Ms. Goodman is the Features Editor at HNN. She has a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University, and has done graduate work in history at Concordia University. Her blog is History Musings
Rosh Hashana, Circa 1919:
Mrs. Shapiro is actually Barbara Ann Paster, one of the actors here at the Strawbery Banke restoration, a living
museum in which over 350 years of Portsmouth homes, stores, churches and history have been preserved. It is in
Puddle Dock, which was a decrepit neighborhood destined to be razed under urban renewal until a campaign in the
1950s and '60s led by the town librarian saved 42 houses on 10 acres to create the museum.... -
NYT, 9-17-09
Dan Brown: Da Vinci author's 'uproar' warning: The Lost Symbol is expected to make claims about the influence of secret organisation the freemasons
on US leaders. And it is tipped to brand first President George Washington a TRAITOR.
British historian and Masonic expert Ashley Cowie: "Dan Brown is about to make a huge controversy because
he knows it sells. He's going to create uproar in America. But it's fiction, not fact."
But fellow historian David Shugarts said: "It's true that some of the founding fathers were
powerful Masons."... -
The Sun (9-15-09)
The Economic Freeze on History:
More than two-thirds of history departments are experiencing budget cuts that have "required real reductions in
resources, faculty and staff," according to a survey released Friday by the American Historical Association.... -
Inside Higher Ed (9-14-09)
Peter C. Mancall on "Why a Fourth Grader Knows More About Henry Hudson Than You Do"
The 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's landing in New York... -
The Chronicle of Higher Education (9-14-09)
IN THE NEWS:
John Dichtl and Robert B. Townsend: Preliminary Results from the 2008 Survey of Public History Professionals:
This is the first in a series of articles analyzing results from the 2008 Survey of Public History Professionals.
This article will also appear in Public History News, the newsletter of the National Council
on Public History.... -
American Historical Association (9-2-09)
OAH Strategic Planning Committee sends up a red flare (and asks for members' response) -
OAH website (9-15-09)
Time Mag. solicits readers' questions for Ken Burns:
In his latest project, Burns used more than six years worth of footage and dozens
of interviews to explore the creation of America's national park system, the first such effort in history.
The 12-part series, "America's Best Idea," airs Sept. 27 on PBS. -
Time Magazine (9-14-09)
Nicholas Thompson's trump card in writing about Nitze and Kennan -
NYT (9-11-09)
QUOTED:
John Hafnor: Historian Predicts Dan Brown Theme, Reveals New Lost Symbols:
"The Da Vinci Code's overarching premise was an Old World clash of religion and science, while the
fresh theme for The Lost Symbol is likely to be a uniquely American power struggle between secret societies
and the experiment known as democracy." -
USPRWire (9-10-09)
INTERVIEWED:
Anthony J. Badger: British historian says FDR has some complex lessons for Obama:
Badger is a University of Cambridge historian and the author of several accessible and well-reviewed
books about the South and the Depression, among them "North Carolina and the New Deal," "FDR: The First Hundred
Days" and "The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940." Given the current economic situation, it seems
especially appropriate that the University of South Alabama's Department of History has selected Badger
as this year's N. Jack Stallworth lecturer (his topic: "The New Deal and the Creation of the Modern
American South").... -
al.com (9-14-09)
Peter Bance Sikh author short listed for historian award:
A renowned Sikh author has been short listed for the annual EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards,
for his book on Maharajah Duleep Singh... -
The Sikh Times (9-14-09)
HONORED, AWARDED &APPOINTED:
Mark Updegrove: Presidential historian appointed to direct LBJ Library:
The LBJ Library and Museum announced the appointment of presidential historian Mark Updegrove to director
Wednesday.... -
News 8 Austin (9-17-09)
Best political communication book of the decade is ...
Campaign Talk: Why Elections are Good for Us by Roderick Hart was named the best political communication book
of the last decade by the American Political Science Association. -
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire (9-12-09)
Dr. Takashi Yoshida: Associate Professor of History
honored as emerging faculty scholar by Western Michigan University -
WMU News (9-9-09)
SPOTTED:
Richard Norton Smith, Presidential Historian:
The Clinton School invited Presidential Historian Richard Norton Smith to come speak on "Lincoln 200". It has
been 200 years since Abraham Lincoln was born.... -
TodaysTHV.com, 9-16-09
EVENTS CALENDAR:
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
#3 - Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE
#12 - Peter S. Canellos: LAST LION
#15 - J. Randy Taraborrelli: THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE
#20 - C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
#21 - Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
#29 - Edward Klein: TED KENNEDY
COMING SOON BOOKS:
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
Political Highlights: Remembering Senator Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy, 1932-2009
HNN, 9-1-09
BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:
Betsy McCaughey: NYT says historian's profile has risen sharply as a result of her involvement in
Obama health care debate "Resurfacing, a Critic Stirs Up Debate Over Health Care" -
NYT (9-4-09)
Betsy McCaughey Addresses New York Times: Charges of Falsehoods But No Evidence -
Reuters, 9-5-09
NASA historian Andrew Chaikin: "Space historian" talks up lunar exploration at the
OMNIMAX Theater at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) -
The Bee (9-2-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
#3 - Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE
#11 - J. Randy Taraborrelli: THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE
#16 - Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
#17 - Peter S. Canellos: LAST LION
#20 - C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
#32 - Doug Stanton: HORSE SOLDIERS
COMING SOON BOOKS:
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
Political Highlights: Remembering Senator Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy, 1932-2009
HNN, 9-1-09
BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:
It was Huckabee vs. Doug Brinkley on O'Reilly Show about Health Care Reform:
Well, it's never a mistake for a Democratic president to raise the specter of FDR and Kennedy for his base. I think
the Lyndon Johnson comments gets more to the crux of the difficulty the president's having.
As you know, the Great Society is what Ronald Reagan warned against. In fact, I edited "Reagan's Diaries," and he
wrote one passage that said I voted four times for FDR and the New Deal, but I'm trying to roll back the Great
Society. Medicaid and Medicare came through Lyndon Johnson, but so did a lot of other government programs that
people, particularly conservatives, have been trying to role back some of the wealthier state programs. So
there's a suspicion on the American people that's been really part of entire history, but we've — since
1980 in the Reagan revolution, of too much government.
And so I think the problem this summer for President Obama is that he's pushing health care after all that economic
stimulus money, and there's kind of a woe factor going on, saying this might be too much, too fast, too expensive.... -
Fox News rush transcript (8-24-09)
Richard Slotkin: Treacherous Ground
NO QUARTER The Battle of the Crater, 1864 -
NYT, 8-30-09
Richard Slotkin: NO QUARTER The Battle of the Crater, 1864, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-30-09
J. Randy Taraborrelli: Such a Sad, Sad Story
THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE -
WaPo, 8-30-09
Arthur Goldwag: POPULAR CULTURE Hearsay, You Say?
CULTS, CONSPIRACIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES
The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order,
and many, many more -
WaPo, 8-30-09
Erin Arvedlund, Andrew Kirtzman, Jerry Oppenheimer: Was Bernie Madoff an Evil Genius? That's Just Half Right.
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff,
BETRAYAL
The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff,
MADOFF WITH THE MONEY -
WaPo, 8-30-09
Rich Cohen: An Imagined Nation
ISRAEL IS REAL -
WaPo, 8-30-09
Janet Soskice: RELIGION A Sister Act of Perseverance
THE SISTERS OF SINAI
How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels -
WaPo, 8-30-09
Josh Neufeld: Graphic Memories of Katrina's Ordeal
A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge -
NYT, 8-23-09
Josh Neufeld: A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge -
NYT, 8-23-09
Tristram Hunt: Fox Hunter, Party Animal, Leftist Warrior
MARX'S GENERAL
The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels -
NYT, 8-19-09
Tristram Hunt: MARX'S GENERAL
The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-19-09
Adrian Goldsworthy: HISTORY Rome Wasn't Destroyed in a Day Either
HOW ROME FELL Death of a Superpower -
WaPo, 8-23-09
Adrian Goldsworthy: HOW ROME FELL Death of a Superpower, Excerpt -
WaPo, 8-23-09
Ilaria Dagnini Brey: WORLD WAR II Guardians of History
THE VENUS FIXERS
The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II -
WaPo, 8-23-09
Peter C. Mancall: EXPLORATION Mutiny on the Hudson
FATAL JOURNEY
The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson -- A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic -
WaPo, 8-23-09
Marc Wortman: CIVIL WAR The Work of Sherman
THE BONFIRE
The Siege and Burning of Atlanta
WaPo, 8-23-09
Nelson Lichtenstein: Historian's New Book Takes hard Look at Wal-Mart
The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business -
http://www.onepennysheet.com (8-24-09)
CBS Historian Douglas Brinkley calls Ted Kennedy A 'Martyr' for ObamaCare:
During the 2:00AM ET hour of CBS’s Up to the Minute on Wednesday, shortly after news broke of Senator Ted Kenney’s death, historian Douglas Brinkley exclaimed the Massachusetts Democrat was: "...going to be a – a martyr because of all that he’s done and he very well might help, in death, Obama get his health care plan."
MRC Newsbusters (Conservative Media Watchdog) (8-26-09)
INTERVIEWED:
Jon Meacham interviews Sam Tanenhaus on 'The Death of Conservatism' -
Newsweek (8-29-09)
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
#2 - Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE
#9 - Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
#18 - C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
#22 - Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson: THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA, 2008
#33 - Doug Stanton: HORSE SOLDIERS
COMING SOON BOOKS:
Richard C. Hoagland: Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (Revised), September 1, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World,
September 1, 2009
Noah Andre Trudeau: Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership, September 1, 2009
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
DEPARTED:
Richard Poirier: A founder of Library of America, Dies at 83 -
NYT (8-18-09)
Woodstock: 40 years later:
BABY BOOMERS won't let go of the Woodstock Festival. Why should we? It's one of the few defining events of the
late 1960s that had a clear happy ending.
On Aug. 15-17, 1969, hundreds of thousands of people, me among them, gathered in a lovely natural amphitheater
in Bethel (not Woodstock), N.Y. We listened to some of the best rock musicians of the era, enjoyed other legal
and illegal pleasures, endured rain and mud and exhaustion and hunger pangs, felt like a giant community and
dispersed, all without catastrophe.... -
NYT, 8-16-09
Woodstock Nation, Part 1:
The Woodstock Music & Art Fair began 40 years ago this Friday afternoon at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel,
N.Y. I had seen an advertisement in the July 27, 1969 Sunday New York Times Arts section, and ordered tickets --
$18 for all three days, Aug. 15, 16 & 17, 1969.... -
Projo.com, 8-14-09
Woodstock Nation, Part 2: The music went for 24 hours:
BY THE TIME CARLOS Santana finished playing Soul Sacrifice Saturday afternoon at Woodstock, he was a major star.
"Every band changed the vibes," recalls Dena Quilici, one of the many there from southeastern New England. And the
crowd came alive for Santana. The by-now broiling sun, the hunger and thirst and mud, the Army helicopters
intermittently turning fire hoses on us full-force to cool us off - "all those troubles kind of went away once
you just settled down and started listening to the music," says Ty Davis.... -
Projo.com, 8-14-09
Woodstock Nation, Part 3: We had pulled it off:
Despite two days of uncomfortable conditions, peace and music are both holding out. Sunday is the acid test.
The storm bore down on us, all hard rain and whipping wind, just after Joe Cocker ended the set that opened
Woodstock, Day 3. "The ground was slippery red clay, and then it really looked like Baghdad," remembers
Dottie Clark, one of the many from southeastern New England who were there. "People selling the junk of
the time were packing up, my friends were crying, and I was laughing. I thought it was funny. I said, 'Someday
you'll see that this was something.' "
Cocker had finished his set with what may have been the best live performance ever given: With a Little Help
From My Friends.... -
Projo.com, 8-14-09
Re-'Taking Woodstock' - the complete 1969 concert setlists and playlists, in order:
The book, Taking Woodstock, by Elliot Tiber with Tom Monte, has been adapted to a film with the same name directed
by Ang Lee, and the picture will be released on August 28, 2009. However, this upcoming weekend marks the actual
40th anniversary of the summer outdoor festival of "peace and music," that changed popular culture in the United
States and around the world from that moment on. The original concert took place starting Friday evening,
August 15, and ran through Monday, August 18, 1969. Over 400,000 people showed up, nearly 1/2 million.... -
Examiner, 8-12-09
IN THE NEWS:
Winfield Myers: Brandeis professor accuses Yale University Press of gag order
Jytte Klausen The Cartoons that Shook the World? -
Campus Watch (8-14-09)
Kate Cambor: HISTORY The New Age
GILDED YOUTH
Three Lives in France's Belle Epoque -
WaPo, 8-16-09
Pete Fornatale, Michael Lang with Holly George-Warren: Three Days in August
BACK TO THE GARDEN
The Story of Woodstock,
THE ROAD TO WOODSTOCK -
NYT, 8-9-09
Pete Fornatale: BACK TO THE GARDEN
The Story of Woodstock, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-9-09
Michael Lang with Holly George-Warren: THE ROAD TO WOODSTOCK, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-9-09
PROFILED & FEATURED:
Patrick Allit: Emory University Professor Tells Part of the History of "The Conservatives":
In his recently published sixth book, The Conservatives, Emory University professor Patrick
Allitt undertakes his most comprehensive effort to date in writing the history of the modern conservative movement.... -
The New American, 8-17-09
Adam Zerta "Stunning Ancient Find From the Holy Land":
Archaeologists from Israel's University of Haifa, who were exploring in the Jordan Valley near Jericho, have made a
stunning find: an artificial underground cave filled with various engravings, including markings of crosses.
The cave, which is the largest in Israel, was originally a large quarry during the Roman and Byzantine era and
really is one of a kind, according to archaeology professor Adam Zerta, who led the dig. Zerta thinks the cave,
which is about one acre in size, was used as an early monastery. -
Netscape, 8-09
Tracy Borman: BBC period show, The Tudors, is 'historically inaccurate', leading historian says:
"Yes, the scriptwriters may have taken liberties with the facts, but they have also succeeded in re-creating the
drama and atmosphere of Henry VIII's court, with its intrigues, scandals and betrayals." -
Telegraph (UK) (8-10-09)
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
#3 - Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT'S SECRET SERVICE
#9 - Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
#10 - J. Randy Taraborrelli: MICHAEL JACKSON (THE MAGIC, THE MADNESS, THE WHOLE STORY, 1958-2009)
#13 - C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
#21 - Doug Stanton: HORSE SOLDIERS
COMING SOON BOOKS:
Gil Troy: Reagan Revolution : A Very Short Introduction, August 2009
William A. DeGregorio: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition, August 15, 2009
Brooks D. Simpson: The Reconstruction Presidents (Paperback), August 18, 2009
Richard C. Hoagland: Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (Revised), September 1, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World,
September 1, 2009
Noah Andre Trudeau: Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership, September 1, 2009
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
Tomb search could end riddle of Shakespeare's true identity:
A sarcophagus in an English parish church could solve the centuries-old literary debate over who really wrote
the plays of William Shakespeare.... -
Telegraph UK, 8-9-09
Amelia Earhart Mystery Solved? 'Investigation Junkies' to Launch New Expedition
DNA Evidence on a Remote Island May Reveal the Truth About Earhart's Disappearance -
ABC News, 8-5-09
Britain says goodbye to Harry Patch, the last of its World War I soldiers:
The tribute to Patch, who died two weeks ago at age 111, reflects the emotional grip that the
'war to end all wars' still holds on the nation.... -
LAT, 8-6-09
Woodstock: A Moment of Muddy Grace:
BABY boomers won’t let go of the Woodstock Festival. Why should we? It's one of the few defining events
of the late 1960s that had a clear happy ending.... -
NYT, 8-9-09
IN THE NEWS:
Stanley Karnow: US looks to Vietnam for Afghan tips -
AP (8-6-09)
Juan Cole compares Sarah Palin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -
Salon (8-3-09)
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Douglas Brinkley: Natural Man
THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America -
NYT, 8-9-09
Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-9-09
Pete Fornatale, Michael Lang with Holly George-Warren: Three Days in August
BACK TO THE GARDEN
The Story of Woodstock,
THE ROAD TO WOODSTOCK -
NYT, 8-9-09
Pete Fornatale: BACK TO THE GARDEN
The Story of Woodstock, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-9-09
Michael Lang with Holly George-Warren: THE ROAD TO WOODSTOCK, Excerpt -
NYT, 8-9-09
Andrew Roberts: HISTORY Band of Bickering Brothers
MASTERS AND COMMANDERS
How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945 -
WaPo, 8-9-09
James Gavin: Cabaret Queen
STORMY WEATHER
The Life of Lena Horne -
WaPo, 8-9-09
Timothy R. Pauketat: HISTORY Down by the Riverside
CAHOKIA
Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi -
WaPo, 8-9-09
William T. Vollmann: HISTORY
On the Border
IMPERIAL -
WaPo, 8-9-09
Christopher Caldwell: RELIGION Make Way For the New Europeans
REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN EUROPE
Immigration, Islam, and the West -
WaPo, 8-9-09
Lawrence Powell "Katrina anniversary visit by President Barack Obama appears unlikely":
"Nationally, Katrina is old news, " said Tulane University historian Lawrence Powell. "I think right now
the president is more focused on the economy and health care."... -
Times-Piscayne 8-10-09
Allan Meltzer "Morning in America Means a 'Long Slog' as Phelps Eyes Recovery":
"It is worrisome how we can finance the deficit without having inflation," said Allan Meltzer, a
Fed historian and economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.... -
Bloomberg, 8-3-09
INTERVIEWED:
An Interview with Charles Geisst: How Americans Got Into a Credit Card Mess -
Time (8-8-09)
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
#11 - J. Randy Taraborrelli: MICHAEL JACKSON (THE MAGIC, THE MADNESS, THE WHOLE STORY, 1958-2009)
#12 - C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
#14 - Doug Stanton: HORSE SOLDIERS
#13 - Craig Nelson: ROCKET MEN
#27 - Richard Wolffe: RENEGADE
#35 - Larry Tye: SATCHEL
COMING SOON BOOKS:
Gil Troy: Reagan Revolution : A Very Short Introduction, August 2009
William A. DeGregorio: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition, August 15, 2009
Brooks D. Simpson: The Reconstruction Presidents (Paperback), August 18, 2009
Richard C. Hoagland: Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (Revised), September 1, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World,
September 1, 2009
Noah Andre Trudeau: Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership, September 1, 2009
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
Melody Rod-Ari:
NYT features op ed by art history grad student worried about her future in a bad economy
University of California, Los Angeles
My 'Irrelevant' Field, the Humanities -
NYT, 7-26-09
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Kevin Mattson: No We Can't
"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU UP TO, MR. PRESIDENT?"
Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country -
NYT, 8-2-09
Richard Brookhiser: MEMOIR Conservatively Speaking
RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE
Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement -
WaPo, 8-2-09
Bradley Graham: MILITARY HISTORY
A Warrior Fighting the Wrong War
BY HIS OWN RULES
The Ambitions, Successes and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld -
WaPo, 8-2-09
Tracy E. K'Meyer: Civil-rights history lesson
Professor's book examines Louisville's experience
Civil Rights in the Gateway to the South -
Louisville Courier-Journal, 7-19-09
PROFILED & FEATURED:
King's tower of 'bling' recreated:
The opulent interiors of King Henry II's Dover Castle have been recreated by English Heritage in a £2.45m
project lasting two years. -
BBC, 7-31-09
Jonathan Alter "'Nice' Wasn't Part of the Deal":
Still, by the mid-1930s, according to the Newsweek columnist (and F.D.R. historian) Jonathan Alter, Roosevelt
was openly complaining that the nation's bankers seemed to have forgotten how much the government had done for
them. "In 1936," Mr. Alter said, "F.D.R. compared them to a drowning man who is saved by a lifeguard and four
years later returns to ask the lifeguard angrily: 'Where's my silk hat? You lost my silk hat!'" -
NYT, 8-1-09
Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze:
Historian discusses new book on an academic exodus that saved lives and changed mathematics
Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany: Individual Fates and Global Impact
Inside Higher Ed, 7-27-09
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
#18 - J. Randy Taraborrelli: MICHAEL JACKSON (THE MAGIC, THE MADNESS, THE WHOLE STORY, 1958-2009)
#23 - Larry Tye: SATCHEL
#32 - Richard Wolffe: RENEGADE
COMING SOON BOOKS:
Gil Troy: Reagan Revolution : A Very Short Introduction, August 2009
William A. DeGregorio: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition, August 15, 2009
Brooks D. Simpson: The Reconstruction Presidents (Paperback), August 18, 2009
Richard C. Hoagland: Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (Revised), September 1, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World,
September 1, 2009
Noah Andre Trudeau: Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership, September 1, 2009
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
DEPARTED:
STUART I. ROCHESTER, 63: Co-Wrote Influential Book on POWs -
WaPo, 8-1-09
Alan C. Hall taught technology and history at Gateway Community and Technical College and
pushed for the onetime vocational school to offer more for its students -
Chronicle of Higher Ed (7-27-09)
Posted on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 5:26 AM | Top
Henry L. Gates,Jr. 911 call: Witness not sure she sees crime: -
AP, 7-27-09
Obama Tries to Move Past Gates Furor: -
WSJ, 7-26-09
Obama, Gates and the American Black Man:
NYT, 7-25-09
Gates Says 'Yes' to Beer With Crowley:
It was very kind of the President to phone me today. Vernon Jordan is absolutely correct: my unfortunate
experience will only have a larger meaning if we can all use this to diminish racial profiling and to enhance
fairness and equity in the criminal justice system for poor people and for people of color.... -
Henry Louis Gates in The Root (edited by Henry Louis Gates) (7-24-09)
Black males' fear of racial profiling very real, regardless of class-
LAT, 7-24-09
Case Recalls Tightrope Blacks Walk With Police -
NYT, 7-23-09
Obama doesn't regret 'acted stupidly' remark about Henry Gates Jr. arrest-
NY Daily News, 7-23-09
Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert-
AP, 7-23-09
Police Chief Responds to Obama's Remarks -
WSJ, 7-23-09
The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about his arrest and the outrage of racial profiling
in America:
I'm saying 'You need to send someone to fix my lock.' All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And
I thought, 'This is strange.’ So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said 'Officer,
can I help you?' And he said, 'Would you step outside onto the porch.' And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t
canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized
that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, 'No, I will not.'.... -
Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The Root, 7-21-09
Police Drop Charges Against Black Scholar-
WSJ, 7-21-09
Gates chastises officer after authorities agree to drop criminal charge:
"I believe the police officer should apologize to me for what he knows he did that was wrong," Gates said in a
phone interview from his other home in Martha's Vineyard. "If he apologizes sincerely, I am willing to forgive him.
And if he admits his error, I am willing to educate him about the history of racism in America and the issue of
racial profiling ... That's what I do for a living."... -
Boston Globe, 7-21-09
10 Reasons Why Apollo 11 Moon Landing Was Awesome:
Yesterday marked the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Forty years ago mission commander Neil A.
Armstrong and lunar module pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. walked on the moon while command module pilot
Michael Collins orbited above. Today however, marks the 40th anniversary of the day people really reacted to what
just happened. As with all major events in time, there is always a day of reflection.... -
Wired, 7-21-09
Dr. Rafael Medoff: Historians Join Other Holocaust Scholars in Praising Uganda's
Darfur Arrest Threat:
...We salute Uganda for making it clear that Bashir is not welcome, and we hope other countries will follow
Uganda's lead. Strong international action is necessary to end the Darfur genocide and bring the murderers to
justice. The International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Bashir must be implemented. -
Press --Wyman Institute (7-24-09)
State Dept Offers New Caveat on Nixon Tapes:
The transcripts of Nixon White House tape recordings that are published in the State Department's official Foreign
Relations of the United States (FRUS) series are merely "interpretations," not official records, the State
Department acknowledged in the latest FRUS volume that was released this month. As such, those transcripts are
susceptible to revision and correction.
Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists (7-20-09)
Melody Rod-Ari:
NYT features op ed by art history grad student worried about her future in a bad economy
University of California, Los Angeles
My 'Irrelevant' Field, the Humanities -
NYT, 7-26-09
James MacGregor Burns: Judicial Roulette
PACKING THE COURT
The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court
-
NYT, 7-26-09
James MacGregor Burns:PACKING THE COURT
The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court
, Excerpt -
NYT, 7-26-09
Rich Cohen: A Land and a People
ISRAEL IS REAL
An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History -
NYT, 7-26-09
Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh: Zionist in the White House
A SAFE HAVEN
Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel -
NYT, 7-26-09
Richard Brookhiser: MEMOIR Conservatively Speaking
RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE
Coming of Age with William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement -
WaPo, 7-26-09
Bradley Graham: MILITARY HISTORY
A Warrior Fighting the Wrong War BY HIS OWN RULES
The Ambitions, Successes and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld -
WaPo, 7-26-09
Art Historian Anthony Blunt: Memoirs of British Spy Offer No Apology -
NYT (7-23-09)
Reinhard Siegmund-Schultze:
Historian discusses new book on an academic exodus that saved lives and changed mathematics
Mathematicians Fleeing from Nazi Germany: Individual Fates and Global Impact
Inside Higher Ed (7-27-09)
Woodrow Wilson Center Holding Summer Institutes for High School Teachers: U.S. and the Cold War:
THE UNITED STATES AND THE COLD WAR July 26-July 31, 2009 -
Press Release (7-25-09)
Woodrow Wilson Center Holding Summer Institutes for High School Teachers: U.S.-China Relations
U.S.-China Relations July 26-July 31, 2009 -
Press Release (7-25-09)
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall:
Lincoln's Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons
from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009.
NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)
Gil Troy: Reagan Revolution : A Very Short Introduction, July 30, 2009
Constance Rosenblum: Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in
the Bronx, August 1, 2009
David Freeland:
Automats, Taxi Dances, and Vaudeville: Excavating Manhattans Lost Places of Leisure, August 1, 2009
William A. DeGregorio: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition, August 15, 2009
Brooks D. Simpson: The Reconstruction Presidents (Paperback), August 18, 2009
Richard C. Hoagland: Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (Revised), September 1, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World,
September 1, 2009
Noah Andre Trudeau: Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership, September 1, 2009
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript
Revelation Books, September 2009
James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King - A Nonfiction Thriller,
September 28, 2009
Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback),
November 1, 2009
Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the
New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom--and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
(Paperback), December 8, 2009
DEPARTED:
Lionel Casson: Who Wrote of Ancient Maritime History, Dies at 94 -
NYT (7-24-09)
Julian E. Zelizer: What Jimmy Carter had right:
On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter delivered one of the more controversial speeches in recent presidential
history. When Carter delivered what would come to be known as the "malaise" speech America was in bad condition.
Inflation was devastating the economy. Unemployment rates were high. OPEC had increased oil prices several times
within a few months. With his re-election on the horizon, Carter watched his approval ratings plummet to below 30
percent.... -
Politico, 7-15-09
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Craig Nelson: Apollo 11's Bright Glare
ROCKET MEN
The Epic Story Of the First Men On the Moon -
WaPo, 7-19-09
Hobson Woodward: Shakespeare's Storm
A BRAVE VESSEL
The True Tale of the Castaways Who Rescued Jamestown . . . -
WaPo, 7-19-09
Lynn Hudson Parsons: Power to (Some of) the People
THE BIRTH OF MODERN POLITICS
Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams and the Election of 1828 -
WaPo, 7-19-09
Thomas Levenson: HISTORY A New Newton
NEWTON AND THE COUNTERFEITER
The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist -
WaPo, 7-19-09
Martha A. Sandweiss on W. Ralph Eubanks:
The Family That Rejected Jim Crow
THE HOUSE AT THE END OF THE ROAD
The Story of Three Generations of An Interracial Family in the American South -
WaPo, 7-19-09
Greg Grandin: UTOPIAS
Welcome to the Jungle
FORDLANDIA
The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City -
WaPo, 7-19-09
Richard Holmes: Science and the Sublime
THE AGE OF WONDER
How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science -
NYT, 7-19-09
Richard Holmes:THE AGE OF WONDER
How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Excerpt -
NYT, 7-19-09
David Kennedy on Margaret MacMillan: What History Is Good For
DANGEROUS GAMES
The Uses and Abuses of History -
NYT, 7-19-09
Margaret MacMillan:DANGEROUS GAMES
The Uses and Abuses of History, Excerpt -
NYT, 7-19-09
Greg Grandin: Dearborn-on-Amazon
FORDLANDIA
The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City -
NYT, 7-19-09
Greg Grandin: FORDLANDIA
The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, Excerpt -
7-19-09
Alistair Horne: Got Your Back
KISSINGER
1973, the Crucial Year -
NYT, 7-19-09
Alistair Horne: KISSINGER
1973, the Crucial Year -
NYT, 7-19-09
Larry Tye: A Fastball Wrapped in a Riddle
SATCHEL
The Life and Times of an American Legend -
NYT, 7-19-09
Larry Tye: SATCHEL
The Life and Times of an American Legend -
NYT, 7-19-09
James Gavin: No Prisoner of Love
STORMY WEATHER The Life of Lena Horne -
NYT, 7-19-09
James Gavin:STORMY WEATHER The Life of Lena Horne, Excerpt -
NYT, 7-19-09
David Garrow "At 100, NAACP debates its role":
David Garrow, a civil rights historian, says there has been a shift from the traditional notion of black civil
rights because of steady growth in black civic participation and decline of civil-rights-era protest groups.... -
Chicago Tribune, 7-13-09
One Step Was Plenty
First Man to Walk on the Moon Stoically Backpedals on Earth:
Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong became the most famous man on the planet by taking a short walk off of it.
Since then he's tried to live with that fact, and also live it down. -
WaPo, 7-19-09
INTERVIEWED:
Charles W. Eagles: Author discusses new book on James Meredith and his battle to enroll at the University
of Mississippi
The Price of Defiance: James Meredith and the Integration of Ole Miss -
Inside Higher Ed (7-14-09)
HONORED, AWARDED &APPOINTED:
Jonathan Brent:
Former editorial director of Yale University Press and general editor of its celebrated Annals of
Communism series is now in charge of one of the world's most important archives of Jewish life -
Chronicle of Higher Ed (7-15-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Obama's Secret Meeting With Historians:
The president held a dinner at the White House for leading presidential scholars
Obama held a dinner at the White House residence with nine such scholars on June 30, and it turned out to be what
one participant described as a "history book club, with the president as the inquisitor." Among those attending
were Michael Beschloss, H. W. Brands, Douglas Brinkley, Robert Dallek, and Doris Kearns Goodwin. Obama asked
the guests to discuss the presidencies that they were most familiar with and to give him insights into what
remains relevant to the problems of today. -
Kenneth T. Walsh in US News & World Report (7-10-09)
Luke Nichter, the Texas A&M professor runs Nixontapes.org:
Watergate Figure John Dean Threatens to Sue Historian Over Damaging Tape Recordings -
Fox News (7-10-09)
Kevin Mattson: Thirty Years Later, in Praise of Malaise
WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU UP TO, MR. PRESIDENT?
Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Shaun A. Casey: RELIGION AND POLITICS
Faith in the Electorate
THE MAKING OF A CATHOLIC PRESIDENT
Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960
WaPo, 7-12-09
Richard Wrangham & Tom Standage: Cooking Up a Pot of Civilization
CATCHING FIRE How Cooking Made Us Human, AN EDIBLE HISTORY OF HUMANITY -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Tom Standage:AN EDIBLE HISTORY OF HUMANITY Chapter One
THE INVENTION OF FARMING -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Margaret MacMillan: Getting History Right
DANGEROUS GAMES The Uses and Abuses of History -
WaPo, 7-12-09
James Scott: HISTORY Misguided Missiles
THE ATTACK ON THE LIBERTY The Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Larry Tye: BIOGRAPHY 'No Man Got to Be Common'
SATCHEL The Life and Times of an American Legend -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Larry Tye: SATCHEL The Life and Times of an American Legend Chapter One
Coming Alive -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Gavin Mortimer: HISTORY The Wright Stuff
CHASING ICARUS The Seventeen Days in 1910 That Forever Changed American Aviation -
WaPo, 7-12-09
Craig Nelson, Andrew Chaikin with Victoria Kohl: Giant Step, Full Stop
ROCKET MEN
The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, VOICES FROM THE MOON
Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences -
NYT, 7-8-09
Craig Nelson: ROCKET MEN
The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, Chapter Seven
A Way to Talk to God -
NYT, 7-8-09
Elijah Wald: Roll Over, John Lennon
HOW THE BEATLES DESTROYED ROCK 'N' ROLL
An Alternative History of American Popular Music -
NYT, 7-10-09
James MacGregor Burns: New Book on Supreme Court by Historian
Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court -
iberkshires.com (7-6-09)
James MacGregor Burns says Supremes Really Govern America
Packing the Court: The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court -
MICHIKO KAKUTANI in the NYT (7-6-09)
Howard Zinn: Historian Responds To Robert S. McNamara’s Death, Calls Him A “War Criminal”
talkradionews.com (7-6-09)
INTERVIEWED:
Immanuel Ness: You Say You Want a Reference Book About Revolution?
The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, 1500 to the Present -
Inside Higher Ed (7-8-09)
Michael Oren: Israeli Ambassador in conversation with Jeffrey Goldberg (video) -
youtube.com (7-2-09)
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Drew Gilpin Faust "Harvard President School has tough choices in decline":
Drew Gilpin Faust started as Harvard's president when the university's prosperity seemed limitless. With
its ballooning wealth, Harvard planned almost frenzied growth, from a building boom into Boston to vast
increases in student financial aid.
Billions of lost endowment dollars later, though, Faust faces a much different reality.
"We can't have chocolate and vanilla and strawberry. We have to decide which one," she said... -
AP, 7-5-09
Peter de Bolla "Expert: Fourth of July lore not accurate":
Cultural history Professor Peter de Bolla of King's College at Britain's Cambridge University said in a Los
Angeles Times story published Saturday that while the Fourth of July is commonly tabbed as Independence Day,
July 2 would actually be a more accurate day to celebrate.
July 2, 1776, was the day colony delegates voted at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to seek
independence from Britain, de Bolla said.
The history professor said July 4, 1776, was simply the day officials from the 13 colonies chose to make their
July 2 ruling public.... -
Times of the Internet, 7-5-09
Ken Davis "Fun Fourth of July Facts: A Pop Quiz!":
Author Ken Davis Tests "The Early Show" Anchors' Knowledge of Independence Day -
CBS News, 7-3-09
Stephen Ambrose: Another error found, this time in Band of Brothers:
Despite the stirring portrayal in "Band of Brothers," Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division was not
the first to enter Adolf Hitler's Berchtesgaden mountain retreat near the end of World War II, says military
historian Dr. John C. McManus in a new book. -
Missouri University of Science and Technology news release (7-1-09)
Harold James: Who is to Blame?:
Now that the economic crisis looks less threatening (at least for the moment), and forecasters are spying
"green shoots" of recovery, an ever more encompassing blame game is unfolding. The financial crisis provides
an apparently endless opportunity for unmasking deceit, malfeasance, and corruption. But we are not sure quite
who and what should be unmasked.... -
IBTimes, 7-2-09
SARAH VOWELL: A Plantation to Be Proud Of -
NYT, 7-5-09
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
John Ferling: First in War, First in Peace, First in Hogging the Credit
THE ASCENT OF GEORGE WASHINGTON The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon -
WaPo, 7-5-09
Raymond Arsenault: CIVIL RIGHTS Let Freedom Ring
Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America -
WaPo, 7-5-09
Raymond Arsenault: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America, First Chapter -
WaPo, 7-5-09
Jeffrey Rosen on James MacGregor Burns: THE LAW Black Robe Politics
PACKING THE COURT The Rise of Judicial Power and the Coming Crisis of the Supreme Court
WaPo, 7-5-09
Alan Brinkley on Richard Brookhiser: God and Man at National Review
RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE Coming of Age With William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement -
NYT, 7-5-09
Richard Brookhiser: RIGHT TIME, RIGHT PLACE Coming of Age With William F. Buckley Jr. and the Conservative Movement, Excerpt -
richardbrookhiser.com
Jackson Lears on D. D. Guttenplan: Paper Trail
AMERICAN RADICAL The Life and Times of I. F. Stone -
NYT, 7-5-09
Henry Waxman with Joshua Green: POLITICS Moustache of Justice
THE WAXMAN REPORT How Congress Really Works -
WaPo, 7-5-09
Vladislav Zubok: HISTORY Breaking the Bloc
ZHIVAGO'S CHILDREN -
WaPo, 7-5-09
QUOTED:
Doris Kearns Goodwin "Barack Obama's Martha's Vineyard days to come":
The Obamas face a similar situation that the Clintons did: Neither have their own vacation home or estate.
"Unlike FDR, who had Hyde Park, or Lyndon Johnson or George W. Bush who had their own ranches, they need to find a
place where they can relax, which the others did by going to their own homes," said author and historian Doris
Kearns Goodwin.
The presidential getaway is no small matter: The off-hours have given shape to the imagery of the presidency.
Ronald Reagan cultivated a sun-baked masculinity by spending time at Rancho del Cielo, his California ranch.
"Once, when an aide told President Reagan that it might be better if he didn't go to his ranch so much, he said:
'You can tell me a lot of things, but you can’t tell me that,'" said Goodwin....
Politico, 7-5-09
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Peggy Noonan calls David McCullough our greatest living historian:
On David McCullough: ... He is America's greatest living historian. He has often written about great men and the
reason may be a certain law of similarity: He is one also.... -
WSJ (7-3-09)
INTERVIEWED:
Greg Grandin "Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City":
The book tells the story of Henry Ford, the richest man in the world in the 1920s, a
nd his attempt to build a rubber plantation and a miniature Midwest factory town deep in the heart of the Brazilian
Amazon.
Democracy Now, 7-2-09
John W. Hall in place as the first Ambrose-Hesseltine Professor in U.S. Military History:
University of Wisconsin at Madison hires military historian -
Inside Higher Ed (7-2-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
W.Va. Civil War group debuts at Harpers Ferry
Sesquicentennial of John Brown's Raid kicks off -
Journal News, 6-26-09
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Mike Evans (Editor): Woodstock: Three Days That Rocked the World, July 7, 2009
Roger S. Bagnall: Oxford Handbook of Papyrology, July 14, 2009
David Maraniss: Rome 1960: The Summer Olympics That Stirred the World (Reprint), July 14, 2009
Buzz Aldrin: Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon, July 23, 2009
Alice Morse Earle: Child Life in Colonial Times (Paperback), July 23, 2009
William A. DeGregorio: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition, August 15, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World, September 1, 2009
Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman,
September 15, 2009
DEPARTED:
Togo W. Tanaka dies at 93; journalist documented life at Manzanar internment camp:
In 1942, Togo W. Tanaka and his family were evacuated to Manzanar internment camp, where his "rich daily accounts
of everyday life" and his unflinching support of the United States "got him into a lot of trouble," historians say.
Many of his reports were critical of camp administrators and the policy that led to the internment of 10,000 people
of Japanese descent, most of whom were U.S. citizens from Los Angeles County. -
LAT, 7-5-09
Rock, Pop Historian John Covach Assesses Michael Jackson's Impact:
"Michael Jackson is arguably the most important figure in 1980s popular music....
Younger fans of pop music may have to be reminded how incredibly powerful Michael Jackson's music was in the 1980s.
More than that, Jackson defined "cool" during those years. The single glove, his patented moonwalk step, that
slightly rebellious yet gentle demeanor—all this youthful charm slipped away over time, as it does for all of us.
But at the height of his powers, Michael Jackson was one of the world's great entertainers and a pivotal figure in
the history of American music. That's how he should be remembered." -
Rochester University, 6-25-09
John Covach "Outpouring over Michael Jackson unlike anything since Princess Di":
"One reason Michael Jackson's death is having such a wide impact is because his music had such a wide, and even
sustained impact," says John Covach, a music historian at the University of Rochester. "Few artists have so completely
saturated the market as Jackson did during the 1980s. It's comparable to the Beatles in the 60s or Elvis in the 50s.
When an artist or performer is so well known and loved, the reaction to his or her passing is bound to be strong
and widespread."
"One important difference between Jackson's career and those of many others is that he was a child star who
became an adult star – a very difficult transition to pull off," says Professor Covach. "Even those who were
too young to be fans of Jackson when he was a child have seen the clips of him performing with a mastery
far beyond his years. The adult Michael Jackson that fans loved in the 1980s thus already had a bit of
history – people felt like they knew him already." -
CS Monitor, 6-29-09
Niall Ferguson: Economic historian partnering on sequel to best selling strategy game 'Making History' -
Gamezone.com (6-25-09)
Ed Ayers teaching high school teachers about the South:
While summer is often believed to be a time of rest and relaxation for K-12 teachers, more than two dozen high
school teachers from 20 states will spend next week as students of "The South in American History," a course
taught by University of Richmond president Edward L. Ayers. The course is part of the Gilder Lehrman Institute
of American History.... -
Press Release--University of Richmond (6-26-09)
American Historical Association: AHA protests Russian attempt to suppress history -
AHA website, (6-17-09)
Sean Wilentz takes on the new Lincoln establishment:
Sean Wilentz in a long article reviewing books about Lincoln -
The New Republic, 7-15-09
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Gavin Weightman: The Modernizers
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONARIES
The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914 -
NYT, 6-28-09
Gavin Weightman: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONARIES
The Making of the Modern World 1776-1914, Ecerpt-
NYT, 6-28-09
Christopher Bigsby: Liked but Not Well Liked
ARTHUR MILLER 1915-1962 -
NYT, 6-28-09
Christopher Bigsby: ARTHUR MILLER 1915-1962, First Chapter -
NYT, 6-28-09
Stephan Talty: HISTORY A Silent Killer
THE ILLUSTRIOUS DEAD
The Terrifying Story of How Typhus Killed Napoleon's Greatest Army -
WaPo, 6-28-09
Jackson Lears: Bursting into the Modern Age
REBIRTH OF A NATION The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920
WaPo, 6-28-09
Nelson Lichtenstein: New Book by UCSB History Scholar Examines Wal-Mart as a Business Model
The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business (Metropolitan Books) -
News announcement at the website of USC (6-24-09)
QUOTES:
Jeremi Suri "UW-Madison Makes An Unlikely Ally: The Military":
"It really is a group effort to reach out to the military in a way we never have before, at least not in the last
20 to 30 years," UW-Madison history professor Jeremi Suri said. "We've actually in the last few months, out of
circumstance, made enormous headway. ... We're getting beyond this really silly notion people have that we're
antimilitary." -
AP, 6-28-09
David Eisenbach and David J. Garrow "Why the Gay Rights Movement Has No National Leader":
"The issues of gay rights are mainly state issues, so the focus for activism is going to be on the local level,"
said David Eisenbach, a lecturer in history at Columbia University and the author of "Gay Power: An American
Revolution."
"They see dispersal as a great thing, that it's better not to have a concentration or too much attention
overinvested in one individual," said David J. Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who has written about
the civil rights and women’s rights movements. "The speed and breadth of change has been just breathtaking,"
he added. "But it's happened without a Martin Luther King." -
NYT, 6-21-09
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Kira Gale: Lewis and Clark in murder mystery 200 years after their final expedition:
Meriwether Lewis, one half of the Lewis and Clark explorer duo who first reached the Pacific by land,
may have been murdered, say descendants who want his body exhumed.
Historian Kira Gale, co-author of a new book The Death of Meriwether Lewis, with Professor James Starrs, a forensic
pathologist at George Washington University, said: "It's a tangled web of politics, conspiracies and expansionism." -
Telegraph, UK, 6-29-09
Historians' Advice for Dick Cheney on Writing His Memoirs:
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has just signed a deal for his memoirs, reportedly worth around $2 million.
President Bush, Laura Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice and Henry Paulson are also busy writing
their takes on their roles in history. The political memoir, either as a summation of the author’s importance or
payback to antagonists, has long been seen as a transition back to private life. -
NYT (6-27-09)
Meet Britain's young new historians:
...They have been an actor, an artist and a TV presenter, are aged between 25 and 35 and they all have book
contracts. One wrote his account of the year 1381 in a corner of the trendy London members' club, Soho House,
during leave from his day job at a men's magazine. And rather than being looked down upon by the old guard,
they are highly regarded by the academic establishment: David Starkey is considered a mentor by two of them;
Simon Sebag Montefiore by others.... -
Oliver Marre in the Guardian (6-28-09)
INTERVIEWS:
Wright's Legacy at Dartmouth College:
"No one in my family had gone to college," Wright said. "And I had never taken it seriously... going into the Marines
after high school was one way of delaying going into the mines or working for John Deere or the Kraft cheese plant."...
"I'm a student of history... American history," Wright said. "I think I've had a fascination with history even
when I was in elementary school. I recall loving history and reading history texts and there was a story
which I found fascinating and enjoyable and I just liked to read history."... -
WCAX, 6-29-09
Mark Weiner: Legal Historian Is Named
2009-2010 Chancellor's Distinguished Research Scholar:
Will be honored in February 2010 at Rutgers University in Newark -
Rutgers, 6-23-09
Historian Gerhard Weinberg: To Receive 2009 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award
for Lifetime Achievement -
PRnewswire (6-22-09)
Office of the Historian Announces New Website: www.history.state.gov:
The Department of State is pleased to announce the official unveiling of the Office of the Historian's
new website: www.history.state.gov.
State Department (6-19-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
W.Va. Civil War group debuts at Harpers Ferry
Sesquicentennial of John Brown's Raid kicks off -
Journal News, 6-26-09
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Niall Ferguson: The Ascent of Money Brings The Economic Crisis Down to Earth on PBS each Wednesday
in July -
About.com, 6-29-09
'History Detectives' focus on Oak Ridge:
Oak Ridge and Knoxville will be in the television spotlight over the next two weeks as PBS' "History Detectives"
investigate the historical significance of two mysterious letters contributed by area residents.
Cast members of the television show, "History Detectives," delve into the "Manhattan Project Patent." -
Oak Ridger, 6-29-09
Office of the Historian Announces New Website: www.history.state.gov:
The Department of State is pleased to announce the official unveiling of the Office of the Historian's
new website: www.history.state.gov.
State Department (6-19-09)
A College for History Only:
The American College of History and Legal Studies will start offering classes in August 2010 and has been
licensed to operate in Salem, N.H. -- just seven miles from the Andover, Mass., campus of the Massachusetts
School of Law.... -
Inside Higher Ed (6-15-09)
Thomas Sugrue: Responds to criticism of his book, citing the myth of the white backlash
Sweet Land of Liberty -
Democracy (6-15-09)
John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr respond to their critics:
While we were writing Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, based on Alexander Vassiliev's notebooks,
we anticipated a hostile reaction from battered but still rancorous remnants of the pro-Communist left in the
academic world and partisan pundits. Together they have denied for more than fifty years that Soviet espionage
in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s had much significance, denounced claims linking the Communist Party
of the USA (CPUSA) with Soviet espionage, and proclaimed the innocence of many of those identified as
Soviet agents.... -
Washington Decoded (6-10-09)
Deborah Lipstadt was at Holocaust Museum when shooting took place:
I write this from my office in the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum where I have been privileged to have had a fellowship for the past semester. Up until Wednesday
at 12:50 p.m., it had been a perfect visit. Everything a scholar could hope for: exceptional scholarly resources
and a magnificent museum staff.... -
Deborah Lipstadt in a commentary at CNN.com (6-12-09)
Garry Wills has nice things to say about Bill Buckley -
Atlantic (7-1-09)
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Gillian Gill: Married With Children
WE TWO Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals -
NYT, 6-21-09
Gillian Gill: WE TWO Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals, Excerpt -
NYT, 6-21-09
Donald McRae: Darrow for the Defense
THE LAST TRIALS OF CLARENCE DARROW -
WaPo, 6-21-09
Clay Risen: HISTORY A Country Shaken
A NATION ON FIRE
America in the Wake of the King Assassination
WaPo, 6-21-09
Karen Greenberg: Before Guantanamo Was Above the Law
THE LEAST WORST PLACE Guantanamo's First 100 Days
WaPo, 6-21-09
Frank Gannon on Kevin Mattson: Days of 'Malaise'
Ah, the Jimmy Carter era: presidential scolding, gas lines, Studio 54 and the 'killer rabbit'
WSJ, 6-20-09
David Beito, Linda Royster Beito: Say bias has excluded civil rights leader T.R.M. Howard from pantheon
Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power -
Harper's (6-11-09)
QUOTES:
Allan Brandt talks about the decline of big tobacco:
"My own view is that in many ways, the tobacco industry invented the kind of special-interest lobbying that has
become so characteristic of the late 20th- and earlier 21st-century American politics," said Allan Brandt, dean
of Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
"Today obviously, that lobby is much less powerful and successful than it was a generation ago," said Brandt,
author of "The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America."... -
CNN (6-19-09)
Jeffrey Wasserstrom "Debunking the Shanghai myth":
Thus says noted historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom, who debunks the "East meets West" image of Shanghai.
This label fails to capture the multitude of Western voices and Chinese viewpoints facing off and converging
there, argues the author of Global Shanghai 1850-2010: A History In Fragments, published this year.
"Global" Shanghai today is as much a hotpot for East-meets-East as West-meets-West.
Yet, Professor Wasserstrom, who teaches history at the University of California, Irvine, himself was once
victim to what he calls the "fairy tale versions of Shanghai".
He confesses to having felt "let down" during his first two visits to Shanghai in the 1980s, when he was
confronted with "the contrast between the drab city I found...and the exciting one I had conjured up in my imagination".
Malaysian Insider, 6-21-09
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Bradley R. Simpson "Historian Claims West Backed Post-Coup Mass Killings in '65":
Speaking on the opening day of an international conference in Singapore to discuss arguably the darkest chapter
in Indonesia’s history, Bradley R. Simpson, an assistant professor at Princeton University and an expert on
Indonesia, said that the US and British governments did everything in their power to ensure that the Indonesian
army would carry out the mass killings.... -
http://thejakartaglobe.com (6-17-09)
Kathryn Olmsted: UC Davis historian catalogs US secrets, lies and conspiracies
Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11 -
Press Release (6-17-09)
HONORS, AWARDED &APPOINTED:
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. "Historian says Golden Horseshoe started path to success":
Henry Louis Gates, Jr., began his ascent as a renowned historian by winning what he would later call the
"the Nobel Prize of eighth graders in West Virginia," the Golden Horseshoe.... -
Charleston Daily Mail, 6-19-09
Patricia McMahon Houser: An assistant professor of geography at Central Connecticut State
University, is Putnam's new county historian.... -
The Journal News, 6-4-09
ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPOTTED:
Office of the Historian Announces New Website: www.history.state.gov:
The Department of State is pleased to announce the official unveiling of the Office of the Historian's
new website: www.history.state.gov.
State Department (6-19-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
June 2009: National Archives Continues Year-Long 75th Anniversary Celebration in June with
H.W. Brands, Donald Ritchie, Robert Remini -
Press Newswire, 5-28-09
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Avinoam Patt: University Of Hartford Professor Says Holocaust Museum Shooting Is Evidence
Anti-Semitism Still Exists:
"The museum is very threatening to deniers. It is not just a memorial but a museum that makes a statement to nearly
2 million visitors a year, educating people about the cancer of genocide," said Avinoam Patt, who teaches
American and European Jewish history.... -
Hartford Courant, 6-11-09
John Lewis Gaddis "June 1979, the Nine Days of John Paul II":
Thirty years ago, the Bishop of Rome returned to Poland for the first time since his recent election to the papacy.
America's premier Cold War historian, John Lewis Gaddis of Yale, is not ambiguous in his judgment of what happened
next: "When John Paul II kissed the ground at the Warsaw airport on June 2, 1979, he began the process by which
communism in Poland—and ultimately everywhere—would come to an end." Professor Gaddis is right: the Nine Days of
John Paul II, June 2-10, 1979, were an epic moment on which the history of the 20th century pivoted, and in a more
humane direction.... -
Catholic Star Herald, 6-11-09
IN THE NEWS:
Great Caesar's Ghost! Are Traditional History Courses Vanishing?:
To the pessimists evidence that the field of diplomatic history is on the decline is everywhere. Job openings on
the nation’s college campuses are scarce, while bread-and-butter courses like the Origins of War and American
Foreign Policy are dropping from history department postings. And now, in what seems an almost gratuitous insult,
Diplomatic History, the sole journal devoted to the subject, has proposed changing its title.... -
NYT, 6-10-09
Australian National University professor David Horner: Professor to write ASIO history:
ASIO has commissioned an historian to write an unclassified history of the spy agency as its new headquarters
take shape.... -
The Age, Australia, 6-12-09
John Hope Franklin: Brooklyn College Celebrates Historian and Announces Award and Conference
in His Name -
Brooklyn College, 6-8-09
Randolph-Macon Woman's College Professor and Historian Margaret Pertzoff:
Wintergreen Farm owner leaves $1.4M bequest to Randolph College -
Nelson County Times, 6-
OP-EDs & BLOGS:
Paul Krugman vs. Neill Ferguson: Letting the Data Speak -
NYT, 6-16-09
Derek J. Penslar: Contested Space Maps in Teaching About Israel -
Shma, 6-12-09
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Michael Kazin on Simon Schama: What So Proudly He Hails
THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History -
WaPo, 6-14-09
Simon Schama: THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History, Chapter One -
WaPo, 6-14-09
Simon Schama: Despite the Crises, Seeing a Star-Spangled Destiny in the Mirror of Time
THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History -
NYT, 6-9-09
Simon Schama: The American Future: A History
Historian Simon Schama offers a portrait of America with its complexities and contradictions. -
CS Monitor, 6-15-09
Vincent J. Cannato: American Passage: The History of Ellis Island
'American Passage': It's Ellis Island's history, and ours, too -
USA Today, 6-15-09
BEVERLY GAGE on Jackson Lears: American Macho
REBIRTH OF A NATION The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 -
NYT, 6-14-09
Gillian Tett: Rewriting the Rules
FOOL'S GOLD
How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J. P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe -
NYT, 6-14-09
Gillian Tett: FOOL'S GOLD
How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J. P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe,
First Chapter -
NYT, 6-14-09
Chris Bray on Doug Stanton: The Stuff of Which Movies Are Made
HORSE SOLDIERS
The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan -
WaPo, 6-14-09
Robert Fulford on D.D. Guttenplan, John Earl Haynes: Two views on I.F. Stone
American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America -
National Post, 6-14-09
QUOTES:
Bill Clinton: Historian John Hope Franklin was 'angry, happy man':
The late historian John Hope Franklin was "an angry, happy man" whose work as the head of a commission on race
helped pull the country together, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday.
Clinton was one of a dozen speakers at a service at Duke Chapel to honor Franklin and his wife, Aurelia,
who would have celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary Thursday....
"Now, we're laughing," Clinton said. "But the man was 80 years old. He was perhaps the most distinguished living
American historian. He did write this in a funny way. And he wrote it in a way that you knew he didn't think it
was funny. He was a genius at being a passionate rationalist. An angry, happy man. A happy, angry man."...
In 1997, Clinton appointed Franklin to lead his Initiative on Race. Because of that report and Franklin's work on it,
"we are a different country," Clinton said. "For 10 years, we've been working to become a communitarian country.
After being known as a country know by our divisions from 1968 to 2008, people know us as a country known by our
unity. His life and work in no small measure helped to produce that." -
AP
Michal Belknap "Get a Life? Not If You Want to Be One of the Nine
The debate building up to the Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings suggests that real-world experiences are
of suspect value in administering the law. Really?":
Michal Belknap, a historian and law professor at California Western School of Law, is writing a biography of
Justice Tom Clark, who was appointed to the court in 1949 after practicing oil and gas law.
"As far as I'm aware," Belknap said, "nobody ever asked him whether his background as an oil and gas lawyer would
influence his thinking in oil and gas cases. The reason they gave them to him was that he was the only person who
could understand those cases."... -
MillerMcCune.com
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Alex Roland: After four decades, is America over the moon?:
Four decades after the first lunar landing, a series of new missions revives debate over their value -
The Arizona Republic, 6-14-09
Christopher Howse "Why Queen Mary wanted to burn:
Queen Mary's abbreviated reign can now be, if not forgiven, at least understood, says Howse.... -
Telegraph, UK, 6-12-09
Divided We Stand:
What would California look like broken in three? Or a Republic of New England? With the federal government
reaching for ever more power, redrawing the map is enticing, says Paul Starobin... -
WSJ, 6-13-09
Jean Libby: John Brown's legacy hasn't changed; America has -
AP, 6-13-09
INTERVIEWS:
For Timothy Garton Ash, Europe Means Shared History:
What does it mean to be European, and what is Europe's future? For answers, RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas
spoke to the British historian and essayist Timothy Garton Ash in the Estonian capital Tallinn after attending
"Rethinking Enemies of Open Society," a forum organized by the Open Estonia Foundation.... -
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 6-7-09
HONORS, AWARDED &APPOINTED:
Dr. William Anthony Hay: Elected as a Fellow of Britain's Royal Historical Society after writing about
a historical period that had yet to receive much scholarly attention, "The Whig Revival: 1808 - 1830".... -
Starkville Daily News, 6-15-09
Historian Stephen B. Oates was honored recently with a lifetime achievement award from the Abraham Lincoln
Group of New York:
"I was ecstatic," Oates said. "It wasn't anything I expected." Oates who has received numerous awards including
the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award said, "This probably tops them all." -
MassLive.com, 6-14-09
Peter Bol, Vincent Brown, Ann Harrington: Six faculty named Walter Channing Cabot Fellows
Chosen for accomplishments in literature, history, or art -
Harvard University Gazette, 6-11-09
Susan Cahan: Art historian selected for newly created deanship:
Yale College Dean Mary Miller announced Thursday the appointment of Susan Cahan, the associate dean for academic
affairs of the College of Fine Arts and Communication at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the newly created
position of associate dean for the arts in Yale College.... -
Yale Daily News, 6-11-09
The historian and scholar and principal of Aberdeen University, Professor C Duncan Rice,
receives a knighthood:
Three university vice-chancellors and a head teacher have received knighthoods in the
Queen's Birthday Honours list.... -
BBC, 6-12-09
ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPOTTED:
Harvey Kaye: UW-Green Bay professor discussed Thomas Paine on PBS program "Bill Moyers' Journal" -
UW-Green Bay, 6-9-09
EVENTS CALENDAR:
June 2009: National Archives Continues Year-Long 75th Anniversary Celebration in June with
H.W. Brands, Donald Ritchie, Robert Remini -
Press Newswire, 5-28-09
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Professor Perez Zagorin: Who has died on April 26 aged 88, was an American historian who specialised
in the English Civil War but was shunned by the academic establishment in his own country during the McCarthy era... -
Telegraph, UK, 6-9-09
Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 12:57 AM | Top
Emmanuel Thiebot "D-Day+ 65 years: Obama set to make Normandy landing":
Emmanuel Thiebot, historian at Memorial Center for History museum near Caen, says Allies did not expect the kind
of resistance offered by the Germans.
"The Allies weren't expecting such resistance. There was a large difference between the Allied plans and what
happened," Mr. Thiebot says.
"War crimes would mean a targeting of the city or civilians," says Thiebot. "The bombing was a side-effect of
the war strategy, not a targeting."
Nonetheless, he adds, "Asking new questions is always a good thing in history … for many years these were taboo
subjects."... -
CS Monitor, 6-6-09
Antony Beevor: 'History has not emphasised enough the suffering of French civilians during the War' -
Independent UK, 6-6-09
Terry Copp "D-Day's bloody toll unclear 65 years later 5,000
Canadians died as Normandy campaign continued until August":
"No one could possibly have kept track of who was killed or missing that day," says Wilfrid Laurier University
historian Terry Copp. "Landing craft were emerging from the mist, these kids were scrambling across the beach
under fire. All they could do was run, dodge bullets, pray and get to the beach wall."
But with scholarly "world-class research," Canadians have tried to get the numbers right, says Copp, author of
the 2003 book Fields of Fire: The Canadians in Normandy. "There's been no similar effort by the British
or Americans. Various estimates have been put forward, but I've never seen a breakdown as thorough as that
provided by Stacey."... -
Toronto Star, 6-6-09
Col. Sergei Kovalyov "Russian military historian blames Poland for WWII":
"Everyone who has studied the history of World War II without bias knows that the war began because of Poland's
refusal to satisfy Germany's claims," he writes.
Kovalyov called the demands "quite reasonable." He observed: "The overwhelming majority of residents of Danzig,
cut off from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, were Germans who sincerely wished for reunification with their
historical homeland."... -
AP, 6-5-09
MAX BOOT on Andrew Roberts: Gang of Four
MASTERS AND COMMANDERS How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945:
A joint biography of Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and their senior military advisers
Alan Brooke and George C. Marshall.... -
NYT, 6-7-09
Vincent J. Cannato:
Weeding Out the Weak AMERICAN PASSAGE The History of Ellis Island -
WaPo, 6-7-09
QUOTES:
Andrew Roberts "'World war three? That's already happened' Why don't our children know our history?":
"It just takes your breath away," said acclaimed historian Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm Of War, a new
history of the second world war, which is published in August.
"How can people not be interested in what their family did in the war? It seems to fly against human nature
to not show at least some curiosity about something like that.
"Families sharing stories is vital. It is not always objective when it comes to history, you'll find a lot of
grandfathers saying they won the second world war single-handedly, but what it does is spark a general interest.
A healthy interest in the greatest events of our times is an absolute prerequisite to make informed
decisions today."... -
Sunday Herald, 6-7-09
Judy Yung "Budget cuts threaten 'Ellis Island of the West'":
"Can you imagine recommending Ellis Island be closed? That was our Plymouth rock, for our history as an ethnic
American group," said historian Judy Yung. "It would mean a part of our past is being closed to us."
Yung picnicked on Angel Island as a high school student, unaware her father had been detained there for a month
in 1921. Like many others, after his release he never discussed Angel Island, said Yung.... -
AP, 6-7-09
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Andrew S. Dolkart "A Starter Sanctuary":
CHAPTER 1 Robert Henderson Robertson designed what is today St. John the Martyr Church,
built in 1887. It was the first phase of a larger church never completed... -
NYT, 6-7-09
Margaret A. Weitekamp: A Star Is Reborn: Smithsonian Gets Piece of Astroland History -
WaPo, 6-5-09
For Timothy Garton Ash, Europe Means Shared History:
What does it mean to be European, and what is Europe's future? For answers, RFE/RL correspondent Ahto Lobjakas
spoke to the British historian and essayist Timothy Garton Ash in the Estonian capital Tallinn after attending
"Rethinking Enemies of Open Society," a forum organized by the Open Estonia Foundation.... -
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, 6-7-09
Father Marvin O'Connell Looking to the past:
Father Marvin O'Connell, professor emeritus of history at the University of Notre Dame and a priest of the
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, recently sat down with a Catholic Spirit reporter to discuss his new book,
"Pilgrims to the Northland: The Archdiocese of St. Paul, 1840-1962." -
Catholic Spirit, 6-4-09
Anthony Grafton: Deception as a Way of Knowing: A Conversation with Anthony Grafton -
Cabinet (Spring) (5-1-09)
HONORS, AWARDED &APPOINTED:
Light T. Cummins: Austin College Professor Named Texas State Historian -
KTEN News, 6-6-09
Jonathan Reed Winkler "Author to receive Roosevelt Naval History prize":
The 2009 Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize will be awarded to Jonathan Reed Winkler for
his book "Nexus: Strategic Communications and American Security in World War I" (Harvard University Press, 2008). -
Poughkeepsie Journal, 6-5-09
Daniel W. Barefoot: Heritage Award Ceremony:
On Sunday, June 14, 2009, at 3:00 pm in the Lincoln Cultural Center Timken Performance Hall, the Lincoln County
Historical Association and Lincoln County Historic Properties Commission will honor Dan Barefoot with the 2009
Heritage Award. -
Lincoln Tribune, 6-7-09
ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPOTTED:
Steven T. Usdin: The Rosenberg Archive, fascinating electronic archive of primary source documents
about the Rosenberg case now online -
Rosenberg Archive (Wilson Center) (5-28-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
June 2009: National Archives Continues Year-Long 75th Anniversary Celebration in June with
H.W. Brands, Donald Ritchie, Robert Remini -
Press Newswire, 5-28-09
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Ilber Ortayli: Istanbul residents marked on Friday 556th anniversary of conquest of
Istanbul with various events across the historic city -
World Bulletin, 5-29-09
Edmund S. Morgan: Celebrating Quiet Heroism
AMERICAN HEROES Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America
Herein a collection of 17 essays written over a span of some 70 years, three previously unpublished and
14 previously uncollected in book form, by one of the most distinguished and influential historians of
Colonial America. It is the 18th book Edmund S. Morgan has published in his 93 years (he also has edited five others)
and further evidence of the depth and breadth of his research, the nimbleness of his mind and his willingness to
dissent from received wisdom.... -
WaPo, 5-31-09
Jill Jonnes: Lightning Rods and Sideshows
EIFFEL'S TOWER
And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count -
NYT, 5-31-09
Michael Shapiro: Squeeze Play
BOTTOM OF THE NINTH
Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball From Itself -
NYT, 5-31-09
Simon Schama: Writer Simon Schama envisions The American Future' by studying the past
THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History -
Cleveland Plain-Dealer, 5-31-09
Iain Fenlon: History and function of Venice's great piazza excavated: be there or be square
Piazza San Marco -
Irish Times, 6-1-09
Michael Novak: George Washington Urged American Governors to Imitate Christ
Washington's God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of Our Country -
CNSnews.com (5-31-09)
Nelson Lichtenstein "GM boom years full of big-time success":
Nelson Lichtenstein -- a labor history professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author
of "The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit," a 1995 biography of Reuther -- noted constant change is characteristic
of the economy that produced GM.
"Capitalism is an unstable system," he said. "Just ask the ox cart builders of England or the radio assemblers
of Camden."
But Lichtenstein added: "As one who has studied how the UAW battled GM for decades and decades, I never
emotionally thought it would go into bankruptcy." -
Detroit Free Press, 5-31-09
Robert E. Wright "Real Money Men":
Prof. Robert E. Wright, a financial historian at New York University, suggested changing the definition to real, or
inflation-adjusted, dollars. In that case, one can make an argument for John Jacob Astor (1763-1848),
the fur trader and Manhattan real estate magnate.
"Undoubtedly a New Yorker, Astor was worth about $20 million nominal upon his death," Professor Wright said in
an e-mail message. Depending on the method of calculation used, that was the equivalent of $421 million to $119
billion today. The results vary widely depending on the goods and services one compares from different eras,
but if one chooses the method that produces the highest figure, some 18th-century New Yorker might have hit
one billion even earlier, Professor Wright said. -
NYT, 5-29-09
Tom Segev "Israeli historian praises German democracy":
"The most important reason for the success of democracy is that the majority of Germans – though not always
voluntarily – took responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi regime, the war and in particular the Holocaust,"
Segev wrote in the left-leaning liberal newspaper Haaretz. "Most Germans have drawn the right lessons from
their past, among them the defence of civil rights and the limits on the army." -
www.thelocal.de, (5-24-09)
PROFILES & FEATURES:
>Andrew Roberts, Richard Overy: How will history judge this decade?
While journalists write about 'the moment,' historians,who write about longer trends, say it is too early
to tellhow far-reaching the effects of the noughties may be... -
Guardian UK, 5-29-09
LSU's T. Harry Williams Oral History Center: Center goes to the source to collect area histories -
The Advocate, 5-31-09
Alan Houston: UCSD professor finds a collection of Franklin letters in the British Library -
Del Mar Times, 5-29-09
Zachary Martin: Passsion for history and Kennedy intrigue leads to new book for Fairhaven native
The Mindless Menace of Violence: Robert F. Kennedy's Vision and the Fierce Urgency of Now -
South Coast Today, 5-28-09
Annette Gordon-Reed: Add Washington Book Prize to the 'Hemingses' Haul Interview
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family -
WaPo (5-29-09)
Niall Ferguson "Ireland set to go bust":
"The idea that countries don't go bust is a joke," said Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and author of The
Ascent of Money.
"The debt trap may be about to spring" he said, "for countries that have created large stimulus packages in
order to stimulate their economies."
His chosen prime candidate to go bust is "Ireland, followed by Italy and Belgium, and UK is not too far behind".... -
Belfast Telegraph, 5-29-09
Annette Gordon-Reed: Add Washington Book Prize to the 'Hemingses' Haul
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family -
WaPo (5-29-09)
Ann Blair, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History:
One of four faculty to join FAS's teaching elite - Named Harvard College Professors in five-year appointment -
Harvard University, 5-28-09
Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley and Glen M. Leonard:
A long-awaited book on the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre has received the Best Book Award
from the Mormon History Association Massacre at Mountain Meadows -
Mormon Times, (5-23-09)
ANNOUNCEMENTS & SPOTTED:
Steven T. Usdin: The Rosenberg Archive, fascinating electronic archive of primary source documents
about the Rosenberg case now online -
Rosenberg Archive (Wilson Center) (5-28-09)
Mary Rubin "Historian says Virgin Mary made into 'normal mum' to widen Christianity's appeal":
Speaking at the Hay Festival in Wales, Mary Rubin, the author of Mother of God – A History of the Virgin Mary,
said the transformation took place in the 11th and 12th century, with images of her knitting and cooking.... -
Source: Telegraph (UK) (5-27-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
June 2009: National Archives Continues Year-Long 75th Anniversary Celebration in June with
H.W. Brands, Donald Ritchie, Robert Remini -
Press Newswire, 5-28-09
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Caroline E. Janney: Historian remembers Memorial Day holiday's beginnings:
"Credit really goes to thousands of Southern white women who were honoring Confederate soldiers a year after the
Civil War ended," says Caroline E. Janney, an assistant professor of history.
"The women led these celebrations because if Confederate men would have organized memorials in 1866, just after the
war ended, their actions would have been considered treason."
"Instead, women planned each event, and the men were figuratively hiding behind the skirts of these women. What
many people didn't realize is that these women, who are often portrayed as politically indifferent, were keeping
politics in mind while planning these events." -
KPCnews.com, 5-21-09
Antony Beevor: Historian has been accused of trying to get publicity for his new book,
D-Day: The Battle for Normandy
Allies bombing on D-Day 'close to war crime', claims historian
The Allied bombing of the French city of Caen on D-Day was "close to a war crime", according to
leading historian Antony Beevor -
Telegraph UK, 5-24-09
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: Creates History Commission -
WSJ, 5-21-09
Professor Marco Maiorino, a Vatican historian of papal diplomacy:
Vatican discloses Henry VIII's annulment appeal
"The schism came later," he said. "They were loyal to the sovereign, but at this point the spiritual supremacy of
Rome was not in question." -
Times UK Online, 5-22-09
National Security Archive Testifies to House Oversight Committee About Challenges Facing National Archives:
At a hearing today focusing on the National Archives and Records Administration and the selection of a new Archivist,
National Security Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs said: "[The new Archivist] should have a vision for an
Archives 2.0."... -
Source: Press Release (5-21-09)
Frederick Clarkson: Will Obama Honor the Confederacy This Year?:
Presidents since Woodrow Wilson have annually sent a commemorative wreath to the Confederate Memorial at Arlington
National Cemetery. Up until the presidency of George H.W. Bush, the wreath was sent on or near the birthday of
Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Since then, the wreath has been sent on Memorial Day.
One might think that this is a practice birthed in a generosity of spirit and healing of the war that had so
deeply divided the nation. Unfortunately the truth is that the monument commemorates not the dead so much as the
cause of the confederacy, and stands to this day as a rallying point for white supremacy.
This is why scholars Edward Sebestaco-editor of "Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction," University of
Texas Press, and James Loewen, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Vermont, joined by some 65 others
(including me) sent a letter to president Obama asking him to end the practice.... -
Daily Kos, 5-22-09
OP-EDs & BLOGS:
Daniel Pipes: A History of Muslim Terrorism against Jews in the United States:
The arrest yesterday of four would-be jihadis before they could attack two synagogues in New York City brings to
mind a long list of terrorist assaults in the United States by Muslims on Jews. These began in 1977 and have
continued regularly since, as suggested by the following list of major incidents (ignoring lesser ones that did
damage only to property, such a series of attacks on Chicago-area synagogues)... -
Source: Daniel Pipes website (5-21-09)
Simon Schama: Mirror on America
THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History -
NYT, 5-22-09
Simon Schama: THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History, First Chapter -
NYT, 5-22-09
Simon Schama: Looking to America's past to find a path for the future
THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History -
Boston Globe, 5-24-09
Simon Schama: Schama Looks At History For 'American Future'
THE AMERICAN FUTURE A History -
NPR, 5-20-09
Benny Morris: No Common Ground
ONE STATE, TWO STATES
Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict -
NYT, 5-24-09
Benny Morris:ONE STATE, TWO STATES
Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict, First Chapter -
NYT, 5-24-09
T.J. Stiles: The Man Who Owned America
THE FIRST TYCOON The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt -
WaPo, 5-24-09
T.J. Stiles:THE FIRST TYCOON The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Excerpt -
WaPo, 5-24-09
Edith B. Gelles: Abigail & John Portrait of a Marriage:
Gelles' "Abigail & John" does something different, bringing the two strands together in a dual
biography that shows how their lives connected, diverged and reconnected over time.... -
San Francisco Chronicle, 5-24-09
Dr. Richard Hull: Historian Publishes latest book on Jews in African history
Jews and Judaism in African History -
Straus News, 5-22-09
Paramour of Kennedy Is Writing a Book -
Mimi Beardsley Alford, a retired New York church administrator who had an affair with John F. Kennedy while she was
an intern in the White House, is breaking a silence of more than 40 years to tell her story in a memoir to be
published by Random House.
NYT, 5-22-09
Eugene D. Genovese: In a new book, Genovese describes a devoted and intellectually stimulating
partnership with his late wife, also a historian of note
Miss Betsey: A Memoir of Marriage -
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed (5-22-09)
Elliott West: 'As big as the land' UA professor writes book on Nez Perce war of 1877
The Last Indian War: The Nez Perce Story -
Northwest Arkansas Times, 5-10-09
QUOTES:
John Allswang "California voters exercise their power -- and that's the problem
Residents relish their role in the lawmaking process, but they share the blame for the state's
severe dysfunction":
Together, voters' piecemeal decisions since the 1970s have effectively "emasculated the Legislature," said
John Allswang, a retired Cal State L.A. history professor.
"They're looking for cheap answers -- throw the guys out of power and put somebody else in, or just blame the
politicians and pretend you don't have to raise taxes when you need money," he said.
"This is what the public wants, and they deceive themselves constantly. They're not realistic."... -
LAT, 5-22-09
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Rodney Davis: In Civil War, Woman Fought Like A Man For Freedom -
NPR, 5-23-09
Mary Witkowski: In the Region, Connecticut A Crumbling Piece of History:
Historians are concerned about the fate of structures on Main Street in Bridgeport that are said to be
the only remnants of an antebellum community of free blacks and runaway slaves. -
NYT, 5-24-09
Max Boot, Paul Collier, Simon Schama: Civil Wars: The Fights That Do Not Want to End -
NYT, 5-24-09
Annette Gordon-Reed for the US Supreme Court?:
Is New York Law School's Annette Gordon-Reed, the Pulitzer Prize-winning law professor/historian, on President
Obama's Supreme Court "short list"?... Probably not. But they appear on the short lists of more than a dozen
constitutional law and Supreme Court scholars asked by The National Law Journal to step into Obama's shoes to
pick a nominee to succeed retiring Justice David Souter....
Source: National Law Journal (5-18-09)
INTERVIEWS:
Robert Hinton: The Story Of The Plantation That Moved Away, Midway Plantation -
NPR, 5-23-09
Interview: Simon Schama celebrates John Donne:
The historian Simon Schama talks about why the death of arts programming is a national disaster.... -
Telegraph UK, 5-22-09
James M. Banner Jr. and John R. Gillis: New book asks historians how they became historians
Becoming Historians Editor responded to questions about the book -
Source: Inside Higher Ed (5-18-09)
James Cuno: Treaty on antiquities hinders access for museums, says past president of the Association
of Art Museum Directors -
Source: Science News (3-28-09)
HONORS, AWARDED &APPOINTED:
Historian Jack Greene Honored by National Humanities Center:
Jack P. Greene, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in the Department of History at
Johns Hopkins, has been selected as one of 33 fellows at the National Humanities Center for the 2009-2010
academic year. -
The JHU Gazette, 5-18-09
SPOTTED:
The Mormon History Association's annual conference:
MHA opening session: A religious backdrop to the Civil War -
Mormon Times, 5-22-09
Ken Burns tells Boston College grads to revisit history:
"History is not a fixed thing, a collection of precise dates, facts, and events that add up to a quantifiable,
certain, confidently known truth," Burns said. "It is an inscrutable and mysterious and malleable thing. Each
generation rediscovers and reexamines that part of its past that gives its present - and, most important, its
future - new meaning and new possibilities."... -
Source: Boston Globe (5-19-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
August 1, 2009: An Evening with Ken Burns: Kens Burns has been making documentary films for more
than 30 years. Since the Academy Award-nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, he has gone on to direct and produce
some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made. The late historian Stephen Ambrose said of Burns'
films, "More Americans get their history from Ken Burns than any other source." This evening will afford
Chautauqua an opportunity to hear one of the most influential documentary makers of all time. Chautauqua
Institutition. For more info 716-357-6200. -
Jamestown Post-Journal, 5-21-09
Geoffrey Blainey, Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals in the South Pacific,
May 25, 2009
Richard Ben-Veniste: Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate To 9/11, May 26, 2009
Robert Jacobs: Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, June 1, 2009
Vincent J. Cannato: American Passage: The History of Ellis Island, June 9, 2009
Larry Tye: Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend, June 9, 2009
Matthew Aid: The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency, June 9, 2009
Douglas Brinkley, Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 1858-1919,
June 30, 2009
Caroline Moorehead: Dancing to the Precipice: The Life of Lucie de la Tour du Pin, Eyewitness to an Era,
June 30, 2009
William A. DeGregorio: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Seventh Edition, August 15, 2009
Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World, September 1, 2009
DEPARTED:
David Herbert Donald: Famed Lincoln Scholar David Herbert Donald Dies:
"He was not only one of the best historians of our era but he was also one of the classiest and most
generous scholars I have ever met," said Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals, a best-selling Lincoln
biography. -
NPR, 5-19-09
David Herbert Donald: Writer on Lincoln, Dies at 88 -
NYT, 5-19-09
Bruce Kuklick: America's First Legal Coup
IMPEACHED The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy -
Source: WaPo, 5-15-09
David C. Frederick: LAW SCOTUS Seizes Power
THE GREAT DECISION Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court -
Source: WaPo, 5-15-09
Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager: WORLD WAR II Targeting Hitler
VALKYRIE
Source: WaPo, 5-15-09
Ronald Hutton: Blood and Mistletoe: The History of the Druids in Britain By Ronald Hutton: review
As Ronald Hutton's Blood and Mistletoe makes clear, we like the idea of the Druids so much that we've made up
almost everything we know about them, says Noel Malcolm -
Source: Telegraph, UK, 5-14-09
QUOTES:
William R. Pinch "No Food for Thought: The Way of the Warrior":
You have to marvel at how Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, a former Special Operations commander and the newly
appointed leader of American forces in Afghanistan, does it....
"The Christians grafted notions of piety and reverence onto asceticism, but the Greeks saw it as about power,"
said William R. Pinch, a history professor at Wesleyan University. "They believed you could create power by
disciplining the body." -
Source: NYT, 5-16-09
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
Simon Schama, American Future: A History, May 19, 2009
Geoffrey Blainey, Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals in the South Pacific,
May 25, 2009
Richard Ben-Veniste: Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate To 9/11, May 26, 2009
Douglas Brinkley, Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 1858-1919,
June 30, 2009
DEPARTED:
Professor Norman Gash: Gash, who died on May 1 aged 97, was one of the foremost scholars of 19th–century
Britain and an acknowledged authority on Sir Robert Peel -
Source: Telegraph, UK, 5-17-09
2010 Obama budget for history projects is ...:
Under the Obama administration’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget request, funding for the
National Archives & Records Administration (NARA) would increase by $7 million from the current fiscal year's
$447 million to $454 million.... -
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH) (5-8-09)
Snags Hit Google Settlement With Authors and Publishers, and Antitrust Worries Rise -
AHA Blog (5-7-09)
Louisiana State U. Press Might Get the Ax:
Louisiana State University Press, one of the South’s top scholarly publishers, could fall victim to its state's
budget hemorrhage, and supporters are rallying to keep it alive. -
Chronicle of Higher Ed (5-7-09)
Ben Macintyre: Writer admits he fingered the wrong man in book about WW I soldier
A Foreign Field: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in the Great War -
Source: The Times (UK) (4-29-09)
REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:
Jeff Guinn, Paul Schneider: Outlaws in Love
GO DOWN TOGETHER The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde,
BONNIE AND CLYDE The Lives Behind the Legend -
NYT, 5-10-09
Jeff Guinn:GO DOWN TOGETHER The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde,
First Chapter -
NYT, 5-10-09
MICHAEL KAZIN on T. J. Stiles: Ruthless in Manhattan
THE FIRST TYCOON The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt -
NYT, 5-10-09
T. J. Stiles: THE FIRST TYCOON The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Excerpts -
NYT, 4-29-09
Susan Jacoby: A Clash of Symbols
ALGER HISS AND THE BATTLE FOR HISTORY -
NYT, 5-10-09
Susan Jacoby: ALGER HISS AND THE BATTLE FOR HISTORY, First Chapter -
NYT, 5-10-09
Juan Cole: Islamophobia
ENGAGING THE MUSLIM WORLD -
NYT, 5-7-09
Peter W. Rodman: The Deciders and How They Decided
PRESIDENTIAL COMMAND
Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy From Richard Nixon to George W. Bush -
NYT, 5-8-09
Peter W. Rodman: PRESIDENTIAL COMMAND
Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy From Richard Nixon to George W. Bush, First Chapter -
NYT
Benjamin Carter Hett on Richard J. Evans: HISTORY Brutally Violent and Destined for Defeat
THE THIRD REICH AT WAR -
WaPo, 5-10-09
Leslie H. Gelb: A Wonky Witness to History
POWER RULES How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy
WaPo, 5-10-09
Diana Butler Bass: RELIGION Christian Conundrums
A People's History of Christianity -
WaPo, 5-10-09
Alan Sked "Inbreeding May Have Doomed Spain's Habsburg Dynasty"
Enfeebled and sterile, Charles II's genes made him the last of his line, researchers say:
The family faced a challenge because they needed to marry Catholic spouses of equal rank -- a rarity -- and because
dynastic marriages were used to keep territories within the family's grasp, explained Alan Sked, a historian at the
London School of Economics and Political Science.
What would have happened if the Habsburgs hadn't married each other? Sked, the historian, said "there would have
been changes in alliances, boundaries and policies. Most of all, the Habsburgs would have produced more capable
and intelligent rulers." -
Forbes, 5-8-09
Thomas Sugrue: Penn historian "has shattered the conventional narrative about the struggle for
Civil Rights in this country" -
Source: UPenn Gazette, (4-30-09)
Bruce Moran: Named Outstanding Researcher of the Year at the University of Nevada, Reno -
UNR NevadaNews, 5-6-09
Ken Heineman: Ohio University Lancaster veteran leaving Lancaster to head up history department in Texas -
Lancaster Eagle Gazette, 5-3-09
Ken Coates, Whitney Lackenbauer, William Morrison:
Arctic Front sweeps the Donner
Three historians and one political scientist share $35,000 prize for best book on Canadian public policy
Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Far North -
Globe and Mail, 4-30-09
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
New book says FDR tried to save Jewish refugees:
A new book disputes widely held assumptions that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was insensitive to the plight
of European Jews under the Nazis, and instead concludes that he tried to arrange resettlement for thousands of
refugees in the late 1930s, only to be thwarted by his own State Department.
The book, "Refugees and Rescue," claims FDR developed plans in 1938 for the United States to fill its
immigration quota with 27,000 Jews from Germany and Austria and to send others to British-held Palestine and
friendly nations in Africa and Latin America.... -
AP, 5-1-09
Mark Rudd: Years of Rage
UNDERGROUND My Life With SDS and the Weathermen -
NYT, 5-3-09
Mark Rudd:UNDERGROUND My Life With SDS and the Weathermen, First Chapter -
NYT, 5-3-09
Raymond Arsenault: Voice of America
THE SOUND OF FREEDOM Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America -
NYT, 5-3-09
Raymond Arsenault:THE SOUND OF FREEDOM Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America,
From Chapter 5, "Sweet Land of Liberty" -
NYT, 5-3-09
Thomas Parrish: Inside Lend-Lease
TO KEEP THE BRITISH ISLES AFLOAT
FDR's Men in Churchill's London, 1941 -
NYT, 5-3-09
James Mann, William Kleinknecht: Books About Ronald Reagan The Great Enigma
THE REBELLION OF RONALD REAGAN A History of the End of the Cold War,
THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD Ronald Reagan and the Betrayal of Main Street America -
NYT, 5-3-09
Ernest B. Furgurson on Winston Groom:
HISTORY The Key in Lincoln's Pocket
VICKSBURG, 1863 -
WaPo, 5-3-09
Winston Groom: VICKSBURG, 1863, First Chapter -
WaPo, 5-3-09
Alec Wilkinson, Allan M. Winkler:
Two compelling new Pete Seeger books are timed to the folk singer reaching age 90
The Protest Singer, To Everything There is a Season -
The Plain Dealer, 5-2-09
Richard Breitman, Barbara McDonald Stewart and Severin Hochberg:
Roosevelt and the Jews: A Debate Rekindled
Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935-1945
"It is a book that will change the consensus about the role of President Roosevelt," said Deborah Lipstadt, a
leading expert on the Holocaust, who has read some sections. It "compels historians — both those who have
vilified F.D.R. and those who have sanctified him — to rethink their conclusions." -
NYT, 4-30-09
Daniel James Brown: Desperate Journey
THE INDIFFERENT STARS ABOVE
The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride -
NYT, 5-1-09
Jon A. Shields: New study claims Christian right leaders teach careful moral reasoning and civics
The Democratic Virtues of the Christian Right -
Source: NYT (4-24-09)
QUOTES:
David McCullough: Historian warns against 'instant history' of Obama's first 100 days during Drew U.
speech:
"I think we have an extraordinary president. He has the makings of one of the most remarkable presidents ever,"
said McCullough, 75, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his books on American history. "The man is amazing...
He has the capability to move people with words." -
Source: NJ Star-Ledger (4-29-09)
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Sheryl Cohn: UCF Professor: Revise Holocaust Education,
Nazis' persecution of Jews should be taught as standalone course:
"One of my messages is the Holocaust is a standalone event," she said. "It needs to be taught
separately from World War II." -
The Ledger, 5-3-09
Norton Mezvinsky: Professor called brilliant, inspiring, biased, dangerous:
The controversial Central Connecticut State University icon, in his final lecture last week, found pathos
in his life story and struck an American Gothic aura in his championing of radical causes. -
Bristol Press, 5-2-09
Ed Ayers: Organizes Civil War conference ahead of 150th anniversary -
Source: AP (4-24-09)
EVENTS CALENDAR:
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
Thomas Childers: Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation's Troubled Homecoming from
World War II, May 13, 2009
Simon Schama, American Future: A History, May 19, 2009
Geoffrey Blainey, Sea of Dangers: Captain Cook and His Rivals in the South Pacific,
May 25, 2009
Richard Ben-Veniste: Emperor's New Clothes: Exposing the Truth from Watergate To 9/11, May 26, 2009
Douglas Brinkley, Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, 1858-1919,
June 30, 2009
DEPARTED:
Ahmad Hasan Dani: The man who dug up the world's first planned city Moenjodaro,
the 4500-year-old city settlement north of Karachi, Pakistan, died at 88 -
Bangladesh News 24 hours, 5-2-09
500 years on, England reconsiders Henry VIII: proclaimed king in April 1509:
England's King Henry VIII is known as a tyrant who killed two of his six wives, but a series of exhibitions
marking 500 years since his coronation reveal he was also a romantic, a keen sportsman -- and the country's first
eurosceptic. Henry, who was proclaimed king in April 1509, was "the most important king of England... we're still
at the tailend of the ruling of Henry," explained David Starkey, a historian specialising in the Tudor period.
Henry changed the course of history when he broke with Rome and founded the Church of England, following the refusal
of pope Clement VII in 1530 to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could wed Anne Boleyn.
In doing so, Henry (1491-1547) became "the first eurosceptic -- he is the inventor of England," Starkey told AFP.
"When he came to the throne, Henry was the pious prince who ruled England at the heart of the Catholic Europe,"
the historian explained in publicity for one of the exhibitions. "When he died, he was the great schismatic,
who had created a national church and an insular, xenophobic politics that shaped the development of England
for the next 500 years."... -
AFP, 4-26-09
James Mann: HISTORY Ronald Reagan, Revised
THE REBELLION OF RONALD REAGAN A History of the End of the Cold War -
WaPo, 4-26-09
Barbara Moran, Todd Tucker: HISTORY Secret Accidents and Lost Bombs
THE DAY WE LOST THE H-BOMB
Cold War, Hot Nukes, and the Worst Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History,
ATOMIC AMERICA
How a Deadly Explosion and a Feared Admiral Changed the Course of Nuclear History -
WaPo, 4-26-09
Jay Taylor: The Final Triumph of Chiang Kai-shek
THE GENERALISSIMO Chiang Kai-Shek and the Struggle for Modern China -
WaPo, 4-26-09
Wendy Doniger: Another Incarnation
THE HINDUS An Alternative History -
NYT, 4-24-09
Jennifer Scanlon: Miniskirt Lib
BAD GIRLS GO EVERYWHERE The Life of Helen Gurley Brown -
NYT, 4-24-09
Marcia Jo Zerivitz: Local historian's book details early history of Jews in Miami
A local expert on Jewish history discusses her first book, 'Images of America: Jews of
Greater Miami.' -
Miami Herald, 4-26-09
David Starkey: TV historian sparks fury of a nation with 'feeble little Scotland' jibe:
A LEADING historian was under pressure to apologise yesterday after he described Scotland as a "feeble little nation".
David Starkey also hit out at Robert Burns, describing him as a "boring provincial poet", and dismissed bagpipes as
"awful" on BBC's Question Time. -
Scotsman, 4-25-09
PROFILES & FEATURES:
Amity Shlaes: Why GOP is devouring one book: Amity Shlaes' "The Forgotten Man"
like soccer moms before book club night:
Shlaes' 2007 take on the Great Depression questions the success of the New Deal and takes issue with the value of
government intervention in a major economic crisis — red meat for a party hungry for empirical evidence that the
Democrats' spending plans won’t end the current recession... -
Politico, 4-21-09
Charles B. Dew "Hunger for history as Civil War's 150th approaches":
Charles B. Dew, professor of American history at Williams College in Massachusetts, said southerners have been
unwilling to confront a prewar economy based on slavery while northerners have sought to blot out memories of
their own "profoundly racist" society."Americans, like most people, want a usable past. They want it to make sense," Dew said.
The conference, he said, is an opportunity "for shining some light in some of the darker corners in Virginia, and
by extension, Southern history in a very critical moment." -
AP, 4-24-09
Edward L. Ayers "Hunger for history as Civil War's 150th approaches":
Edward L. Ayers, a pre-eminent Civil War historian who organized the inaugural conference, said the goal is "to put people in the moment" and set aside preconceived notions. He said voices overlooked in past war narratives are being welcomed and future conferences will probe the role of African-Americans, the home front and even a global view of the conflict.
"We have the opportunity to look at this with a fresh eye," said Ayers, president of the University of Richmond. "Let's enter into a conversation with these people of the past and understand just what they were thinking. How was it they could end up killing people that were their neighbors?"
AP, 4-24-09
"Hunger for history as Civil War's 150th approaches":
AP, 4-24-09
Michael Oren: Speculation heats up as to who will fill US ambassador slot -
Jerusalem Post, 4-23-09
And the Pulitzer Prizes go to ...:
History - The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed,
Biography - American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham,
General Nonfiction - Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to
World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon -
Source: http://www.pulitzer.org (4-20-09)
SPOTTED:
Hannah Geffert: Blacks played a large part in John Brown's historic raid:
Hannah Geffert, a history professor at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown
presented "John Brown and His Secret Alliance" Sunday as part of the West Virginia Humanities Council's
Little Lecture Series. -
Sunday Gazette-Mail, 4-26-09
May 2, 2009 The War of 1812 Revisited at Conference:
The Fort La Présentation Association of Ogdensburg, NY is sponsoring a War of 1812 War College Saturday, May 2, 2009 -
Press Release, 4-1-09
June 11-14, 2009: The ninth annual "Reacting to the Past" Institute at Barnard College (New York),
Annual summer history institute at Barnard College -
Source: Press Release (4-21-09)
