20th Century Notes

by Cliopatria

Simone Drinkwater hosts History Carnival LVII at Osprey Publishing Blog on Monday 1 October. Send your nominations of the best in history blogging since 1 September to: blog*at*ospreypublishing*dot*com (with ‘History Carnival' in email title).

Adam Kirsch,"The Musical Century," NY Sun, 26 September, reviews Alex Ross's The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.

"Piecing History Together," Economist, 6 September, looks at the use of pattern-matching technology to piece together 600m fragments of 45m documents from 16,000 bags that East Germany's Stasi attempted to destroy at Normannenstrasse. Hat tip.

William Stueck,"Reckoning with a Forgotten War," NYSun, 26 September, reviews David Halberstam's The Coldest Winter: American and the Korean War, giving it the close reading that it deserves. Thanks to Jim Cobb for the tip.

Sean Wilentz,"Mystic Nights: The Making of Blonde on Blonde in Nashville," Oxford American, #58, features Bob Dylan in the spring of ‘66. Hat tip.

Janet Maslin,"A Daughter on her Father's Bloodlines and Colorlines," NYT, 27 September, reviews Bliss Broyard's One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life – A Story of Race and Family Secrets. Broyard's father, the noted NYT literary critic, Anatole Broyard (1920-1990), was a child of New Orleans' light-skinned Creoles and passed as white in his mature years in the North. Bliss Boyard is interviewed here on NPR's Fresh Air.

Jan Moir,"Joan Collins: Low Cunning and High Drama," Telegraph, 20 September, reviews Graham Lord's Joan Collins: The Biography of an Icon. If you haven't slept with Collins, apparently, you're among the few.

Finally, beginning 22 October, David Horowitz and Front Page Rag will bring Hate Your Neighbor Week to a university campus near you. As usual, David failed to check his sources. The poster photo for"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" is from a 1994 Dutch-Indie film, De Stein, and the woman allegedly being buried alive and stoned to death is an actress. Hat tip.

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Ralph E. Luker - 10/2/2007

Dear Brother Gilbert, I object to the term, Islamofascism, as I would object to the terms Judeofascism or Christofacism. Unfortunately, some propagandists use "Islamofascism" to obscure the differences between Sunni and Shi'a Islam and to tar *all* Muslims with 9/11. Do you understand that neither Iran nor Iraq had *anything* to do with 9/11? I'm not enthusiastic about the death penalty in *any* case and so don't support its application to adultry or homosexuality.

Noah Gilbert - 10/1/2007

Ralph, your response to David's point appears to be that in spite of the fact that adultery and homosexuality are openly punished by death in Iran we should disregard the possibility that Islamo-fascism exists because David in his infinite ignorance didn't bother to verify whether you are a current or past professor. A rather weak argument, to be sure.

For someone posting to a blog ostensibly about history it seems rather odd that you would sidestep addressing the veracity of the claims regarding Iran's handling of adultery and instead focus on minor details.

So for the record, do you believe that adultery is not a capital crime in Iran? And personally how would you feel if you watched your own 'neighbor' stone his daughter to death for adultery? No doubt you would do your best to understand him.

Ralph E. Luker - 9/28/2007

David's comment here repeats his blog post at Front Page Rag. It compounds his earlier research failures. A) I am not a professor and have not been one for years. B) Regardless of what he says, the photo of which we speak is a still from a film made in 1994, long before David's source said that the photograph was available in the West. C) Sadly, No! identifies the actress who is in the photograph. D) David's claimed source for the picture does not offer the specificity of information that one would expect, were we to consider his claim credible.

david horowitz - 9/28/2007

Some leftwing defenders of the Islamo-fascist regime in Iran (here and here) are claiming that the photograph of a stoning in Iran that we have been using as a flyer for Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week is a still from a Dutch film and not the photograph of an actual stoning. It's an odd line of attack to begin with since the stoning and murder of women in Iran for alleged sexual offenses is a well-established fact.

These leftists seem to be taking the Ahmadinejad tack of we have no homosexuals in Iran. Here are some photos of what happens to women and homosexuals in Iran. As for the photo, I received the following email from Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, an Iranian film-maker and human rights activist:

From: Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi [mailto:banzanbon@pilosoft.net] Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2007 11:26 PM This photo was taken of a woman in 1992 in the town of Arok in Iran. It was smuggled out by the photographer in the early 2000’s...this woman was in her early 20’s and if it was used by some filmmaker, it would have been because the photographer gave it to her to use. My old partner from Iran Press News was the person who was given the photograph...it first came out in Iranian websites before it came out in the western press. Ralph Luker, a professor who blogs on the History News Network is calling Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week "Hate Your Neighbor Week." Apparently Ralph's neighbors are Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah and Zawahiri.