Oct 5, 2007

Friday Notes

by Cliopatria

John Derbyshire,"Euler's Constancy," Wilson Quarterly, Spring, assesses the work of the 18th century mathematician, Leonhard Euler.

Ben Yagoda,"The Father of All Memoirs," Slate, 1 October, recommends Edmund Gosse's Father and Son.

Adam Kirsch,"In Search of Stein," NY Sun, 3 October, reviews Janet Malcolm's Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice. Hat tip.

John Crewdson,"New revelations in attack on American spy ship," Chicago Tribune, 2 October, reports new information about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on the fourth day of the Six Day War, 8 June 1967. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

Scott Jaschik,"Desmond Tutu, Persona Non Grata," IHE, 4 October; and Anna Weggel,"A Minnesota University's Decision Not to Invite Archbishop Tutu as a Speaker Brings Disappointment," CHE, 4 October, cover St. Thomas University's refusal to invite South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu to speak on its campus. It is comparable to, but even more shocking than UC, Davis's revoking its invitation to Lawrence Summers.

Finally, why is there no regular Ig Nobel Prize in History? In 17 years of Prize winners once only – in 2005 – there was an award in Agricultural History. It went to James Watson of Massey University in New Zealand for his study,"The Significance of Mr. Richard Buckley's Exploding Trousers." Historians of the world, unite! Demand due recognition! I see potential winners all over the history blogosphere alone.

More Comments:

Ralph M. Hitchens - 10/5/2007

Israeli historian Michael Oren reminded us in his history of the Six Day War that no plausible motive for the attack on the USS Liberty has surfaced after 40 years, and nothing in the well-documented cabinet-level and general staff decision-making during the war suggests that this incident was anything other than a tragic accident. I am inclined to believe Oren, based in part on the published NSA transcripts as well as my own experience as a pilot in Vietnam, where I was involved in two small-scale friendly fire incidents (in which we were absolutely sure of what we were shooting at) as well as serving in the USAF command post at MACV from which air operations were directed. The transcripts released by NSA several years ago certainly confirm that the Israeli pilots had no idea that they were supposed to attack an American ship, and anyone with a background in military history will understand why they pressed their attack in spite of this confusion: false flag at sea is a centuries-old "ruse de guerre." There’s also an old saying to the effect that when you’ve got a hammer everything looks like a nail, which most combat veterans would probably endorse. Vague recollections and second-hand accounts of other intelligence information really can't count for much when Occam's razor is applied.