Новости за 21.10.2018

Eugenics.Wasn’t it immoral, a pseudoscience?

It is often dismissed now in terms like these. A century ago, most educated people thought of eugenics the way we think now of genetics, as a base of scientific knowledge that can make us healthier, more attractive, more efficient. It fell out of favor in the 1950s and 1960s, when the word came to be associated with Nazi forced sterilization campaigns. In fact, sterilization laws had their start in the United States, where they were pushed for a mix of Progressive and illiberal reasons. Читать дальше...

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

—George Eliot

Bradley Bagshaw is known as an outstanding Seattle trial lawyer and an expert in maritime law. He spent decades representing individuals and families against fishing corporations and also represented parties in cases involving civil rights, including same-sex couples who were pioneers in the quest for marriage equality.

Now he’s left litigation behind and he’s embarking on a new path as a writer with his rousing debut novel Georges Bank... Читать дальше...

For many years now one of the rituals of the baseball season, along with spring training the All Star Game and the World Series is journalists and pundits announcing that baseball is less popular than ever and is no longer America’s game. This has become as much part of baseball as rookie sensations, tension filled playoff games, the news that another top pitcher needs Tommy John surgery and a big trade at the deadline. However, some perspective is necessary here. Baseball is by many measures... Читать дальше...

Statue at the Emancipation Memorial in Washington DC.

Archer Alexander was an enslaved African who fought for freedom from bondage during the American Civil War. His story recently came to light when a 23andMe genetic test showed that Alexander was an ancestor of Muhammad Ali. He was Ali’s great-great-great grandfather, although Ali did not know of the relationship and probably did not know Alexander’s story.

Alexander’s biography was written and published in 1885 and is available... Читать дальше...

Writing in 1926 Albert Einstein made a discovery of another’s scientist’s work which he thought was equal to his own accomplishments. “The history of scientific and technical discovery teaches us that the human race is poor in independent thinking and creative imagination. Even when the external and scientific requirements for the birth of an idea have long been there, it generally needs an external stimulus to make it happen” man has to stumble right up against the thing before the idea comes.”

The dreaded cookies.

James W. Loewen is a sociologist.  The New Press has just brought out new paperbacks of Loewen's bestseller, Lies My Teacher Told Me, and Sundown Towns, about places that were/are all-white on purpose. 

America has too many lawyers. Or at least, higher ed does.  

Consider Princeton. This week I spoke at its Department of History, co-sponsored by the Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding. But first I had to sign a contract. 

Princeton sent me a doozy. Читать дальше...

In an article published in HNN on October 8, 2018, Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi criticizes the Middle East Studies Association for the concerns it expressed regarding the partnering of theNew York Times with George Washington University (GWU)’s Program on Extremism (POE) to “produce a public archive of thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) documents the newspaper retrieved from northern Iraq.”He notes the importance of access to materials to write the history of this period, and reports that he himself... Читать дальше...

Throughout the The Prince and his other political works, Machiavelli cautions that internal subversion is the most dangerous consequence of a prince losing the trust of his subjects. To guard against this, a prince must never appear frivolous, unprincipled, fickle, or shallow. Instead, he must always appear to adhere to “certain values of virtu.” If he can do this, a prince will avoid the greatest danger of all: revolt from within. “Internal subversion is more perilous than external attacks,” Machiavelli cautions... Читать дальше...

The Midwest is the heartland of America, both in history in the past, and in the political present and future.

Like many people, I have watched over the past few weeks as women have been attacked from all sides. This is, unfortunately, nothing new. Yet, what has occurred over the course of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination process has been particularly painful for many women. As Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick have faced an all-out assault for daring to ask for accountability and justice, I watched as women I knew had their own pasts, their own trauma, brought to the surface. I watched... Читать дальше...

In Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty, John Boles offers us another biography of Thomas Jefferson. In his brief introduction, he mentions that his aim is to present Jefferson as “politician, party leader, executive; architect, musician, oenophile, gourmand, traveler; inventor, historian, political theorist; land owner, farmer, slaveholder; and son, father, grandfather.” He cautions readers that his portrait is “admittedly sympathetic but critical when appropriate.” (The choice of “sympathetic” is unfortunate... Читать дальше...

National School Lunch week is here (October 15-19), a time for shining the spotlight on this essential program that feeds hungry children. For just a moment, let’s take a step back in time to see what President Harry Truman and the United States Army were doing about school lunches in the fall of 1946. Truman had recently signed the National School Lunch Act, which provided meals for needy children.  This meant free or reduced price school lunches for children of families living in poverty. The... Читать дальше...

The rich made off with the money the GOP predicted would be shared with workers.

Donald Trump is the first candidate to win the Presidency who lacked government or military experience. Only Wendell Willkie before him in 1940, and H. Ross Perot as an Independent in 1992 and 1996, are comparable.

Shakespeare’s wife Anne Hathaway could solve many mysteries about her famous husband.  She could tell us how he got his start as a playwright, how he negotiated work and family, how he grieved for the death of his only son, how he died, and whether or not he was a closet Catholic. She could reveal where he wrote his plays, if he was a family man dutifully traveling back to Stratford, or if he heartlessly abandoned his wife and children to seek fame and fortune.  She could also tell us why her name is on their marriage bond... Читать дальше...

Professor Nell Painter, Artist 

(Detail, John Emerson Photo)

In my history books I have already had my say in clear language and discursive meaning about community. Now what history means to me in images is freedom from coherence, clarity, and collective representation. Nell Painter, Old in Art School

At age 64, Nell Irvin Painter retired from her chaired history professor position at Princeton University. During her distinguished career as a historian and teacher she was acclaimed... Читать дальше...

This goes far toward explaining one of the most troubling facts historians have uncovered about myths: they don’t die. They just go into hibernation, ready to spring back to life when circumstances become favorable. Take Joseph Stalin. He was officially repudiated by the Soviet Union shortly after his death in 1953. His horrors were fully exposed. But on the sixtieth anniversary of his death, who did Russians tell pollsters was the greatest Russian leader in history? Joseph Stalin. It’s not the man Russians were celebrating. Читать дальше...

On the second Monday of October various cities and states celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day. Some locales do so along with Columbus Day, others instead of honoring a man who began the conquest of America’s Indians. Thus, it seems an appropriate occasion to ask whether in ranking our forty-five presidents we are mindful enough of their policies toward Native Americans. 

Four centuries ago, somebody starving in the drought afflicted Elbe region in what is today the Czech Republic, anonymously chiseled onto the stone of the receding river bank a warning. Here, along the river where one day American and Soviet troops would meet on their duel approach to Berlin, a graffito made by unknown hand marks 1616 as the oldest year recorded on one particular “Hunger Stone”, and on that surface there is a memento mori which reads “Wenn du mich sicht, dann weine.” This summer... Читать дальше...

A rendering of the Space Launch System Block 1 (NASA)

NASA’s congressionally-mandated Space Launch System (SLS) was envisioned to take the United States to the Moon and beyond. Thus far, however, it has failed to launch and many are calling for the program to be terminated because of high costs and delays.

SLS replaced Constellation, which was NASA’s manned spaceflight program. It had similar lofty goals but ran into funding problems and was cancelled when President Barack Obama signed the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. Читать дальше...

On October 8, 2018 the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report that an author of previous studies called “quite a shock.” Ninety-one scientists from 40 countries analyzing more than 6,000 scientific studies contributed to the report’s findings. It indicated, as has become increasingly clear, that the world is already experiencing “more extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice” and that if we don’t reduce greenhouse gas emissions faster than we have ever done before... Читать дальше...

Click inside the image below and scroll down to see tweets.

Why would the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), the primary umbrella organization for the field of Middle East studies, oppose the New York Times partnering with George Washington University (GWU)’s Program On Extremism to produce a public archive of the thousands of Islamic State (ISIS) documents the newspaper retrieved from northern Iraq? Analysis based on solid evidence, after all, is far superior to speculation and guesswork that may be proven erroneous. While there are many media articles... Читать дальше...

Senator Charles Curtis (right) with President Coolidge and Grace Coolidge on their way to the Capitol building on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1925.