POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

This Week’s Political Highlights

BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:

• Taylor Branch: Author, historian gives material for new Clinton book to UNC library – MyFox8.com (9-23-09)
• A Q&A with Taylor Branch, author of ‘The Clinton Tapes’ – GQ (9-16-09)
• Taylor Branch’s secret interviews add insight to Clinton presidency – USA Today (9-21-09)
• Taylor Branch about to publish secret project: The Clinton Tapes – Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire (9-19-09)
• Taylor Branch’s oral history with Clinton comes under attack – Ralph Luker at HNN blog, Cliopatria (9-30-09)
• Rosh Hashana, Circa 1919: Mrs. Shapiro is actually Barbara Ann Paster, one of the actors here at the Strawbery Banke restoration, a living museum in which over 350 years of Portsmouth homes, stores, churches and history have been preserved. It is in Puddle Dock, which was a decrepit neighborhood destined to be razed under urban renewal until a campaign in the 1950s and ’60s led by the town librarian saved 42 houses on 10 acres to create the museum…. – NYT, 9-17-09
• Dan Brown: Da Vinci author’s ‘uproar’ warning: The Lost Symbol is expected to make claims about the influence of secret organisation the freemasons on US leaders. And it is tipped to brand first President George Washington a TRAITOR.
  British historian and Masonic expert Ashley Cowie: “Dan Brown is about to make a huge controversy because he knows it sells. He’s going to create uproar in America. But it’s fiction, not fact.”
  But fellow historian David Shugarts said: “It’s true that some of the founding fathers were powerful Masons.”… – The Sun (9-15-09)
• The Economic Freeze on History: More than two-thirds of history departments are experiencing budget cuts that have “required real reductions in resources, faculty and staff,” according to a survey released Friday by the American Historical Association…. – Inside Higher Ed (9-14-09)
• Historian Rebecca Solnit talks about how 9-11 should be remembered – Free Speech Radio News (9-11-09)

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

On This Day in History….

This Week in History…. September 14-19, 2009

• Peter C. Mancall on “Why a Fourth Grader Knows More About Henry Hudson Than You Do” The 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s landing in New York… – The Chronicle of Higher Education (9-14-09)

IN THE NEWS:

• N S Rangaraju, HoD department of ancient history and archaeology, University of Mysore: Historian calls for more studies to prove existence of Buddhism in state… – Times of India (9-29-09)
• Nick Barratt: TV historian launches Dundee genealogy workshop… – The Press and Journal (9-29-09)
• Bryant Simon: Historian concludes Starbucks missing sense of community: “Rarely … do these different people doing different things actually talk and exchange ideas, but talk and ideas are crucial to the making of community,” he writes…. – Yahoo News (Finance) (9-28-09)
• War historians to fight for medal: The Australian War Memorial us/roundup/entries/117572.html”> PSNews (9-29-09)
• Simon Young “King Arthur was a “genocidal warlord,” claims historian”: A new book by a historian has claimed that the mythical King Arthur was actually a “genocidal warlord whose deeds would have been the stuff of Nuremburg trials today.” According to a report in the Telegraph, Dr Simon Young, a historian and expert in Celtic studies, claims in ‘The Celtic Revolution’ that the valiant English hero of modern legend bears no resemblance to the historical reality. Breaking News 24/7 (9-28-09)
• Walmart Vs. Historians In Battle Over Civil War Site – The Consumerist (9-24-09)
• Where is NEH Money Going? New Web Site Has Answers – The Chronicles of Higher Education (9-21-09)
• Society of American Archivists Develops Best Practices for Orphan Works – The Society of American Archivists (homepage) (9-24-09)
• Rick Perlstein: The liberal historian on ACORN, the Post, and wagging the dog – Columbia Journalism Review (9-22-09)
• David Starkey: TV historian launches second broadside against Scotland – DailyRecord.co.uk (9-22-09)
• Linda Higgins: County’s official historian should clarify Van Jones comments or resign – Jacksonsun.com (Jackson, TN) (9-22-09)
• County Historian Summoned to comment on Van Jones (Jackson, TN) – Jacksonsun.com (9-21-09)
• The Next Page: Howard Zinn, Historian of the People, For the People – post-gazette.com (Pittsburgh Post Gazette) (9-20-09)
• The Book That Shook Yale – The Chronicle of Higher Education (9-29-09)
• John Dichtl and Robert B. Townsend: Preliminary Results from the 2008 Survey of Public History Professionals: This is the first in a series of articles analyzing results from the 2008 Survey of Public History Professionals. This article will also appear in Public History News, the newsletter of the National Council on Public History…. – American Historical Association (9-2-09)
• OAH Strategic Planning Committee sends up a red flare (and asks for members’ response) – OAH website (9-15-09)
• Time Mag. solicits readers’ questions for Ken Burns: In his latest project, Burns used more than six years worth of footage and dozens of interviews to explore the creation of America’s national park system, the first such effort in history. The 12-part series, “America’s Best Idea,” airs Sept. 27 on PBS. – Time Magazine (9-14-09)
• R. Bruce Craig: Signs Contract for Biography of Alger Hiss – Press Release (9-14-09)
• Júlio Mendes: Historian defends more research on the poet and first President of Angola, António Agostinho Neto’s legacy – AngolaPress (9-11-09)
• Tony Judt again accused of laying the “groundwork for Israel’s death” – Steven Plaut at frontpagemag.com (9-9-09)
• David Irving sparks row over Holocaust ‘propaganda’ – NWO Observer (9-6-09)
• Colleges to Commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin – Press Release–George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media (9-9-09)
• Allan Levine: Historian to write Mackenzie King bio – Winnipeg Free Press (9-9-09)

OP-EDs & BLOGS:

• Ron Radosh: Can Left-wing historians write the History of Movement Conservatism? Historian says yes. – http://pajamasmedia.com/ (9-29-09)
• Gordon Wood says the Constitution was a more radical change than the Revolution itself – Newsletter of the New York American Revolution Roundtable (9-27-09)
• Robert Townsend: History Departments Struggle in a Depressing Economy – AHA magazine, Perspectives on History (9-1-09)
• Bernard A. Weisberger tells how he came to eavesdrop on the Japanese military during WW II – American Heritage (8-17-09)

REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:

• Morris Dickstein: When Grave Years Fueled Grand Art DANCING IN THE DARK A Cultural History of the Great Depression – NYT, 9-16-09
• Nicholas Thompson: Friends, Not Allies THE HAWK AND THE DOVE Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War – NYT, 9-13-09
• Norman Podhoretz: Because They Believe WHY ARE JEWS LIBERALS? – NYT, 9-13-09
• Alan Simons examines how Republic of Turkey saved Jewish lives Shoah: Turkey, the US and the UK – Jewish Info News (9-2-09)
• Philip Smallwood: The Life of R. G. Collingwood – Times Higher Education (UK), (9-3-09)

PROFILED & FEATURED:

• Richard Baker, Don Ritchie, Bette Koed,: Chronicling the Story of the Upper Chamber… – Politico (9-30-09)
• Michael Oren: Israeli Ambassador Draws on American Roots – NYT (9-25-09)
• Michael Oren still ‘enjoying every minute’ as Israel’s envoy to U.S. – Haaretz (9-27-09)
• David Norwood: Artist-historian wants to shed light on Florida rebellion – 2theadvocate.com (9-20-09)
• D. Bradford Hunt’s new book on the Chicago Housing Authority Blueprint for Disaster – Chicago Reader (9-24-09)
• Nicholas Thompson’s trump card in writing about Nitze and Kennan – NYT (9-11-09)

QUOTED:

• Richard Norton Smith, Russell Riley: Historians weigh in: Historical parallels: Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq: “It’s a test on multiple levels of what kind of leader and what kind of politician and what kind of historian he is,” says Richard Norton Smith, a historian who has run four presidential libraries and is currently a scholar at George Mason University. “This is a defining moment, and not only for the president, but for the country.”…
  “It’s hard not just because the generals are his, but it’s hard because he’s a Democrat,” says Russell Riley, who leads the William J. Clinton Presidential History Project at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. “He’s a Democrat who to a large part of the public is still suspect on foreign policy credentials, because he doesn’t have a lot of demonstrated experience in this arena.”… – NPR (9-29-09)
• John Hafnor: Historian Predicts Dan Brown Theme, Reveals New Lost Symbols: “The Da Vinci Code’s overarching premise was an Old World clash of religion and science, while the fresh theme for The Lost Symbol is likely to be a uniquely American power struggle between secret societies and the experiment known as democracy.” – USPRWire (9-10-09)

INTERVIEWED:

• Q&A with author and historian Marcus Rediker The Slave Ship: A Human History – Denisonian.com (Denison University) (9-29-09)
• An interview with Greg Robinson, author of A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America Columbia University Press website (7-1-09)
• In Conversation with David Starkey: The historian with an opinion on everything explains to Iain Dale why he was joking when he called Scotland a feeble little nation, his theory on the Californisation of the world and how Aneurin Bevan was deranged… – Total Politics (9-20-09)
• Anthony J. Badger: British historian says FDR has some complex lessons for Obama: Badger is a University of Cambridge historian and the author of several accessible and well-reviewed books about the South and the Depression, among them “North Carolina and the New Deal,” “FDR: The First Hundred Days” and “The New Deal: The Depression Years, 1933-1940.” Given the current economic situation, it seems especially appropriate that the University of South Alabama’s Department of History has selected Badger as this year’s N. Jack Stallworth lecturer (his topic: “The New Deal and the Creation of the Modern American South”)…. – al.com (9-14-09)
• Peter Bance Sikh author short listed for historian award: A renowned Sikh author has been short listed for the annual EDP-Jarrold East Anglian Book Awards, for his book on Maharajah Duleep Singh… – The Sikh Times (9-14-09)

HONORED, AWARDED &APPOINTED:

• Jonathan Jarvis: Senate confirms new head of National Park Service – Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH) (9-25-09)
• Timothy Barrett: Paper historian receiving grant among 24 recipients of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius grants” – Des Moines Register, (9-22-09)
• Mark Updegrove: Presidential historian appointed to direct LBJ Library: The LBJ Library and Museum announced the appointment of presidential historian Mark Updegrove to director Wednesday…. – News 8 Austin (9-17-09)
• Best political communication book of the decade is … Campaign Talk: Why Elections are Good for Us by Roderick Hart was named the best political communication book of the last decade by the American Political Science Association. – Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire (9-12-09)
• Dr. Takashi Yoshida: Associate Professor of History honored as emerging faculty scholar by Western Michigan University – WMU News (9-9-09)

SPOTTED:

• Dipesh Chakrabarty: Bengali historian speaks of ‘legacy’ of India as a civilization “Whether India was industrialized or not, workers should get all their rights,” Chakrabarty said. “People in India, the poor, want to vote, making it difficult to change the democracy of India.”… – University of Rhode Island (9-30-09)
• Richard Norton Smith, Presidential Historian: The Clinton School invited Presidential Historian Richard Norton Smith to come speak on “Lincoln 200”. It has been 200 years since Abraham Lincoln was born…. – TodaysTHV.com, 9-16-09

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

EVENTS CALENDAR:

• Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall: Lincoln’s Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009. NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)

ON TV:

• BBC to launch new series on history of Christianity – Religious Intelligence, 6-19-09
• C-SPAN2: BOOK TV Weekend Schedule
• PBS History Detectives: Mondays at 9pm
• History Channel: Weekly Schedule
• History Channel: “Beyond The Da Vinci Code” – Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Angels & Demons Decoded” – Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 10pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Holy Grail in America” – Sunday, September 19, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “The Templar Code ” – Monday, September 20, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Cities Of The Underworld: Stalin’s Secret Lair” – Monday, September 20, 2009 at 5pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Cities Of The Underworld: 09 – Freemason Underground” – Monday, September 20, 2009 at 6pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Secrets of the Founding Fathers” – Monday, September 20, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “The Dark Age” – Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Nostradamus Effect” Marathon – Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 2-5pm ET/PT

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

NYT Non-Fiction Best Sellers List – September 20, 2009
• #1 – Michelle Malkin: CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
• #3 – Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT’S SECRET SERVICE
• #12 – Peter S. Canellos: LAST LION
• #15 – J. Randy Taraborrelli: THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE
• #20 – C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
• #21 – Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
• #29 – Edward Klein: TED KENNEDY
• NYT Non-Fiction Best Sellers List – September 27, 2009

COMING SOON BOOKS:

• Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, September 15, 2009
• Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, September 2009
• James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King – A Nonfiction Thriller, September 28, 2009
• Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
• Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
• L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback), November 1, 2009
• Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom–and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
• Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night (Paperback), December 8, 2009

DEPARTED:

• Larry D. Miller: UNM Spanish Colonial Research Center Historian Dies UNM Today (9-28-09)
• Merrill Peterson: Jefferson scholar, dies at 88 – Charlottesville Daily Progress (9-25-09)
• Milton Meltzer: Prolific Author, Dies at 94 – NYT (9-24-09)
• Bill Schoneberger, 83; U.S Aviation Historian – Palisades Post (9-17-09)
• Floyd Martin Clay, 81, historian and author at Our Lady of Holy Cross College – Nola.com (9-16-09)
• Charles Harrison: Obituary: Art historian and critic celebrated The Independent (9-7-09)
• Olga Amsterdamska: Obituary – John V. Pickstone, University of Manchester, writing for H-Net (9-4-09)

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

This Week’s Political Highlights
• Political Highlights: Remembering Senator Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy, 1932-2009 HNN, 9-1-09

BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:

• Betsy McCaughey: NYT says historian’s profile has risen sharply as a result of her involvement in Obama health care debate “Resurfacing, a Critic Stirs Up Debate Over Health Care” – NYT (9-4-09)
• Betsy McCaughey Addresses New York Times: Charges of Falsehoods But No Evidence – Reuters, 9-5-09

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

On This Day in History….

This Week in History…. September 7-13, 2009

IN THE NEWS:

• Brian Merlis and John Manbeck: Historians spar over Brooklyn history – The Huffington Post (9-3-09)
• Spain to publish interview with Holocaust denier David Irving – Google News (9-3-09)
• Ged Lynn: Historian walks through Luton in awareness march Luton Today (9-3-09)
• Götz Aly: Makes Controversial Remarks about the Contribution of Black and Asian Soldiers in WWII telegraph.co.uk (9-4-09)
• Darío A. Euraque: Trinity Historian Turned Cultural Guardian Standing Up To New Honduran Regime – Hartford Courant, (8-30-09)

OP-EDs & BLOGS:

• DREW GILPIN FAUST: Crossroads The University’s Crisis of Purpose – NYT, 9-6-09
• Lawrence Glickman: Blogs about the Whole Foods Boycott – Washington Post (9-2-09)

REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:

• Steven F. Hayward: Another One for the Gipper THE AGE OF REAGAN The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980-1989 – NYT, 9-6-09
• Veronica Buckley: Undercover Queen THE SECRET WIFE OF LOUIS XIV Françoise d’Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon – NYT, 9-6-09
• Janet Soskice: Two of a Kind THE SISTERS OF SINAI How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels – NYT, 9-6-09
• Fred Kaplan: Planting the Seeds of the Sixties: 1959 The Year Everything Changed – WaPo, 9-4-09
• Fred Kaplan: 1959 The Year Everything Changed, Excerpt – WaPo, 9-4-09
• Norman Podhoretz: RELIGION Speaking in Generalities WHY ARE JEWS LIBERALS? WaPo, 9-4-09
• Marina Belozerskaya: HISTORY Getting Attached to the Past TO WAKE THE DEAD A Renaissance Merchant and the Birth of Archaeology – WaPo, 9-4-09
• Edward M. Kennedy: Books of The Times Kennedy’s Rough Waters and Still Harbors TRUE COMPASS A Memoir – NYT, 9-4-09
• Kennedy Memoir Doesn’t Ignore Lows – NYT, 9-3-09
• Sam Tanenhaus: History of conservatism shown in Tanenhaus new book – SF Gate (9-1-09)

PROFILED & FEATURED:

• Professor Christopher Elrington: Historian who devoted his career to the ‘Victoria County History’ – The Independent (9-1-09)
• A look at John Lukacs: Historian cannot be removed from his story – The Budapest Times (8-31-09)

INTERVIEWED:

• A conversation with Jill Lepore – Humanities (9-1-09)
• Interview with Rodney Stark: The Crusades were “a justified war waged against Muslim terror and aggression” – http://www.medievalists.net (9-3-09)
• Historians Helen Rappaport and Lisa Hilton: are women guilty of “feminising” their subject?
  – BBC (Radio 4) (9-2-09)

HONORED, AWARDED &APPOINTED:

• Michael Szonyi: Chinese Historian Tenured at Harvard – The Harvard Crimson (8-31-09)

SPOTTED:

• NASA historian Andrew Chaikin: “Space historian” talks up lunar exploration at the OMNIMAX Theater at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) – The Bee (9-2-09)

EVENTS CALENDAR:

• Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall: Lincoln’s Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009. NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)

ON TV:

• BBC to launch new series on history of Christianity – Religious Intelligence, 6-19-09
• C-SPAN2: BOOK TV Weekend Schedule
• PBS History Detectives: Mondays at 9pm
• History Channel: Weekly Schedule
• History Channel: “Next Nostradamus” – Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 10pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Last Stand of The 300” – Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Cities Of The Underworld: Maya Underground” – Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 4pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Nostradamus: 2012” – Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Next Nostradamus” – Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 4pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Decoding The Past: Mayan Doomsday Prophecy” – Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “The World Trade Center: Rise and Fall of an American Icon” – Friday, September 11, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Countdown to Ground Zero” – Friday, September 11, 2009 at 4pm ET/PT
• History Channel: Zero Hour: The Last Hour of Flight”” – Friday, September 11, 2009 at 6pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “The Day the Towers Fell” – Friday, September 11, 2009 at 7pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “102 Minutes that Changed America / Witness to 9/11” – Friday, September 11, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “The Crumbling of America” – Saturday, September 12, 2009 at 5pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Manson” – Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “The Templar Code” – Monday, September 14, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

NYT Non-Fiction Best Sellers List – September 13, 2009
• #1 – Michelle Malkin: CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
• #3 – Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT’S SECRET SERVICE
• #11 – J. Randy Taraborrelli: THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE
• #16 – Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
• #17 – Peter S. Canellos: LAST LION
• #20 – C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
• #32 – Doug Stanton: HORSE SOLDIERS

COMING SOON BOOKS:

• Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, September 15, 2009
• Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, September 2009
• James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King – A Nonfiction Thriller, September 28, 2009
• Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
• Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
• L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback), November 1, 2009
• Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom–and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
• Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night (Paperback), December 8, 2009

DEPARTED:

• Historian William Abbot, Former Editor of George Washington Papers, Dies – UVA Today (University of Virginia) (9-3-09)
• G.M. Hiranandani: Eminent Naval historian passes away – Press Trust of India (9-3-09)
• William Wright Abbot III Obituary – DailyProgress.com (9-2-09)

POLITICAL HIGHLIGHTS:

This Week’s Political Highlights
• Political Highlights: Remembering Senator Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy, 1932-2009 HNN, 9-1-09

BIGGEST NEWS STORIES:

• It was Huckabee vs. Doug Brinkley on O’Reilly Show about Health Care Reform: Well, it’s never a mistake for a Democratic president to raise the specter of FDR and Kennedy for his base. I think the Lyndon Johnson comments gets more to the crux of the difficulty the president’s having.
  As you know, the Great Society is what Ronald Reagan warned against. In fact, I edited “Reagan’s Diaries,” and he wrote one passage that said I voted four times for FDR and the New Deal, but I’m trying to roll back the Great Society. Medicaid and Medicare came through Lyndon Johnson, but so did a lot of other government programs that people, particularly conservatives, have been trying to role back some of the wealthier state programs. So there’s a suspicion on the American people that’s been really part of entire history, but we’ve — since 1980 in the Reagan revolution, of too much government.
  And so I think the problem this summer for President Obama is that he’s pushing health care after all that economic stimulus money, and there’s kind of a woe factor going on, saying this might be too much, too fast, too expensive…. – Fox News rush transcript (8-24-09)
• Historian Betsy McCaughey battles with Jon Stewart over the Obama Health Care bill – Jon Stewart The Daily Show (8-17-09)
• Betsy McCaughey: The historian behind the claim that Obama’s in favor of death panels –
• Historian Joshua Brown, illustrator, at his website, Life During Wartime (8-15-09)

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

On This Day in History….

This Week in History…. August 17-23, 2009

IN THE NEWS:

• AHA defends itself from criticism from gay and labor groups – AHA website (8-28-09)
• Antony Beevor: Pacific war too raw for war historian to tackle – brisbanetimes.com.au (8-29-09)
• India seeks to highlight historians’ research – The Times of India (8-28-09)
• Jeremy Leighton John: A Data Deluge Swamps Science Historians – The Wall Street Journal (8-28-09)
• Susan Glover: Historian Housing bubble like silver rush – UPI.com (8-26-09)
• Paul Krugman at war with Niall Ferguson over inflation – Times (London) (8-23-09)
• Ambeth Ocampo: A Ghost Writer for Teodoro A. Agoncillo – Inquirer.net (8-21-09)
• Teachers learn lesson about South’s role in the American Revolution – GoUpstate.com (7-25-09)
• New Mexican government textbook ignites furor for ignoring Spanish conquest – BBC (8-25-09)
• German historians et al. sign a declaration noting Stalin’s direct involvement in the start of World War II – Gazeta Wyborcza (8-21-09)

OP-EDs & BLOGS:

• Stephen Schwartz: Examining the Associations of Tariq Ramadan – American Thinker (8-28-09)
• David Kaiser victim of Internet hoax – David Kaiser at his blog, History Unfolding (8-21-09)
• Robert Nedelkoff: Rick Perlstein’s Nixonland hypothesis as relevant as ever?” Depends who you ask. – The New Nixon (blog) (8-16-09)
• Asaf Romirowsky: Challenging Norton Mezvinsky’s Stance on Isreal – Middle East Forum (8-15-09)

REVIEWS & FIRST CHAPTERS:

• Edward M. Kennedy: Books of The Times Kennedy’s Rough Waters and Still Harbors TRUE COMPASS A Memoir – NYT, 9-4-09
• Kennedy Memoir Doesn’t Ignore Lows – NYT, 9-3-09
• Richard Slotkin: Treacherous Ground NO QUARTER The Battle of the Crater, 1864 – NYT, 8-30-09
• Richard Slotkin: NO QUARTER The Battle of the Crater, 1864, Excerpt – NYT, 8-30-09
• J. Randy Taraborrelli: Such a Sad, Sad Story THE SECRET LIFE OF MARILYN MONROE – WaPo, 8-30-09
• Arthur Goldwag: POPULAR CULTURE Hearsay, You Say? CULTS, CONSPIRACIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, The Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, The New World Order, and many, many more – WaPo, 8-30-09
• Erin Arvedlund, Andrew Kirtzman, Jerry Oppenheimer: Was Bernie Madoff an Evil Genius? That’s Just Half Right. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff, BETRAYAL The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff, MADOFF WITH THE MONEY – WaPo, 8-30-09
• Rich Cohen: An Imagined Nation ISRAEL IS REAL – WaPo, 8-30-09
• Janet Soskice: RELIGION A Sister Act of Perseverance THE SISTERS OF SINAI How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels – WaPo, 8-30-09
• Josh Neufeld: Graphic Memories of Katrina’s Ordeal A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge – NYT, 8-23-09
• Josh Neufeld: A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge – NYT, 8-23-09
• Tristram Hunt: Fox Hunter, Party Animal, Leftist Warrior MARX’S GENERAL The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels – NYT, 8-19-09
• Tristram Hunt: MARX’S GENERAL The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels, Excerpt – NYT, 8-19-09
• Adrian Goldsworthy: HISTORY Rome Wasn’t Destroyed in a Day Either HOW ROME FELL Death of a Superpower – WaPo, 8-23-09
• Adrian Goldsworthy: HOW ROME FELL Death of a Superpower, Excerpt – WaPo, 8-23-09
• Ilaria Dagnini Brey: WORLD WAR II Guardians of History THE VENUS FIXERS The Remarkable Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy’s Art During World War II – WaPo, 8-23-09
• Peter C. Mancall: EXPLORATION Mutiny on the Hudson FATAL JOURNEY The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson — A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic – WaPo, 8-23-09
• Marc Wortman: CIVIL WAR The Work of Sherman THE BONFIRE The Siege and Burning of Atlanta WaPo, 8-23-09
• Historian Bonnie J. Morris celebrates women’s studies in her latest book Revenge of the Women’s Studies Professor – Michelle Finn writing at the website of H-Women (8-1-09)

PROFILED & FEATURED:

• Veronica Buckley: The Puritanical French The unsexy secret of Louis XIV’s mistress The Secret Wife of Louis XIV – Slate, 8-31-09
• Manning Clark: Behind a historian’s mask: Brian Matthews takes a look into the private life of Manning Clark – theage.com.au (8-26-09)
• Darío A. Euraque: Trinity Historian Turned Cultural Guardian Standing Up To New Honduran Regime – courant.com (Hartford Courant) (8-30-09)
• Martyn Whittock looks at life in the Middle Ages – bath.co.uk (8-26-09)
• Charles “Doc” Merkel: Civilian historian headed to combat – pnj.com (8-23-09)
• Aaron Sheehan-Dean: UNF historian maps the Civil War – News Jacksonville.com (8-24-09)
• Nelson Lichtenstein: Historian’s New Book Takes hard Look at Wal-Mart The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business – http://www.onepennysheet.com (8-24-09)
• Carl Beamer: The Air Force historian with a PhD who now runs a bookstore – Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio) (8-24-09) )

QUOTED:

• CBS Historian Douglas Brinkley calls Ted Kennedy A ‘Martyr’ for ObamaCare: During the 2:00AM ET hour of CBS’s Up to the Minute on Wednesday, shortly after news broke of Senator Ted Kenney’s death, historian Douglas Brinkley exclaimed the Massachusetts Democrat was: “…going to be a – a martyr because of all that he’s done and he very well might help, in death, Obama get his health care plan.” MRC Newsbusters (Conservative Media Watchdog) (8-26-09)

INTERVIEWED:

• Jon Meacham interviews Sam Tanenhaus on ‘The Death of Conservatism’ – Newsweek (8-29-09)
• Matt Phillips Interviews Historian Charles Geistt: Financial Historian on The Dow as ‘Cultural Icon’ – The Wall Street Journal (blog) (8-21-09)
• Louis Masur: Historian Has A Lifelong Love Of Bruce Springsteen Hartford Courant (8-16-09)

HONORED, AWARDED &APPOINTED:

• AHA’s Arnita Jones is set to retire next year – AHA Blog (8-23-09)
• James Billington: Is a New Librarian of Congress in the Works? – LibraryJournal.com (8-3-09)

SPOTTED:

• Ron Eisenman: High school teacher grateful for the chance to attend Gilder Lehrman summer seminar – Ron Eisenman, a teacher at Rutland, Vermont’s Rutland High School (8-21-09)

EVENTS CALENDAR:

• Inaugural Semester-long seminar on Constitutional History offered at N-Y Historical Society this fall: Lincoln’s Constitution will be taught at the New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, on Thursday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. The seminar will be held on September 17 and 24 and on October 1, 15, 22, and 29, 2009. NYHS Press Release (7-20-09)

ON TV:

• BBC to launch new series on history of Christianity – Religious Intelligence, 6-19-09
• C-SPAN2: BOOK TV Weekend Schedule
• PBS History Detectives: Mondays at 9pm
• History Channel: Weekly Schedule
• History Channel: “Titanic’s Final Moments: Missing Pieces” – Friday, September 4, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Cities Of The Underworld: Underground Apocalypse” – Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Nostradamus: 500 Years Later” – Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 5pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Decoding The Past: Doomsday 2012: The End of Days” – Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Next Nostradamus” – Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 10pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Nostradamus: 2012” – Sunday, September 6, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Manson” – Monday, September 7, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Last Stand of The 300” – Tuesday, September 8, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Nostradamus: 2012” – Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 2pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Next Nostradamus” – Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 4pm ET/PT
• History Channel: “Decoding The Past: Mayan Doomsday Prophecy” – Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 8pm ET/PT

BEST SELLERS (NYT):

NYT Non-Fiction Best Sellers List – September 6, 2009
• #1 – Michelle Malkin: CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
• #2 – Ronald Kessler: IN THE PRESIDENT’S SECRET SERVICE
• #9 – Douglas Brinkley: THE WILDERNESS WARRIOR
• #18 – C. David Heymann: BOBBY AND JACKIE
• #22 – Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson: THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA, 2008
• #33 – Doug Stanton: HORSE SOLDIERS

COMING SOON BOOKS:

• Richard C. Hoagland: Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA (Revised), September 1, 2009
• Douglas Hunter: Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World, September 1, 2009
• Noah Andre Trudeau: Robert E. Lee: Lessons in Leadership, September 1, 2009
• Annette Gordon-Reed: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (Paperback), September 8, 2009
• Jon Krakauer: Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman, September 15, 2009
• Dean C. Jessee (Editor): The Joseph Smith Papers: Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, September 2009
• James Patterson: The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King – A Nonfiction Thriller, September 28, 2009
• Timothy Egan: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America, October 19, 2009
• Gil Troy, Vincent J. Cannato, eds.: Living in the Eighties, October 23, 2009
• L. Fletcher Prouty: JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy, (Paperback), November 1, 2009
• Edward Kritzler: Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a Generation of Swashbuckling Jews Carved Out an Empire in the New World in Their Quest for Treasure, Religious Freedom–and Revenge, (Paperback), November 3, 2009
• Anthony Haden-guest: Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night (Paperback), December 8, 2009

DEPARTED:

• Richard Poirier: A founder of Library of America, Dies at 83 – NYT (8-18-09)
• Dr Geraint Jenkins: Renowned historian mourned – Tivy-Side Advertiser (8-17-09)