peace,” about why the French suffered a colonial disaster in a guerrilla war against Muslims in Algiers from 1954 to 1962. The book was recommended to W. by Henry Kissinger, who is working on an official biography of himself with Mr. Horne. Mr. Horne recalled that Dr. Kissinger told him: “The president’s one of my best students. He reads all t

Victor C. Uchendu: Historian who taught at Illinois killed in Africa to prevent his becoming mayor

The Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign is very sadden to share the news that Prof. Victor C. Uchendu, founding director of our unit has passed away on December 7, 2006. He was buried in Nsirimo, Nigeria on December 22, 2006. It is particularly troubling because we understand from his family that he was killed in his home at Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria, and that individuals were hired to kill hi

Michael Honey: Interviewed about MLK

The mid-1960s saw civil rights victories in Congress during LBJ's presidency. But as Michael Honey reminds us in Going Down Jericho Road (LJ 12/06), Martin Luther King Jr.'s final focus showed that the struggle for black and working class parity continued. The 1968 Memphis sanitation workers strike was a gritty struggle won in the streets by a host of local heroes inspired by King. Honey talks about his study of the strike that tragically set the stage for King's murder. Please desc

Brian Wills: UVa-Wise historian examines Hollywood's portrayal of Civil War

A new book by historian Brian S. Wills examines the Civil War's depiction in cinema. Wills, a Kenneth Asbury Professor of History at the University of Virginia's College at Wise, combines two of his passions - history and movies - in his latest book, "Gone With The Glory: The Civil War in Cinema." Wills said he has been an avid movie fan since boyhood. "I always preferred the historical epics to other genres, partly because of my interest

Handbook offers ideas for professors in Middle Eastern studies who find themselves under attack

Post-9/11, many of the most intense debates about academic freedom have involved Middle Eastern studies. There have been numerous cases in which candidates for jobs or tenure have been opposed at least in part because of their views on the Middle East, with recent flare-ups at Barnard College and Wayne State University. At least 15 of the professors named by David Horowitz in his book last year on “the 101 most dangerous academics” study the Middle East — a proportion that is notable when consid

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: Accused of sugarcoating FDR's views on Jews

ARTHUR SCHLESINGER JR.'s Journals may indeed reveal him to have been an egoist and name-dropper, as P. J. O'Rourke asserts in "Dear Diary, I Think I'm in Love" (December 31/January 7). But far worse was Schlesinger's willingness to sometimes omit from his history books facts that reflected poorly on his heroes. Consider how Schlesinger handled the question of Franklin D. Roosevelt's response to the Holocaust. In various articles and in his 2000 memoir Schlesinger claimed FDR "did

Jason Sokol: Springfield, MA native world-class historian at 29

As a kid, Jason Sokol dreamed of becoming a basketball player. Like his hero, Magic Johnson, Jason was a point guard. He was good, fast, heady, with a knack for getting the ball to the open man. He learned the game on his hometown courts of Springfield. He was often the only white kid on the floor. A ball being dribbled, the squeak of sneakers was the soundtrack to his young life. Jason played at Suffield Academy and all four years

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Busted, battered, but I love you USA

For a few hours I belonged to the underclass. I made my first friend among Atlanta’s jailbirds while I was sitting in the cramped, fetid paddy wagon. Ronnie — a gangly, frizzy-haired black guy who claimed, rather improbably, to be a pure-blood Apache — blinked curiously at me through the cage wire that separated us. He was bleary with dope, but I looked worse. The policemen who assaulted me had left me bruised, with a bleeding temple. They had ripped my venerable charcoal-grey suit. I was

John Hope Franklin: Miles to Go Before He Sleeps

(Historian and civil rights activist John Hope Franklin explains how the movement toward Martin Luther King's dream has been significant—that we can expect a black president 'soon'—but 'not nearly as effective as it should be.') The life of John Hope Franklin—as poignantly reflected in his autobiography “Mirror to America”(Farrar Straus Giraux)—is not just the story of a single life, but also serves as a chronicle of race relations in 20th century America. Born in 1915 in an all-bla

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: The accidental criminal

Arrested, beaten and jailed by police in Atlanta for crossing a road in an illegal manner, the British historian and writer reflects on his shocking ordeal - and what it reveals about the US "No one truly knows a nation," said Nelson Mandela, "until one has been inside its gaols." Last week, after living in the USA for more than a year without understanding the country, I acquired - briefly - a gaolbird's authority. I can now share insights you can only get from