History Matters Archives
November 11, 2009
Posted at 8:50 AM in History Matters
Today is Armistice Day. It doesn't seem appropriate to dwell here on how powerfully affecting I find the Great War and the poetry that came out of those bloody years. Instead I'll point you to The First World War Poetry Archive, an amazing online collection of manuscripts, photos, and other artifacts and echoes of the war and the people who fought and died in it.
The archive, which is hosted at Oxford University but draws on other archives as well, has just launched its Siegfried Sassoon Collection. Here's one of my favorite passages from Robert Graves's memoir Good-Bye to All That, in which he tells a story about Sassoon, poetry, and battlefield heroics:
The Battalion's next objective was 'The Quadrangle,' a small copse this side of Mametz Wood, where Siegfried distinguished himself by taking, single-handed, a battalion frontage which the Royal Irish Regiment had failed to take the day before. He went over with bombs in daylight, under covering fire from a couple of rifles, and scared away the occupants. A pointless feat, since instead of signalling for reinforcements, he sat down in the German trench and began reading a book of poems which he had brought with him. When he finally went back he did not even report. Colonel Stockwell, then in command, raged at him. The attack on Mametz Wood had been delayed for two hours because British patrols were still reported to be out. "British patrols" were Siegfried and his book of poems. "I'd have got you a D.S.O. if only you'd shown more sense," stormed Stockwell.
If you go here, you'll find a link to an audio file of Sassoon reading his Armistice poem "Everyone Sang":
...My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.
Sassoon outlasted the War by decades. He died in 1967 at the age of 80.
December 26, 2008
Posted at 3:13 PM in History Matters
I've been distracted with one thing and another of late (holidays, children, writing projects), so I'm behind on posting. Sorry about that. Meanwhile, I had the pleasure last week of writing about a historical hoax perpetrated by a bunch of students in a history class at George Mason University. They created a fictional 19th-century pirate named Edward Owens and turned him loose on the Internet, along with a made-up undergraduate namd Jane Browning who was supposedly tracking down the Owens legend.
The catch? Their professor, T. Mills Kelly, told them to do it. It's a study in ethics, in research skills, and in learning to tell a sound source from a suspect one. Read more in my story and at Mills's blog, edwired. Reax from American Historical Association staffers here (scroll down a bit). Also see Edward Owens's Wikipedia entry and Jane Browning's YouTube videos. You have been warned.
Note: The Wikipedia entry is marked as being considered for deletion, which suggests that someone in Wikipedialand wasn't too happy about being hoaxed. I've seen some blogospheric debate about whether the class took unfair advantage of so-called trust networks to disseminate the hoax. That's an interesting debate right there.
November 27, 2008
Posted at 12:06 AM in History Matters
Give thanks for whatever you have to be thankful for. If you feel like taking the long view, you can read more about the history of the holiday over at the National Archives website:
On October 3, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation naming Thursday, November 26, 1789 as an official holiday of "sincere and humble thanks." The nation then celebrated its first Thanksgiving under its new Constitution. On October 3, 1863, President Lincoln made the traditional Thanksgiving celebration a nationwide holiday to be commemorated each year on the fourth Thursday of November....
In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third Thursday of November to lengthen the Christmas shopping season and boost the economy still recovering from the Depression. This move, which set off a national debate, was reversed in 1941 when Congress passed and President Roosevelt approved a joint house resolution establishing, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
Our friends at NARA even serve up a little poetry for the occasion:
"Thanksgiving, like Ambassadors,
Cabinet officers and others
Smeared with political ointment,
Depends for its existence on
Presidential appointment."
--Ogden Nash
September 30, 2008
Posted at 12:19 PM in History Matters
Cloud tagging with a purpose: "a visual historiography of an evolving discipline." Fun to play with, and maybe even illuminating, if you pay attention.
(Via HNN.)
September 22, 2008
Posted at 3:05 PM in History Matters
The National Trust has been assessing the damage that Gustav and Ike inflicted on historic structures in Galveston and elsewhere (even as far north as Plano, Illinois). More upsetting is this news from New Orleans:
The Trust also reports increased pressure from the Nagin administration in New Orleans to demolish historic properties damaged by Hurricane Katrina. In the wake of Hurricane Gustav, the mayor has suspended review of historic structures by the Neighborhood Conservation District Committee (NCDC), a citizens' group formed to ensure that salvageable historic properties are preserved. The mayor argued that review might "hinder, or delay necessary action in coping with the emergency." The Trust notes that properties judged to be in imminent danger of collapse are already exempt from NCDC review.
At least it looks as though Mayor Nagin has had second thoughts about his order, although from this report I can't tell whether the structures already condemned under that order will get a reprieve.
(Via the AHA Today blog.)
September 12, 2008
Posted at 2:57 PM in History Matters
Is Ambrose Bierce, a k a the Broad-Gauge Gossip, really bidding farewell to the blogosphere? In a few short weeks, the pseudonymous and apparently well-connected blogger has kicked up quite a stir with his/her reports on the tenure-and promotion racket at high-profile history departments.
Say it ain't so, A.B. Don't let a few naysayers force you out of the game.
September 4, 2008
Posted at 10:23 AM in History Matters
Do you ever get the feeling that bookers for TV news shows need to expand their rolodexes a wee bit, especially when they're in need of historians to put the current election in a little bit o' perspective? Why is it always Michael Beschloss, Michael Beschloss, and Michael Beschloss?
And where, some of us have wondered, are the ladies--Doris Kearns Goodwin notwithstanding? ( I don't insist on absolute gender parity, but some diversity would be refreshing.) Ambrose Bierce, whose blog I mentioned yesterday, has some thoughts on the glass ceiling of punditry, and draws up a list of female scholars who could help break it.
September 3, 2008
Posted at 7:46 AM in History Matters
Want to find out who's in at Princeton, who's out at "Leland Stanford Junior University"? Itching to know which history departments are imploding and which are on the rise? Ambrose Bierce has the inside scoop at the Broad-Gauge Gossip. Catch him/her now before someone decides to out the pseudonymous blogger.
September 2, 2008
Posted at 1:10 PM in History Matters
So reports AHA Today, the American Historical Association's blog (which I highly recommend checking out if you haven't already):
In a ruling issued August 26th, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein ordered the release of most of the grand jury testimony from the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and a related case against Abraham Brothman and Miriam Moskowitz. The release will cast fresh light on one of the most celebrated spying cases of the Cold War; allowing scholars and journalists to explore the relationship between citizens and the government in that period.
Posted at 1:03 PM in History Matters
...over at A Historian's Craft. You can keep up via RSS feed. (Which reminds me--you can sign up for my feed, too.)
This reminds me of the literary geospaces projects I wrote about for the Chronicle not long ago. This digital humanities stuff has legs.
(Via HNN.)
February 7, 2008
Posted at 2:15 PM in History Matters
Library of Congress blogger Matt Raymond reports the sad news that Harry Landis, one of the last two known American vets of World War I, died on Monday at the very respectable age of 108:
That leaves 107-year-old Frank Buckles of Charles Town, W. Va., as the sole surviving American veteran of the "Great War" that began more than 90 years ago. I was aware that their ranks were dwindling, but I didn't realize that the numbers were so low.
The bright spot? You can hear the voices of Mr. Buckles and 278 other U.S. Great War vets at the Library:
I was curious as to whether we had the oral history of the last remaining WWI veteran. As it turns out, the Library of Congress and its Veterans History Project are indeed the repository of the Frank Buckles collection....
According to the VHP Web site, Buckles himself explained why he told his story: "It's best for anyone who's been in the military service if he's had some disagreeable experiences...to talk about it and get it out of his system and then forget it."
Hang in there, Frank.
