Making History on the Hill
The image on the cover is an east view of the U.S. Capitol building, circa 1866. Image courtesy the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. (Editor’s note: We regret that the caption for the cover of the print version of the December 2008 issue was in error. The image is of the old Washington, D.C., city hall, now a court house, situated at Indiana Avenue and 4th Street, N.W.)
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Featured Articles
From the AHA
Documents Compass Receives Mellon Grant for Founding-Era Database
The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities has announced that its newly formed service provider, Documents Compass, has received a $327,000…
Adam Hochschild to Receive AHA’s Roosevelt-Wilson Prize
The AHA’s Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Prize will be presented to the awardwinning author, Adam Hochschild, on January 2, 2009, at…
What’s in the December AHR?
In the last issue of the American Historical Review, we revisited an important historiographical debate, that of the “Crisis of…
Bruce Cole to Leave the NEH in 2009
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that Bruce Cole will leave the endowment in January 2009, on the…
Changes in the Wings for the Humanities
As a new administration prepares to take office, and as new members of Congress get ready to arrive in Washington,…
Making History on the Hill: From Being a Fellow to Bequeathing a Fellowship
When I applied for the AHA Congressional Fellowship in 1985 I had no idea of the adventure before me—or that…
A Historian in a House Divided: A Personal View of Recent Congressional History
In this essay, I offer some observations about the changing nature of Congress over the past three decades from the…
A Modest Proposal for 2009
The conclusion of the annual meeting of the AHA in New York City in January 2009 will mark the beginning…
Historic Election’s Impact on History
The election of Barack Obama is undoubtedly one of the most historic moments of our time. Vitally important to the…
News Briefs, December 2008
PIDB Grapples with Prioritization for Declassification of “Historically Significant” Records Almost a year ago, Public Interest Declassification Board released its…
Doing the “Write” Thing: Reflections on Academic Integrity
Ninth-grade fingers flew over keyboards in fall 2002. Clicking, copying, and pasting, they prepared PowerPoint presentations on ancient civilizations. This…
Do the Write/Right Thing: A Quick Guide to Avoiding Academic Dishonesty
1. Direct quotes ALWAYS require BOTH quotation marks and a citation indicating the source Example from Ronald Takaki’s Double Victory…
Masters at the Movies, Take 7
Under the rubric “Masters at the Movies,” this column features a variety of articles on films by some of the…
A Historian at the Movies: Films and the Historical Imagination
Almost a trope, most of us who are older often say things such as: “When I was young, things were…
The Transition from Graduate Student to Professional: A Roundtable
As daunting as the job market may seem to current graduate students, landing a job may seem like a good…
Temping toward the Tenure Track
I am a member of a department in transition. Of the 24 tenured and tenure-track faculty in my department, 19…
From Teaching Assistant to Tenure-Track Faculty
The daunting transition from teaching assistant to tenured faculty member has kept many a graduate student and assistant professor stirring…
Going to a Community College
The transition from graduate student to professional is not always easy as this requires a fair amount of thought process…
From Graduate School to Public History
Many graduate schools do not provide training for jobs outside the academy, which means that the transition to a public…
White Paper Presented on the Role of the History Major in Liberal Education
In a white paper issued in October 2008, a working group set up by the National History Center urges history…
Rethinking America Once Again: Report on the NHC Summer Institute
In 2005, we were co-directors of a summer institute for college teachers on the theme “Rethinking America in Global Perspective,”…
Childcare at the Annual Meeting
To the Editor: I want to thank Gabrielle Spiegel for addressing the silent challenges and complex negotiations of so many…
John W. F. Dulles (1913-2008)
Professor of Latin American studies; son of former Secretary of State At 95 years of age, John Watson Foster Dulles…
Sherman David Spector (1927-2008)
Scholar of eastern Europe Sherman David Spector (May 7, 1927–March 16, 2008) was a professor of history at Russell Sage…
On Our Way to the Annual Meeting
While your holidays may just be winding down, many AHA staff members are already on their way to New York…
A First Glimpse of the Public History Survey
Thanks to the support and interest of almost 4,000 members of the profession, our survey of public history professionals was…
Guests at the AHA Booth
With over 90 exhibitors in attendance, stopping by the Exhibit Hall at the annual meeting is a must, and this…
Supplement to the 123rd Annual Meeting
Whether you’re a presenter, on the job hunt, or just trying to figure out what to do in New York,…
Snapshots of the Past: The Commons on Flickr
No matter who the society or where the location, there have always been pictorial representations of people, places, and things…
AHA Letter to Russian President Dmitrii Medvedev Concerning Raid on Human Rights Organization
AHA president Gabrielle Spiegel and executive director Arnita Jones sent a letter (PDF) yesterday to Russian Federation president Dmitrii Medvedev,…
History Detectives and the National Parks
PBS’ show History Detectives asks, “Do you, a family member or a friend have an item around the house that…
Online Submission System for 2010 Annual Meeting Proposals Now Available
The submission system for the 2010 annual meeting in San Diego is now live and available on the AHA web…
December 2008 Perspectives on History Online
The AHA’s president, Gabrielle Spiegel, starts off the December issue of Perspectives on History online with a “Modest Proposal.” She…
Historians Speak Out Against Proposed Walmart at Wilderness Civil War Battlefield
Crossposted from the National Coalition for History’s web site. On December 11, in a letter to Walmart President and CEO…
“Election 2008: How ’Historic’ Was It?” and Other Late Sessions
As we make final preparations for the annual meeting, I want to highlight three sessions that attendees might have missed.…
Precirculated Papers for the 123rd Annual Meeting
Precirculated papers are now available online for the 123rd Annual Meeting. Precirculated paper sessions are one of the ways the…
The 2009 Job Center: One Month Away
Less than a month from now, the 2009 AHA annual meeting will open in New York, and the City that…
History Podcasts
One of the many perks of teaching in a digital era is the multitude of alternative teaching methods. The same…
2008 AHA Election Results
Jane Landers (Vanderbilt Univ.), chair of the Nominating Committee, announces the following results of the 2008 balloting for officers and committee members of the American Historical Association.