Historians in the News

Victoria Bynum vs. John Stauffer

Related Links Kevin Levin: A Statement About the State of Jones Dispute Response of John Stauffer & Sally Jenkins NYT news story [Victoria Bynum, a history professor at Texas State University, San Marcos, is the a

Statement of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. after meeting with Sergeant James Crowley at the White House

I would like to applaud President Obama for bringing Sergeant Crowley, me and our families together. I would also like to thank the President for welcoming my father, Henry Louis Gates, Sr., who for most of his life has been a Republican! My dad turned 96 this past June, and the fact that he worked two jobs every day is the reason that my brother, Dr. Paul Gates, and I were able to receive such splendid educations. I am honored that he chose to join me at the White House, along with my fiancée,

State Dept Alters Stance on Uruguay History

In the early 1970s, the Nixon Administration plotted to interfere in Uruguay’s presidential elections in order to block the rise of the leftist Frente Amplio coalition.  But when the State Department published its official history of U.S. relations with Latin America during the Nixon era last month, there was no mention of any such activities.  Instead, the State Department Office of the Historian said that Uruguay-related records could not be posted on the Department website becaus

Shift in Middle East Studies?

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq may be about to change Middle Eastern studies -- and not just by adding plenty of new subject material. The incoming director of Middle Eastern studies at George Washington University last week published a post at his Foreign Policy blog that has set off a discussion about the next generation of Middle Eastern studies students and, eventually, professors. Marc Lynch writes (and some others agree) that master’s programs and doctoral progr

Juan Cole compares Sarah Palin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Is Sarah Palin America's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? The two differ in many key respects, of course, but it is remarkable how similar they are. There are uncanny parallels in their biographies, their domestic politics and the way they present themselves -- even in their rocky relationships with party elders. Both are former governors of a northwest frontier state with great natural beauty (in Ahmadinejad's case, Ardabil). Both are known for saying things that produce a classic Scooby-Doo d

Prof. Gates Says He Received Death And Bomb Threats

Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Sunday joked about his arrest by a white police officer, but also described receiving death threats and dreaming about being arrested at the White House. FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and President Barack Obama, Gates said the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run

Juan Cole interviewed about Afghanistan, Iran and other hot spots

Juan Cole has a weblog called Informed Comment. But he is not just a blogger, he is a commentator and a Middle East historian who teaches at the University of Michigan.  He speaks fluent Persian and Arabic. Rooz had a chance to talk to him on the current issues of the region.  Rooz:   In your new book,  Engaging the Muslim World,

New web service publishes books online for free

A new concept in web-based publishing, Libertary provides free books to readers through direct links from blogs and other websites, allowing them to enrich their offering with the in-depth reading experience that only a good book can provide. The idea is to support online communities while broadening readership for Libertary’s books. Take Mike Gray’s Drug Crazy, a history of America’s misguided and ineffective war on drugs, which is considered a leading work by those who seek repeal

Alan C. Hall taught technology and history at Gateway Community and Technical College and pushed for the onetime vocational school to offer more for its students

To his colleagues at Gateway Community and Technical College, Alan C. Hall, an associate professor of history, was a man who seemed to do it all. During his 20 years at the college, Mr. Hall, who died on July 8 in a lawn-mowing accident at his home in Falmouth, Ky., moved from teaching electronics to information technology to history. He held numerous leadership roles at the college and earned three degrees while on the faculty. When Kentucky's community colleges and vocational scho

The Onion satirizes Henry Louis Gates controversy

Anthropologist receives Medal of Freedom

Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief, is the author of seminal works in Native American history and culture. He is the last person alive to have received direct oral testimony from a participant in the Battle of the Little Bighorn: his grandfather was a scout for General George Armstrong Custer. A veteran of World War II, Medicine Crow accomplished during the war all of the four tasks required to become a "war chief," including stealing fifty Nazi SS hor

19th-Century Lessons for Today's Drug War, Says Historian

[Brian DeLay is an assistant professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He is author of War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War (Yale University Press, 2008).] This spring in El Paso, after a talk I gave on the Indian raids and the U.S.-Mexican War, a man in the back row raised his hand. "Do you see any similarities between the borderland violence you've just described for the 1830s and 1840s and the current drug war?" The en

Julian Zelizer says the beer summit is unprecedented

It's highly unusual for a president to become personally involved in a local racial matter such as the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., presidential historian Julian E. Zelizer said today. Zelizer said he couldn't remember a recent president inserting himself in a local issue this way, and certainly not inviting the principal parties to the White House. On a much bigger scale, Zelizer noted that President John F. Kennedy, then a candidate, did personally

Race, Politics, And Obama: Scholars Respond To Sean Wilentz's 'Who Lincoln Was'--And Wilentz Strikes Back

Click here to read letters from Michael Kazin, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Fred Kaplan, and

Historians donate book collection to Southwestern University

Two Georgetown residents and historians are donating much of their personal library to Southwestern University's A. Frank Smith Jr. Library Center. Robert Utley and his wife, Melody Webb, moved to Georgetown in 1996. Utley was the former chief historian for the National Park Service and has written 16 books on the American West. Webb was a regional historian for the National Park Service in Alaska and Santa Fe, and also served as superintendent of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Hist

Douglas Brinkley takes a long, fond look at Theodore Roosevelt

Historian Douglas Brinkley finally has a moment. Just in from breakfast with C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb, he stops for an interview with his former hometown's newspaper the day before he makes an appearance with Diane Rehm on NPR. Earlier this month he wrote a cover story for Vanity Fair, a postcard from a weeklong cruise in the Caribbean with actor Johnny Depp. Last month there was dinner with President Barack Obama and fellow presidential historians Michael Beschloss, H.W. Brands, R

How budget cuts in California could impact Chinese studies

[Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is a professor of history at the University of California at Irvine. He is author, most recently, of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (forthcoming from Oxford University Press).] Budget cuts at the University of California have generated a lot of attention, especially after a plan of across-the-board salary cuts, combined with mandatory furlough days, was recently announced. How will such drastic financial measures threaten the strengths

Author's Nightmare: Two publishers choose the same cover for different books

This is the cover for Jonathan Zimmerman's new book about the history of the little red schoolhouse (Yale University Press, July 2009): And this is the cover for Mike Rose's new book about the meaning of education (New Press, September 2009):

President Obama Nominates David S. Ferriero Archivist of the U.S.

On July 28, President Obama announced his intent to nominate David S. Ferriero to the position of Archivist of the United States. Mr. Ferriero currently serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries (NYPL). Mr. Ferriero succeeds Professor Allen Weinstein who resigned as Archivist last December. The New York Public Libraries is one of the largest public library systems in the United States and one of the largest research library systems in the world. Mr. Fe

FDR had people over for drinks, too, says Doris Kearns Goodwin

Visit msnbc.com for