Historians in the News

Benny Morris: How His History of Israel Is at Odds with His New Role as a Hardliner

In a long and explosive interview in Haaretz in January 2004, Benny Morris, the revisionist Israeli historian, explains how he reconciles his defense of Zionism with his research, which demonstrates that war atrocities were associated with the founding of Israel. His latest book is, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001.Benny Morris, in the month ahead the new version o

The Historian Who Now Commands a Tank Unit in Iraq

Peter Maass writing in the NYT (Jan. 1, 2004): Maj. John Nagl approaches war pragmatically and philosophically, as a soldier and a scholar. He graduated close to the top of his West Point class in 1988 and was selected as a Rhodes scholar. He studied international relations at Oxford for two years, then returned to military duty just in time to take command of a tank platoon during the 1991 Persian Gulf w

Klehr & Haynes: Why Has Their Book Accusing Historians of Denial Not Had More of an Impact?

Jacob Gershman, writing in the NY Sun (Jan. 5, 2004): The book was called “an indictment of the historical profession.” It was hailed as an “explosive expose” that would “send shock waves” through American history departments. But four months after it was published, “In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage” hasn't generated much of a reaction in academia. Far from igniting a firestorm of debate, John Earl Haynes's and Harvey Klehr 's 316-page conde

Rashid Khalidi : Columbia's Combative Middle East Professor

Martin Kramer, writing on his blog:On December 11, Al-Jazeera's program"From Washington" held a discussion on Middle Eastern studies in the United States. Chief guest: Professor

Michael Bellesiles: He Should Have Turned to an Academic Press

David Glenn, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education (Jan. 9, 2004):Michael A. Bellesiles is having his say again. A revised edition of Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture has been issued by Soft Skull Press, a small New York City imprint. The previous edition was withdrawn by Vintage Books in January 2003, after two scholarly committees found serious problems with Mr. Bellesiles's use

George Rable: Triple Crown Winner

Thomas Spencer, writing in the Birmingham News (Dec. 22, 2003):It's been a good year for University of Alabama history professor George Rable. His book, "Fredericksburg! Fredericksburg!," won the triple crown of Civil War book awards, the Douglas Southall Freeman Book Award and both the Jefferson Davis Award, presented bythe Museum of th

Joan Hoff: Back to Montana

Carol Schmidt, writing in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle (Dec. 24, 2003):Joan Hoff has a great sense of history. That's why the accomplished writer, noted historian and former president and CEO for the Center for the Study of the Presidency is often called upon to serve as a commentator for such national programs as "The NewsHour." hosted by Jim

Richard Evans: Why There Are So Many Books About the Nazis

John Crace, writing in the Guardian (Dec. 9, 2003):It's a Monday morning in Cambridge and Richard Evans shuffles out of the porter's lodge at Gonville & Caius College trailing a large suitcase behind him. "Been somewhere nice for the weekend?" I ask. Evans looks confused for a moment. "I haven't been anywhere," he eventually replies.

Lord Skidelsky: Takes Exam. Flunks.

Lucy Ward, writing in the Guardian (Dec. 9, 2003):Students take heart. Lord Skidelsky, the internationally renowned historian and professor of political economy at Warwick University, has revealed how he failed an A-level paper this summer because of his "inability to develop a coherent argument". Robert Skidelsky, 64, author of an award-winning biography of John Maynard Keynes, makes his disclosure in today's Guardian educati

Daniel Pipes Is Being Smeared

James Sobotka, writing in frontpagemag.com (Dec. 5, 2003):When I first saw the flyer announcing Daniel Pipes' upcoming visit to the University of Illinois campus this week, my first thought was, "How long until The Daily Illini decides to smear him?" Predictably, Wednesday's DI editorial (which, interestingly enough does not appear online) and recent published letters have spared no rhetoric to discredit him."Pipes is an

Nicolas Baverez: The French Are in Decline

Lara Marlowe, writing in the Irish Times (Dec. 3, 2003):The theme is as old as the Romans and crops up through history with persistent regularity. A decade ago a book about "the fall of the American empire" was a huge success in the US. This autumn France was seized by its own bout of declinisme, thanks to the economist and historian Nicolas Baverez. Mr Baverez's book, La France Qui Tombe (France is Falling), has remained on t

Conrad Black: Reviled as a Businessman, Celebrated as a Historian

Tina Brown, writing in the Washington Post (Dec. 4, 2003):It's odd how fast grandeur becomes gloomy when the miasma of misfortune sets in. No one could have predicted that the book party for Conrad Black's monumental study of Franklin D. Roosevelt at New York's Four Seasons restaurant would coincide with his stepping down as CEO of the publishing company Hollinger International -- owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and, in

Don Heinrich Tolzmann: Suspected of Plagiarism

Editor's Note: This article was published in 2003 but only came to our attention at HNN on 2-14-06 after it was referred to at Correntewire.com . [Robert W. Frizzell is Director of Libraries, Northwest Missouri State University.] Review of: Don Heinrich Tolzmann. The German-American Experience. Amherst and New York: Prometheus Books, 2000. 466 pp. Illustrations, tables, maps, notes, index. $35.00 (paper), ISBN

Michael Oren: Interviewed about the Middle East

HNN Editor: This interview is from 2002. We decided to post a link to it at HNN in light of the 6-Day War anniversary.] Michael B. Oren, the author of Six Days of War, talks about how a short but momentous conflict forged the modern Middle East....You have said,"I'm a Zionist; I've devoted my life to Israel. Still, I set out to write a thoroughly honest and dispassionate book." Could you talk about how you went about trying to achieve that balance? How did your strong feel

Tom Fleming interviewed by Derek Alger [updated]

Thomas Fleming’s most recent book, The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers, examines the women at the center of the lives of George Washington, Ben Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison.The History Book Club has named The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers as a main selection for the month of December.The author of more than 40 books of fiction and nonfiction, Fleming has received wide acclaim for his revisionis

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.: Interviewed (1992)

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., twice winner of a Pulitzer Prize, is an eminent and productive American historian; he is also a well-known liberal with a long-standing weakness for intervening in contentious public debates. It was presumably in the first capacity that he was invited to join the commission set up to review New York State’s social studies curriculum. It was in the second capacity that he wrote a strong dissent from the commission’s report. Subsequently Schlesinger set forth his views of

A Conversation with the Editors of a Collection of DuBois's Internationalist Thought

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts strive to demonstrate that DuBois's influential writings on African American life and American racism are inseparable from his global critiques of racism and imperialism, and his insistence on connecting racism with labor exploitation. 

Decades in Making, San Diego Museum will Honor Chicano Community and Movement

"Organizers and community members hope the museum will document the history of Chicano Park and continue educating future generations about Barrio Logan’s history."

Buffalo Shooting Centuries in Making, Say Historians of Slavery and Reconstruction

Manisha Sinha and Bernard Powers link the mass killing to longstanding repression of Black political power, and the justification of violence for that purpose. 

Edsall: Abortion Has Always Been Part of Broader Politics

Thomas Edsall draws on the work of historians Katherine Stewart, Randall Balmer, Jefferson Cowie and Darren Dochuk, plus other scholars, to argue that the "right to life" movement grew from the movement of resistance to school integration and today is sustained by politics of masculinity.