ACE Releases Minority Report
The continued decline in participation of blacks and Hispanics at colleges and universities is a “crisis of substantial dimensions,” especially for the nation’s teaching force, says the American Council on Education in its Sixth Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education, released in October.
According to the report, participation by blacks and Hispanics in college continues to decline despite the growing number of these minorities graduating from high school. The percentage of 18- to 24-year-old black high school students entering college in 1985 dropped more than 7 percent since 1976, from 34 percent to 26 percent.
Although the number of 18- to 24- year-old Hispanic high school graduates entering college increased by 21 percent between 1976 and 1985, the participation rate of Hispanics of this age in higher education declined from 36 per cent in 1976 to 27 percent in 1985 because of overall growth in the Hispanic population.
Many minority students are choosing vocational-technical schools and the military instead of college, ACE’s Office of Minority Concerns says. OMC also found that education is no longer the most popular field of study among minorities. Education now places third after business and the social sciences. The decline in the number of minority teachers will hurt minority students, who need these teachers as role models, the report says.
Copies of the report are available for $7.50 from the Office of Minority Concerns, American Council on Education, One Dupont Circle, Washington, DC 20036; 202/939-9395.
100th Anniversary of the Birth of Charles de Gaulle
In the fall of 1990 the 100th anniversary of the birth of General de Gaulle will be celebrated. A symposium to exchange scholarship on the French leader and his influence will be held at the Institut Charles de Gaulle in Paris.
The theme of the upcoming symposium is “de Gaulle in His Century.” Many distinguished political figures, journalists, and scholars will participate. M. Geoffroy de Courcel, ex-Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, is the president of the Institut, and sitting on the United States Liaison Committee are M. Jacques Leprette, former Ambassador to the United Nations, 1977- 80, president; Mme. Denise Arthaud; MM. Jean-Pierre Cabouat; Henri Clau de!; Jacques Coup de Frejac; Andre Kaspi; Claude Lebel; Mme. Louise Pelloquin; MM. Cyrus Sulzberger; Roger Vaurs; and Bernard Vernier-Palliez.
AHA members are heavily represent ed on the list of scholars who will be presenting papers at the Institut. The US delegation will include: William Cohen, Indiana University; Lawrence Kaplan, Kent State; Kim Munholland, University of Minnesota-Minneapolis; Robert Paxton, Columbia University; David Schalk, Vassar College; Fritz Stern, Columbia University; John Sweets, University of Kansas; and Gordon Wright, University of California Stanford.
For information write the Institut Charles de Gaulle, 5 rue de Solferino, 75007 Paris, France; 45/55-12-60.
Wellington Chair and Mountbatten Chair
The University of Southampton in England is currently raising funds to endow two chairs, a Wellington Chair in nineteenth-century British history and a Mountbatten Chair in International Security. Of interest to specialists in nineteenth- and twentieth-century English history is the fact that the University of Southampton is now the repository for the Wellington papers as well as for the Palmerston Shaftsbury and Mountbatten papers. For information write the Director, Southampton University Development Trust, The University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, Hampshire, SO9 5NH, England.
A Biography on Significant People in American History
The American Council of Learned Societies and Ox ford University Press are announcing plans to publish a new twenty-volume encyclopedia of biographies of significant people in American history. The director for this new project due to be published in 1996, is John A. Garraty, Columbia University, an AHA vice president for the Teaching Division in 1983-86. Oxford University Press and the AHA are involved in a complementary publishing project, The Guide to Historical Literature.
Historians and AHA members who will serve on the editorial board are: Joyce O. Appleby, University of California-Los Angeles; Dan T. Carter, Emory University; Eric Foner, Columbia University; George M. Frederickson, Stanford University; Nathan I. Huggins, Harvard University; Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa; Edmund S. Morgan, Yale University; Barbara Gutman Rosenkrantz, Harvard University; and Maris A. Vinovskis, University of Michigan.
Honorary Member Appointed Director of the Bibliotheque Nationale
Emman uel Le Roy Ladurie, an Honorary Foreign Member of the AHA since 1981, has been appointed the director of the National Library of France. Professor Le Roy Ladurie teaches European his tory at the College de France and is known as the foremost French historian of his generation. He is said to be one of the two or three most influential historians in the world today; his work is popular among the American public as well as historians.
Le Roy Ladurie is the leader of the “Annales” school of historians in Paris, which emphasizes social, cultural, and economic history. The historian also has taught at several American universities including Princeton, Cornell, Pitts burgh, Michigan, and Stanford. He recently commented on the knowledge of American and French students about each other’s history: “it is important for historians to convey how other countries’ regard one’s own. Obviously, De Tocqueville tells us much about the United States. Interestingly, his reflections on America are very popular with the French, too. One deficiency of French research is that not enough is studied about American history. I hope that will be repaired here in the future.” Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie joins AHA member James Billington as a leading force in a national library. Dr. Billington, formerly the Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center of the Smithsonian Institution, has been appointed Librarian of Congress. He is a leading historian of Russian culture and is respected both as a scholar and an administrator.
Presidential Conference Reveals Controversy and Secrets
Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, was the site of the Sixth Annual Presidential Conference: Richard Nixon, a Retrospective on His Presidency on November 19-21. The conference drew more than 1,100 scholars, journalists, and former members of the Nixon Administration. AHA members Joan Hoff-Wilson, executive secretary of the Organization of Ameri can Historians; Stanley I. Kutler, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Stephen E. Ambrose, University of New Orleans; Robert D. Schulzinger, University of Colorado; and Arthur M. Schlesinger, jr., Graduate Center of the City University of New York, were among the distinguished participants.
While decades usually elapse before scholarly revision on political reputations begins, its only been thirteen years since former President Richard Nixon resigned from office. So, what’s the hurry? There’s Richard Nixon himself who, according to a conference participant, has been trying to orchestrate public opinion by restricting access to papers and materials while stressing accomplishments in books, speeches, and articles.
Furthermore, there are the scholars who, ” … need to engage in our own minds in an act of judgment on Richard Nixon,” said Lloyd S. Etheredge, director of graduate studies in international relations at Yale University. But these judgments are deeply divided. “All our memories have been dimmed and severely skewed by Watergate,” said Joan Hoff-Wilson. “But Nixon was far more than Watergate. He has left a positive legacy.” On the other hand, “Watergate happened, and Richard Nixon was found culpable. That has not, and can not be changed,” said Stanley I. Kutler. “Richard Nixon is struggling for the soul of history, and for the souls of historians. Historians ought to worry about their souls.”
If no one could agree on an aspect of the legacy of Richard Nixon, a matter of curiosity was settled: why was the break in at the Watergate headquarters of the Democratic National Committee head quarters authorized? Jeb Stuart Magruder, a special assistant to President Nixon, said the White House wanted to find out if the Democrats knew that funds contributed to the Nixon campaign by Howard Hughes had actually been spent on personal items for President and Mrs. Nixon. “The purpose … ,” said Mr. Magruder, “was to find out what information Larry O’Brien knew and what information we would be able to use to keep it under wraps.”
CCPH Upgrades Its Register of Historians
At its October meeting the California Committee for the Promotion of History’s Steering Committee upgraded qualifications for listing on the CCPH Register of Professional Historians.
In existence since 1984 the Register originally considered years of practical experience in public history in lieu of minimum academic requirements. Now with over fifty registrants, the steering committee felt that individuals with only practical experience have had ample opportunity to seek registration.
Effective December 31, qualifications for listing on the CCPH Register include: abiding by the CCPH Standards of Professional Conduct; an advanced degree or evidence of substantial practi cal experience; and a designed and executed historical study. For information write the Register of Professional Historians, California Committee for the Promotion of History, California His tory Center, 21250 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, CA 95014.
New Museum Commemorating the Battle of Normandy
A major new project being undertaken by the French Government is the Battle of Normandy Museum. More vast in scope than a traditional memorial, this museum in Caen will be both a documentation and research center as well as a museum of the Second World War. Above all, the memorial will attempt to be a monument to the ideas of liberty, resistance, and peace.
General secretary on the museum’s board of historians is Arthur Funk, University of Florida-Gainesville. Other AHA members on the board include Dean C. Allard, Naval Historical Center; Stephen Ambrose, University of New Orleans; Martin Blumenson, Washington, DC; Stanley Falk, Washington, DC; D. Clayton James, Mississippi State; Maurice Matloff, Washington, DC; Robert 0. Paxton, Columbia University; Agnes F. Peterson, Hoover Institution; Forrest Pogue, Marshall Foundation; Ronald H. Spector, Naval Historical Center; David Trask, Army Historical Center; Russell F. Weigley, Temple University; and Robert Wolfe, National Archives. For information write the U.S. Committee for the Battle of Normandy Museum, 1074 Thomas Jefferson Street NW, Washington, DC 22007; 202/338-0745.
