Things Noted Here and There
Scott McLemee,"Wheat and Chaff," Inside Higher Ed, 3 May, reports on a little known side of the life and thought of John Kenneth Galbraith.
The rush to answer Michelle Malkin's question,"Why Does Condoleeza Rice Hate America?", reached stampede proportions yesterday. May Day's immigrant labor strike and the controversy over a Spanish rendition of the"Star Spangled Banner" yielded some powerful replies to Malkin, George Bush, and Senator Lamar Alexander. Ralph E. Shaffer and Walter P. Coombs,"Our Discordant Anthem," LA Times, 2 May, was probably the most widely circulated (see: Kevin Drum's Political Animal and HNN's mainpage), but Amanda at Think Progress and Nathanael Robinson at Rhine River had their fingers on much the same countervailing evidence. In 1919, the federal government authorized a Spanish translation of the"Star Spangled Banner" and Rice's State Department website features four Spanish translations of the national anthem. No wonder Malkin has her knickers in a twist over Rice.
Finally, the Shaffer and Coombs op-ed was placed in the LA Times by History News Service. Joyce Appleby and Jim Banner would want me to recommend its editorial advice and placement service to my colleagues at Cliopatria, other history bloggers, and historians everywhere. If you have a current news hook and want to place an op-ed of 750 words in the North American press, read HNS's submission and op-ed style guidelines. They've placed my own work where it otherwise would never have appeared; and they'd like to hear from you.