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.
December 31, 2069
USC News Announcement May 2008 Dagmar Barnouw, a pre-eminent scholar of the intellectual and cultural
history of modern Germany, has died. She was 72.
A professor of German and comparative literature in USC College
since 1988, Barnouw suffered a stroke mid-April and died in the Kaiser
Permanente-Hospital Zion in San Diego on May 14, without having
regained consciousness.
“For me it was love at fight sight,” her husband Jeffrey Barnouw said.
“For her it took some persuadi
December 31, 2069
Columbia University has taken the next step in its plan to add new multicultural classes to its core curriculum, the great books undergraduate program.
The university announced it would spend $50 million on a project to enhance the core curriculum's multicultural offerings last fall, shortly after students conducted a week-long hunger strike to protest the weakness of the classes. Now Columbia is assigning a young professor of Western civilization, Roosevelt Montas, 34, to direct th
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
December 31, 2069
The late historian Richard Hofstadter is something of an American icon, so invoking him is sure to bring notice. In 1963, Hofstadter published Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (Knopf), his classic study of America's distrust of pursuits of the mind. Susan Jacoby recalls in her new book, The Age of American Unreason (Pantheon), being moved when she first read Hofstadter as a college student, in particular by his optimistic conclusion that the "openness and generosity" of America's
December 31, 2069
[HNN Editor: Next Saturday Mr. Fleming, a member of the board of directors of HNN, will receive the Governor Richard Hughes award for lifetime achievement in writing history from the NJ Historical Commission. His planned speech appears below.]
This award means a lot to me. Those words, Lifetime Achievement, stir long thoughts.
I remember one of the first times I spoke here in Trenton. Governor Brendan Byrne was supposed to introduce me. We talked offstage for a whi
December 31, 2069
In response to the recent request for comments on the proposed constitutional amendments, AHA members have made several useful suggestions and some members have also helpfully pointed out some minor textual errors in the proposed revisions. We apologize for any inconvenience these errors have caused. Staff and council are working to further refine and clarify the proposed changes. The changes—with the typographical errors corrected—will be posted to the web site on or about October 19, 2007. Alt
December 31, 2069
An exchange between Rick Perlstein, author of a history of the Goldwater campaign, and David Horowitz, the former radical-turned-conservative who argues that the academy is overrun by liberals.RICK PERLSTEIN 8/15/07
The right's preeminent shrieking harpy—no, not Ann Coulter; even worse than Ann Coulter—importunes me with an"e-newsletter" about the latest goings-on at his David Horowitz Freedom Cen
December 31, 2069
Thomas Fleming was elected president of the Society of American Historians at the organization’s annual dinner at the Harvard Club on May 7, succeeding Eric Foner of Columbia University The Society’s membership includes both academic historians and professional writers of American history such as Mr. Fleming. The SAH was founded in 1939 by Allan Nevins and several fellow historians to promote literary distinction in the writing of history and biography. Membership is by invitation only and
Source: Spiked
December 31, 2069
Deborah Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta, may be one of the best-known warriors against Holocaust denial. But she has no time for the proposals currently doing the rounds of the European Union which suggest making it a crime to deny the Holocaust, other genocides and crimes against humanity in general. Last week it was revealed that Germany, current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, is proposing
December 31, 2069
These pictures of the arrest of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto were taken by HNN Assistant Editor Jonathan Dresner on January 4, 2007, shortly after noon.
December 31, 2069
Eric Foner, James McPherson, Nell Painter and more than a score of other historians have filed briefs in a Supreme Court case involving the racial balance of public schools. The historians argue that the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution are not "color-blind," as the plaintiffs in two districts claim.
Ralph Luker explains the issues at stake in an article published on HNN's homepage:
December 31, 2069
The Baltimore Sun reported on September 13, 2006 that"American University history professor Allan J. Lichtman was arrested while protesting his exclusion from a debate at Maryland Public Television studios in Baltimore."
Lichtman was one of 18 candidates for the Democratic nomination for Senator in Maryland. According to
December 31, 2069
SOURCE: Sur (English newspaper of southern Spain)
Fernando Arcas, Professor of History at Malaga University, agrees that one of his great passions in life is to listen to people talk about the past. And more so when the speakers have lived history in the flesh, as many old people in the province of Malaga have done. He is delighted with his latest project, which is to recuperate the “historical memory”, as the Spaniards call it, in reference to finally closing the worst chapter in modern
December 31, 2069
Josh Marshall, who possesses a PhD in colonial American history from Brown University, has climbed from blogger to MSM columnist.
Marshall is the liberal behind TalkingPointsMemo.com, a widely read political blog. He also blogs at TPM Cafe.
Now he'll be writing a column for Time Magaz
December 31, 2069
Tom Fleming, the author of more than 40 books, has won the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award for Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge.
The award goes each year to the"author of the best, newly published work on the American Revolutionary period."
Previous winners include David Hackett Fischer and Joseph Ellis.
December 31, 2069
At the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians Lawrence Levine, professor of history and cultural studies at George Mason University, won the Distinguished Service Award.
Geoffrey Ward won the Friend of History award for his broad support of history in books and numerous documentaries, including two Emmy-winning television series: Civil War and Baseball.
Tiya Alicia Miles picked up the Frederick Jackson Turner Award, which is given to first-time autho
December 31, 2069
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
2006 Annual Meeting
Lawrence, Kansas
The 2006 Annual Meeting will be held in Lawrence, Kansas June 23-25, 2006
Session VI: 5:00pm – 7:00pm (SAT)
PANEL 31: Robert H. Ferrell as Scholar and Teacher (Big 12 Room)
Chair: Eugene Trani, Virginia Commonwealth University
Robert H. Ferrell: An Appreciation
Lawrence Kaplan, Kent State University
The Y
December 31, 2069
Over the last two months four historians have appeared in segments on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central, the popular cable network. A few months ago it was Michael Beschloss. This week it was Columbia University's Eric Foner and Manning Marable, and journalist and oral historian Studs Terkel.
All of the historians came off well on the show, one of the most popular on TV among young people, playing along with the producers' gags.
Beschloss and Terkel
Source: Michiko Kakutani in the NYT
December 31, 2069
"America at the Crossroads" serves up a powerful indictment of the Bush administration's war in Iraq and the role that neoconservative ideas — concerning preventive war, benevolent hegemony and unilateral action — played in shaping the decision to go to war, its implementation and its aftermath. These arguments are made all the more devastating by the fact that the author, Francis Fukuyama, was once a star neoconservative theorist himself, who studied with or was associated with leadin
December 31, 2069
SOURCE: Archaeology (March-April 2006)
[Archaeologist Susanne] Osthoff's reception among fellow Germans since her release on December 19 has been chilly. Although Berlin has been mum on the issue of a ransom, Osthoff acknowledged that there was a payment to her kidnappers; news reports estimate it to be around $5 million.""This was all very different from the praise Osthoff has received from the archaeological community. She has been characterized as an intrepid and tireless caretaker of a
December 31, 2069
The reopening ceremony of CenterAustria at the University of New Orleans on February 17 in the presence of the Austrian ambassador to the United States, Eva Nowotny, was a showpiece of transatlantic higher education cooperation and the profound ties of friendship between the partner universities of New Orleans and Innsbruck. It ended with a bombshell when a major gift by the Austrian government was announced for rebuilding UNO after Hurricane Katrina. Chancellor Timothy Ryan warmly welcomed the
