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: John Moore in the National Post
11-26-09
Ideas are like viruses. They spread in waves, retreat, mutate and return. The latest proof is the recent re-emergence of academic historian Richard Hofstadter in the political consciousness.
Hofstadter, who died in 1970, was at one time amongst America's pre-eminent historians. He documented the evolution of the country's political culture and its populist underpinnings from the Revolution to the post-Kennedy-assassination era. It's no surprise that his work is still generally relev
Source: The University of Manchester
12-1-09
Dr Natalie Zacek, from The University of Manchester says the 1861–1865 Civil War changed American racing forever, by forcing it to modernise using the English model.
The American researcher, who grew up near the world famous Saratoga Race Track in New York, said before the late 1850s, a cross section of all citizens - from Presidents to slaves - took a passionate interest in the sport.
It was so popular that Congress would go out of session when a race was held, George
Source: Vermont Public Radio
12-1-09
(Host) To some - 19th century abolitionist John Brown was a folk hero. To others he was a violent terrorist. To this day Brown is considered one of the more controversial figures of the 1800s. Tomorrow, December 2, marks the 150th anniversary of Brown's execution following his failed raid at Harper's Ferry Virginia.
VPR's Nina Keck spoke with two local historians about Brown's role in U.S. history and some recently discovered ties to Vermont.
(Keck) Jo
Source: Frontline (Volume 26)
12-1-09
DWIJENDRA NARAYAN JHA, an eminent historian, has campaigned extensively against the communalisation of history. His book Myth of the Holy Cow,wherein he dispelled popular misconceptions that Muslims introduced beef-eating in India, created ripples in political circles. An ardent critic of the Hindu nationalist ideology, Jha, along with three other historians, sought to prove in a report, “Ramjanmabhoomi–Babri Masjid: A Historians’ Report to the Nation”, that there was no evidence of the existenc
Source: Greek Reporter
11-30-09
A prominent Melbourne academic is researching the impact of memories of WWII in Greece and the Civil War on Greek-Australians.
Speaking at the Australian Macedonian Advisory Council (AMAC) forum last Monday, Professor Joy Damousi (foto), head of the School of Historical Studies at Melbourne University said that the experiences of migrants who grew up in Greece during the war years of the 1940s is the topic of her next book.
She highlighted the need to “put on the map” t
Source: Scientific Blogging
12-1-09
According to one historian, the anti-government rallies that made their way across the country last summer, known as tea parties, may explain more about Americans than their views on high taxes and gun control.
Ohio State University historian Randolph Roth claims that the distrust of government on display at the tea parties earlier this year has appeared sporadically throughout America's history and may be linked to homicide rates. In short, when Americans begin routinely complaini
Source: Times Online
11-30-09
“You have to be responsible for your past,” the Swiss historian Jean-François Bergier once said. And he knew exactly how challenging that could be for his country.
For Bergier, a distinguished academic historian but not a particularly well-known public figure, was pitched into the centre of Switzerland’s fraught debate about its wartime past in 1996 when he accepted an invitation to head an international commission of historians investigating aspects of the country’s relationship wi
Source: NYT
11-30-09
Lewis H. Lapham leans forward behind his wide wooden desk and within minutes of speaking has mentioned Mark Twain, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Goethe, Cicero, John Locke, Hamilton, Adams and Madison. A laptop on a side table is piled high with papers.
As the media metabolism becomes endlessly speeded up, Mr. Lapham has slowed down. Two years ago he moved from a monthly, Harper’s magazine, to publishing four times a year with Lapham’s Quarterly, a scholarly journal that he has tried to
Source: NetIndian
11-30-09
Economist Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee of the Massachuetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States and historian Upinder Singh of the University of Delhi, who is the daughter of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, are among the five scientists and social scientists chosen for the Infosys Prize 2009 here today.
The other winners announced by the Infosys Science Foundation for their outstanding contributions to scientific research in India were theoretical physicists Thanu Padmanabh
Source: Deleware Online
11-30-09
An ailing World War II veteran from New York wants to fix a government goof in Brooklyn's Williamsburg area that has slighted a Founding Father from Delaware since the 1800s.
As streets were named for Declaration of Independence signers, officials erred on the last to sign -- Thomas McKean of Delaware. They mistook the start of his last name as an initial and the N with a final flourish as a P.
The result? Keap Street.
Despite the error's age, John Slagg, a
Source: Sun 2 Surf
11-30-09
Historian Prof Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Kim, who raised a storm of protest in the Chinese community for his recent remark that Chinese schools have been good only in producing copycats, wants those who do not agree with him to prove him wrong with facts and figures, China Press reported today.
In an interview, he said he wanted to know the number of Chinese school students awarded national scholarship in the past, as well as the number of world-class scholars the Chinese schools in Mala
Source: Eric H. Cline, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures Associate Professor of Classics and of Anthropology (Ancient History and Archaeology) The George Washington University
11-30-09
Student bloopers are needed, for a book to be published by Mitch Allen and Left Coast Press. Any and all areas desired: history, archaeology, English, science, etc. Bloopers already collected from student essays, exams, and research papers include gems such as "The Israelites...wondered in the dessert for 40 years." Please send via email to Eric Cline at ehcline@gwu.edu. Please also include a statement giving express permission to include the b
Source: Democracy Now
11-27-09
The legendary radio broadcaster, writer, oral historian, raconteur and chronicler of our times, Studs Terkel, died last month at the age of ninety-six in his hometown of Chicago. Today, a Democracy Now! special tribute: We spend the hour on Studs Terkel. Over the years, Terkel has been a regular guest on Democracy Now! We play a wide-ranging interview we did with him in 2005. We also feature a rare recording of Terkel interviewing the Rev. Martin Luther King at the bedside of the gospel singer M
Source: The Leaf Chronicle
11-29-09
Her breath quickened as she caught sight of a name engraved in stone. Could it possibly be him?
As Carolyn Stier Ferrell stepped closer, she could see that, yes, she had found her man! At the Odd Fellows Home Cemetery atop Boot Hill in New Providence, Ferrell found the final resting place of Thomas Pratt Turner.
"My heart started racing," Ferrell said.
Ferrell, a local historian who wrote "In Search of Nannie Tyler," was seeking informat
Source: Telegraph (UK)
11-28-09
Vyacheslav Manyagin has asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to outlaw the film, which he claims is an insult to Russian statehood.
The blockbuster, released earlier this month, has triggered an ill-tempered debate in religious and historical circles at a time when the Kremlin is encouraging Russians to take patriotic pride in their often brutal history...
... "Imagine that they made a film in America about George Washington in which the first US president was p
Source: NYT
11-27-09
A Yale librarian who cast doubt last year on the origins of the Serenity Prayer, adopted by Alcoholics Anonymous and reprinted on countless knickknacks, says new evidence has persuaded him to retain the famed Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr as the author in the next edition of The Yale Book of Quotations.
The provenance of the prayer, which begins, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” became a subject of controversy last year with the publication
12-31-69
[Joshua Brown doubles as a historian and illustrator. He is the co-director of the New Media Lab and Executive Director of the Center for Media and Learning/American Social History Project (ASHP) at the CUNY Graduate Center. He received his Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University. Since the beginning of the Iraq War he has become well-known for his caustic illustrations. ]
Source: The Toronto Observer
11-26-09
Most Torontonians are not familiar with the black experience in Canada, but for Adrienne Shadd, African-Canadian history is in her blood.
Shadd is the great-great-grandniece of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first black women to publish and edit a newspaper in North America.
She is also a direct descendant of Abraham Shadd, a leader of the American abolitionist movement, one of the key figures of the Underground Railroad and the first black person in Canada to serve in public
Source: NZ Herald
11-28-09
Once, not such a long time ago, in colonial New Zealand, Tuhoe were permitted to rule themselves within the boundaries of what was left of their land.
It was the late 1800s and they were the only tribe to gain legal autonomy from the Pakeha Government. For a short while. Then it was taken away.
The desire for autonomy never dulled though, nor was ceded by the Urewera mountain people; and today it is on the table again with John Key's Government, as part of a singular co
Source: Google News
11-27-09
BILLINGS, Mont. — For 100 years Henry Armstrong's family has farmed the same patch of central Montana land, hanging on through the Depression, low wheat prices and the ever-present risk that the next generation would move on.
Armstrong, 82, lives in the same house near Geraldine that his grandfather built and lived in as a homesteader. It's a little bigger now, but lonelier since his wife, Norma, died about six years ago.
"As long as I live, I've got rights to live
