First Annual Conference on Public Intellectuals, 23-24 April 2010, Harvard University

Randall Stephens

This weekend I'll be taking part in an interesting new conference on public intellectuals. The organizers Larry Friedman (Harvard) and Damon Freeman (UPenn) hope to draw interested parties to the conference. All sessions (held in Harvard's William James Hall) are open to the public.

Here's the summary:

In 1993, literary critic Edward Said defined the ideal intellectual as someone who stood outside circles of power while advancing knowledge and freedom for the wider public in "speaking truth to power." This first annual Conference on Public Intellectuals seeks to deepen and broaden Said's critique by providing an opportunity to scholars who are writing on public intellectuals.

The conference will take place over a period of two days, Friday and Saturday, 23-24 April 2010 at Harvard University. It is free and open to the public. The conference venue is in Room 1305 of William James Hall, 33 Kirkland Street on Harvard's campus. Sixteen papers are spread over four sessions: Public Intellectuals as Cultural Icons; Religion, Science, and Tolerance; and Race, Gender, and Protest, Parts One and Two. The conference also features two plenary sessions on Career Reflections. The conference is also working in conjunction with "The Future of American Intellectual History" symposium taking place Friday afternoon, 23 April in the Lower Level Conference Room at Harvard's Busch Hall.

See the full program here.

Historical Society Conference, June 3-5, 2010

Randall Stephens

The program for the 2010 History Society conference--"Historical Inquiry in the New Century"
June 3-5, 2010, Marvin Center, George Washington University, Washington, DC--is now on-line. Participants will address a wide range of questions and issues, including: Where do particular fields now stand? What are the truly “big questions” historians face, and are we adequately grappling with them? How do we think historical inquiry will change in the 21st century?

The three-day meeting includes the following plenaries:

Thursday, 7:30-9:00pm
Peter Coclanis, University of North Carolina, “Lee’s Lieutenants: The American South in Global Context”

Friday, 7:30-9:00pm
Christopher Lasch Lecture: Adam Hochschild, “How History Looks Different Over Time: The Case of the First World War”

Saturday, 7:30-9:00pm
Michael Barone, American Enterprise Institute, “The Enduring Character of America’s Political Parties in Times of Continual Change”

Comment: Sean Wilentz, Princeton University

Comment: Leo Ribuffo, George Washington University

A sampling of sessions:

Thursday, 2:45-4:15pm

Session IID: DOES IT TAKE A SMALL WINDOW TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE?

Chair: Melvin Patrick Ely, College of William and Mary

Melvin Patrick Ely
"What Reviewers Should Have Criticized about Israel on the Appomattox, But Didn't"

Nancy A. Hillman, College of William and Mary, "Drawn Together, Drawn Apart: Biracial Fellowship and Black Leadership in Virginia Baptist Churches Before and After Nat Turner"

Jennifer R. Loux, Library of Virginia, "How Proslavery Southerners Became Emancipationists: Slavery and Regional Identity in Frederick County, Maryland"

Ted Maris-Wolf, Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
"Self-Enslavement in Virginia, 1856-1864: How Two Free Black Men Shaped a Law That Fueled the National Debate Over Slavery"

Comment: Melvin Patrick Ely

Friday, 10:15-11:45am

Session IID: THE WESTERN ASCENDANCY IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: NEW INTERPRETATIONS

Chair: TBA

George Huppert, University of Illinois at Chicago, "What Can Be Learned from the Diary of a 17th-Century Merchant?"

John M. Headley, University of North Carolina, “On Constructing a Global Context for American History”

Ricardo Duchesne, University of New Brunswick,"On the Primordial Origins of Europe's Unique Restlessness: A Preliminary Discussion"

Friday, 1:00-2:30pm

Session IIIA: STATE OF THE FIELD: AMERICAN LABOR HISTORY

Chair: Grace Palladino, The Samuel Gompers Papers, University of Maryland

Leon Fink, University of Illinois at Chicago, "The Great Escape: How LABOR Has Met the Challenge of Hard Times"

Donna T. Haverty-Stacke, Hunter College, CUNY, "Rethinking U.S. Labor History: Thoughts on the Recent Past and Future of the Field"

Melvyn Dubofsky, Binghamton University, "The Ugly Secret of U.S. History"

Ronald Schatz, Wesleyan University, "What's Wrong with U.S. Labor History"

Friday, 2:45-4:15pm

Session IVA: STATE OF THE FIELD: TWENTIETH-CENTURY AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

Chair: TBA

Daniel Letwin, Pennsylvania State University, "Black Political Thought in the Age of the New Negro"

Carol Anderson, Emory University, "Freedom Fighters on the Cold War Plantation: The Histories of African Americans' Anticolonialism"

Mary Ellen Curtin, University of Essex, "Race, Gender, and American Politics since 1965"

Friday, 2:45-4:15pm

Session IVC: COMPARATIVE WAYS OF WAR

Chair: James Carafano, Heritage Institute

Robert Citino, University of North Texas, “The German Way of War Revisited”

Brian McAllister Linn, Texas A&M University, “Reflections on the American Way of War”

Peter Lorge, Vanderbilt University, “The Many Ways of Chinese Warfare”

Ralph R. Menning, Kent State University-Stark Campus, “Recent Trends in the Historiography of the Origins of World War I”

Comment: James Carafano

Saturday, 10:15-11:45am

Session IIE: INVESTING IN HISTORY’S VALUE: THE EVOLUTION OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Chair: Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina

Wilfred McClay, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Pamela Edwards, Jack Miller Center

Tad Brown, Watson Brown Foundation

Jack Womack, Harvard University

Heather Cox Richardson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Saturday, 2:45-4:15pm

Session IVA: RETHINKING THE COLD WAR AT HOME

Chair: Eric Arnesen, George Washington University

Richard Fried, University of Illinois at Chicago, “McCarthy and ‘the 50s’: Friends or Foes”

Jennifer Delton, Skidmore College, “The Cold War as the Triumph of New Deal Liberalism”

Eric Arnesen, George Washington University, “The ‘Opportunites Lost’ Thesis Reconsidered: What, Precisely, Did the Demise of the Communist Left Mean for Civil Rights in America?”

Saturday, 4:30-6:00pm

Session VB: HISTORY DEPARTMENTS AND THE PROBLEM OF HISTORICAL GENERATIONS

Chair: Katrin Schultheiss, George Washington University

William Palmer, Marshall University
“Historical Generations and Changes in History Departments”

James M. Banner, Jr., National History Center
"My Generation of Historians"

John Harvey, St. Cloud State University
"The Rise of Modern Europe and the American Idealization of European Civilization, 1928 to 1986"

Comment: Howard Segal, University of Maine

Early registration and hotel information is available here.

The Historical Society’s 2010 Conference: "Historical Inquiry in the New Century" - Jan 31 Deadline for Proposals

Randall Stephens

Here's another reminder about the Historical Society's 2010 Conference, "Historical Inquiry in the New Century" (June 3-5, 2010, George Washington University, Washington, DC). Distinguished American historian and former president of the Historical Society Eric Arnesen is the program chair.

The January 31 deadline for conference proposals is fast approaching. Panels and presenters will address a wide range of questions and issues, including, but certainly not limited to, the following:

Where do particular fields now stand?

What are the truly “big questions” historians face, and are we adequately grappling with them?

How do we think historical inquiry will change in the 21st century?

Do certain fields remain peripheral to the larger historical enterprise? If so, how would their integration change the writing and practice of history?

How should historians reach the larger public? Should academic historians write for a larger audience?

In light of recent discussions about the crisis/decline of the humanities, how will the discipline of history fare in the coming years?

We particularly encourage panel proposals, though individual paper proposals are, of course, welcome as well.

Please submit proposals (abstract and a brief CV) to jslucas@bu.edu by January 31, 2010.

On-line early registration and hotel information is now posted here.

NCHE Conference Held in Boston

Randall Stephens

The National Council for History Education (NCHE) held its annual conference in Boston a couple weeks ago. By all appearances it was a terrific success. Approximately 800 educators--high school teachers, college professors, publishers, and administrators--gathered to promote the serious study and practice of history. Keynote lecturers included Lewis Lapham, David McCullough, Pauline Maier, and Sharon Leon. Participants fanned out across the city, touring historic sites and taking in the ambience. The theme for the conference this year centered on revolutions in historical perspective. Hence, presentations included:

Tories, Timid, or True Blue? Encouraging Historical Thinking Using Historic Sites

A Local Revolution: Researching Oral History, Artifacts and Local History to Create Community

Museums Understanding the Iranian Revolution: Historical Roots and Global Implications

Revolutions of 1968: Ushering in a Better World of Transnational Connections? A Look at Mexico City, New York, Paris, and Prague

Many academic historians might not know about this organization. I wasn't aware of it until several years ago. But it's been around in one form or another since 1988. State branches are extending its work as well. The NCHE is well placed to link "history in the schools with many activities sponsored by state and local organizations." The organization provides "a communications network for all advocates of history education, whether in schools, colleges, museums, historical councils, or community groups." Unlike Gilder Lehrman and other institutes, the NCHE focuses on American and world history, from ancient to modern.

With thousands of members across the country, the council does much good work for the profession and deserves greater attention from academic historians.