Without fanfare White House Awards Humanities Medals to Historians
During a private awards ceremony held on 9 November in the Oval Office of the White House President George Bush presented the 2006 National Humanities Medals and National Medals of the Arts. Ten of the 20 winners were academics, of which several are historians.
The academics who were awarded humanities medals are: Fouad Ajami, professor and director of the Middle East Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University, James M. Buchanan, a professor emeritus of Economics at George Mason University; Robert Eagles, a professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University; Mary Lefkowitz, a classicist at Wellesley College; Bernard Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, Mark Noll, a professor of religious history at the University of Notre Dame; and Kevin Starr, a professor of history at the University of Southern California.
In addition, two independent scholars were awarded medals: Nickolas Davatzes, the founder of the History Channel, and Meryle Secrest, a biographer who lives in Washington D.C. A humanities medal was also awarded to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, a public-policy research center located on the campus of Stanford University.
A day or so after the awards were announced the Washington Post printed a brief story wondering "why so little fanfare?" Apparently there were no press opportunities, no special public announcement, no information there wasn't even a web-site feature "nothing" stated the Post just a list posted on White House press release page with the subject line "PERSONNEL ANNOUNCEMENT." The only explanation the newspaper could offer was that the White House did not want to draw attention to the awards that were being given to Fouad Ajami and Bernard Lewis "whose views helped get us into Iraq in the first place."
Read entire article at Bruce Craig in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
The academics who were awarded humanities medals are: Fouad Ajami, professor and director of the Middle East Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University, James M. Buchanan, a professor emeritus of Economics at George Mason University; Robert Eagles, a professor emeritus of comparative literature at Princeton University; Mary Lefkowitz, a classicist at Wellesley College; Bernard Lewis, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, Mark Noll, a professor of religious history at the University of Notre Dame; and Kevin Starr, a professor of history at the University of Southern California.
In addition, two independent scholars were awarded medals: Nickolas Davatzes, the founder of the History Channel, and Meryle Secrest, a biographer who lives in Washington D.C. A humanities medal was also awarded to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, a public-policy research center located on the campus of Stanford University.
A day or so after the awards were announced the Washington Post printed a brief story wondering "why so little fanfare?" Apparently there were no press opportunities, no special public announcement, no information there wasn't even a web-site feature "nothing" stated the Post just a list posted on White House press release page with the subject line "PERSONNEL ANNOUNCEMENT." The only explanation the newspaper could offer was that the White House did not want to draw attention to the awards that were being given to Fouad Ajami and Bernard Lewis "whose views helped get us into Iraq in the first place."