Historians/History

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the 2007 OAH Convention: Day 4

by Rick Shenkman

Mr. Shenkman is the editor of HNN.

Day 4: Sunday, April 1, 2007

As historians scurried to make their flights out of town to attend a final Sunday session one mystery lingered.

Just what did this sign, posted at the exit of the convention center, mean?

Look closely.

Ok, maybe a reminder was in order so we wouldn't foolishly walk around the streets of Minneapolis wearing our name tags. But this seemed almost like it was a requirement. And that didn't make much sense.

Two panels caught the attention of HNN this day.

The first focused on Robert Toplin's book, Michael Moore's Farenheit 9/11: How One Film Divided a Nation. Was the film propaganda, as the right charged? It was answered both Toplin and Douglas Brinkley. But, so what? He was an artist not a historian. And anyway, he was more right about the Bush administration than his critics. Here's Brinkley's take.

Meeting a little later, in the final hours of the conference, was a panel on "The United States and the Middle East." Ohio State University's Peter Hahn identified three controversies that have come to define the debate over Israel.

And so the conference ended.

Yesterday we promised to present two more clips from the talks prepared by past presidents of the OAH.

Here's David Montgomery's (1999-2000):

And here's Mary Frances Berry's (1990-1991):

And that is that.

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Day 4: Sunday, April 1, 2007