Old FAQ

LOST PASSWORD? NEED TO REGISTER TO POST COMMENTS?

Want to post a comment on HNN's discussion boards? First, you have to register. It's simple. Just click here.

Lost your password? Just email the editor and ask him to send you a temporary password (which you can change after you log in). Click here.

WHAT'S HNN'S PRIVACY POLICY?

HNN takes the privacy of our readers seriously. The only information we collect from our users is the email address they use to subscribe to our newsletters. We do not collect information about the choices individual users make on the site. We do not leave cookies on their computers to track their online behavior.

WHICH WAY DOES HNN TILT, LEFT OR RIGHT?

George Mason University's History News Network (HNN) features articles and excerpts by historians from both the left and the right. Some weeks we may appear to tilt one way or the other simply because of serendipity. But our aim is to present a wide mix of views. Click here to read our mission statement.

HOW IS HNN ORGANIZED?

HNN is organized into 12 Departments, which can easily be accessed on every page from the menu located on the left-hand columns.

Half a dozen interns and readers of HNN are responsible for the fascinating list of stories featured every day on the Breaking News page, which allows readers to keep track of both important and interesting developments related to history.

HNN's homepage features the articles published weekly by HNN. They are divided into categories so readers can easily follow particular subjects of concern. Major categories include: News Abroad, News at Home, Historians & History, and History Q & A.

Our most popular department--and the biggest--is Roundup, which is divided six ways and includes excerpts from articles posted on the Internet from around the world. In our Friday newsletter we list the Top 10 excerpts. But these comprise just a brief sampling of the extensive collection of excerpts we post every week.

The Hot Topics Department gives readers the opportunity to sample articles and excerpts about particular topics in the news (the most current topics are listed at the top of the page).

The most informal of our departments is the one listing HNN Blogs. Here historians express their personal reactions to events in the news and the profession. If you are unsure what a blog is, click here.

The Features Department lists services we provide: lists of interviews with historians, great history quotes, highlights from the AHA & OAH conventions, and the like. The Books Department displays reviews by HNN's Book editors as well as excerpts from reviews of books that relate history and current events. (Every month HNN features a Book of the Month.)

HNN features two departments that address the specific needs of students and teachers (grade school and high school). 

Please keep in mind that we feature a broad range of ideological views.

If you ever have any questions about HNN, please feel free to contact editor Rick Shenkman. We welcome suggestions!

WHAT RULES GOVERN THE DISCUSSION BOARDS?

When a new employee asked Thomas Edison what the rules at his lab were, Edison reportedly cracked, We don't have rules. We're trying to accomplish something. Great line, but in practice rules sometimes are needed. These are the rules HNN has implemented to govern the posting of comments on our threaded discussion boards. (Click here to register to post comments.)

Please do not post any comments that are defamatory, obscene, pornographic, abusive, bigoted, or unlawful. If you violate the law or are guilty of defamation you may be held legally responsible.

Please do not post any comments that are anti-Semitic or racist. Please do not malign ethnic or religious groups.

Please do not post any advertisements for commercial products or services.

Please do not use our boards to promote surveys, contests, or chain letters.

Please be civil. No ad hominem attacks.

Please do not post comments that are irrelevant to the subject under discussion.

We reserve the right to bounce any person who violates our rules and to delete their comments.

Flagrant violators of HNN's standards will be banned. Offensive comments will be deleted.

HNN owns the copyright on all comments posted on its discussion boards. Readers who do not consent to this rule should not post comments.

NOTE: Posts to HNN's blogs may be deleted if the bloggers find the posts irritating, offensive, or distracting, whether the posts violate HNN's rules of civility or not.

Disclaimer: We do not attest to the accuracy or truthfulness of any of the views or facts posted on our discussion boards. Nor do we monitor every posted comment.

DO YOU ACCEPT ADVERTISING?

HNN now accepts advertising. We also accept help from underwriters (just as PBS does). If you would like either to advertise or make an underwriter's donation to HNN, please let us know by dropping an email to the editor.

HNN will gladly post a notice on our site or in our newsletter indicating your participation in our underwriting program.

WHAT KIND OF NEWS STORIES DO YOU COVER?

The Breaking News page features news stories reported in the English-language press. The result is that the page is heavily skewed toward subjects that draw the attention of English-speaking readers, leading to a heavy concentration of stories from the United States and Western Europe. Click here to view the lists of media sources HNN interns use to track news stories we cover.

HOW DO I APPLY FOR AN INTERNSHIP AT HNN?

Here are the basic facts: Internships are for a minimum term of 2 quarters. Six hours a week minimum. You work from home or the library--anyplace where you have access to a computer. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORK FROM HNN'S OFFICE. Interns communicate with the editor through email. If you have access to email and the Internet you can participate in our internship program. Our internships are unpaid. Class credit can often be arranged.

Click here to read about intern responsibilities.

As you'll see, this is not a make-work job. You'll do real work; nothing Mickey Mouse.

If you are interested in applying for an internship please send your resume to the editor, Rick Shenkman.

WHY DO YOU LET BANNER ADS COVER THE TEXT OF ARTICLES?

Some readers complain that the advertising banners featured on HNN intrude on the text of articles. The problem is our system uses software that old Netscape browsers do not recognize. If you upgrade your browser the text of all articles will be plainly visible. We apologize for the inconvenience.

IS HNN CONSIDERED A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

HNN was created to give historians the opportunity to reach a national audience on issues of public concern. It is not a scholarly journal. It is a vehicle for scholars seeking to enrich the public debate.

WHY SHOULD THE PUBLIC WANT TO HEAR FROM HISTORIANS?

Historians are not entitled to be heard from simply because they are scholars. They must have something to say. But neither can the fact that they are scholars deprive them of the right to weigh in on matters of vital public importance. Indeed, the fact that they bring to the public debate a special expertise and sensibility derived from their studies is all the more reason to give them a hearing. Leaving the public square to people who lack the scholar's knowledge diminishes democracy.

Responding to news events in a timely and wise manner is a great challenge, of course. Fortunately, none of our contributors fail at the task all of the time and most succeed at it at least some of the time. That they may fail on occasion is no reason to conclude they should therefore never be given the chance to succeed ever again.

CAN I REPRINT ARTICLES POSTED ON HNN?

HNN publishes original pieces on our homepage. Because HNN encourages the wide dissemination of information we allow other publications to reprint these articles unless the author expressly requests copyright protection.

HNN also excerpts articles in the Roundup Department that were published elsewhere. We do not own the copyright of these articles. Please contact the listed SOURCE of the article to find out if it can be reprinted.

WHAT IS A BLOG?

Blog is short for"web log." It is a kind of common-place journal or diary kept on the web. Several features distinguish blogs from other forms on the web: they are frequently updated; they include lots of links to other sites; and most maintain a personal tone. Many celebrate blogs for opening the web up to voices the mainstream media often neglect. Like talk radio, most of the popular blogs are run by conservatives. HNN is the only site that features multiple blogs by historians.

WHY DOES HNN FEATURE BLOGS? AREN'T THEY JUST VEHICLES FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO SOUND OFF?

The challenge of writing a blog is particularly great given the pressure to keep it up to date. But doing a blog is not fundamentally different from writing articles that appear in other places on HNN. In both cases the pressure to publish something in a timely manner necessitates foregoing the slow and steady approach common in peer-reviewed journals. By the peer review standard, none of the articles we publish pass muster as none of them are peer-reviewed in advance; the peer reviewing comes after they have already reached the public. But if that standard is the only standard, then historians must retreat from the journalistic fields and leave the harvesting of interesting views and opinions to others.

This does not sound like a reasonable approach to us. In the fast-paced world in which we now live, public attention is focused on issues for ever briefer periods of time. If scholars want their analyses to be taken into consideration--and why shouldn't they?--they have to jump into the debate early and with forcefulness.

HNN is committed to the scholarly discussion of issues in a timely manner. A person can achieve a scholarly analysis even if they write fast. Their very familiarity with the issues at hand gives them an advantage over others in arriving at a considered opinion in a quick period of time.

It may be argued that blogs fall into a separate category because they need to be updated constantly. But what is a blog? It is nothing more than an old fashioned common-place journal in a new setting. It gives the reader the chance to look over the shoulder of a historian who's reacting daily to events.

Blogs are so new a device on the Internet that no standards have yet evolved to govern their use. Anything goes on a blog. One of the functions that HNN can perform is to help establish standards for blogs. The only way we can do this is by trial and error. Slowly over time as readers provide more and more feedback--readers like you!--we will get a better sense of what should appear in a blog written by a historian and what should not.

Unique though a blog may be, the speediness required by a blog is not unique. When a reporter rings up a historian for a comment on an issue in the news the historian has even less time than a blogger to get his thoughts in order before committing to a certain analysis or viewpoint. Yet no one argues that the public is not benefited by the historian's participation. He brings to bear in an instant a lifetime's worth of reading and reflection from which everybody can benefit, whether they agree with him or not.

DOES HNN SCREEN ARTICLES FOR VITUPERATIVE STATEMENTS?

Deciding where the line falls between personal vituperation and freedom of the press is, of course, a challenge. The line moves constantly. What is acceptable today wasn't acceptable a decade ago. What can be said about a politician with power is different from what should be said about a historian, even a prominent one. Applying the same standard to a historian as a politician is unfair given the disproportionate power that they exercise in our society. But what is personal and what is political? The distinction is a pretty fine one. And as the women's movement made clear, what is personal is often political.

Because publishing a piece confers legitimacy on it, it is vital to screen out pieces that are solely vituperative. But what about a piece that is both vituperative and educational? Many pieces fall into this category. And deciding what is and is not vituperative is often difficult, liberals and conservatives reaching different conclusions.

Then there are the articles that seem worthwhile as artifacts of the age--primary sources, in effect--valuable not so much for the analyses they offer as for the evidence they provide of the broad range of American opinion.

Completely ignoring writers who indulge in strong personal statements would be a disservice to our readers, leaving them with a falsely narrow impression of the parameters of the national debate. At the same time it is inappropriate for HNN to appear to endorse attacks which are needlessly personal or incendiary.

A practical solution, fortunately, is at hand given the way HNN is now organized. Pieces that we publish in full -- these are the pieces listed on the homepage -- must pass the Above Board Test, meaning that strictly vituperative statements will be disallowed. But to give the reader a clear picture of the wide range of statements being made we include excerpts in ROUNDUP and other places where appropriate. Excerpting a piece does not confer on it the HNN seal of approval. Plainly libelous statements of course will never be published anywhere on the site, though determining what is and is not libelous is a matter of judgment.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE ROUNDUP DEPARTMENT?

HNN originally was conceived as primarily a national platform for historians wishing to comment on current events. This remains our primary function as is evident on our homepage, where week after week historians write about news subjects within their area of expertise.

But as the website evolved we added various features that we thought our readers would find interesting and useful. The most popular feature has turned out to be ROUNDUP, which includes excerpts and articles from the media about various issues related in some way to history.

We don't vouch for the accuracy or scholarship of the excerpts or articles. We simply reprint them. The purpose is to give readers in one handy place a broad sampling of American (and indeed world) opinion. In effect, we turn every reader into his own Walt Whitman, strolling through the alleys of the Internet to see what strange and wonderful and often ugly things the world has to offer. Everyman his own journalist, to paraphrase Carl Becker.

But even the ugly?

Walter Lippman in the 1920s pointed out that journalism is about creating pictures in our minds of what the real world is like, a most difficult task. How much more difficult, indeed impossible, it is to attain that goal if we blind ourselves to sights that make us shudder or shrink in horror.

At the same time we do not publish the views of Holocaust Deniers in Roundup--or authors who take similarly extreme positions. Including them in Roundup would indirectly give them a credence they do not deserve. We do of course from time to time run articles, excerpts and news stories about people who hold obnoxious views like Holocaust Deniers.

HOW DO I SUBMIT AN ARTICLE TO HNN FOR PUBLICATION?

HNN reaches a large number of readers. The website attracts some 300,000 unique visitors a month and 6 million hits. Writing for HNN can help you find an audience for your ideas and publications.

HNN encourages readers to send in articles for possible publication concerning subjects in their area of expertise. Because we need to be able to assure our readers that writers are experts in the areas they discuss, we request that all submissions be accompanied by a resume.

Articles should either tell the reader something new or frame an old issue in a new way. Articles may include the author's opinion but primarily serve as vehicles for informed analysis with an emphasis on history.

HNN encourages the wide dissemination of information and therefore allows other publications to reprint our articles unless the author expressly requests copyright protection.

Writers should know that HNN allows search engines such as Google and Yahoo to use spiders to search the archives and post search results.

The editor reserves the right to select the title of any piece published by HNN.

Once a piece has been published the author relinquishes the right to withdraw it.

Please be sure to tell us how you would like to be identified.

If your article draws on research you have published in a book we'll happily feature the book's jacket and a link to the website of your choice.

If possible, articles should be forwarded by email as a Microsoft WORD attachment. If this is impossible, please simply paste the article into an email. Submissions should be sent to Rick Shenkman at the following address: editor@historynewsnetwork.org.

Article length may vary depending on subject matter. Most articles run about 1,000 words.

Authors should disclose in advance to the editor any potential conflict of interest they have which may affect their objectivity--or may appear to do so.

DOES HNN FEATURE RSS FEEDS? (WHAT IS RSS?)

In an attempt to make our content more easily accessible, HNN is now providing RSS feeds for the homepage and two departments: HNN Blogs and Roundup. Huh?

RSS feeds allow users with an RSS reader to keep track of websites every time specific pages are updated. Say, for instance, you like HNN blog Cliopatria and you want to know when it's updated. By using an RSS reader you will be notified the moment a new entry is posted on the blog. The system even allows you to find out every time one of the Roundup pages has been updated with new material or when our homepage is updated. With an RSS reader you can see which of your favorite sites have been updated at-a-glance without having to go through the trouble of surfing each site one by one.

Sounds complicated. It's not. Just download one of the RSS readers listed below. Then add a channel for each web page you want to follow closely. The RSS feeds are located in the left-hand column, at the bottom of everything else in the column. (Look for the bright blue button that says RSS.) The RSS Feeds for the Breaking News page are located at the top.

Click on the button. This will bring up a page with a lot of html gibberish. Ignore it. All you need to pay attention to is the URL. The RSS reader will ask you for this URL when you go to add a channel.

RSS Readers

PC:
http://www.sharpreader.net/
http://www.rssreader.org/

Mac:
http://ranchero.com/netnewswire/

Linux:
http://www.nongnu.org/straw/

Once you have installed an RSS reader, add a new channel and use this link: http://hnn.us/rss.xml

If you would like to find other sites that syndicate their content through RSS check out: http://www.syndic8.com.