Historians in the News

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: Portland Press Herald
10-11-11

Stephen Aylward, 57, professor at Saint Joseph's College

PORTLAND - Stephen Aylward, a popular and respected professor at Saint Joseph's College who was instrumental in developing Portland's Riverton Rail Trail, died Thursday from injuries he suffered in a car accident. He was 57.Mr. Aylward taught history and political science at Saint Joseph's College in Standish for the past four years. He was remembered by colleagues Monday as a dedicated teacher and scholar who connected with his students, particularly in the area of political theory.Dr. Jonathan Malmude, an assistant professor of history at Saint Joseph's, said Mr. Aylward had a way of relating political science to other fields, such as history, business, sociology, theology and classical studies."He could connect with students intellectually and demonstrate practical explanations of the discipline," Malmude said. "His perceptions were really based on a true commitment to the common good. (He was) balanced and measured in the way he approached things. He was a really good teacher."...

Source: NYT
10-10-11

County College of Morris adjunct historian tells stuttering student not to speak in class

RANDOLPH, N.J. — As his history class at the County College of Morris here discussed exploration of the New World, Philip Garber Jr. raised his hand, hoping to ask why China’s 15th-century explorers, who traveled as far as Africa, had not also reached North America.He kept his hand aloft for much of the 75-minute session, but the professor did not call on him. She had already told him not to speak in class.Philip, a precocious and confident 16-year-old who is taking two college classes this semester, has a lot to say but also a profound stutter that makes talking difficult, and talking quickly impossible. After the first couple of class sessions, in which he participated actively, the professor, an adjunct named Elizabeth Snyder, sent him an e-mail asking that he pose questions before or after class, “so we do not infringe on other students time.” As for questions she asks in class, Ms. Snyder suggested, “I believe it would be better for everyone if you kept a sheet of paper on your desk and wrote down the answers.”Later, he said, she told him, “Your speaking is disruptive.”...

Source: The Hill
10-6-11

Historians say today’s rebukes of presidents have grown more extreme

Criticism of the president has long been a staple of politics, but experts say lawmakers are becoming more extreme in their rebukes of the commander in chief.White House scholars say that although every president has suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous barbs, it has not historically been members of Congress hurling them. But more lawmakers are now doing so, and that has diminished the office of the presidency, historians say....H.W. Brands, professor of history at the University of Texas-Austin and the author of books on several presidents, said he is not aware of “mockery of the president by elected officials” at the frequency that Obama has been getting it.“Generally, there has been respect among elected officials for the office of the presidency,” Brands said. “The attacks have usually come from editorialists.”...“In public statements like these, it is difficult to prove or disprove race as a factor,” said Julian Zelizer, professor of history at Princeton University. “My hunch would be that, in these times of polarized politics, we would see this tough rhetoric no matter what the president’s race.”

Source: Tehran Times
10-10-11

Historian Azizollah Bayat dies at 91

TEHRAN -- Iranian history scholar died of natural causes. He was 91.Born in 1920 in Nahavand city, he got his diploma in Hamedan. In 1969, he got his doctorate in history from France’s Paul Sabatier University.He was the history professor at the University of Shahid Beheshti since 1972....

Source: NPR
10-7-11

A Look At The History Of Wall Street Protests with Beverly Gage

Guy Raz talks to Beverly Gage, associate professor of history at Yale University and author of the book The Day Wall Street Exploded: The Story of America in its First Age of Terror, about the history of protests on Wall Street.MELISSA BLOCK, host: This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.GUY RAZ, host: And I'm Guy Raz.The so-called Occupy Wall Street Movement is in its third week of protests, a block from the nation's financial center in New York. The daily demonstrations carry echoes of a century ago and the decades leading up to the Great Depression. It was a time when protests were a regular feature on Wall Street and powerful financiers, like J.P. Morgan, were pilloried in song.(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY NAME IS MORGAN, BUT IT AIN'T J.P.")UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Singing) My name is Morgan but it ain't J.P. There's no bank on Wall Street that belongs to me...

Source: Lexington Clipper-Herald
10-6-11

Eric Foner: Honest Abe wouldn't be electable today

OMAHA - Abraham Lincoln was neither saint nor demon.What he was, said historian Eric Foner, was a shrewd politician, a Republican who believed in his party and in keeping the union together.What Abe couldn't do today is get elected, Foner said after speaking to about 100 students, instructors and fellow historians Wednesday at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery" said Lincoln tried to be a peacemaker among factions in the newly formed Republican party, he wasn't an avowed Christian and wasn't particularly handsome or charismatic. His running in 2012 would be doubtful....

Source: WaPo
10-4-11

Was Christopher Columbus on a religious crusade?

Two recent books argue that explorers Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama were more like Christian crusaders than greedy mercenaries or curious adventurers. Other historians, however, remain skeptical.The books, released in the weeks leading up to Columbus Day (Oct. 10), claim the reason the famous navigators sought a direct trade route to India was to undermine Islam.“I think historians have known about this, but they haven’t taken it seriously,” said Carol Delaney, author of “Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem.” Delaney, a retired anthropologist, is currently a research scholar at Brown University.Delaney’s book argues that Columbus wanted to find gold to finance a new crusade to recapture Jerusalem from the Muslims, believing that Jerusalem must be in Christian hands before Jesus’ Second Coming....

Source: College of William & Mary
10-4-11

W&M professor chronicles history of 700-year-old missing Spanish document

It’s been a decade and a half since manuscript hunter George Greenia discovered a missing medieval Spanish document in the archives at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library.Now Greenia, who serves as professor of Hispanic studies at the College of William and Mary, has chronicled his discovery and the historic contents of the 700-year-old manuscript in “The Lost Privilegio de Alcalá de Henares de 1295.” His essay is one of several pieces written by a group of medievalists in the anthology, La pluma es la lengua del alma: Ensayos en honor de E. Michael Gerli, published in September 2011.The document, dated Aug. 8, 1295, is a concession of royal privileges signed by King Fernando IV granting freedom and liberties to the citizens of Alcalá during the Spanish Reconquista. According to Greenia, it’s also the fourth oldest document to mention the city, which lies about 20 miles east of Madrid.The single sheet of sheepskin parchment, measuring 24 by 18 inches, is in immaculate condition considering its age, said Greenia. What it provides scholars is an invaluable piece of history into medieval democracy, he added....

Source: LA Times
10-2-11

Roger Kennedy dies at 85; former National Park Service director

One day deep in the administration of George W. Bush — a time of tumult among environmentalists and conservationists — Roger Kennedy found himself shaking his head and sighing. The Endangered Species Act was in the cross hairs of a Republican Congress and his beloved National Park Service, which Kennedy directed from 1993 to 1997, was under assault.Kennedy was disgusted by the partisan bickering. When had stewardship of the environment become a political football, he asked, posing a rhetorical question to a reporter. Don't they know that much of the landmark environmental legislation was passed when a Republican, Richard Nixon, was in the White House?

Source: Wales Online (UK)
10-1-11

War historian says Brits should be warriors

WE NEED to be more like the Spartans, one Welsh expert in the history of warfare has warned.Britain – often dubbed the warrior nation – and its Western military allies will fail because we have become “too distant” from war itself, says Swansea University’s Emeritus Professor John France.His new book Perilous Glory (Yale, £25), examining the history of warfare from ancient Mesopotamia to the Gulf War, warns the notion war is a distant phenomenon is an illusion and our cultural attitudes must change.He said: “In a world of violence many Europeans feel they can simply opt out, renounce the imperial pasts and pretend a new start can be made by burying our heads in the sand....

Source: Indian Country
10-2-11

Professor to be Recognized for Commitment to Native American History

The Nebraska State Historical Society will honor John Wunder, author and emeritus professor of history and journalism at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with the Addison E. Sheldon Memorial Award October 14.Wunder will be getting this award for his “work in the preservation and interpretation of state history. He has taught Nebraska, Great Plains and Native American history for 23 years,” stated a press release....

Source: Telegraph (UK)
10-2-11

Professor Patrick Collinson, religious historian, 82

His first major monograph, published as The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (1967), transformed the way historians conceived the nature and role of puritanism; meanwhile, his essay The Monarchical Republic of Queen Elizabeth I (1987) instigated a proliferation of research into, and lively debate about, quasi-republican aspects of Tudor and Stuart England.In a field of history overpopulated with warring prima donnas, Collinson managed the rare achievement of having a profound impact on the debate while managing not to fall out with others working in the same area. This is because he always combined rigorous scholastic methods with academic integrity and intellectual generosity.For centuries, the history of the English Reformation was written for a Protestant audience. The notion that Protestantism was a friend to progress against reaction, and to civil and parliamentary liberty against tyranny, did not make for impartial history. It was Collinson, more than anyone, who moved away from this approach and analysed Protestantism like any other religion. He moved away, too, from the Nonconformist tradition which, by confusing Tudor and early-Stuart Protestantism with the Dissenting tradition that replaced it, missed the dynamism of the earlier movement....

Source: Inside Higher Ed
10-3-11

Jim Grossman and Anthony Grafton: Historians need to think about non-academic jobs

...The statement -- "No More Plan B" -- appears in the new issue of the AHA publication Perspectives and was written by Anthony Grafton, a Princeton University historian who is president of the AHA, and James Grossman, executive director of the association.Grafton and Grossman cite data from the last year (and the last several years before that) in which more history Ph.D.s are entering the job market than there are tenure-track openings. Despite the talent of the new history Ph.D.s, "many of these students will not find tenure-track positions teaching history in colleges and universities," they write....In interviews, Grossman and Grafton both acknowledged that they were seeking to change the way most professors and graduate students think."We're trying to say, 'Wake up. Times have changed. There are more opportunities and that's a good thing,'" said Grossman. "This is not about the negativity of wringing our hands and saying that there are no more jobs."

Source: NYT
10-3-11

Wall Street’s Long History of Protests: NYT Interviews Steve Fraser [video, 3 minutes 18 seconds]

If there is a physical place that represents the intersection of democracy and capitalism in America, it is probably at the corner of Wall Street and Broad Street. Protest movements have been drawn to Wall Street — both the physical location and the abstract idea — since the founding of the country.DealBook spoke to the historian Steve Fraser, whose books include “Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace” and “Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life,” about the groups that have gathered there in the past.

Source: DayPress
10-3-11

Syrian history prof. & grand mufti’s son killed

SYRIA- State-run news agency SANA confirmed that late night on Sunday an armed terrorist group assassinated Professor of History at Aleppo University Dr. Mohammad al-Omar while he was on his way to the university, accompanied by Saria Hassoun, son of Grand Mufti of the Republic Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, who was injured in the attack and succumbed later to his injuries after being admitted to Idleb National Hospital. Armed terrorists have killed the son of Syria's grand mufti together with a Syrian university professor, making the two the latest victims of a new wave of assassinations, which has hit the country, Press TV reported early on Monday. On Sunday, an armed terrorist group ambushed Saria, son of the leading clergy, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, and professor of history at Aleppo University, Mohammad al-Omar, while the two were accompanying each other on the way to the university in the northwest of the country, Syria's state Arab News Agency (SANA) reported....

Source: Salon
10-2-11

Cory Robin on how conservatism conquered America

Has American conservatism suddenly gotten uglier? In the last few weeks, it’s certainly seemed like it. During a recent GOP debate, Ron Paul was asked what should happen to a sick young man without health insurance. Members of the crowd answered for him, yelling that he should be left to die. At the Florida debate, a chorus of boos greeted a gay soldier serving in the Middle East. Both incidents prompted outrage and shock among the media — and speculation about the loosening moral fabric of the Republican Party.

Source: The Independent Florida Alligator
9-30-11

Florida receives A in civil rights history

Do you know what Brown v. Board of Education is? Did you know that Miami once was the most segregated city in the United States?Most grade-school students in the United States don't, according to a report released by the Southern Poverty Law Center.The report evaluated how extensively states' grade schools taught the civil rights movement.Thirty-five states received F's. Alabama, Florida and New York were the only states to receive A's.The state's grade doesn't mean Florida students know enough about the movement, said Jack Davis, a UF history professor.Davis teaches the civil rights movement to both undergraduate and graduate students and said their knowledge about the movement mostly is limited to famous activists, such as Martin Luther King Jr., and famous sites, including Birmingham, Ala., and Selma, Ala....

Source: Legal History Blog
9-28-11

Law and the Constitution: Antidote to Declining History Enrollments?

The Cornell Daily Sun discusses steps taken by Cornell's history department to reverse declining enrollment in its courses.  According to the story, one step was to create a minor.  Another was to offer "new 1000- and 2000-level courses intended to appeal specifically to freshman and sophomores."  One of these was “History of Law: Great Trials,” which drew over 100 students in its first offering.  In addition, Richard Polenberg agreed to revive his "American Constitutional Development" course.

Source: Chronicle of Higher Ed
9-28-11

David Blight’s New Approach to Civil War Memory

David W. Blight’s American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, just published by Harvard University Press, is a very different sort of contribution to the Sesquicentennial fare so far.It’s not a sweeping history of politics, culture, history, or race in the Civil War and its aftermath (as was Blight’s own Bancroft Prize-winning Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, also from HUP). Rather, it is a study of four American authors—Robert Penn Warren, Bruce Catton, Edmund Wilson, and James Baldwin—in the era of the Centennial of the Civil War, as celebration met the civil-rights movement.Via e-mail, the Yale University professor answered questions on his venture across disciplinary boundaries.Q: In many ways, the book seems a conversation between eras: the 1960s when the centennial of the Civil War was still fraught with conflict and today’s more celebratory, or cerebral, 150th anniversary. What does this perspective highlight?A. I wrote this book, in great part, as a way of doing some good, serious history of the Civil War Centennial/Civil Rights eras and beginning to reflect on where we are now as a national culture in remembering and explaining the Civil War and Reconstruction. Looking back is almost always the best way of looking at ourselves.

Source: Sports Radio Interviews
9-28-11

Historian Taylor Branch Predicts Revolt Against NCAA Within the Next Five Years

The easiest way to introduce the subject of this post is to simply ask you to read his latest work, if you haven’t already. “The Shame of College Sports” was featured in the October 2011 edition of The Atlantic and can be read here.Frank Deford has called it the most important article written about college sports, and Taylor Branch talks more about what he learned from digging into his story and the future of the NCAA below.Taylor Branch joined WJOX in Birmingham with Paul Finebaum to discuss where the idea for his article came from, what he learned and what the reaction has been like, where things stand going forward, why a scholarship doesn’t really make sense in the argument that it is payment to a college athlete, what he would tell the NCAA president, how we can get to where he thinks things ought to be and how long he believes it will be before the NCAA falls apart.Where did this whole story begin?: