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: Boston Globe
6-15-10
The late Senator Edward M. Kennedy lived under the constant threat of violent death, a burden he inherited from his slain brothers, according to FBI records released yesterday detailing hundreds of threats issued by hate groups or relayed by agency tipsters and police across the country....
“Many people thought the FBI may have been digging into Ted Kennedy’s personal life. We’re so used to the FBI stories of the ’60s and ’70s being about Hoover bugging famous people’s bedrooms,’’ s
Source: John Q. Barrett at the Jackson List
6-14-10
[John Q. Barrett is professor of law at St. John's University School of Law.]
On behalf of Chautauqua Institution and the Robert H. Jackson Center, I am pleased to announce that historian, presidential speechwriter and author Jeff Shesol will deliver Chautauqua Institution's sixth annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme C
Source: CHE
6-14-10
The University of California at Irvine has suspended the campus's Muslim Student Union for one year and placed the group on disciplinary probation after members of the group repeatedly interrupted a campus speech in February by Israel's ambassador to the United States, according to a letter released on Monday.
The hecklers shouted down the ambassador, Michael Oren, at times calling him a "killer" and scuttling parts of the speech. Video of the event drew international atte
Source: Newsweek
6-11-10
...[W]e asked presidential historians to help us speculate as to how the past five U.S. presidents would have handled the BP oil spill if they were still in office. The question isn’t who would cap the leak quickest —all of them would have been at the mercy of BP—but, rather, how their leadership styles would have guided their responses, and what lessons Obama can learn from them....George W. Bush: The Crowd Reader
Timothy Naftali, director of the Richard Nixon Li
Source: Inside Higher Ed
6-11-10
Some prominent liberal academics are soliciting short essays from faculty members and graduate students to document a pattern in American history of major social advances being opposed by conservatives who "cry wolf" about the impact of proposed reforms. The campaign -- known as the "Cry Wolf Project" -- hasn't been officially announced. But conservative bloggers obtained some of the solicitations of essays and published them this week, along with considerable criticism.
Source: Andrew Breitbart Presents Big Hollywood
6-9-10
Many conservatives and libertarians think of labor unions as merely the grassroots muscle behind the progressive movement. Showing up as a swarm of purple shirts, with the forearms of a lumberjack and a penchant for terrorizing teenagers, labor unions have always been considered the rough and rugged group that intimidate their opponents through the “persuasion of power.”
But if you haven’t thought of the labor movement as a cerebral bunch, think again. Meet Peter Dreier, Donald Cohe
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
6-11-10
So what should we make of Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency? And what does his journey tell us about the United States and how the country’s attitudes about race have evolved?
Since Obama’s candidacy began, a barrage of writers and pundits have been trying to answer those questions. Now author William Jelani Cobb, an associate professor and chair of the history department at Spelman College, tries to tackle them in his new book, “The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Parad
Source: NYT
6-9-10
Even among the nation’s most febrile political contests, few choices are as stark as the one Nevada voters will make between a circumspect four-term senator, one of the most visible emblems of Democratic power in Washington, and a largely unknown former state lawmaker with 10 grandchildren, whose fondness for weightlifting and for her .44 Magnum won the ardor of the Republican Party base....
“Angle can beat Reid if she can avoid being defined as too right-wing even for conservatives
Source: Joanna Weiss at the Boston Globe
6-9-10
[Joanna Weiss is a columnist for the Boston Globe.]
...Even as a thought experiment, refuted by some scientists and futurists and optimists, “peak oil’’ is an opportunity to think past the relative placebo of renewable grocery bags and remember that our oil dependence wasn’t preordained. Early plastics were made from coal resin, says Brian Black, professor of history and environmental studies at Penn State Altoona. Petroleum just made them more malleable and cost-effective. Early ca
Source: NYT
6-9-10
Before the news conference at Queens Borough Hall on Tuesday, Jack Eichenbaum, the newly minted borough historian, pulled fliers from his backpack and handed them out.
The fliers advertised his walking tours around his native Queens, including one scheduled that evening, from Long Island City to Old Astoria.
Mr. Eichenbaum, 67, a retired city assessor with a Ph.D. in urban geography, beat out six other candidates to join the ranks of official New York historians. He fol
Source: Medieval News
6-3-10
A new article is examining the relationship between Islamic states and the Crusader army during the First Crusade (1096-99) and suggests that the Fatimid kingdom of Egypt did attempt to ally with the Crusaders. The article, "Fatimids, Crusaders and the Fall of Islamic Jerusalem: Foes or Allies?" was written by Maher Y. Abu-Munshar in the latest issue of Al-Masaq: Islam and the Medieval Mediterranean.
Abu-Munshar explains that both the Fatimids and the Crusaders wanted to &
Source: Medieval News
6-8-10
Western Michigan University has awarded the prestigious Grundler Prize to a University of Notre Dame scholar for his book, Sisters and Brothers of the Common Life: The Devotio Moderna and the World of the Later Middle Ages.
The prize was awarded at the 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies May 15 to John van Engen, professor of history at Notre Dame. The Grundler Prize was established to honor the late Dr. Otto Grundler, former director of the WMU Medieval Institute, which
Source: Medieval News
6-8-10
It was not necessary to be literate to be able to access rune carvings in the 11th century. At the same time those who could read were able to glean much more information from a rune stone than merely what was written in runes. This is shown in new research from Uppsala University in Sweden.
Rune stones are an important part of the Swedish cultural environment. Many of them are still standing in their original places and still bear witness about the inhabitants of the area from a th
Source: David Darlington at AHA Blog
6-8-10
The American Council of Learned Societies recently announced the winners of its 2010 fellowship competition. Over $15 million was awarded to more than 380 scholars, including many historians. ACLS fellowships and grants are awarded to individual scholars for excellence in research in the humanities and related social sciences. The complete list of winners is available on the ACLS web site. Among the winners are the following historians:
ACLS Fellowships: Karl Appuhn (NYU); Thomas W.
Source: Guardian (UK)
6-6-10
Fresh light has been thrown on the Dreyfus Affair, the cause célèbre that divided France and shook the world in the late 19th century, by the discovery of thousands of unpublished letters.
Following the exile of Captain Alfred Dreyfus after his wrongful conviction for spying for Germany against France, his wife, Lucie, was portrayed as a bourgeois heroine, the epitome of the dutiful Victorian spouse. But, according to her letters, she was a passionate woman whose undying love for he
Source: The Hill
6-8-10
The White House job offers that led to charges the administration is practicing Chicago-style politics are nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to Washington, according to presidential scholars.
Offering someone a position to get him out of the way goes back at least as far as the 1824 presidential election of John Quincy Adams.
“This kind of jockeying happens all the time in politics,” says David Greenberg, professor of history, journalism and media studies at R
Source: Canisius College
6-8-10
David Valaik, PhD, an emeritus professor of history at Canisius College, died on Friday, June 4. He was 74.
Valaik retired from Canisius in 2004, following 44 years of service to the college. During his tenure, he taught a variety of courses including those on the Progressive Era, military history, the Civil War and Theodore Roosevelt. He also served as dean of continuing studies at Canisius College, for a period of time, and directed the Canisius College ROTC Band.
Val
Source: Media Matters
6-5-10
In an interview yesterday with Media Matters, a prominent historian criticized Glenn Beck's"ludicrous" promotion of an anti-Communist screed written in the 1930s by a" crackpot" anti-Semite.On June 4, Beck praised
Source: Telegraph (UK)
6-8-10
Russia has charged four soldiers with stealing the credit card from one of the victims of April's Smolensk air crash, which killed the Polish president and 95 others, and spending more than £1,000.
The Russian Federal Investigation Committee of the prosecutor's office said four conscripts had been detained for allegedly using the credit card of Andrzej Przewoznik, a leading historian who was killed in the accident.
"Today, four soldiers have been charged with thef
Source: Lee White at the National Coalition for History
6-4-10
On May 20, Jonathan Spence, one of the world’s leading experts on Chinese history and culture, delivered the 2010 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The annual lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.
