History Buzz

Edited weekly by Bonnie K. Goodman

Ms. Goodman is the Editor / Features at HNN. She has a Masters in Library and Information Studies from McGill University, and has done graduate work in history at Concordia University. Her website is historymusings.com

Click here to send Bonnie a news tip.

December 15, 2008

HISTORY BUZZ:

THIS
WEEK:

THIS WEEK ON THE BUZZ....

US
POL.:

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

HNN
STATS:

HNN STATS THIS WEEK:

THIS
WEEK
IN
HIST.:

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

    On This Day in History....

  • 15/12/1791 - Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gave its approval
  • 15/12/1791 - 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
  • 15/12/1874 - 1st reigning king to visit US (of Hawaii) received by Pres Grant
  • 15/12/1877 - Thomas Edison patents phonograph
  • 15/12/1916 - French defeat Germans in WW I Battle of Verdun
  • 15/12/1938 - Groundbreaking begins for Jefferson Memorial in Wash DC
  • 15/12/1939 - "Gone With the Wind" premieres in Atlanta
  • 15/12/1948 - Former state dept official Alger Hiss indicted in NYC for perjury
  • 15/12/1964 - Canada adopts maple leaf flag
  • 16/12/1431 - King Henry VI of England crowned king of France
  • 16/12/1631 - Mount Vesuvious, Italy erupts, destroys 6 villages and kills 4,000
  • 16/12/1653 - Oliver Cromwell sworn in as English Lord Protector
  • 16/12/1689 - English Parliament adopts Bill of Rights after Glorious Revolution
  • 16/12/1773 - Big tea party in Boston harbor-indians welcome (Boston Tea Party)
  • 16/12/1864 - Battle of Nashville ends after 4400 casualities
  • 16/12/1944 - Battle of Bulge begins in Belgium
  • 16/12/1950 - Truman proclaims state of emergency against "Communist imperialism"
  • 17/12/1728 - Congregation Shearith Israel of NY purchases a lot on Mill Street in lower Manhattan, to build NY's 1st synagogue
  • 17/12/1777 - George Washingtons army returns to Valley Forge Pa, France recognizes independence of English colonies in America
  • 17/12/1792 - Opening of 1st legislative assembly of Lower Canada in Quebec city
  • 17/12/1798 - 1st impeachment trial against a US senator (Wm Blount, TN) begins
  • 17/12/1862 - Gen US Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
  • 17/12/1900 - New Ellis Island Immigration station completed costing $1.5 million
  • 17/12/1944 - US Army announces end of excluding Jap-Americans from West Coast
  • 17/12/1975 - Lynette Fromme sentenced to life for attempt on Pres Ford's life
  • 17/12/1975 - John Paul Stevens appointed to Supreme Court
  • 18/12/1777 - 1st national Thanksgiving Day, commemorating Burgoyne's surrender
  • 18/12/1787 - New Jersey becomes 3rd state to ratify constitution
  • 18/12/1799 - George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon
  • 18/12/1813 - British take Ft Niagara in War of 1812
  • 18/12/1859 - South Carolina declared an "independent commonwealth"
  • 18/12/1862 - Battle at Lexington, Tennessee (Forrest's Second Raid)
  • 18/12/1865 - 13th Amendment ratified, slavery abolished
  • 18/12/1892 - "Nutcracker Suite," Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet, premieres
  • 18/12/1915 - Pres Wilson, widowed the year before, marries Edith Bolling Galt
  • 18/12/1966 - Dr Seuss' "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" airs for 1st time on CBS
  • 19/12/1732 - Benjamin Franklin under the name Richard Saunders begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack"
  • 19/12/1776 - Thomas Paine published his 1st "American Crisis" essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls"
  • 19/12/1777 - Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge, Pa for winter
  • 19/12/1828 - South Carolina declares right of states to nullify federal laws
  • 19/12/1843 - Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol," in England
  • 19/12/1861 - Battle of Black Water
  • 19/12/1930 - James Weldon Johnson resigns as executive secretary of NAACP
  • 19/12/1946 - War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi
  • 20/12/1606 - Virginia Company settlers leave London to establish Jamestown Va
  • 20/12/1669 - 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection and sentenced to flogging, branding and slavery
  • 20/12/1803 - Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27M
  • 20/12/1860 - SC votes 169-0 for Ordinace of Secession, 1st state to secede
  • 20/12/1862 - -Jan 3rd] Vicksburg campaign
  • 20/12/1864 - -Dec 27th] Battle of Ft Fisher, NC
  • 20/12/1893 - 1st state anti-lynching statue approved, in Georgia
  • 20/12/1919 - US House of Representatives restricts immigration
  • 20/12/1922 - 14 republics form Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (USSR)
  • 20/12/1956 - Montgomery, Ala, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses
  • 20/12/1989 - US troops invade Panama and oust Manuel Noriega, but don't catch him
  • 21/12/1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock [OS=Dec 11]
  • 21/12/1784 - John Jay becomes 1st US secretary of state (foreign affairs)
  • 21/12/1864 - Gen Sherman conquers Savannah
  • 21/12/1866 - Cheyennes, Arapho's, Sioux, Fetterman Massacre
  • 21/12/1919 - J Edgar Hoover deports anarchists/feminist Emma Goldman to Russia
  • 21/12/1946 - Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life," premieres
  • 21/12/1954 - Dr Sam Sheppard's wife Marilyn is murdered (he is accused of crime)
  • 21/12/1962 - US and Cuba accord, releases bay of pigs captive
IN
THE
NEWS:

IN THE NEWS:

OP-
EDs:

OP-EDs:

REV-
IEWS:

REVIEWS:

  • Paul Mariani "A Modern Victorian": GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS A Life - NYT, 12-14-08
  • David Blight on Robert Goodwin: The Slave Who Found a New World Separating myth from fact about Esteban Dorantes is not easy. The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South - WaPo, 12-11-08
  • Robert Goodwin: The Story of the First African-American Explorer of the American South , First Chapter - WaPo, 12-11-08
  • Jane Fletcher Geniesse: A Sect of Celibates How to escape debt and gain absolute control over your followers. AMERICAN PRIESTESS The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem WaPo, 12-14-08
  • Edward Kritzler: On the High Seas JEWISH PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN - WaPo, 12-14-08
  • Max Page "Urban historian recounts 200 years' worth of fantasies, fears of NYC's demise": The City's End: Two Centuries of Fantasies, Fears, and Premonitions of New York's Destruction AP, Newsday, 12-12-08
  • Exhibition Review - 'One Life: The Mask of Lincoln' Reconsidering the Man From Illinois at the National Portrait Gallery - NYT, 12-12-08
BEST
SEL-
LERS:

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

  • Jon Meacham: AMERICAN LION #3 -- (4 weeks on list) - 12-21-08
  • THE AMERICAN JOURNEY OF BARACK OBAMA, by the editors of Life magazine. #12 -- (5 weeks on list) - 12-21-08
  • Niall Ferguson: THE ASCENT OF MONEY #14 -- (2 weeks on list) - 12-21-08
  • THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008, Introduction by Bill Keller - #20 - 12-21-08
  • Pete Souza: THE RISE OF BARACK OBAMA #34 - 12-21-08
BLOGS:

BLOGS:

QUO-
TES:

QUOTES:

  • Kenneth T. Jackson: "Citi Doesn't Live Here Anymore as Name Comes Off NYC Skyscraper": "Buildings no longer have important historic status for companies, if they ever did," said Kenneth T. Jackson, a Columbia University history professor and editor of the "Encyclopedia of New York City." "As they get larger and larger, one building does not mean much." Bloomber, 12-12-08
PRO-
FILES:

PROFILES:

INTER-
VIEWS:

INTERVIEWS:

  • Jeffrey B. Perry: Eighty years ago, a prominent black intellectual disappeared from the historical record. Jeffrey B. Perry rescued him from oblivion. (Interview) Hubert Harrison: The Voice of Harlem Radicalism, 1883-1918 - Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, 12-10-08
FEAT-
URES:

FEATURES:

  • Amy Dru Stanley: For history professor, finding home for photo collection was a walk in the park: The historic photographs of 20th-century photojournalist Wayne Miller have been given as a gift to the University's Department of History, following what Amy Dru Stanley calls "a typical Hyde Park story." University of Chicago Chronicle, 12-11-08
  • James Carroll: Disputes belief that Saint Augustine was bad for the Jews - David Van Biema in Time, 12-8-08
HON-
ORS:

HONORS, AWARDED &APPOINTED:

  • Peter Brown: Irish historian wins $1 million prize: Historian Peter Brown (73), a professor of history at Princeton University, shared the 2008 Kluge Prize with Romila Thapar, from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. - Herald, 12-12-08
NEW
ON
THE
WEB:

New Web Sites:

EVENT
CAL.:

EVENTS CALENDAR:

  • April 3-4, 2009:The Obama Phenomenon: Race and Political Discourse in the United States Today, University of Memphis
ON TV:

ON TV:

  • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Gladiators: Blood Sport," Monday, December 15, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Einstein," Tuesday, December 16, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "A Global Warning?," Wednesday, December 17, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Breaking Vegas," Thursday, December 18, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Gladiators: Blood Sport," Thursday, December 18, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Wake Island: The Alamo of the Pacific," Friday, December 19, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Bible Battles," Saturday, December 20, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Modern Marvels: Christmas Tech," Saturday, December 20, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Banned from The Bible," Saturday, December 20, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Beyond The Da Vinci Code," Saturday, December 20, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World," Sunday, December 21, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Ancient Discoveries: Lost Science of the Bible," Sunday, December 21, @ 10pm ET/PT
NEW
BOOKS:

COMING SOON BOOKS:

  • Time Magazine: Time President Obama: The Path to the White House, December 16, 2008
  • George S. McGovern: Abraham Lincoln: The American Presidents Series: The 16th President, 1861-1865, December 23, 2008
  • Rudy Tomedi: General Matthew Ridgway, December 30, 2008
  • Anthony S. Pitch: "They Have Killed Papa Dead!": The Road to Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance, December 30, 2008
  • William E. Leuchtenburg: Herbert Hoover: The 31st President, 1929-1933 (REV), January 6, 2009
  • Adam Cohen: Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America, January 9, 2008
  • James J. Sheehan: Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe, January 13, 2009
  • Gwen Ifill: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, January 20, 2009
  • Daniel Mark Epstein: Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries, January 27, 2009
OBITS:

DEPARTED:

  • Angeliki E. Laiou: Byzantine Professor Dies of Cancer at 67 - Harvard Crimson, 12-15-08
  • William H. Pierson Jr., 97, Art Historian, Dies - NYT, 12-11-08
  • Dorothy Sterling, author of African American children's literature, dies at 95: Sterling, who was white, developed an interest in African American history after reading the works of such radical historians as Herbert Aptheker and W.E.B. Du Bois. She wrote more than 35 books, including 'Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman,' and brought attention to less-known figures. - LA Times, 12-14-08
  • Studs Terkel: Hard Times Without Studs - Tom Engelhardt at tomdispatch.com, 12-12-08
  • Studs Terkel: Tribute, Voice of the Underdog - NYT, 12-8-08

Posted on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 at 2:47 AM | Top

December 8, 2008

HISTORY BUZZ:

US POLITICS:

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

BIGGEST STORIES:

BIGGEST STORIES: PEARL HARBOR

  • 'Like It Happened Yesterday' Pearl Harbor Attack Remembered During 67th Anniversary Ceremony - WaPo, 12-7-08
  • Pearl Harbor: Day of infamy: The Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor altered America. But some scholars say 9/11 is even more memorable. - Memphis Commericial Appeal, 12-7-08
  • Stephen K. Stein "Pearl Harbor: Day of infamy": "My sense is that Pearl Harbor still resonates more with people," said Stephen K. Stein, an award-winning assistant professor of history at the University of Memphis. "It connects us with World War II. Pearl Harbor got us into the war. It was a 'good' war and Americans (at home and in the military) fought it with a sense of purpose ... and we won. "With 9/11 there is no closure and, for some people, it has not been fully explained. Most people don't understand what happened, how it happened and why it happened."
    Stein, who also teaches military strategy as an adjunct professor for the U.S. Naval War College, added that if al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden had been captured, "maybe 9/11 would resonate more." Stein also cited differences in the speeches FDR and President George W. Bush delivered to a traumatized nation after the two events. "President Roosevelt's speech after Pearl Harbor in which he asked Congress to declare war on Japan continues to resonate with Americans today, particularly his phrase 'a date which will live in infamy.' It was a masterful speech by one of our most eloquent presidents that captured Americans' horror at the attack and determination to avenge it. "In contrast, President Bush's speech after the Sept. 11 attack remains unmemorable, despite being one of his best speeches." Memphis Commericial Appeal, 12-7-08
  • James McPherson "Pearl Harbor: Day of infamy": Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian James McPherson, in a telephone interview, echoed Stein's thoughts. "I was only 5 years old when Pearl Harbor occurred, but I do remember it always being on radio shows -- 'Remember Pearl Harbor.' The war that followed allowed us to remember that we triumphed. "We don't have that after 9/11. There is no feeling that we have triumphed." - Memphis Commericial Appeal, 12-7-08
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

    On This Day in History....

  • 08/12/1776 - George Washington's retreating army crosses Delaware River from NJ
  • 08/12/1863 - Abraham Lincoln announces plan for Reconstruction of South and offers amnesty for confederate deserters
  • 08/12/1886 - American Federation of Labor (AFL) formed by 26 craft unions Samuel Gompers elected AFL president
  • 08/12/1987 - President Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev sign a treaty eliminating medium range nuclear missiles
  • 10/12/1520 - Martin Luther publicly burned papal edict demands he recant
  • 10/12/1864 - General Shermans armies reach Savannah and 12 day siege begins
  • 10/12/1869 - Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
  • 10/12/1898 - Spanish-American War ends; US acquires Philippines, PR and Guam
  • 10/12/1906 - Pres Theodore Roosevelt (1st American) awarded Nobel Peace Prize
  • 10/12/1915 - Pres Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt
  • 10/12/1919 - Nobel peace prize awarded to US president Wilson
  • 10/12/1931 - Jane Addams (1st US woman) named co-recipient of Nobel Peace Prize
  • 10/12/1978 - In Oslo, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat accept 1978 Nobel Peace Prize
  • 11/12/1620 - 103 Mayflower pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock (12/21 NS)
  • 11/12/1792 - France's King Louis XVI went on trial, accused of treason
  • 11/12/1906 - US president Roosevelt attacks abuses in the Congo
  • 11/12/1916 - David Lloyd George forms British war govt
  • 11/12/1917 - 13 black soldiers hanged for alleged participation in Houston riot
  • 11/12/1931 - Brit Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to Canada, Australia, NZ, South Africa, Ireland, Newfoundland
  • 11/12/1936 - King Edward VIII marries Mrs Wallis Simpson; abdicates throne Duke of York becomes King George VI
  • 11/12/1941 - Japanese attack Wake Island (only failed WW II-landing)
  • 11/12/1961 - JFK provides US miltary helicopters and crews to South Vietnam
  • 13/12/1577 - Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England to go around world
  • 13/12/1774 - 1st incident of Revolution-400 attack Ft William and Mary, NH
  • 13/12/1843 - "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published, 6,000 copies sold
  • 13/12/1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg, VA (Marye's Heights)
  • 13/12/1903 - Wright Bros make 1st flight at Kittyhawk
  • 13/12/1918 - Wilson, becomes 1st to make a foreign visit as president (France)
  • 13/12/1920 - League of nations establishes Intl Court of Justice in The Hague
  • 13/12/1949 - Knesset votes to transfer Israel's capital to Jerusalem
  • 13/12/1966 - 1st US bombing of Hanoi
IN THE NEWS:

IN THE NEWS:

  • John McDonagh: Plymoth Plantation cuts veteran staff - http://www.wickedlocal.com, 12-6-08
  • Denise Spellberg: Historian taken to task for ridiculing novel Winfield Myers at Daniel Pipes's Campus Watch, 12-3-08
  • Robert Dallek: Fox's Chris Wallace objects when Bob Dallek equates Nixon and Bush - Jim Pinkerton at the Fox News blog, 12-2-08
  • American Historical Association: Results of 2008 AHA Election - AHA Blog, 12-1-08
  • Korea's history: What text should high-schoolers read? - Christian Science Monitor, 12-1-08
  • Conrad Bladey: Historian proposes toast for Linthicum: J. Charles Linthicum's family provided the name of the Anne Arundel County community, and he did his hometown proud, serving in Congress from 1911 until his death in 1932. The Democrat is best remembered for his role in the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem. But he made a possibly more significant contribution to American history, according to a local historian: paving the way for the repeal of Prohibition. - - AP, 11-29-08
QUOTES:

QUOTES:

  • Phillip Kay "Historian says Romans faced credit crunch": "The essential similarity between what happened 21 centuries ago and what is happening in today's U.K. economy is that a massive increase in monetary liquidity culminated with problems in another country causing a credit crisis at home." - UPI, 11-28-08
OP-EDs:

OP-EDs:

REVIEWS:

REVIEWS:

  • WaPo lists top 10 history books of the year - WaPo, 12-7-08
  • Boston Globe: Getting the goods - nonfiction A guide to the most memorable titles of 2008, from entertaining to inspiring - Boston Globe, 12-7-08
  • Les Standiford Holiday Books Father Christmas: THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS How Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits - NYT, 12-7-08
  • Robert Roper: BIOGRAPHY America's Poet as Brother: Whitman cared for injured soldiers during the Civil War. NOW THE DRUM OF WAR Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War - WaPo, 12-7-08
  • Louisa Gilder: SCIENCE Very Small, Very Weird: The struggle to understand what goes on -- or doesn't -- inside the atom. THE AGE OF ENTANGLEMENT When Quantum Physics Was Reborn - WaPo, 12-7-08
  • Man of Fetters Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale: Peter Martin's "Samuel Johnson" and Jeffrey Meyers's "Samuel Johnson: The Struggle" - The New Yorker, 12-8-08
  • Niall Ferguson: It's Still Making the World Go 'Round: THE ASCENT OF MONEY A Financial History of the World - NYT, 12-2-08
  • Richard Turley Jr. "Mormon-owned press releasing Joseph Smith journals": "He's making this very deliberate effort to keep a record. At the same time, he has this self-consciousness," said Richard Turley Jr., assistant historian for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "So he writes it out, scratches it out, takes a deep breath, writes it again." - AP, 12-2-08
  • Philip Jenkins: Historian explores Christianity's lost age, land The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia - and How It Died Reuters, 12-1-08
BEST SELLERS:

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

  • Jon Meacham: AMERICAN LION #2 -- (3 weeks on list) - 12-14-08
  • THE AMERICAN JOURNEY OF BARACK OBAMA, by the editors of Life magazine. #15 -- (4 weeks on list) - 12-14-08
  • Niall Ferguson: THE ASCENT OF MONEY #10 -- (1 weeks on list) - 12-14-08
  • THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Complete Front Pages 1851-2008, Introduction by Bill Keller - #26 - 12-14-08
  • James M. McPherson: TRIED BY WAR #30 - 12-14-08
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin: TEAM OF RIVALS #34 - 12-14-08
  • Pete Souza: THE RISE OF BARACK OBAMA #35 - 12-14-08
BLOGS:

BLOGS:

  • H-SHEAR: Scholars' roundtable examines Daniel Walker Howe's What Hath God Wrought - Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria, 12-3-08
  • Robert Dallek "At 'Frost/Nixon' Debut, It Became About Bush and Nixon": At the Frost/Nixon screening last night, Ron Howard and show writers compared GWB's abuses of power to Nixon's. Wallace disagreed..."It trivializes Nixon's crimes and completely misrepresents what George W. Bush did... I think to compare what Nixon did, and the abuses of power for pure political self-preservation, to George W. Bush trying to protect this country—even if you disagree with rendition or waterboarding—it seems to me is both a gross misreading of history both then and now." He also had a healthy debate with renowned historian Robert Dallek. - US News, Washington Whispers, 12-2-08
PROFILES:

PROFILES:

INTER VIEWS:

INTERVIEWS:

  • Annette Gordon-Reed: "Questions for Annette Gordon-Reed History Lesson": After a lifetime spent writing about Thomas Jefferson and the children he fathered with the slave Sally Hemings, you just won a National Book Award for your sprawling history of her family, “The Hemingses of Monticello.” It was great to win it on my birthday. - 12-7-08
FEATURES:

FEATURES:

  • "Gene Test Shows Spain's Jewish and Muslim Mix": The genetic signatures of people in Spain and Portugal provide new and explicit evidence of the mass conversions of Sephardic Jews and Muslims to Catholicism in the 15th and 16th centuries after Christian armies wrested Spain back from Muslim control, a team of geneticists reports. NYT, 12-4-08
  • Jane S. Gerber "Gene Test Shows Spain's Jewish and Muslim Mix": "One wing grossly underestimates the number of conversions," said Jane S. Gerber, an expert on Sephardic history at the City University of New York. - NYT, 12-4-08
  • Jonathan S. Ray "Gene Test Shows Spain's Jewish and Muslim Mix": The finding bears on two different views of Spanish history, said Jonathan S. Ray, a professor of Jewish studies at Georgetown University. One, proposed by the 20th-century historian Claudio Sánchez- Albornoz, holds that Spanish civilization is Catholic and other influences are foreign; the other sees Spain as having been enriched by drawing from all three of its historical cultures, Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. - NYT, 12-4-08
  • Douglas Brinkley "Slaves helped build White House, U.S. Capitol": "The apple cart has been turned over here when you have the Obamas -- the first African-American couple -- now actually management and you are having in some cases white Americans serving them," says presidential historian Doug Brinkley.... Though Michelle Obama's ancestors had to come through the ordeal of slavery, "Her children are sleeping in the room of presidents," said Brinkley. "It's a very great and hopeful sign." - CNN, 12-2-08
  • Douglas Brinkley "Slaves helped build White House, U.S. Capitol": It was the slaves that did a lot of the building the White House, they also worked there... did the service jobs - were the people that would tend the horses or clean the dishes, prepare the meals. I think Michelle should celebrate the fact that her ancestors came through the ordeal of slavery. Her children are sleeping in the room of presidents. And it's a very great and hopeful sign. - CNN, 12-2-08
  • Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "Obama as Hoover: The Importance of Storytelling": As the Obama era takes shape, the roles of both Schlesinger and Michelson deserve attention. Particularly as Americans are seeing newsmagazines with cover stories comparing the President-elect who campaigned on a dour vision of scarcity with Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, a considerable leap to understate. - American Spectator,
  • The focus is on Samuel de Champlain - Burlington Free Press, 12-1-08
HONORS:

HONORS &APPOINTED:

  • Peter Brown: Historian selected to share $1 million Kluge Prize - http://www.princeton.edu, 12-3-08
  • Eugene Moehring "Professor wins award for research on Nevada:" Eugene Moehring is one of the nation's top urban historians UNLV’s resident expert on all things Nevada was presented with the 2008 Harry Reid Silver State Research Award Nov. 14, spotlighting UNLV’s history department and a professor who routinely shuns its glare. - The Rebell Yell, 11-24-08
SPOTTED:

SPOTTED:

NEW ON THE WEB:

New Web Sites:

EVENTS:

EVENTS:

  • April 3-4, 2009:The Obama Phenomenon: Race and Political Discourse in the United States Today, University of Memphis
ON TV:

ON TV:

  • C-SPAN 2, BOOK TV: History "Samuel Adams: A Life" Author: Ira Stoll - Sunday at 11:00 PM, and Monday at 5:00 AM
  • C-SPAN 2, BOOK TV: History Jonathan Alter "The Defining Moment" - Monday at 4:00 AM
  • C-SPAN 2, BOOK TV: History "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House" Author: Jon Meacham - Monday at 6:00 AM
  • C-SPAN 2, BOOK TV: History "Hurricane of Independence: The Untold Story of the Deadly Storm at the Deciding Moment of the American Revolution" Author: Tony Williams - Monday at 7:15 AM
  • History Channel: "01 - The Wehrmacht: 01 - Attack on Europe," Sunday, December 7, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "02 - The Wehrmacht: 02 - The Turning Point," Sunday, December 7, @ 3pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "03 - The Wehrmacht: 03 - The Crimes," Sunday, December 7, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "04 - The Wehrmacht: 04 - Resistance," Sunday, December 7, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "05 - The Wehrmacht: 05 - To the Bitter End," Sunday, December 7, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "70's Fever," Sunday, December 7, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "History Rocks: The '70s, Part 1," Sunday, December 7, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Land of Manson," Monday, December 8, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Crude," Tuesday, December 9, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Street Gangs: A Secret History," Wednesday, December 10, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Kennedys: The Curse of Power," Thursday, December 11, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "The Lost Pyramid," Friday, December 12, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Egypt: Engineering an Empire," Friday, December 12, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Prophecies from Below," Friday, December 12, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "UFO Hunters," Marathon Saturday, December 13, @ 2-5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "FDR: A Presidency Revealed: Part 1.," Saturday, December 13, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "FDR: A Presidency Revealed: Part 2.," Saturday, December 13, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Crash: The Next Great Depression?," Saturday, December 13, @ 10pm ET/PT
COMING SOON BOOKS:

COMING SOON BOOKS:

  • Gary May: John Tyler: The American Presidents Series: The 10th President, 1841-1845, December 9, 2008
  • Jonathan Brent: Inside the Stalin Archives, December 9, 2008
  • Time Magazine: Time President Obama: The Path to the White House, December 16, 2008
  • George S. McGovern: Abraham Lincoln: The American Presidents Series: The 16th President, 1861-1865, December 23, 2008
  • Rudy Tomedi: General Matthew Ridgway, December 30, 2008
  • Anthony S. Pitch: "They Have Killed Papa Dead!": The Road to Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance, December 30, 2008
  • William E. Leuchtenburg: Herbert Hoover: The 31st President, 1929-1933 (REV), January 6, 2009
  • Adam Cohen: Nothing to Fear: FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America, January 9, 2008
  • James J. Sheehan: Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe, January 13, 2009
  • Gwen Ifill: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, January 20, 2009
  • Daniel Mark Epstein: Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries, January 27, 2009
DEPARTED:

DEPARTED:

  • William Spoelhof: Longtime Calvin College president William Spoelhof dead at age 98 - The Grand Rapids Press, 12-3-08
  • William McGrath: European Intellectual Historian Dies: William J. McGrath, professor emeritus of history at the University of Rochester who was revered for his pioneering histories of Vienna, Austria, and Sigmund Freud, died Nov. 30. He was 71. - Media Newswire, 12-2-08

Posted on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 12:23 AM | Top

November 24 - December 1, 2008

HISTORY BUZZ:

US POLITICS:

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

BIGGEST STORIES:

BIGGEST STORIES: 45TH ANNIVERSARY KENNEDY ASSASSINATION:

  • Michael Smith "Can Obama eclipse Kennedy legacy? The anniversary of JFK assassination takes on fresh meaning as new era dawns": "This year is different, and seemingly for good,'' says Purdue University history professor Michael Smith. "America may have a truer successor to the Kennedy legacy, meaning that maybe we can once and for all give up some of our national obsession with who else besides Lee Harvey Oswald might have murdered president Kennedy and focus instead on the best, not the worst, of the early 1960s." "Our generation and our parents' generation remember that day so well because of the shock of total news coverage for four days in a row," he said. "We are, largely, the audience and market still reading and watching and listening for the echoes of that day, a strange nostalgia." - Toronto Star, 11-22-08
  • Douglas Brinkley: "Can Obama eclipse Kennedy legacy? The anniversary of JFK assassination takes on fresh meaning as new era dawns": "The Kennedys are in the air," says author and historian Douglas Brinkley. "Their mystique is still with us." "It remains the great American murder mystery," says Brinkley, whose forthcoming book "The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and The Crusade For America," focuses on another American hero. "Nobody really knows what really happened beyond Lee Harvey Oswald. "A lot of history we can now shut down. We even know who Deep Throat is. "But this remains the great whodunit."
  • Michael G. Smith: "On 45th Anniversary of JFK Assassination, Lingering Conspiracies Tarnish History, Professor Says": "Historians have pretty much ignored the assassination as a historical event, and they need to weigh in against the excesses of conspiracy theory as false history," says Michael G. Smith, an associate professor of history who will teach a spring semester course on the Kennedy assassination. "We need to begin to respect the dead rather than distort their memory."
    "It might take a new generation of scholars, those born after the 'Baby Boom,' who did not live through the event and who do not have a personal or political stake in President Kennedy's loss, to come to grips with his assassination. We need to mark it as a simple crime, a murder solved and closed, as well as understand it as a complex event that has been manipulated and misread." "There are more than a thousand major books and articles devoted to the Kennedy assassination, but hardly any of them are by history professors," Smith says. "High school and college history textbooks, for many years, entertained some of the leading conspiracy theories, and still flirt with them today, oddly enough. My profession has forfeited its responsibility, but this is an opportunity to change that." - Newswire Ascribe, 11-19-08
BIGGEST STORIES:

BIGGEST STORIES:

  • U.S. Census Bureau issues Facts for Features in observance of Black (African-American) History Month: February 2009 To commemorate and celebrate the contributions to our nation made by people of African descent, American historian Carter G. Woodson established Black History Week. The first celebration occurred on Feb. 12, 1926. For many years, the second week of February was set aside for this celebration to coincide with the birthdays of abolitionist/editor Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, as part of the nation's bicentennial, the week was expanded into Black History Month. Each year, U. S. presidents proclaim February as National African-American History Month. - IBI Times, 12-2-08
  • Frank de la Teja: A different take on the first Thanksgiving: Many Texans, however, prefer to claim that El Paso held the first Thanksgiving 23 years earlier. That's when Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate arrived with about 600 people at El Paso del Norte after a harrowing trek across the northern Mexican desert and a successful crossing of the Rio Grande. - Dallas News, 11-22-08
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

    On This Day in History....

  • 04/12/1619 - America's 1st Thanksgiving Day (Va)
  • 04/12/1816 - James Monroe (VA), elected 5th pres, defeating Federalist Rufus King
  • 04/12/1833 - American Anti-Slavery Society formed by Arthur Tappan in Phila
  • 04/12/1836 - Whig party holds its 1st national convention, Harrisburg, Pa
  • 04/12/1844 - James K Polk elected 11th president of US
  • 04/12/1851 - Pres Louis Napolean Boaparte forces crush a coup d'etat in France
  • 04/12/1918 - Pres Wilson sails for Versailles Peace Conference in France, 1st chief executive to travel outside US while in office
  • 04/12/1943 - -Dec 6] 2nd conference of Cairo: FDR, Churchill and Turkish pres Inonu
  • 04/12/1981 - Pres Reagan allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence, Executive Order on Intelligence (No 12333)
  • 04/12/1985 - Pres Reagan appoints Vice Adm John Poindexter as security adviser
  • 05/12/1349 - 500 Jews of Nuremberg massacre during Black Death riots
  • 05/12/1792 - George Washington re-elected US pres
  • 05/12/1804 - Thomas Jefferson re-elected US pres/George Clinton vice-pres
  • 05/12/1831 - Former Pres John Q Adams takes his seat as member of House of Reps
  • 05/12/1832 - Andrew Jackson re-elected president of US
  • 05/12/1837 - Uprising under William Lyon Mackenzie in Canada
  • 05/12/1955 - Historic bus boycott begins in Montgomery Alabama by Rosa Parks
  • 06/12/1820 - US president James Monroe re-elected
  • 06/12/1849 - Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland
  • 06/12/1862 - Pres Lincoln orders hanging of 39 Santee Sioux indians
  • 06/12/1865 - 13th Amendment is ratified, abolishing slavery
  • 06/12/1876 - US Electorial College picks Rep Hayes as pres (although Tilden won)
  • 06/12/1877 - Washington Post publishes 1st edition
  • 06/12/1904 - Theodore Roosevelt confirms Monroe-doctrine (Roosevelt Corollary)
  • 06/12/1923 - 1st presidential address broadcast on radio (Pres Calvin Coolidge)
  • 06/12/1973 - Gerald Ford sworn-in as 1st unelected VP, succeeds Spiro T Agnew
  • 07/12/1808 - James Madison elected US pres/George Clinton vice-pres
  • 07/12/1836 - Martin Van Buren elected 8th president
  • 07/12/1917 - US becomes 13th country to declare war on Austria during World War I
  • 07/12/1941 - Japanese attack Pearl Harbor (a date that will live in infamy)
  • 07/12/1987 - Gorbachev arrives in US for a summit meeting
  • 07/12/1988 - Mikhail Gorbachev cheered by Wall St crowds upon arrival in NYC, Gorbachev announces 10% unilateral Soviet troop reductions at UN
IN THE NEWS:

IN THE NEWS:

  • Conrad Bladey: Historian proposes toast for Linthicum: J. Charles Linthicum's family provided the name of the Anne Arundel County community, and he did his hometown proud, serving in Congress from 1911 until his death in 1932. The Democrat is best remembered for his role in the adoption of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the national anthem. But he made a possibly more significant contribution to American history, according to a local historian: paving the way for the repeal of Prohibition. - - AP, 11-29-08
  • In American Heritage Magazine North and South Clash Again: James M. McPherson, a history professor at Princeton and author of "Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief," said that many saw the Confederate flag as an incendiary symbol of slavery and that he would have protested the ad had he been aware of it before publication.
    Eric Foner, a Columbia University professor and fellow essayist in the Lincoln issue, said he thought that the ad was more incongruous than illicit. "The Confederate flag is insulting to a great number of Americans, not just African-Americans, but it is legal," he said. - NYT, 11-30-08
  • Bernard Lugan: French historian, threatens to walk away from Rwandan court where he's an expert witness - http://allafrica.com, 11-27-08
  • Middle-East Scholars Hear of Academic Repression in Iraq and Iran - Chronicle of Higher Ed, 11-24-08
  • History Employment — Public and Private - Inside Higher Ed, 11-21-08
  • Conrad Black: Seeking clemency from President Bush - CBC News, 11-20-08
  • Richard L. McCormick: Rutgers' McCormick on the hot seat - Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria, 11-20-08
  • Joel Beinin creates a skirmish over academic freedom - Willamette Week, 11-19-08
  • Muhammad Sven Kalisch: Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt - WSJ, 11-15-08
  • Jane Kamensky and Jill Lepore: Historians turn to writing a novel Boston Globe, 11-16-08
QUOTES:

QUOTES:

  • Phillip Kay "Historian says Romans faced credit crunch": "The essential similarity between what happened 21 centuries ago and what is happening in today's U.K. economy is that a massive increase in monetary liquidity culminated with problems in another country causing a credit crisis at home." - UPI, 11-28-08
  • Jan Shipps: Renowned historian speaks about LDS Church PR problems ABC4 (SLC, Utah), 11-18-08
OP-EDs:

OP-EDs:

REVIEWS:

REVIEWS:

  • Gordon M. Goldstein: 'The Doves Were Right': LESSONS IN DISASTER McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam - NYT, 11-30-08
  • Susan Pinkard: The Sophisticated Table: A REVOLUTION IN TASTE The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650-1800 - N"YT, 11-30-08
  • Robert J. Samuelson: Cycles of Doom THE GREAT INFLATION AND ITS AFTERMATH The Past and Future of American Affluence - NYT, 11-30-08
  • Sarah Vowell: Mayflower Power THE WORDY SHIPMATES - NYT, 11-30-08
  • Philip Jenkins: Historian explores Christianity's lost age, land The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia - and How It Died Reuters, 12-1-08
  • Alan Wolfe on Thomas J. Sugrue: Uncommon Ground: SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North - NYT, 11-9-08
  • Thomas J. Sugrue: SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North, First Chapter - NYT, 11-9-08
  • Thomas J. Sugrue: The other battlefield The struggle for civil rights in the North, often overshadowed, gets a comprehensive review SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North - Boston Globe, 11-30-08
  • Gordon M. Goldstein: 'The Doves Were Right' - LESSONS IN DISASTER McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam - NYT, 11-28-08
  • WaPo, 11-26-08
  • James McPherson: Looking at Lincoln Through a Prism of War - NYT, 11-21-08
BEST SELLERS:

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

  • Jon Meacham: AMERICAN LION #4 -- (2 weeks on list) - 12-7-08
  • THE AMERICAN JOURNEY OF BARACK OBAMA, by the editors of Life magazine. #13 -- (3 weeks on list) - 12-7-08
  • Niall Ferguson: THE ASCENT OF MONEY #19 12-7-08
  • Pete Souza: THE RISE OF BARACK OBAMA #27 12-7-08
  • James M. McPherson: TRIED BY WAR #29 12-7-08
  • Doris Kearns Goodwin: TEAM OF RIVALS #32 - 12-7-08
BLOGS:

BLOGS:

PROFILES:

PROFILES:

INTER VIEWS:

INTERVIEWS:

  • Yury Borisyonok "A Historian's Thankless Work": For the past twenty years, the staff of the Rodina Magazine, an illustrated history journal, has been dissecting archived historical materials for fragments of the truth to bring into the public domain. - Russia Profile, 11-30-08
  • Niall Ferguson's study of the financial history of the world made him prescient about today: "Many professional historians would say that I have no business talking about the present or even the recent past, much less the future. I don't really understand what the point of that self-denial ordinance is because if historians can't illuminate the future, I don't know who can. There's all sorts of bogus futurology out there, but in my experience most of what people say about the future is implicitly based on some understanding of the past. My caveat is simple: There is no such thing as the future, singular. There are futures, plural. And the historian is quite well-placed to offer plausible scenarios based on past analogies." - http://www.thestar.com, 11-23-08
FEATURES:

FEATURES:

  • Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. "Obama as Hoover: The Importance of Storytelling": As the Obama era takes shape, the roles of both Schlesinger and Michelson deserve attention. Particularly as Americans are seeing newsmagazines with cover stories comparing the President-elect who campaigned on a dour vision of scarcity with Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln, a considerable leap to understate. - American Spectator, 12-2-08
  • The focus is on Samuel de Champlain - Burlington Free Press, 12-1-08
  • Gordon S. Wood "The Housing-Bubble and the American Revolution ": Gordon S. Wood, a professor at Brown University and perhaps the pre-eminent living historian on the subject, counters: "There was a great deal of instability, but that is hardly an explanation for the Revolution. I don't think you can make a strong argument for an economic interpretation of the Revolution." - NYT, 11-30-08
  • What if Hitler had a love child? Historian A.N. Wilson's "Winnie and Wolf" is a chilling fictional tale of a clandestine affair. - Salon, 11-26-08
HONORS:

HONORS &APPOINTED:

SPOTTED:

SPOTTED:

NEW ON THE WEB:

New Web Sites:

EVENTS:

EVENTS:

  • April 3-4, 2009:The Obama Phenomenon: Race and Political Discourse in the United States Today, University of Memphis
ON TV:

ON TV:

  • Lincoln Symposium to air on C-SPAN: On Saturday, December 6th at 8 p.m., selections from "Lincoln in His Time and Ours," a symposium held on November 22nd at Columbia University, will air on C-SPAN. - Gilder Lehrman Institute, 12-4-08
  • History Channel: "Last Stand of The 300," Friday, December 5, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Barbarians: Goths," Friday, December 5, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Surviving History: 07 - Surviving History," Friday, December 5, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Modern Marvels: Weapons of Mass Destruction," Friday, December 5, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Shadow Force: Ghost Ship," Friday, December 5, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Next Nostradamus," Saturday, December 6, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid," Saturday, December 6, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "01 - The Wehrmacht: 01 - Attack on Europe," Sunday, December 7, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "02 - The Wehrmacht: 02 - The Turning Point," Sunday, December 7, @ 3pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "03 - The Wehrmacht: 03 - The Crimes," Sunday, December 7, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "04 - The Wehrmacht: 04 - Resistance," Sunday, December 7, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "05 - The Wehrmacht: 05 - To the Bitter End," Sunday, December 7, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "70's Fever," Sunday, December 7, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "History Rocks: The '70s, Part 1," Sunday, December 7, @ 10pm ET/PT
COMING SOON BOOKS:

COMING SOON BOOKS:

  • Scout Tufankjian: Yes We Can: Barack Obama's History Making Presidential Campaign, December 1, 2008
  • Gary May: John Tyler: The American Presidents Series: The 10th President, 1841-1845, December 9, 2008
  • Jonathan Brent: Inside the Stalin Archives, December 9, 2008
  • Time Magazine: Time President Obama: The Path to the White House, December 16, 2008
  • George S. McGovern: Abraham Lincoln: The American Presidents Series: The 16th President, 1861-1865, December 23, 2008
  • Rudy Tomedi: General Matthew Ridgway, December 30, 2008
  • Anthony S. Pitch: "They Have Killed Papa Dead!": The Road to Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance, December 30, 2008
  • William E. Leuchtenburg: Herbert Hoover: The 31st President, 1929-1933 (REV), January 6, 2009
  • James J. Sheehan: Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe, January 13, 2009
  • Gwen Ifill: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, January 20, 2009
  • Daniel Mark Epstein: Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries, January 27, 2009
DEPARTED:

DEPARTED:

Posted on Friday, December 5, 2008 at 1:01 AM | Top

November 10 & 17, 2008

HISTORY BUZZ:

US POLITICS:

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

    On This Day in History....

  • 11-10-1954 - Iwo Jima Memorial (servicemen raising US flag) dedicated in Arlington
  • 11-10-1982 - Vietnam Veterans Memorial opened
  • 11-11-1620 - 41 pilgrims land in Mass, sign Mayflower Compact (just & equal laws)
  • 11-11-1918 - Armistice Day-WW I ends (at 11 AM on Western Front)
  • 11-11-1938 - Kristallnacht; Jews forced to wear Star of David
  • 11-12-1998 - Then Vice President of the United States Al Gore symbolically signs the Kyoto Protocol.
  • 11-13-1789 - Ben Franklin writes "Nothing . . . certain but death and taxes"
  • 11-13-1956 - Supreme Court strikes down segregation of races on public buses
  • 11-13-1986 - US president Reagan confesses weapon sales to Iran
  • 11-14-1906 - Theodore Roosevelt becomes 1st US president to visit a foreign country (Panama)
  • 11-14-1968 - "National Turn in Your Draft Card Day" features draft card burning
  • 11-15-1763 - Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon begin surveying Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania and Maryland
  • 11-15-1777 - Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress
  • 11-15-1864 - Union Major General William T. Sherman burns Atlanta
  • 11-15-1969 - 250,000 peacefully demonstrate in Washington DC against the Vietnam War
  • 11-16-1973 - President Richard Nixon authorizes construction of Alaskan pipeline
  • 11-17-1800 - John Adams is the 1st president to move into the White House
  • 11-17-1800 - Congress held 1st session in Wash DC in incompleted Capitol building
  • 11-17-1973 - President Richard Nixon tells AP "...people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook"
  • 11-18-1805 - Lewis and Clark reach Pacific Ocean, 1st Americans to cross continent
  • 11-18-1961 - JFK sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam
  • 11-19-1861 - Julia Ward Howe committed "Battle Hymn of the Republic" to paper
  • 11-19-1863 - Lincoln delivers his address in Gettysburg; "4 score and 7 years..."
  • 11-19-1919 - US Senate rejects (55-39) Treaty of Versailles and League of Nations
IN THE NEWS:

IN THE NEWS:

QUOTES:

QUOTES:

  • Andrew Roberts: "Prince Charles turns 60 waiting for throne": "It can't be easy. Most of us can look forward to our new jobs, but the circumstances under which her reign comes to an end means that he can't, emotionally and psychologically.... AP, 11-13-08
  • Robert Lacey "Milestone for a prince whose life has been a waiting game": "I think he is finally coasting home, perhaps coming to the realisation that he will never be king or, if he does, he'll be like one of those elderly leaders at the end of the Soviet era - a sort of royal Andropov, with only a few years. His significance will lie in what he has accomplished as Prince and what he does to get the next king ready." - Guardian, UK, 11-13-08
  • Eric Hobsbawm: Global financial crisis is the "end of the era" for capitalism: "The present crisis is certainly the end of the era in the development of the global capitalist economy." - http://money.uk.msn.com, 11-3-08
OP-EDs:

OP-EDs:

REVIEWS:

REVIEWS:

  • Jack Fischel on Samuel S. Kassow: Forget us not: memorializing the Warsaw Ghetto: Who Will Write Our History? Who Will Write Our History? Emanuel Ringelblum, The Warsaw Ghetto and The Oyneg Shabes Archive - NJ Jewish News, 11-13-08
  • Jon Meacham: Elites and Rivals, Beware: He’s Tough as Old Hickory - AMERICAN LION Andrew Jackson in the White House NYT, 11-9-08
  • Thomas J. Sugrue: Uncommon Ground SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North - NYT, 11-9-08
  • Thomas J. Sugrue: SWEET LAND OF LIBERTY The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North, First Chapter - NYT, 11-9-08
  • Peter Ackroyd: Troubled Water THAMES The Biography - NYT, 11-9-08
  • Carlo D'Este: An Officer and a Bulldog WARLORD A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945 - NYT, 11-9-08
  • Tricia Starks: University of Arkansas Historian Publishes Book on Soviet Health and Hygiene - University of Arkansas Daily Headlines, AR, 11-13-08
  • The new book, Wartime Courage, confirms that the British PM's dogged desire to keep his old craft skills as a historian alive - Independent (UK), 11-7-08
  • Douglas Brinkley on Jon Meacham, David S. Reynolds, Robert V. Remini: HISTORY The Warrior President Andrew Jackson fought the British, the Indians and the bankers. AMERICAN LION Andrew Jackson in the White House, WAKING GIANT America in the Age of Jackson, ANDREW JACKSON - WaPo, 11-2-08
  • H.W. Brands: HISTORY Overcoming Privilege Polio crippled FDR physically but strengthened him morally TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt WaPo, 11-2-08
  • Fred Kaplan: Jonathan Yardley on 'Lincoln' The Literary Preparation of a Great President LINCOLN The Biography of a Writer - WaPo, 11-2-08
  • James M. McPherson, Craig L. Symonds: HISTORY | BIOGRAPHY Commander-in-Chief How Lincoln learned the art of war. TRIED BY WAR Abraham Lincoln as Commander In Chief, LINCOLN AND HIS ADMIRALS Abraham Lincoln, the U.S. Navy, and the Civil War - WaPo, 11-2-08
  • Harold Holzer: The Travails of Lincoln's Transition LINCOLN PRESIDENT-ELECT Abraham Lincoln and the Great Secession Winter 1860-1861 - WaPo, 11-2-08
BEST SELLERS:

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

  • James M. McPherson: TRIED BY WAR #15 -- (4 weeks on list) - 11-16-08
  • Andrew Bacevich: THE LIMITS OF POWER #23 - 11-16-08
BLOGS:

BLOGS:

INTER VIEWS:

INTERVIEWS:

  • Interview: Elizabeth Perry of Harvard University is the outgoing president of the Association for Asian Studies China Beat, 11-11-08
  • Harold Holzer & James McPherson ask: WWLD? (What would Lincoln Do?) - Chicago Tribune, 11-9-08
  • Andrew Doyle: 2-minute Tuesday: Andrew Doyle, Associate professor of history at Winthrop University - Herald Online, 11-4-08
FEATURES:

FEATURES:

  • U.S. history a hot topic for publishers - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11-11-08
  • James Gregory "UW project sheds light on Klan history": "People in Washington state really have not known about the strength or impact of the KKK here during the 1920s. Historians focus on the Klan as a powerful force in places like Oregon, in Midwest states and of course in the South. But the Klan had tens of thousands of members right here in Washington." - Bellingham Herald, WA, 11-13-08
HONORS:

HONORS &APPOINTED:

SPOTTED:

SPOTTED:

  • W. Fitzhugh Brundage: UNC professor speaks on South's differing racial perceptions: "It seems especially relevant in the aftermath of the election...and the way in which many Southerners voted.... These struggles...draw our attention to the profound transformation at work in the contemporary South... Southerners can no longer assume that their version of the past will be promoted in public places.... We could turn to an era where the culture wars become extremely political." - Tennessee Journalist, TN, 11-12-08
EVENTS:

EVENTS:

  • November 15, 2008: FDR-Obama Comparison Is Theme of Columbia Conference "Restoring America Through a New New Deal: Policy Priorities for the First 100 Days" - Press Release, 11-11-08
  • November 18, 2008: HOWARD ZINN, At Back Pages Books - Back Pages Books, 289 Moody St., presents a post-election State of the Union discussion with acclaimed historian, professor, and activist Howard Zinn, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m. Zinn is the author of "The People's History of the United States of America" and the recently published graphic work "The People's History of the American Empire." Cost is $12. - Daily News Tribune, 11-13-08
  • April 3-4, 2009:The Obama Phenomenon: Race and Political Discourse in the United States Today, University of Memphis
ON TV:

ON TV:

  • PBS, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Oswald's Ghost - Monday, November 17 at 9pm on PBS -- American Experience Mondays at 9pm on PBS (check local listings.)
  • History Channel: "The Hunt for John Wilkes Booth," Friday, November 14, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Battlefield Detectives: The Civil War: Antietam," Friday, November 14, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Horrors at Andersonville Prison: The Trial of Henry Wirz," Friday, November 14, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Battlefield Detectives: The Civil War: Gettysburg," Friday, November 14, @ 6pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Modern Marvels: Civil War Tech," Friday, November 14, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "The Antichrist," Saturday, November 15, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "The World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon," Saturday, November 15, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Quest for the Lost Ark," Sunday, November 16, @ 3pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Hell: The Devil's Domain," Monday, November 17, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "History's Mysteries: Hell's Angels," Monday, November 17, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Einstein," Monday, November 17, @ 9pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Violent Earth: Nature's Fury: New England's Killer Hurricane," Tuesday, November 18, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "The Wrath Of God: Buffalo Blizzard: Seige and Survival," Tuesday, November 18, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem," Wednesday, November 19, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Organized Crime: A World History: Colombia," Wednesday, November 19, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "The True Story of Charlie Wilson," Thursday, November 20, @ 2pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Stalking Jihad," Thursday, November 20, @ 4pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "History's Mysteries: Ship of Gold," Thursday, November 20, @ 7pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Cities Of The Underworld: Secret Sin City," Thursday, November 20, @ 10pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Street Gangs: A Secret History," Saturday, November 22, @ 5pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "The Kennedy Assassination: Beyond Conspiracy," Saturday, November 22, @ 8pm ET/PT
  • History Channel: "Kennedys: The Curse of Power," Saturday, November 22, @ 8pm ET/PT
COMING SOON BOOKS:

COMING SOON BOOKS:

  • Carlo D'Este: Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War, 1874-1945, November 11, 2008
  • Jon Meacham, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, November 11, 2008
  • Michael Burlingame: Abraham Lincoln: A Life, November 14, 2008
  • Peter W. Kunhardt: Looking for Lincoln: The Making of an American Icon, November 18, 2008
  • Scout Tufankjian: Yes We Can: Barack Obama's History Making Presidential Campaign, December 1, 2008
  • Gary May: John Tyler: The American Presidents Series: The 10th President, 1841-1845, December 9, 2008
  • Jonathan Brent: Inside the Stalin Archives, December 9, 2008
  • Time Magazine: Time President Obama: The Path to the White House, December 16, 2008
  • George S. McGovern: Abraham Lincoln: The American Presidents Series: The 16th President, 1861-1865, December 23, 2008
  • Rudy Tomedi: General Matthew Ridgway, December 30, 2008
  • Anthony S. Pitch: "They Have Killed Papa Dead!": The Road to Ford's Theater, Abraham Lincoln's Murder, and the Rage for Vengeance, December 30, 2008
  • William E. Leuchtenburg: Herbert Hoover: The 31st President, 1929-1933 (REV), January 6, 2009
  • James J. Sheehan: Where Have All the Soldiers Gone?: The Transformation of Modern Europe, January 13, 2009
  • Gwen Ifill: The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, January 20, 2009
  • Daniel Mark Epstein: Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries, January 27, 2009
DEPARTED:

DEPARTED:

  • Studs Terkel's Legacy: A Vivid Window on the Great Depression - NYT, 11-8-08

Posted on Friday, November 14, 2008 at 3:30 AM | Top

October 27, 2008

CAMPAIGN 2008:

CAMPAIGN 2008 WATCH:

BIGGEST STORIES:

BIGGEST STORIES: Halloween

  • John Demos: At Halloween: Every witch way to Salem - Boston Herald, 10-26-08
  • John Demos "Historian examines witch hunts past and present ": "Connecticut would have been the leader in witch hunting if it hadn't been for Salem," historian John Demos told a full house the Windsor Historical Society. - Windsor Journal, 10-23-08
THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

    On This Day in History....

  • 25/10/1492 - Christopher Columbus and ship Santa Maria land in Dominican Republic
  • 25/10/1825 - Erie Canal opens, linking Great Lakes and Atlantic Ocean
  • 25/10/1881 - Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Clanton engage in "Shootout at OK Corral"
  • 25/10/1923 - Senate committee publishes 1st report on Teapot Dome scandal
  • 25/10/1940 - US Army Gen Benjamin Davis becomes 1st black general
  • 25/10/1951 - Peace talks aimed at ending Korean War resumed in Panmunjom
  • 25/10/1963 - Anti-Kennedy "WANTED FOR TREASON" pamphlets scattered in Dallas
  • 25/10/1983 - US invades Grenada, a country 1/2,000 its population (US Wins)
  • 26/10/1682 - William Penn accepts area around Delaware River from Duke of York
  • 26/10/1749 - Georgia Colony reverses itself and rules slavery is legal
  • 26/10/1774 - 1st Continental Congress adjourns in Philadelphia
  • 26/10/1774 - Minute Men organized in colonies
  • 26/10/1787 - "Federalist Papers" published, calls for ratification of Constitution
  • 26/10/1795 - Pinckney's Treaty between Spain and US is signed, establishing southern boundary of US and giving Americans right to send goods down Mississippi
  • 26/10/1810 - US annexes western Florida
  • 26/10/1863 - Worldwide Red Cross organized in Geneva
  • 26/10/1881 - Gunfight at OK Corral, in Tombstone, Az
  • 26/10/1900 - After 4 years of work, 1st section of NY subway opens
  • 26/10/1916 - Margaret Sanger arrested for obscenity (advocating birth control)
  • 26/10/1919 - President Wilson's veto of Prohibition Enforcement Bill is overridden
  • 26/10/1950 - Mother Teresa found her Mission of Charity in Calcutta, India
  • 26/10/1955 - Ngo Dinh Diem proclaims Vietnam a republic with himself as pres
  • 26/10/1962 - Nikita Khrushchev sends note to JFK offering to withdraw his missiles from Cuba if US closed its bases in Turkey offer is rejected
  • 26/10/1962 - JFK warns Russia US will not allow Soviet missiles to remain in Cuba
  • 26/10/1972 - Henry Kissinger declares "Peace is at hand" in Vietnam
  • 26/10/1973 - President Nixon released 1st White House tapes on Watergate scandal
  • 26/10/1994 - Jordan and Israel sign peace accord
  • 27/10/1864 - Siege of Petersburg, VA
  • 27/10/1871 - Boss Tweed (William Macy Tweed), Democratic leader of Tammany Hall, arrested after NY Times exposed his corruption
  • 27/10/1913 - Pres Wilson says US will never attack another country
  • 27/10/1920 - League of Nations moves headquarters in Geneva
  • 27/10/1954 - Pres Eisenhower offers aid to S Vietnam pres Ngo Dinh Diem
  • 27/10/1962 - Black Saturday - Russian nuclear missile crisis in Cuba
  • 28/10/1636 - Harvard University (Cambridge Mass) founded
  • 28/10/1776 - Battle of White Plains; Washington retreats to NJ
  • 28/10/1793 - Eli Whitney applies for a patent on cotton gin
  • 28/10/1858 - Macy's Dept store opens in NYC
  • 28/10/1863 - Battle at Wauhatchie Georgia: 865 killed or injured
  • 28/10/1864 - Battle at Fair Oaks, Virginia, ends after 1554 casualties
  • 28/10/1867 - Maimonides College in Penns is 1st Jewish college in the US
  • 28/10/1886 - Statue of Liberty dedicated by Pres Grover Cleveland, it is celebrated by 1st confetti (ticker tape) parade in NYC
  • 28/10/1919 - Volstead Act passed by Congress, start prohibition over Wilson's veto
  • 28/10/1936 - FDR rededicates Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
  • 28/10/1948 - Flag of Israel is adopted
  • 28/10/1949 - Eugenie Anderson is 1st woman US ambassador (to Denmark)
  • 28/10/1962 - Khrushchev orders withdrawal of missiles from Cuba, ending crisis
  • 29/10/1929 - "Black Tuesday," Stock Market crashes triggers "Great Depression"
  • 29/10/1956 - Israeli paratroopers drop into Sinai to open Straits of Tiran
  • 29/10/1966 - National Organization of Women founded
  • 29/10/1969 - Supreme Court orders end to all school desegregation "at once"
  • 29/10/1929 - "Black Tuesday," Stock Market crashes triggers "Great Depression"
  • 29/10/1956 - Israeli paratroopers drop into Sinai to open Straits of Tiran
  • 29/10/1966 - National Organization of Women founded
  • 29/10/1969 - Supreme Court orders end to all school desegregation "at once"
  • 30/10/1270 - 8th and last crusade is launched
  • 30/10/1697 - Germany signs French/English/Spanish/Neth/Brandenburgs peace treaty ending 9 year War
  • 30/10/1864 - The city of Helena, Montana, is founded after miners discover gold
  • 30/10/1893 - Senate approves repealing Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890
  • 30/10/1896 - Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah becomes 1st female senator
  • 30/10/1905 - "October Manifesto" Russian Tsar Nicholas II grants civil liberties
  • 30/10/1914 - Allied offensive at Ypres (Belgium) begins
  • 30/10/1941 - FDR approves Lend-Lease aid to the USSR
  • 30/10/1954 - US Armed Forces end segregation of races
  • 31/10/0834 - 1st All Hallows Eve (Halloween) observed to honor the saints
  • 31/10/1517 - Luther posts 95 theses on Wittenberg church-Protestant Reformation
  • 31/10/1541 - Michelangelo Buonarroti's paints "last judgement" in 16th Chapel
  • 31/10/1846 - Donner party, unable to cross the Donner Pass, construct a winter camp
  • 31/10/1918 - Spanish flu-virus kills 21,000 in US in 1 week
  • 31/10/1922 - Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) becomes premier of Italy
  • 31/10/1940 - Battle of Britain: Germany and Britain control of English Channel, ends
  • 31/10/1941 - Prior to US in WW II, Germany torpedoes US destroyer Reuben James
  • 31/10/1963 - Ed Sullivan witnesses Beatles and their fans at London Airport
  • 31/10/1968 - President Johnson orders a halt to all bombing of North Vietnam
  • 01/11/1512 - Michelangelo's paintings on ceiling of Sistine Chapel, 1st exhibited
  • 01/11/1765 - Stamp Act goes into effect in British colonies
  • 01/11/1783 - Continental Army dissolved; George Washington's "Farewell Address"
  • 01/11/1800 - 1st president to live in white house (John Adams)
  • 01/11/1861 - Gen George B McClellan made general in chief of Union armies
  • 01/11/1866 - 1st Civil Rights Bill passes
  • 01/11/1878 - Edward Scripps and John Sweeney found Penny Press (Cleveland Press)
  • 01/11/1917 - In WW I, the 1st US soldiers are killed in combat
  • 01/11/1954 - US Senate admonishes Joseph Mccarthy because of slander campaign
  • 01/11/1962 - Cuban missile crisis ends, JFK says USSR is dismantling missile bases
  • 01/11/1983 - Pres Reagan established Dr Martin Luther King Jr holiday
  • 02/11/1772 - Boston: anti-English Committee of Correspondence forms
  • 02/11/1811 - Battle of Tippecanoe: Gen Jackson vs indians
  • 02/11/1824 - Popular presidential vote 1st recorded; Jackson beats J Q Adams
  • 02/11/1852 - Franklin Pierce elected as president of US
  • 02/11/1917 - Balfour Declaration proclaims support for a Jewish state in Palestine
  • 02/11/1948 - Pres Truman re-elected in an upset over Republican Thomas Dewey
  • 02/11/1954 - JS Thurmond is 1st senator elected by write-in vote (SC)
  • 02/11/1962 - JFK announces Cuban missile bases were being dismantled
IN THE NEWS:

IN THE NEWS:

REVIEWED AND FIRST CHAPTERS:

REVIEWED AND FIRST CHAPTERS:

  • JAY WINIK on DAVID S. REYNOLDS: Young America's Wild Side Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson - NYT, 10-26-08
  • DAVID S. REYNOLDS: Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson, First Chapter - NYT, 10-26-08
  • John D. Gartner: Jonathan Yardley on 'In Search of Bill Clinton' Putting Bill Clinton on the couch IN SEARCH OF BILL CLINTON A Psychological Biography - WaPo, 10-23-08
  • Timothy W. Ryback: Michael Dirda on 'Hitler's Private Library' The Führer loved his library, but what good did it do? HITLER'S PRIVATE LIBRARY The Books That Shaped His Life - WaPo, 10-26-08
  • Treasure Trove of Newsreels Rediscovered by Film Historian - Press Release, 10-21-08
  • Annette Gordon-Reed's new book on the Hemingses called valuable but flawed - Eric Foner in the NYT Book Review, 10-3-08
  • Pierre Berton: Canadian historian Berton had his own secrets - Vancouver Sun, 10-13-08
OP-EDs:

OP-EDs & LETTERS:

BLOGS:

BLOGS:

PROFILED:

PROFILED:

INTERVIEWS:

INTERVIEWS:

FEATURES:

FEATURES:

QUOTED:

QUOTED:

  • Robert Caro "Former JFK, LBJ aide Nicholas Katzenbach remembers years in Washington": "He is a central figure in so many of the pivotal episodes of American history of the 1960s," says Robert Caro, who has interviewed Katzenbach for the fourth and final volume of his series of books on Lyndon Johnson. "And he has the ability, which not every participant has, to see the larger implications of their actions." - Canadian Press, 10-24-08
  • Sean Wilentz "Former JFK, LBJ aide Nicholas Katzenbach remembers years in Washington": "Nick has been a truly noble public servant," says historian Sean Wilentz, who praises Katzenbach as a model for a time when government officials were "honest pursuers of justice, without ideological axes to grind." - Canadian Press, 10-24-08
  • Alan Kraut says it's time to get the immigrant story right - Francis X. Clines in the NYT, 10-11-08
  • David Fowler: Historian says Beatles were just capitalists, and not youth heroes - Guardian (UK), 10-9-08
HONORED / AWARDED:

HONORED, AWARDED, APPOINTED:

SPOTTED:

SPOTTED:

  • John Demos "Historian examines witch hunts past and present ": "Connecticut would have been the leader in witch hunting if it hadn't been for Salem," historian John Demos told a full house the Windsor Historical Society. - Windsor Journal, 10-23-08
CALENDAR:

CALENDAR:

  • October 30, 2008: Columbia University Historian to Lecture on Illegal Immigration - Mae Ngai, the Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and professor of history at Columbia University will give the talk, "Illegal Immigration to the United States: Origins and Consequences," at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30 in the Wailes Lounge at the Elston Inn & Conference Center. - Sweet Briar College, 10-23-08
ON TV:

    ON TV: History Listings This Week

  • The Weather Channel's original program: "When Weather Changed History": Season 2 debuts October 5 with an episode dedicated to the Chicago Fire of 1871. Repeats of Season 1 are on Every Sunday at 9pmET with re-airings through out the week. - When Weather Changed History
  • Ken Burns: PBS to air his national parks series next year - AP, 7-13-08
  • PBS, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: LBJ, Part Two Monday, October 27 at 9pm on PBS -- As this year'