Monthly Archives: January 2012

Wreck of the Costa Concordia in the Mediterranean

Posted on January 15, 2012 by briansandberg

A gigantic cruise liner with 4,234 passengers aboard ran aground near Isola del Giglio, a tiny island off the Tuscan coast, over the weekend. The Costa Concordia had sailed from Civitavecchia, heading on cruise of the western Mediterranean. As the … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental History, European History, European Union, Globalization, Maritime History, Mediterranean World | Leave a comment

Laurent Dubois on the History of Haiti

Posted on January 14, 2012 by briansandberg

As Haitians continues to struggle with rebuilding following the disastrous 2010 earthquake, historians are grappling with explaining the historical roots of Haiti’s current predicament. Laurent Dubois, a professor of history at Duke University, has written several books on Haiti and … Continue reading →

Posted in Environmental History, French History, French Revolution and Napoleon, Globalization, Human Rights | Leave a comment

France Loses AAA Credit Rating

Posted on January 14, 2012 by briansandberg

France has lost its AAA credit rating as Standard & Poor’s cut its rating a notch to AA+. Eleanor Beardsley of NPR reports that “Standard & Poor’s downgraded the sovereign debt of France, Italy, Spain and six other European countries … Continue reading →

Posted in European Union, French History, Political Culture | Leave a comment

New Diplomatic History and Neorealism

Posted on January 13, 2012 by briansandberg

Historians of the “new” Diplomatic History tend to clash with Political Science approaches to International Relations, and especially with Neorealists—who often depict states as “billiard balls” acting against each other on a global pool table. Paul W. Schroeder, a prominent … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, Globalization, Political Culture, State Development Theory, War, Culture, and Society | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Anti-French Attitudes and American Politics

Posted on January 13, 2012 by briansandberg

French historians and literary scholars are all too aware of the anti-French attitudes in American society.  Anti-French references have long been rife in American popular culture, but took on new virulence in the wake of Franco-German opposition to the Bush … Continue reading →

Posted in Comparative Revolutions, French History, History in the Media, Political Culture | Leave a comment

Negotiating Peace in Afghanistan

Posted on January 13, 2012 by briansandberg

There have been numerous reports of United States diplomatic discussions with the Taliban to negotiate an end to the Afghan War. Almost all wars end with negotiated settlements, so U.S. negotiations with the Taliban are hardly surprising. But, as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Conflict, History in the Media, History of Violence, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Archivists, Historians, and the “Archival Divide”

Posted on January 12, 2012 by briansandberg

Archivists and historians sometimes seem to be operating across an “archival divide”, with differing understandings of documentary collections and highly divergent agendas for those collections. Historians who have worked in archives in foreign nations will be acutely aware of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Archival Research, Conferences, Graduate Work in History, Humanities Education | Leave a comment

New Directions in Graduate Teaching

Posted on January 12, 2012 by briansandberg

One of the issues to emerge from the run-up to this year’s American Historical Association (AHA) Annual Meeting, which concluded last weekend in Chicago, is the need for reform in graduate training in history and the humanities. Successive articles by … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Graduate Work in History, Humanities Education | Leave a comment

Turning a Dissertation into a Book

Posted on January 10, 2012 by briansandberg

American Historical Association (AHA) conferences usually include practical sessions on professional development issues, which are intended to assist graduate students and junior faculty members in becoming productive historians.  One of the most useful of these sessions is always the panel … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Publishing, Conferences, Graduate Work in History, Writing Methods | Leave a comment

Article Prize in European History

Posted on January 10, 2012 by briansandberg

The Council for European Studies (CES) seeks nominations for its inaugural European Studies First Article Prize. The First Article Prize honors the writers of the best first articles on European studies published within a two-year period and will be awarded … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic Publishing, European History, Graduate Work in History, Grants and Fellowships | Leave a comment