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: Gene B. Preuss on H-Net
5-1-12
Gene B. Preuss is the president of H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences and an associate professor of history at the University of Houston.
Source: MICHIKO KAKUTANI in the NYT
4-29-12
... At the heart of “The Passage of Power,” the latest installment of Robert A. Caro’s magisterial biography of Johnson, is the story of how he was catapulted to the White House in the wake of Kennedy’s assassination, how he steadied and reassured a shell-shocked nation, and how he used his potent political skills and the momentum generated by Kennedy’s death to push through Congress his predecessor’s stalled tax-cut bill and civil rights legislation and to lay the groundwork for his own revolutionary “war on poverty.”
Source: Steve Kraske in the Kansas City Star
4-27-12
Maybe I’m showing my age. Maybe I’m showing the effects of too many years covering politicians.But these days, I’m deep into the fourth volume of an ongoing series of books on the 36th president, a man who died back in 1973.The really scary thing: I’m relishing every minute of it.Robert Caro’s new book on LBJ — “The Passage of Power” — shares a trait with the first three. It is simply a stunning achievement. Enduringly fascinating, probing and popping with surprising insights, the book is a breeze of a read.That Caro is a dogged reporter helps. So does his ability to spin a magnificent tale.And he’s got a whale of a character to chronicle. As he does in the first three books, LBJ comes off as brilliant and petty, shortsighted and farsighted, a scoundrel and a saint....
Source: UW-Madison
4-20-12
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies, has selected three University of Wisconsin-Madison scholars for induction into the 2012 class.As in the past, the academy has chosen leaders from the realms of arts, academics, business, philanthropy and public service for its latest group....Steve J. Stern, the Alberto Flores Galindo and Hilldale Professor of history, is a prize-winning historian of Latin America. His recent research focuses on human rights and cultural memory after the "dirty wars" of the 20th century, notably Chile after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and Peru after the Shining Path war. His books and articles have spanned five centuries and many countries, and have demonstrated the inventiveness of Latin American responses to unequal structures of power, with sometimes surprising impacts on world history....
Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
4-22-12
Nothing disturbs print-centric researchers like the idea of kicking books out of a library to make room for computers. The New York Public Library set off a fierce debate recently with its plans for a major reorganization. The proposed overhaul, known as the Central Library Plan, includes selling two midtown branches and moving many of the three million books now housed under the main reading room at 42nd Street to a remote-storage facility in New Jersey. The library shares the facility in a consortium arrangement, called Recap, with Columbia and Princeton Universities.Anthony T. Grafton, a professor of history at Princeton University, summed up researchers' anxiety in a commentary published in the student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, this month. "My stomach hurts when I think about NYPL, the first great library I ever worked in, turned into a vast Internet cafe where people can read the same Google Books, body parts and all, that they could access at home or Starbucks," he wrote.The library promises that materials sent to Recap will be safely stored and quickly accessible—usually within 24 hours—to patrons who request them. Critics say that remote storage doesn't work so well in practice, and that the wrong message is sent by taking books out of the heart of the library....
Source: Green Bay Press Gazette
4-26-12
MADISON, Wis. (WTW) — Partly out of habit, and perhaps subconsciously to prove his mettle, Hugh Ambrose grabbed hold of the manuscript that arrived in the mail from his father, whipped out his marker and began to employ it liberally throughout, as if he were still a teacher's assistant challenging the assertions of one of his undergraduate charges.It wasn't until after he mailed back the rough draft of what was to become "Undaunted Courage," the 1996 book regarded as the definitive modern retelling of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, that it struck the youngest of noted historian Stephen Ambrose's five children that he may have short-circuited their nascent working relationship.That reaction, in Hugh's words: "Oh my God, what did I just do?"Those fears were for naught. If anything, Hugh's boldness convinced his father that the kid may actually be of some help as his career focus turned from academia to producing a series of best-selling nonfiction titles....
Source: NCPH Press Release
4-22-12
Graduate Student Travel AwardsKate Freedman – University of Massachusetts, Amherst Jordan Grant – American University Jee-Yeon (Jay) Kim – University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Evan Medley – Arizona State University Maggie Schreiner – New York UniversityGraduate Student Project Award Erica Hague and Jennifer Clark Scott, University of North Carolina-Wilmington. “Flashback: Community Life through the Lens of Mack Munn, 1940-1960”The winning project is a photograph collection documenting rural African American life during a time of rapid decline in rural black populations. The strengths of “Flashback” lay first in its community connection—including twenty oral histories, close collaborative work with a local historical society, and in its documented opening- night success; secondly in its wide-reach—from the eighth-grade curriculum component, to the travelling exhibit, and the Facebook site; and finally in its innovative design—including the building of the porch, the use of QR codes to link exhibit material to audio, and the innovative use of window screens/shades to present exhibit text.Honorable Mention: Michelle Antenesse and Bethany Girod's exhibit "New Birth of Freedom: Civil War to Civil Rights in California," California State University, Fullerton.
Source: Sidney Hillman Foundation
4-26-12
NEW YORK - The 2012 Sol Stetin Award for Labor History will go to historian Nelson Lichtenstein, who will receive the award at the annual 2012 Hillman Prizes ceremony on May 1 at The TimesCenter. Lichtenstein will receive the Stetin Award at the ceremony and reception to honor this year’s Hillman Prize winners for excellence in journalism in service of the common good. The Stetin Award is given each year to scholars whose work has helped shape our understanding of working people and the labor movement. Previous Stetin awards have gone to David Montgomery, David Brody, Dorothy Sue Cobble and others. About Nelson Lichtenstein:
Source: Ron Radosh at PJ Media
4-25-12
Ronald Radosh is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at The Hudson Institute, and a Prof. Emeritus of History at the City University of New York, Queensborough Community College.If you want to know what is wrong with academia, look no further than a long article that appears in The Chronicle Review, the weekly magazine of the academy’s major publication, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Keep in mind that most professors subscribe to it, as do the presidents and deans of every institution of higher learning.The article in question is written by the outgoing President of the Organization of American Historians, Prof. Alice Kessler-Harris of Columbia University, who is author of a new biography of playwright Lillian Hellman, titled A Difficult Woman. Using her forthcoming book as the excuse to get some free publicity for her thesis, Kessler-Harris has written a piece titled “Lillian Hellman’s Convictions” for the review. (Unfortunately, they have chosen to put her article under a firewall, and to read it, you will have to either purchase it or wait for them to eventually post it.)...
Source: AP
4-24-12
The 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking has returned a classic account of the tragedy to the best-seller lists.Walter Lord's "A Night to Remember," first published in 1955, will be No. 1 this Sunday on The New York Times' chart of combined print and e-book nonfiction sales. The paperback was published by Henry Holt and Company. The e-book was released last month by Open Road Integrated Media, a digital publisher that says the e-edition has been downloaded around 30,000 times."I couldn't be happier for Walter that 'A Night to Remember' has at last emerged again for the beginning of a whole new publishing life with Open Road," literary agent Sterling Lord (no relation to Walter Lord), who represents the author's estate, said in a statement Tuesday.
Source: Southern California Public Radio
4-24-12
Journalist and historian Joe Domanick takes Off-Ramp listeners to Parker Center, the L.A. Times building, and the new LAPD Headquarters building – three places he sees as crucial to understanding why the 1992 L.A. Riots happened.According to Domanick, author of "To Protect and To Serve," a narrative history of the LAPD and the forthcoming "Road to Reckoning: the Collapse and Reformation of the LAPD," says Parker Center embodied the glory years for the force, which Chief Darrell Gates viewed as America's police force. But it was through the back door of Parker Center that Gates slipped out on the night the riots started. Astoundingly, so he could attend a Brentwood fundraiser aimed at fighting an initiative to limit the chief's power. But, Domanick says, Gates had no plan to implement that day; he didn't seem to think the people would rise up against him....
Source: This is London (UK)
4-24-12
A leading BBC historian who has become a poster girl for women who opt out of motherhood said she had been “educated out” of having children.Dr Lucy Worsley, chief curator of the Historic Royal Palaces, said she would not have enough time to do all the things she enjoys if she had children....
Source: Canberra Times (UK)
4-25-12
Historian Graham Wilson, whose new book has sparked a trans-Tasman row, says Australia's World War I army included its share of bad characters, as did every force, including New Zealand's.However, the fighting record of the Australian Imperial Force was so well established there had never been a need to embellish that story, he said.The Canberra author's comments were prompted by a New Zealand journalist, Jock Anderson, who labelled the Australian soldiers as ''lazy bludgers and thieves''.Defence Minister Stephen Smith dismissed Mr Anderson's comments with ''the disrespect they deserved''....
Source: Southwest Iowa News
4-24-12
OMAHA - Rajmohan Gandhi visited Omaha to give a lecture and receive the Creighton presidential medallion.Even with Mohandas K. Gandhi as a grandfatherly example, historian and human rights advocate Rajmohan Gandhi can be tempted to despair by the state of the world decades after the Mahatma led India to freedom through nonviolent resistance.But Gandhi finds reasons for hope and faith in events large and small, he said in an interview Monday before delivering a lecture at Creighton University."The temptations of despair are very frequent," said Gandhi, a former member of India's Parliament who is now a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "But I do see the daily evidence of the triumph of goodness....
Source: Eurasia Review
4-20-12
...Just recently Walter Laqueur published his new book ”After the Fall. The End of the European Dream and the Decline of a Continent”. This new book is much more than an update of his former book on Europe. It offers new analyses and new perspectives.Dieter Farwick: I remember quite well the debate about your prognosis at the end of 2006. Your conclusion was based among other things upon the demographic developments in Europe with its aging and greying population and an “Islamisation” in major European cities.Now, some five years later, are you still convinced that you were right or do you have to correct your predictions?Walter Laqueur: I was right—but not because I am such a good prophet.. I was writing after all not about the future but described things that had already taken place. But many did not want to see them. Why? Because it is part of the human condition not to accept unpleasant facts. Because it is part of the human condition to engage in wishful thinking. It is better to be mistaken because of excessive optimism rather than be right because of pessimism. Think of Cassandra in Greek mythology. She was always right in her predictions (Apollo had given her this gift). But this did not at all add to her popularity. She was a tragic figure....
Source: Religion Dispatches
4-24-12
It’s usually clear to Bart Ehrman who loves him and who hates him. Evangelical Christians have been raking Ehrman over the coals for years for his rejection of biblical inerrancy—and atheists and humanists have embraced his writing as ammunition in the fight against the evils of organized religion.With his new book, Did Jesus Exist?, Ehrman is making friends of his enemies and enemies of his friends as he debunks the work of so-called “mythicists”—writers who have argued that a man named Jesus who taught about the coming Kingdom of God never really existed, and that the religions created around him are nothing but fantasy.Ehrman, who teaches religion at UNC Chapel Hill, brings his expertise as a historian to the question and concludes that all the evidence available—both from pagan and Christian sources—reveal that Jesus did exist. But while the historical Jesus may not have been invented, it doesn’t mean that invention is not part of the story....RD: What inspired you to write this book? You write that you had another book in mind instead of this one.
Source: BuffaloNews.com
4-24-12
Garry Wills, one of the leading thinkers on Catholicism in America and a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, has a few choice words for the Vatican on the matter of its recent rebuke of American nuns.In a blog today for the New York Review of Books, Wills writes, under the heading "Bullying the Nuns":"The Vatican has issued a harsh statement claiming that American nuns do not follow their bishops' thinking. That statement is profoundly true. Thank God, they don't."I wrote about this controversy the other day and got a great deal of response from local readers, expressing a broad spectrum of opinion. Some of the response came by email, with many readers providing memories of nuns who made a positive difference in their lives, and a few saying "You go" to the Vatican....
Source: Wales Online (UK)
4-25-12
THE Chancellor is like Mr Micawber, hoping that ‘something will come up’ to boost his fortunes, a leading economic historian said last night.Speaking ahead of delivering the annual Julian Hodge Institute for Macroeconomics lecture Professor Nicholas Crafts warned that the George Osborne lacked many of the levers available to his predecessors in previous downturns.The Warwick University academic said that history had shown that where you were cutting government expenditure, as the Chancellor is currently doing, you need to have a parallel policy that will stimulate growth."The message from previous recessions is that you do need policy to help you recover," he said....
Source: Ustream.tv
4-25-12
Edwin Black unveils the latest research about eugenics in the Expanded Edition of his best-selling book, award-winning book "War Against the Weak" in a live event at North Carolina General Assembly's Legislative Auditorium April 25 at Noon ET. The event is sponsored by the Campbell University Law School in Raleigh, North Carolina, in partnership with the Urban League of Winston-Salem, the American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, North Carolina Holocaust Council, Jewish Life at Duke, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the State of California Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, Human Rights and Tolerance, The Auto Channel, History Network News, The Cutting Edge News, Spero Forum, and the Jewish Virtual Library. Broadcast takes place on in Raleigh NC at Noon ET, April 25, 2012.
Source: 60 Minutes
4-22-12
HNN: Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, the historian, was on the hot seat on Sixty Minutes tonight, for objecting to a story correspondent Bob Simon was doing before the story even aired. The story focused on the suffering of Christians in the traditional holy places of Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, whose numbers have been dwindling as a result of Israeli measures to limit terrorism. The story did not suggest that Israel is targeting Christians. Rather, they have been collateral damage as Israel cracks down on Muslims. An excerpt follows.
