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History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Week of April 15, 2013


On Topic: Boston Marathon Bombing

Farewell Lu Lingzi 吕令子
Andrew Meyer
Lu Lingzi was a member of our American family.
Tags: Boston Marathon bombing, China, Lu Lingzi, Madmen of Chu
HNN Hot Topics: Terrorism
Tags: terrorism, bombings, war on terror, Hot Topics

OAH Annual Meeting

VIDEO: Real Jobs Outside of Academia for Historians
Peter Sigal (Duke); Alex Soojung-Kim Pang (Future2.org); Andrew Kinney (Harvard University Press); Susan Ferber (Oxford University Press); and T. J. Stiles (freelance writer)
Tags: alternative careers, job market, OAH 2013, videos
VIDEO: Republican Feminists: From Margin to Center
Julie Berebitsky; Donald Critchlow; Leandra Zarnow presenting for Stacie Taranto; Susan M. Hartmann; and Catherine E. Rymph
Tags: feminism, GOP, OAH 2013, videos
VIDEO: Navigating Segregated Life in America's Racial Borderlands
Albert Camarillo (Stanford)
Tags: Albert Camarillo, OAH 2013, racial borderlands, videos
VIDEO: Eric Foner's "Reconstruction" at Twenty-Five
Kate Masur (Northwestern); Heather Andrea Williams (UNC Chapel Hill); Gregory P. Downs (CUNY Graduate Center); Thavolia Glymph (Duke); and Steve Hahn (UPenn), and of course Eric Foner (Columbia)
Tags: Eric Foner, OAH 2013, Reconstruction, videos
VIDEO: OAH Plenary: Corporations in America
Naomi Lamoreaux (Yale); Richard White (Stanford); Bethany Moreton (University of Georgia); Karen Ho (University of Minnesota); and Peter James Hudson (Vanderbilt)
Tags: OAH 2013, videos, corporations, capitalism
VIDEO: Research and Publishing in the Digital Age
Philip Ethington (USC); Adam Arenson (UTEP); Niels Hooper (UC Press), and Susan Ferber (OUP)
Tags: digital history, digital humanities, OAH 2013, videos
Turnout Middling at OAH Meeting in San Francisco
David Austin Walsh
Attendance is down from last year's meeting, but numbers always lower for West Coast conferences.
Tags: conferences, historical associations, OAH 2013, annual meetings
VIDEO: OAH Plenary -- Freedom Struggles
Matthew Countryman (University of Michigan); Clayborne Carson (Stanford University); Barbara Ranby (University of Illinois at Chicago); Tera W. Hunter (Princeton University); and Scott Kurashige (University of Michigan)
Tags: historical conferences, MLK, OAH 2013, videos
OAH 2013 Survival Guide
David Austin Walsh
Tips, tricks, gadgets, and other important advice for the 2013 OAH.
Tags: OAH 2013, survival guide, annual meetings, conventions

HNN Teacher's Edition: For Grade School

HNN’s Teacher’s Edition is designed to help busy teachers build classes around topics in the news. With just a few minutes preparation, teachers will be able to teach a class on current events, even if they haven't been in a position to follow the news closely.

Taxes
Lesson Plan
Backgrounder
Tags: backgrounders, Grades 3-6, taxes, Teacher's Edition

Gun Control
Lesson Plan
Backgrounder
Tags: Teacher's Edition, lesson plans, guns, gun control


News at Home

President Barack Obama: The First Draft of History
Kathryn Moore
A short(ish) biography of our forty-fourth president, from the author of The American President.
Tags: Barack Obama, biography, book excerpts, presidents
The Enemy-Industrial Complex
Tom Engelhardt
How to turn a world lacking in enemies into the most threatening place in the universe.
Tags: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, war on terror

Historians & History

Are We Still in the Dead Grip of a Premodern Conception of Time?
George E. Marcus
The still-widespread belief that time is cyclical has tremendous political impact.
Tags: neuroscience, philosophy, political psychology, time

Towards a New History of the Civil Rights Movement
Gary May
Bridging the gap between the histories of the leaders and the rank-and-file.
Tags: civil rights movement, historiography, Martin Luther King, Voting Rights Act

How to Write a Book Dedication
Vaughn Davis Bornet
Book acknowledgments are all about making choices: should I mention my family, or the archivists who helped me?
Tags: authors, autobiography, book dedications, books
1877: The Year the Army Wasn't Paid
D.M. Giangreco
Congressional bickering over the budget forced the Army to tighten its belt during one of the most violent years in peacetime American history.
Tags: 1877, Great Railway Strike, Indian Wars, Nez Pierce War
Escaping Slavery in Washington Territory
Robin Lindley
Lorraine McConaghy on a boy, a flight to freedom, and the reality of Washington Territory in the Civil War
Tags: Free Boy, Judy Bentley, Lorraine McConaghy, slavery

Culture Watch

Old Jews Telling Jokes
Bruce Chadwick
Exactly what it says on the tin -- and it's absolutely hilarious.
Tags: Borscht Belt, Old Jews Telling Jokes, plays, theater reviews

Books

Review of David W. Noble's "Debating the End of History"
Ron Briley
How to rethink the concept of "perpetual growth."
Tags: David W. Noble, Debating the End of History, Ron Briley, University of Minnesota
Review of Lisa Phillips's "A Renegade Union"
Robert D. Parmet
The saga of one of the only unions in America to organize across racial lines.
Tags: AFL-CIO, Lisa Phillips, Local 65, unions