History Shorts: After 130 years, will Billy the Kid finally get a governor’s pardon?

Source: CS Monitor, 12-29-10 Outgoing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is considering a pardon for celebrated outlaw Billy the Kid. An informal e-mail poll shows support. But time is running out. Billy the Kid, upper right, is pictured in this tintype photo from the late 1870s. Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico has posted a [...]

Theodore Sorensen, top JFK aide, dies at 82

George Tames/The New York Times Theodore C. Sorensen with President John F. Kennedy in the Oval Office in 1961. More Photos » Theodore Sorensen, top JFK aide, dies at 82 in NY: Theodore C. Sorensen, the studious, star-struck aide to President John F. Kennedy whose crisp, poetic turns of phrase helped idealize and immortalize a [...]

James T. Kloppenberg: In Writings of Obama, a Philosophy Is Unearthed

Source: NYT, 10-28-10 When the Harvard historian James T. Kloppenberg decided to write about the influences that shaped President Obama’s view of the world, he interviewed the president’s former professors and classmates, combed through his books, essays, and speeches, and even read every article published during the three years Mr. Obama was involved with the [...]

History Shorts: Diane Ravitch named one of Atlantic’s 19 “Brave Thinkers”

Source: The Atlantic (11-1-10) By Emily Bazelon Antony Hare When Diane Ravitch decided that reform ideas like robust testing, charter schools, and No Child Left Behind were imperiling rather than saving American education, she managed to break with her former Republican allies and start a fight with Obama Democrats, all at once. For Ravitch, this [...]

Historian Tony Judt dies aged 62

Tony Judt: ‘I was raised on words.’ Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe for the Observer Historian Tony Judt dies aged 62 Author of Postwar and New York University professor dies after two-year fight with motor neurone disease: Tony Judt, the British writer, historian and professor who was recently described as having the “liveliest mind in New York”, [...]

A charming hideaway for rare-book lovers

Those who’ve been to William Andrews Clark Memorial Library love its intimate, elegant grounds and trove of historical writings. Run by UCLA but tucked away in Jefferson Park, it gets few visitors. Source: LAT, 7-15-10 Alysn Souza is working on restoring a painting in a drawing room at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. The [...]

Tenure, RIP: What the Vanishing Status Means for the Future of Education

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education, 7-4-10 Some time this fall, the U.S. Education Department will publish a report that documents the death of tenure. Innocuously titled “Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009,” the report won’t say it’s about the demise of tenure. But that’s what it will show. Over just three decades, the proportion of [...]

Happy 4th of July: Independence Day History & Facts

INDEPENDENCE DAY 2010 4th of July: Facts about the Declaration of Independence: On July 2 the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Great Britain and on 4th of July 1776 the same Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence. The Founding Fathers signed the document in August, after it was finished…. Another fact about [...]

Donald Worster: KU History Professor Wins Scotland’s Biggest Literary Prize

Source: Infozine, 6-26-10 Donald Worster, the Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Distinguished Professor of U.S. History at the University of Kansas, received the Scottish Book of the Year Award for his biography “A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir ” from the Scottish Arts Council. The award is funded by the Scottish Mortgage Investment [...]

Rick Atkinson wins prize for military writing

Source: AP, 6-21-10 Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian Rick Atkinson has received a $100,000 award for military writing. Atkinson has been awarded the 2010 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. Atkinson has won Pulitzers for his book “An Army at Dawn” and for his reporting for The Washington Post. He [...]

Gordon S. Wood: Was Washington ‘Mad for Glory’?

by Gordon S. Wood New York Review of Books, 6-10-10 An Artist in Treason: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson by Andro Linklater Walker, 392 pp., $27.00 The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon by John Ferling Bloomsbury, 464 pp., $20.00 (paper) Washington-Custis-Lee Collection/Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA George Washington as Colonel [...]

History Shorts: Flag Day’s roots date back to 1777

Source: DelmarvaNow.com, 6-14-10 Why is Flag Day held on June 14? On June 14, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the official flag of the United States as part of the Flag Resolution of 1777. What did the Flag Resolution of 1777 say?The resolution stated that the flag would be 13 stars and 13 alternating [...]

History Shorts: Natalie Zemon Davis Wins Norway’s Holberg Prize

American Historian Wins Norway’s Holberg Prize Source: NYT, 6-10-10 The historian Natalie Zemon Davis, probably best known for her work “The Return of Martin Guerre,” which was made into a 1982 film with Gérard Depardieu, won Norway’s 4.5 million kroner ($680,000) Holberg Prize on Wednesday for her narrative approach to history, The Associated Press reported. [...]

History Shorts: Ronald Rudin Honored at Concordia’s Second Annual Provost’s Circle of Distinction

Source: Concordia Journal, 6-10-10 On May 26, Provost David Graham was pleased to honour six new inductees into the Provost’s Circle of Distinction at a ceremony and cocktail social event at the Montefiore Club on Guy St. “You represent the most distinguished members of Concordia’s faculty,” said Graham. “Your outstanding achievements have brought and continue [...]

History Shorts: Historian David M. Kennedy delivers presentation at Paly

Source: The Paly Voice, 6-8-10 Stanford University history professor David Kennedy made his annual presentation to the Palo Alto High School AP United States History classes on Wednesday, May 19. Beginning his visit with a light-hearted presentation of humorous excerpts from student essays, Kennedy, co-writer of the renowned U.S. History text book, “The American Pageant,” [...]