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: Proctor on the NYT op ed page
12-1-06
[Robert N. Proctor is a professor of the history of science at Stanford University.]
WHEN the former K.G.B. agent Alexander V. Litvinenko was found to have been poisoned by radioactive polonium 210 last week, there was one group that must have been particularly horrified: the tobacco industry.
The industry has been aware at least since the 1960s that cigarettes contain significant levels of polonium. Exactly how it gets into tobacco is not entirely understood, but urani
Source: Press Release-- Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research
12-1-06
Was Abraham Lincoln, who drafted the Emancipation Proclamation, a racial egalitarian - or a bigot?
That's a question American historians are still struggling with, 141 years after an assassin's bullet ended the life of the 16th president.
To George M. Fredrickson '56, Ph.D. '64, the foremost American scholar on the history of race, Lincoln was neither - and both. He was "big enough to be inconsistent," the working title of a book Fredrickson is writing for H
Source: Jacob Laskin at frontpagemag.com
12-1-06
... Political activism and one-sided instruction are also the dominant characteristics of the African Studies department. For example, the course “Introduction to African American Studies” (AFAS C1001) makes no attempt to conceal the fact that one of its goals is to promote “social change” -- that is, political activism: “This introductory course in the African-American experience is largely constructed around the voices and language used by black people themselves. The course is organized chron
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
11-30-06
Baylor University has backed out of an agreement to publish a book about a tumultuous period in its recent history. The book's editors, a former provost and a history professor, have vowed to find another publisher, despite irate e-mail messages from a former president who warned that the book was inaccurate and could "plunge the university into a new era of conflict and renewed animosities."
Baylor officials say the decision not to publish the book under the Baylor name,
Source: New Republic
11-23-06
[Charles A. Beard, a writer for The New Republic, was one of the most influential American historians of the twentieth century and author of the seminal book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States. Beard was a proponent of the "Progressive School" of history, which emphasized the importance of economics in the shaping of political ideology. This essay, which appeared in TNR on December 1, 1920--the 300-year anniversary of the Pilgrims' Atlantic crossing--de
Source: Bruce Craig in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
11-29-06
The Senate has confirmed eight new members nominated by President Bush to sit on the of the National Council on the Humanities, a twenty-six member advisory council to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Eight members will begin their duties immediately while two others will officially join the council in July, 2007. The terms of the new members will not expire until 2012.
Notably, a few historians will join the advisory council. They include: Mary Habeck -- an associat
Source: Bruce Craig in the newsletter of the National Coalition for History
11-29-06
In the wake of the recent controversy over the Smithsonian Institution's
(SI) exclusive and confidential agreement with Showtime, and recognizing
that a new Congress presents new opportunities to derail the controversial
agreement, a group of concerned historians, scholars, filmmakers, and
others recently sent a letter to Congress demanding action.The Business Ventures unit of the Smithsonian Institution has been under
scrutiny for some time now regarding accounting a
Source: Daniel Pipes at frontpagemag.com
11-29-06
Should outsiders try to influence the hiring or tenuring of university faculty?
The question arises because, with the radicalization of the American universities, moderate voices have jumped into academic personnel issues. For example, note some controversies just in Middle East studies in 2006:
· Joseph Massad at Columbia: His promotion to associate professor met with public opposition; the forthcoming decision over his tenure will likely spark even more contention.
Source: Doug Moe at http://www.madison.com
11-28-06
WHOEVER SAID there is no business but show business was onto something.
Stanley Kutler, the esteemed U.S. historian who lives in Madison, was sipping tea on the far west side Monday afternoon and thinking about something his late, great colleague in the UW history department, George Mosse, used to say about being a professor.
"We don't teach," Mosse said. "We perform."
Recalling his friend, Kutler chuckled and said, "Good teaching i
Source: http://www.nationnews.com
11-25-06
HISTORIAN PROFESSOR HILARY BECKLES has revealed for the first time that he wrote the first edition of his book: The History Of Barbados, "in the midst of endless death threats".
The principal of the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill Campus made this disclosure on Thursday night at the launch of the second edition of the book, which was originally published in 1990.
Beckles told a rapt audience at the Shell suite of the university that for three years he
Source: Daily Princetonian
11-20-06
Raised in a rural community in southeastern China and uneducated until his mid-teens, Ying-Shih Yu seems an unlikely recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize in the Human Sciences, informally referred to as the Nobel Prize for history.
Now a pioneer revered in both Englishand Chinese-speaking circles and professor of history and East Asian studies emeritus, Yu has come a long way. As he is fond of telling friends and colleagues, he is a self-taught scholar. He is the author of more
Source: Beaumont Journal
11-22-06
The Lamar University Department of History and the Walter Prescott Webb Historical Society will host a reception Tuesday, Nov. 28, honoring history professor Ralph Wooster, who is retiring this semester after a distinguished 52-year career at the university.
The event will be from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Dishman Art Museumat Lamar.
Students, faculty, staff and other well-wishers invited to join in the event,
said History Department Chair John Storey.
Source: Rick Perlstein in In These Times
11-7-06
[Rick Perlstein is the author of Nixonland: The Politics and Culture of the American Beserk, 1965-1972, which will be published next year.]
Journalistic compilations are a crucial part of America’s literary, intellectual and political heritage. They enjoyed a golden age in ’60s and ’70s trade publishing: Gazing over the library of books I am using to write my own history of the years 1965 to 1972, I see collections by Joan Didion, Garry Wills, Jack Newfield, Steven V. Roberts, Jonat
Source: AlterNet
11-27-06
With inter-Palestinian violence on the rise, and the Bush
administration's hands-off approach to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, Rashid Khalidi's new history of Palestine calls for a
retrospective look into the major decisions -- both within and outside
the Middle East -- that sculpted the Palestinian conflict during the
last century.
Khalidi, the Edward Said Chair of Arab Studies at Columbia University,
asks a simple question: In the wake of the colonial Middle East, why
have Pal
Source: NYT
11-28-06
Two months ago, the State Department’s counselor, Philip D. Zelikow, offered an oblique criticism of the administration’s failure to push strongly for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan in the Middle East.
In a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Mr. Zelikow, an intellectual known for peppering his statements with historical references, said progress on the Arab-Israeli dispute was a “sine qua non” in order to get moderate Arabs “to cooperate actively with the Un
Source: WaPo
11-28-06
One of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's closest advisers said yesterday that he will resign at the end of the year, depriving her of a key sounding board at a time when she is still searching for a new deputy and faces difficult challenges in the Middle East.
Philip D. Zelikow, 52, holds the unassuming title of "counselor," but in many ways he is Rice's intellectual soul mate, and he plays a critical role in formulating policy at the State Department. In his resignati
Source: Inside Higher Ed
11-27-06
For an American scholar of Cuban history and culture, one visit to Havana is a privilege. Multiple trips without incident is a blessing. Dick Cluster considers himself downright afortunado.
The University of Massachusetts at Boston professor not only has made numerous visits to the Cuban capital since 2002, he has also cleared all the hurdles to co-authoring a book with a Havana scholar — something that a few years ago would have seemed highly unlikely.
U.S. Department
Source: http://www.theledger.com/
11-18-06
With its celebration of bounty and goodwill, not to mention its endearing lack of commercialization, Thanksgiving may be the most beloved of American holidays.
But is the Thanksgiving Americans celebrate today mere myth-making, resting on ahistorical stereotypes?
Take the fabled turkey, for example. Did it even inhabit eastern Massachusetts in 1621? And the much-venerated Thanksgiving meal: Was it a bountiful celebration of fraternal cooperation or more a series of &quo
Source: Eric Gibson in the WSJ
11-25-06
Manhattan gridlock got you down? It helps to take the long view. "There were traffic jams in the 1880s. You couldn't get from midtown or the fashionable area of Murray Hill to Wall Street in less than an hour," says architect and historian Robert A.M. Stern. "The richest people, the Rockefellers and Morgan, took the Elevated [train] down to Wall Street because there was no other way to do it."
Founder and senior partner of his own firm and dean of the Yale Schoo
Source: Pierre M. Atlas in Indianapolis Star
11-22-06
[Pierre M. Atlas is assistant professor of political science and director of the Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College. Contact him at patlas@marian.edu.patlas@marian.edu.]
When discussing a controversial issue, what does it mean to be "fair and balanced"?
This question confounds not only journalists but academics as well. What does it mean to bring "bal
