Nicolas Sarkozy has suddenly developed a new French foreign policy that stresses aggressive military intervention. The French Armée de l’Air has intervened powerfully in the Libyan civil war and French ground forces are on the ground in the Ivory Coast [see my previous posts on these issues].
Nicole Bacharan, a French political scientist, was interviewed on NPR this weekend about Sarkozy’s new military interventionism.
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi continues to ridicule Italian women and the Italian justice system as his latest trial moves forward.
Berlusconi’s latest mode of ridicule is to “invite” young women to “bunga, bunga” parties during a ceremony honoring college graduates. This sort of sexist behavior has become the norm in Berlusconi’s Italy and no longer appears as a political gaffe to many people in Italian society. Italian feminists and women’s rights activists have rallied against Berlusconi’s abusive attitude toward women this spring, but nothing seems to have changed in Italian politics.
Given Berlusconi’s ability to maneuver with impunity so far, it is not clear whether the joke will be on Berlusconi or on Italy in the end.
Read more about Berlusconi’s recent comments and his trial at NPR.
Warrior Pursuits is now available at a library near you.
I am pleased to see that Warrior Pursuits has now been cataloged in 144 libraries worldwide.
WorldCat online catalog allows you to search for books in libraries near you. Try searching for a book using your zipcode to find the nearest copy of your favorite book.
Nabil Matar (Presidential Professor, Departments of English and History, the Religious Studies Program, University of Minnesota)
“Henry Stubbe and the first use of Christian Arabic sources about Muhammad”
Friday 15 April 2011, 4:00 pm
Pick 016
University of Chicago
Co-sponsored by the Renaissance Workshop and the Middle East History and Theory Workshop.
Graduate students in early modern history at Northern Illinois University may be interested in this lecture by a prominent scholar of early modern Muslims and the Mediterranean world.
When did guns become pervasive in film? Perhaps earlier than you imagine….
This is a shootout scene from The Great Train Robbery (1903).
Milos Stehlik, of Facets in Chicago, considered the portrayal of guns in film recently on WBEZ’s Worldview.
Students in HIST 390 History and Film: War in Film may want to check out his piece online at Worldview.
Chicago’s Worldview featured a story today on “Nuclear Disaster in Japanese Film,” by Facets film commentator Milos Stehlik. This piece does not really have any great new revelations, but does provide a nice introduction to nuclear nightmares in postwar Japanese filmmaking.
Students in HIST 390 History and Film: War in Film may be interested in this piece.
I recently came across an article from the American Historical Association’s Perspectives examining historical films portraying the American Civil War since Glory.
Students in HIST 390 History and Film: War in Film may be interested in this article.
A new article by the Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Commerce Department treats Higher Education in the United States as an exportable commodity.
Undoubtedly American higher education involves study abroad programs, student exchange programs, international student recruitment, institutional agreements between universities, and international research cooperation. However, I wonder whether these complex academic and educational relationships are really best described by the formulation of “exporting” higher education.
The Under Secretary’s support for higher education is certainly welcome, especially in the current climate of budget cutting, but his notion of higher education as an export commodity needs to be considered carefully by academics and educators.
The Under Secretary’s piece appears in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Between Friction and Collaboration: Imperial Elites and Local Powerbrokers
Northwestern University, 15-16 April 2011
Northwestern University is hosting an upcoming conference on imperialism, entitled “Between Friction and Collaboration: Imperial Elites and Local Powerbrokers.”
Graduate students at Northern Illinois University working on comparative empires, and the history of violence, and early modern global history will be interested in this conference, which features specialists on the British, French, Spanish, and Ottoman empires. A session on theories of empire will also be held.
A detailed program is available online at the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program website at Northwestern University.
French military intervention in the Libyan civil war has prompted new thinking about French military policies and about international politics in the Mediterranean region.
Le Monde published a debate between several experts on Mediterranean culture and politics, including the historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie. Find the Le Roy Ladurie’s piece here and the entire debate online at Le Monde.
Students in HIST 423 French Revolution and Napoleon, as well as students planning on taking my upcoming course HIST 458 Mediterranean World, may be interested in reading this debate.
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