This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: CP24 (Toronto)
7-13-12
TORONTO -- American and British criticism of Canada's long and often bloody military efforts in Afghanistan has a ring of revisionism that ignores key facts, experts say.In particular, they say, the notion that blithely optimistic Canadians were reluctant to ask for outside help as they struggled alone in Kandahar province, which had been abandoned by the Americans in favour of Iraq, is ludicrous."The war (in Afghanistan) isn't exactly going well, so people look around and try to fix blame wherever they can," said Canadian military historian, Jack Granatstein....
Source: Huffington Post
7-17-12
The image is heartbreaking: An 11-year-old boy, his right arm in a sling and a look of surprised sadness on his face.The 1912 photograph of a boy who injured his hand working in a textile factory by social reformer Lewis Hine made the boy, Giles Edmund Newsom, the face of child labor in the U.S. Sympathy for his circumstances spurred efforts to safeguard children from such work.But what happened to Newsom later in life has remained a mystery until now, reports the Daily Mail.Through his research into child labor, historian Joe Manning uncovered the boy's tragic fate - he died of Spanish Flu in 1918 at the age of 18. Newsom is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Gastonia, N.C., perhaps in an unmarked grave near his parents, Manning tells the Gaston Gazette....
Source: Daily Show (UK)
7-16-12
They are surely the most horrifying offshoot of modern technology - nuclear warheads which can smite hundreds of thousands of people dead within seconds, and leave lasting scars on a landscape for generations.And while most of us will have seen archive footage of nuclear explosions before, one thing we are unlikely to have heard is their sound.For, according to one expert, most films we see of a nuclear blast use stock 'explosion' sound effects for the bang - and audio footage is few and far between.But Alex Wellerstein, an historian of science at the American Institute of Physics, has shared a unigue video of a blast during America's testing of nukes in the Yucca Mountain area of Nevada during the 1950s.The historian was sent the video below from a Russian colleague, and has now shared it on his blog....
Source: AP
7-16-12
MAYO, Md. — Go ahead and point to an album on Jeff Place's crowded basement shelves.Ask him to identify it. Just try and stump him.It won't work, even though a splash of color and a few words are all that's visible on the spine. He identifies the record — one of more than 12,000 — in seconds.Maybe it's because he works somewhere with a collection dwarfing his own.Place is an archivist at Smithsonian Folklife Collections, which has more than 70,000 recordings, as well as photographs, correspondence and other material filling 7,000 square feet of space.Over a quarter century, he's produced 50 compilations of music, which resulted in two Grammys, numerous other nominations for the award, and a gold record. Yet, because the 57-year-old Mayo resident generally works behind the scenes, he's nowhere near as well-known as the artists he writes about and studies....
Source: CS Monitor
7-13-12
When Boston College launched its Belfast Project the aim was to create an insiders' oral history of Northern Ireland's so-called "Troubles" by collecting the testimonies of participants on all sides of the conflict. What no one expected was for history to rear up and become the present once more.That is precisely what has now happened as a US federal appeals court has ruled that the researchers' right to free inquiry is overridden by the British state's right to investigate past crimes.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
7-10-12
Philip L. Fradkin, a pioneering environmental journalist and historian who attached himself to Western themes as varied as Wallace Stegner, Wells Fargo and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, died Saturday at his home in Point Reyes Station. He was 77, and the cause of death was cancer.As recently as six months ago, the tall and athletic Mr. Fradkin could be seen in his white rowboat on Tomales Bay in the early morning light. And as recently as a few weeks ago, he would walk a mile a day at a brisk pace around his adopted hometown, stopping in at his office on Main Street and visiting with merchants."He was one of the most vigorous persons in the village - intellectually, physically and creatively," said Steve Costa, owner of Point Reyes Books. "His books really spoke to the soul of Point Reyes and the West."...
Source: Guardian (UK)
7-12-12
A satire on university politics published in 1908 introduced 'The Principle of Sound Learning', which stated that 'the noise of vulgar fame should never trouble the cloistered calm of academic existence'. This attitude to popular scholarship came to mind recently when eminent historian Sir Keith Thomas spoke to the Independent about the books he had read as a judge of the prestigious Wolfson History Prize.He said: "There is a tendency for young historians who have completed their doctoral thesis to, rather than present it in a conventional academic form, immediately hire an agent, cut out the footnotes, jazz it all up a bit and try to produce a historical bestseller from what would have otherwise been a perfectly good academic work. The reality is that only a few of these works succeed commercially."
Source: Houston Chronicle
7-12-12
“My fingers clawed into the arms of the chair while a vampire held my head and a witch prepared to inventory and steal my thoughts. And yet no whisper of witchwind or flicker of witchfire came to my aid. My power had gone entirely quiet.”Diana Bishop, descendent of the Salem witches, continues her struggle to gain control of her sorcery in “Shadow of Night,” the second book in Deborah Harkness’ “All Souls” trilogy.A professor of history at the University of Southern California, Harkness cast a spell on nearly half a million readers with 2011’s “A Discovery of Witches,” currently being transformed into a film script for Warner Bros. by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn (“Proof”)....
Source: Guardian (UK)
6-29-12
Some people think Simon Schama – garlanded academic and presenter of such fabulous series as A History of Britain and Rough Crossings – is full of crap. There have been grumblings that he dumbs down and simplifies his history shows, taking a sweeping view of history designed more for the verbal flourish than historical accuracy.Few people have summarised these criticisms better than the Sunday Times' Adrian Gill who took a swipe at Schama's 2006 series Power of Art: "The point of these authored, visually clotted documentaries is really to be infomercials for instant coffee table tomes". And yes, it is true that even Schama's premium brand of TV history cannot help skating over the deeper complexities of historical truth. But while it's always tempting to point a mocking finger at a man with a plum job as Columbia professor of art history and history, and lucrative TV contracts coming out of his ears, I love him and make a beeline for him every time. I'd go so far as to say he is easily Britain's best arts presenter....
Source: Iran Book News Agency
7-1-12
Boston College Professor of History Prasannan Parthasarathi has won the World History Association Book Prize for his 2011 work, Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did Not: Global Economic Divergence, 1600-1850 (Cambridge University Press).IBNA: According to news, the WHA, founded in 1982, is the “foremost organization” for the promotion of world history through the encouragement of teaching, research, and publication. Since 1999, the association has awarded a book prize to recognize outstanding contributions to world history.Prasannan Parthasarathi“I am very pleased to be given such recognition by my colleagues,” said Parthasarathi, a Boston College faculty member since 1998. “This book was more than a decade in the making, so an honor like this is particularly satisfying.” ...
Source: Vermont Public Radio
7-9-12
Host) Writer, educator and commentator Frank Bryan has been thinking about the life and legacy of the late Vermont Historian, Sam Hand. (Bryan) Aldous Huxley wrote "Historians are the original creators of our common humanity" . Others call historians "the guardians of our collective memory" Recently, with the death of Professor Sam Hand, Vermont lost a leading guardian of our memory and humanity. This loss is especially sad for Vermonters because Vermont is one of the few states left in America that is a truly democratic polity - a place where behavior and governance are joined at the human scale. Professor Hand's contributions bespeak the character of the model teacher-scholar. They can be summarized by three brief examples....
Source: Deutsche Welle
7-9-12
Nearly six decades after Josef Stalin's death, a debate has erupted in Germany on how to evaluate the Russian dictator's regime. It's been triggered by a newly released book by a high-profile Eastern European historian.In his book, Jörg Baberowski delivers plenty of material for debate about the controversial Russian ruler Stalin. But the historian himself is uncompromising in his analysis. The ruler, he argues, was a passionate and ruthless psychopath, a despot who killed according to quotas, sparing no one, who sowed fear, horror and mistrust in his immediate surroundings and subjected an entire society to a culture of destruction and terror.In his evocative book, Baberowski makes a case for this thesis on nearly 600 pages, quoting a wide range of sources. "I have not written a book about the Soviet Union or about Stalinism but rather about excessive force and what it does to people," said the author and professor of Eastern European history at Humboldt University in Berlin in one of his many packed lectures....
Source: AP
7-6-12
ROME -- Caravaggio was notorious for his brawling, so it might be fitting that a claim by two Italian art historians that they discovered as many as 100 drawings by the painter in his boyhood has sparked an art world uproar.The researchers say they found dozens of early drawings by Caravaggio in the collection of master Milanese artist Simone Peterzano, the painter's teacher from 1584 to 1588. Many experts have responded with skepticism to the startling claim: Over the centuries, art historians have never definitively attributed any drawings to Caravaggio, who shook up 16th-century art by using models from the lower walks of life for religious scenes and dramatically counterpointing light and dark.On Friday, the curator of the drawings collection at Milan's Sforzesco Castle, where the collection of 1,500 painting generally attributed to Peterzano is kept, challenged the seriousness of the researchers' methods and contended that the pair had never set foot in the room to scrutinize the works....Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/06/2885349/caravaggio-claims-spark-italian.html#storylink=cpy..
Source: WaPo
7-10-12
Influential church historian Diarmaid MacCulloch said he believes Christianity faces a bright future, but predicted the Roman Catholic Church will undergo a major schism over its moral and social teaching.“Christianity, the world’s largest religion, is rapidly expanding — by all indications, its future is very bright,” said MacCulloch, 60, professor of church history at Oxford University and an Anglican deacon. His latest book, “Silence in Christian History,” will be published in the fall by Penguin....
Source: HNN Staff
7-9-12
Harold Holzer, a leading scholar of Abraham Lincoln, is stepping back from some of his responsibilties as Senior Vice President for External Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in order to devote more time to research and writing. He will remain with museum as Senior Vice President for Government Relations and Public Affairs.
Source: Guardian (UK)
7-8-12
Secret testimony from an IRA woman who bombed the Old Bailey can now be handed over to the Police Service of Northern Ireland as part of its investigations into one of the most controversial murders during the Troubles, a US court has ruled.In the ongoing battle between academic freedom and demands for justice from the families of those killed by the IRA in the conflict, a United States appeal court has found that the PSNI can seize tapes from the ex-IRA bomber Dolours Price.The ruling over the weekend has sparked fears among historians and journalists behind the Belfast Project for Boston College that all of their confidential archive of IRA and loyalist paramilitary activists is now vulnerable....
Source: NYT
7-4-12
...Until Friday the network’s Web site — also home to upbeat fare like “Marist Poll Reveals Ignorance of July 4th History” and “Top Five Myths About the Fourth of July” — is accepting nominations at editor@hnn.us for “history books that nobody should take seriously.”On July 9 the top five nominees will be posted on the site, which is hosted by George Mason University. Readers then be asked to vote for “the least credible history book in print.” The winner — or loser? — will be announced on July 16, along with commentary on the finalists from various academic historians, who make up the bulk of the site’s contributors.
Source: Vermont Public Radio
7-2-12
Funeral services were held on Monday for an academic who helped generations of Vermonters understand their state's history.Samuel Hand was hired as a professor of American history when he was hired at the University of Vermont in 1961.But before long, he became as the "dean of Vermont studies" for his landmark work on 19th and 20th century politics....
Source: BBC News
6-27-12
The Queen has shaken hands with the former IRA commander, Martin McGuinness, in one of the most powerful symbols of reconciliation since the start of the peace process in Northern Ireland....Royal historian Charles Mosley said Prince Philip deliberately moved away from Mr McGuinness as he advanced to speak to him. He added that the duke's memories about the death of Lord Mounbatten were still 'bitter'.
Source: NYT
7-2-12
For a century and a half, Mormonism has been something of a paradox in the history of the American West: passionately argued about by the church’s adherents and detractors, but largely ignored by professional scholars unsure of what to make of the religion Joseph Smith founded in 1830 or the communities created by what Mormon scripture itself described as a “peculiar people.”But now, as Mitt Romney’s candidacy prompts talk of a “Mormon moment,” a growing cadre of young scholars of Mormonism are enjoying their own turn in the sun, and not just on the nation’s op-ed pages. Books relating to Mormon history are appearing in the catalogs of top academic presses, while secular universities are adding courses, graduate fellowships and endowed chairs.“People are seeing right now that Mormonism is a great laboratory for studying all kinds of questions about religion and the modern world,” said Patrick Mason, the chairman of Mormon studies at Claremont Graduate University in California, which four years ago became the first secular university outside Utah to establish a program on the subject....
