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: Robert Townsend at the AHA blog
Nov 30, 2006
The answer, it turns out, may be a bit more than you think. Money.com recently reported that the history majors from the class of 2006 earned an average of $33,071 (a 4.2 increase over the year before). That was more than 5 percent above the average for students who majored in the fields of English, sociology, and psychology.
Of course, a student strictly interested in earnings will probably find the average starting salaries for students with professional degrees more appealing. Bu
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Nov 30, 2006
Baylor University has backed out of an agreement to publish a book about a tumultuous period in its recent history. The book's editors, a former provost and a history professor, have vowed to find another publisher, despite irate e-mail messages from a former president who warned that the book was inaccurate and could "plunge the university into a new era of conflict and renewed animosities."
Baylor officials say the decision not to publish the book under the Baylor name,
Source: Northwestern U website
Nov 29, 2006
Richard W. Leopold of Evanston, Ill., a prominent diplomatic historian whose teaching and scholarship guided students and colleagues during an illustrious career at Northwestern University, died of natural causes Nov. 23, 2006, in Evanston. He was 94.
Among the hundreds of former students identifying Leopold as a mentor who profoundly affected their lives are former Sen. George McGovern (D-SD), former Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-MO), Rep. James Kolbe (R-AZ), former assistant secretary
Source: Bruce Craig in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
Nov 29, 2006
The Senate has confirmed eight new members nominated by President Bush to sit on the of the National Council on the Humanities, a twenty-six member advisory council to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Eight members will begin their duties immediately while two others will officially join the council in July, 2007. The terms of the new members will not expire until 2012.
Notably, a few historians will join the advisory council. They include: Mary Habeck -- an associat
Source: Bruce Craig in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
Nov 29, 2006
In the wake of the recent controversy over the Smithsonian Institution's
(SI) exclusive and confidential agreement with Showtime, and recognizing
that a new Congress presents new opportunities to derail the controversial
agreement, a group of concerned historians, scholars, filmmakers, and
others recently sent a letter to Congress demanding action.The Business Ventures unit of the Smithsonian Institution has been under
scrutiny for some time now regarding accounting a
Source: Daniel Pipes at frontpagemag.com
Nov 29, 2006
Should outsiders try to influence the hiring or tenuring of university faculty?
The question arises because, with the radicalization of the American universities, moderate voices have jumped into academic personnel issues. For example, note some controversies just in Middle East studies in 2006:
· Joseph Massad at Columbia: His promotion to associate professor met with public opposition; the forthcoming decision over his tenure will likely spark even more contention.
Source: Press Release-- NPS
Nov 28, 2006
Connecticut’s deputy state historic preservation officer J. Paul Loether joins the National Park Service (NPS) in January as Chief of the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks Division. The Register and Landmarks Division are part of the NPS Historical Documentation Programs, Cultural Resources. Mr. Loether begins his NPS service on Jan. 22, 2007.
“Mr. Loether brings a lifetime of historic preservation experience in Connecticut to benefit these nationa
Source: AHA Blog
Nov 28, 2006
Richard William Leopold, a professor emeritus in American history from Northwestern University, and a life member of the AHA, died Thursday, November 23, 2006, in Evanston, Illinois. He was 94. Leopold, a diplomatic historian, was the author of The Growth of American Foreign Policy: A History, Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition, Robert Dale Owen: A Biography, and, with Stanley Cohen and Arthur S. Link, the Problems in American History series. His biography of Robert Dale Owen won the AHA’
Source: Doug Moe at http://www.madison.com
Nov 28, 2006
WHOEVER SAID there is no business but show business was onto something.
Stanley Kutler, the esteemed U.S. historian who lives in Madison, was sipping tea on the far west side Monday afternoon and thinking about something his late, great colleague in the UW history department, George Mosse, used to say about being a professor.
"We don't teach," Mosse said. "We perform."
Recalling his friend, Kutler chuckled and said, "Good teaching i
Source: WaPo
Nov 28, 2006
One of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's closest advisers said yesterday that he will resign at the end of the year, depriving her of a key sounding board at a time when she is still searching for a new deputy and faces difficult challenges in the Middle East.
Philip D. Zelikow, 52, holds the unassuming title of "counselor," but in many ways he is Rice's intellectual soul mate, and he plays a critical role in formulating policy at the State Department. In his resignati
Source: NYT
Nov 28, 2006
Two months ago, the State Department’s counselor, Philip D. Zelikow, offered an oblique criticism of the administration’s failure to push strongly for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan in the Middle East.
In a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mr. Zelikow, an intellectual known for peppering his statements with historical references, said progress on the Arab-Israeli dispute was a “sine qua non” in order to get moderate Arabs “to cooperate actively with the Un
Source: AlterNet
Nov 27, 2006
With inter-Palestinian violence on the rise, and the Bush
administration's hands-off approach to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, Rashid Khalidi's new history of Palestine calls for a
retrospective look into the major decisions -- both within and outside
the Middle East -- that sculpted the Palestinian conflict during the
last century.
Khalidi, the Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies at Columbia University,
asks a simple question: In the wake of the colonial Middle East, why
have Pal
Source: Inside Higher Ed
Nov 27, 2006
For an American scholar of Cuban history and culture, one visit to Havana is a privilege. Multiple trips without incident is a blessing. Dick Cluster considers himself downright afortunado.
The University of Massachusetts at Boston professor not only has made numerous visits to the Cuban capital since 2002, he has also cleared all the hurdles to co-authoring a book with a Havana scholar — something that a few years ago would have seemed highly unlikely.
U.S. Department
Source: Weekly Standard Scrapbook
Nov 27, 2006
Our attention was drawn this week to the award of the John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity to the historian John Hope Franklin. The Kluge prize, named for the Metro media mogul who endowed it, is awarded annually by the Library of Congress and is, in the words of Librarian James H. Billington, "the only global award given at the level of the Nobel Prizes that recognizes a lifetime of accomplishment in humanities and social sciences." THE SCRAPBOOK assumes there's a plaque or g
Source: http://www.nationnews.com
Nov 25, 2006
HISTORIAN PROFESSOR HILARY BECKLES has revealed for the first time that he wrote the first edition of his book: The History Of Barbados, "in the midst of endless death threats".
The principal of the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill Campus made this disclosure on Thursday night at the launch of the second edition of the book, which was originally published in 1990.
Beckles told a rapt audience at the Shell suite of the university that for three years he
Source: Eric Gibson in the WSJ
Nov 25, 2006
Manhattan gridlock got you down? It helps to take the long view. "There were traffic jams in the 1880s. You couldn't get from midtown or the fashionable area of Murray Hill to Wall Street in less than an hour," says architect and historian Robert A.M. Stern. "The richest people, the Rockefellers and Morgan, took the Elevated [train] down to Wall Street because there was no other way to do it."
Founder and senior partner of his own firm and dean of the Yale Schoo
Source: New Republic
Nov 23, 2006
[Charles A. Beard, a writer for The New Republic, was one of the most influential American historians of the twentieth century and author of the seminal book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. Beard was a proponent of the "Progressive School" of history, which emphasized the importance of economics in the shaping of political ideology. This essay, which appeared in TNR on December 1, 1920--the 300-year anniversary of the Pilgrims' Atlantic crossing--de
Source: NYT
Nov 23, 2006
To the Editor:
Re “An Iraqi Solution, Vietnam Style” (Op-Ed, Nov. 21):
Mark Moyar implies that if Ngo Dinh Diem, the leader of the South Vietnamese government, had been given free rein in 1963 to suppress opposition, we would have had a different outcome in Vietnam.
But the Kennedy administration’s decision to encourage a coup against Diem’s government rested on the realistic understanding that Diem could neither maintain his country’s public support nor ef
Source: Beaumont Journal
Nov 22, 2006
The Lamar University Department of History and the Walter Prescott Webb Historical Society will host a reception Tuesday, Nov. 28, honoring history professor Ralph Wooster, who is retiring this semester after a distinguished 52-year career at the university.
The event will be from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Dishman Art Museumat Lamar.
Students, faculty, staff and other well-wishers invited to join in the event,
said History Department Chair John Storey.
Source: Pierre M. Atlas in Indianapolis Star
Nov 22, 2006
[Pierre M. Atlas is assistant professor of political science and director of the Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College. Contact him at patlas@marian.edu.patlas@marian.edu.]
When discussing a controversial issue, what does it mean to be "fair and balanced"?
This question confounds not only journalists but academics as well. What does it mean to bring "bal
