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: http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn
7-26-07
Reported to be the first Vietnamese politician to set up a blog, well-known historian and deputy to the National Assembly Duong Trung Quoc says he did so to share his opinions with the country’s people.
Quoc, from the southern province of Dong Nai, was re-elected to the 12th NA last May. "What’s important is that the blog will be able to link me with voters and to everyone who is interested in the activities of NA deputies."
Quoc, the general director of the A
Source: http://www.dailytidings.com
7-25-07
It is often said that when your work is what you love, it isn't work at all, but a passion. And anyone who knows George Kramer knows that he's passionate about history. People may not know his name, but the historic preservationist has been making his presence felt throughout Oregon for nearly two decades.
Some might feel inclined to ask what exactly a historic preservationist does, and they wouldn't be alone. Kramer himself describes his work as "a little bit of historian, arc
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
7-26-07
Simon Fraser University has settled a lawsuit with David Noble, an outspoken professor who said he had been denied a humanities appointment at the British Columbia institution because of his strong criticism of the use of technology in academe.
The settlement completes a saga that started six years ago, when a Simon Fraser search committee nominated Mr. Noble, a professor of history at York University, in Ontario, to hold its J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities. Administrators at Simon
Source: Inside Higher Ed (Click on SOURCE for embedded links.)
7-26-07
The blog Progressive Historians pointed out this week that Historically Speaking, the publication of the Historical Society, is running an article by Robert Self about his new biography of Neville Chamberlain, wrapped around an ad for the book by its publisher, and that the author identification for Self (attached to the article, not the ad) included a discount for buying the book. “The ad placement was done as part of the editorial process, raising the question of editorial independence. With a
Source: Fred Kaplan at Slate.com in an article predicting the surge will fail
7-25-07
[HNN Editor: An essential part of the surge is the plan to lure Sunni tribesmen to the side of the US. Kapln argues that the tribesmen will probably be willing to make a temporary alliance only. Kaplan noted that after WW II the alliance between Stalin and the West crumbled once their common enemy had been defeated.]
... The idea of extending the alliances may have come, in part, from Stephen Biddle, a military historian and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who,
Source: NY Post, Page Six
7-21-07
FAMILY SECRET July 21, 2007 -- A NEW biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt reveals a deep, dark secret the American railroad tycoon carried to his grave - he had an unquenchable thirst for hookers and succumbed to a debilitating sexual disease. In COMMODORE: THE LIFE OF CORNELIUS VANDERBILT, due in October from Basic Books, author Edward Renehan Jr. says the patriarch of the famed Vanderbilt dynasty suffered and died from an advanced case of syphilis in 1877. ‘He contracted it during a long career o
Source: Press Release--IIE Scholar Rescue Fund Fellowships
7-25-07
The Institute of International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF) has
received special funding for the Iraq Scholar Rescue Project to provide
fellowships to scholars in Iraq whose lives and work are threatened.
The
Fund is currently seeking applications from suitable candidates and/or
candidate referrals.
*Academics, established researchers, and professors from Iraq in any
field
or discipline may qualify. Preference will be given to scholars with a
Ph.D.
Source: Hugh Rockoff, Department of Economics, Rutgers University, at the website of Economic History Services
7-1-07
It was a great idea for Robert Higgs and Oxford University Press to publish this collection of Higgs' papers [Depression, War, and Cold War: Studies in Political Economy]. The volume brings together ten papers that Higgs has published over the past two decades, which reinterpret some of the key events of the twentieth century. Several of these papers appeared originally in the Journal of Economic History and Explorations in Economic History and will be familiar to economic historians. Others, ho
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
7-21-07
Richard Long opens the door of his Inman Park home, and Edith Piaf's sad, birdlike voice wafts onto the porch. A slight but straight-backed man with searching blue eyes and professorial diction, he flashes a broad smile that reveals the warmth behind his aristocratic presence.
Though 80, the longtime Atlantan exudes the vitality of a much younger man, propelled by an unfailing curiosity that still takes him to distant continents and, twice yearly, to Piaf's Paris.
Long'
Source: Malise Ruthven in the New York Review of Books
8-16-07
Tariq Ramadan is a Swiss-born academic and a prolific writer on Islam who has achieved fame—and notoriety —on both sides of the Atlantic for his engagement with the issues that concern the millions of Muslims now living in Western countries. In France, especially, he has been depicted as an Islamist wolf in sheep's clothing. Strip off the wool, say his critics, and you will find a hard-line fundamentalist hostile to the values of freedom and democracy he claims to espouse. Two causes célèbres ha
Source: Mary Blume in the IHT
7-24-07
It's like a pilgrimage," says the historian Donald Sassoon, who spent two months looking at people looking at Mona Lisa and a year and a half writing a book about how she became the world's most famous painting.
A professor of Comparative European History at the University of London, Sassoon was born in Cairo and educated in Europe and the United States. He is in Paris to research a history of capitalism, has a book on Mussolini coming out in December and last year devoted 1,6
Source: ABC24 (Memphis)
7-24-07
The National Civil Rights Museum announced the 2007 Freedom Award recipients today, Tuesday, July 24, 2007.
Doctor John Hope Franklin, a former Professor of Legal History at Duke Law School, and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, the first female President of Liberia.
The Freedom Awards includes a new category this year, the Lifetime Achievement Award. Magic Johnson is the recipient of that award.
Past award recipients include Stevie Wonder, Maxine Smith, Bono, Bill Cl
Source: Benny Morris in a New Republic book review
7-10-07
1967: Israel, the War, and the Year That Transformed the Middle East
By Tom Segev
Translated by Jessica Cohen
(Metropolitan Books, 673 pp., $35)
Foxbats over Dimona: The Soviets' Nuclear Gamble in the Six-Day War
By Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez
(Yale University Press, 287 pp., $26)
In all modesty, I know a thing or two about historical revisionism. The desire to innovate, to surprise, to overthrow conventional wisdom and to subver
Source: Inside Higher Ed (Click on SOURCE for embedded links.)
7-23-07
On Thursday, Waskar Ari went to the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, Bolivia and picked up his visa. Everything went smoothly, ending a two-year struggle by Ari and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln for him to join the university’s history department.
For most of the time, the Department of Homeland Security had a block on Ari obtaining a visa. Movement came only after the university took the unusual step of suing the federal agency this year and after numerous academic groups and facult
Source: AP
7-23-07
KAILUA, Hawaii — A University of New Mexico professor has drowned while trying to save his son at Kailua Beach.
He was identified by the Honolulu Medical Examiner's office as Timothy Moy, 44, of Albuquerque.
Authorities said he went into the water when his son got into trouble Sunday afternoon, but then started having trouble himself.
A young man with a bodyboard pulled Moy to the beach from about 100 yards offshore.
Rescuers attempt
Source: Cinnamon Stillwell at the website of CampusWatch
7-21-07
After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it became painfully clear that if America was to become more engaged in the Middle East, it would need to develop a greater understanding of the area. Scholars of Middle East studies at our nation's universities were called upon to explain the religious, cultural and political dynamics of the region to students, journalists, and politicians
Unfortunately, many of the leading academic lights in the field proved to be woefully unprepared
Source: Mary L. Dudziak at her blog, Legal History
7-23-07
The Council of Graduate Schools has released a report on progress toward the PhD, across fields. Overall, 56.7% of those entering a U.S. doctoral program receive the PhD within 10 years. PhD completion rates within 10 years are highest in the sciences and mathematics. The tables are a bit hard to read, but in history the 10 year completion rate is 48%. In economics, the 10 year completion rate
Source: http://www.eadt.co.uk
7-20-07
TWO prominent residents of Wivenhoe have received honorary degrees from Essex University.
Historian Hugh Brogan and artist James Dodds received the special recognition as part of the university's graduation ceremonies at the Wivenhoe Park campus yesterday.
Professor Brogan, an expert on the history of the United States, taught in the university's history department for 24 years before his retirement in 1998.
Before coming to Essex, Prof Brogan was a fellow
Source: Michael Nelson in the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
7-20-07
[Michael Nelson is a professor of political science at Rhodes College. He is author, with John Mason, of How the South Joined the Gambling Nation: The Politics of State Policy Innovation (Louisiana State University Press, 2007) and, with Sidney Milkis, The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2007 (CQ Press, 2007).]
... In trying to make sense of Nixon, Dallek seems to follow Reeves's 2001 book, President Nixon: Alone in the White House, in arguing that Nixon was mainly motiv
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE)
7-20-07
After a five-year struggle, a history instructor who won a reverse-discrimination lawsuit against Bishop State Community College will return to work on the Alabama campus.
The college announced a settlement with the instructor, Sarah E. Taylor, on Wednesday. Ms. Taylor will return to her former position on August 1 and receive $120,000 each year for the next three years in addition to her salary and legal fees amounting to $85,000, said her lawyer, Steven L. Terry, in an interview o
