This week we remember Frank Buckles, the last living American veteran of World War I until he passed away less than a week ago. While a government shutdown isn’t news yet, the Washington Post looks back to shutdowns in the past in preparation. Next, we link to two articles this week that advocate for more history education for the public. Then, read about the historical accuracy of recent Oscar films, and consider putting together your own film for a National Library of Medicine contest. Finally, catch up on two history carnivals, look back at William Steinway’s diary and W.E.B. DuBois’ students’ infographics, play an academic guessing game, and check out a new citation app.

News

• Frank Buckles, Last World War I Doughboy, Is Dead at 110
  Frank Buckles, the last living American veteran of World War I, passed away this past weekend at the age of 110. See the Washington Post’s coverage, the National Archives’ remembrance, and Smithsonian Magazine’s interview with him in 2008.
• Government shutdown: Facts and figures
  A possible government shutdown still looms, so the Washington Post has put together some the facts and figures of shutdowns from the past, to help prepare us for what to expect.

Insights

• On Scholarship and Public Life
  Michael Roth, president at Wesleyan University, recently wrote a piece for the Huffington Post considering humanities teaching and how it can connect to public life. Within his piece he notes AHA President Anthony Grafton’s recent articles on engaging with the public.
• American History Lessons
  Melissa Harris-Perry at The Nation advocates for more general American history education, as well as education on “histories of marginal people: black Americans, non-white immigrants, women of all races, workers, and gay Americans.”

Movies

• "And the Oscar for most historically inaccurate film goes to…all of them!"
  Jeanine Basinger discusses, in an article from the February 27, 2011 issue of the Washington Post,  the issue of historical accuracy in films set in the past, focusing on The King’s Speech, which received the best picture Oscar. (See also Basinger’s discussion of combat films—Saving Private Ryan in particular—in the October 1998 Perspectives).
• The National Library of Medicine’s Video Contest
  The National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest library of the health sciences (with over 17 million books, journals, manuscripts, and more), is holding a video contest to celebrate its 175th anniversary year. Video submissions (between 30 and 60 seconds in length) should feature the usefulness of one of the NLM’s resources. The winner will be awarded $1,000. See our past profile of the online resources of the NLM’s History of Medicine Division

Carnivals

• Women’s History Carnival 2011
  Knitting Clio announces the 2011 Women’s History Carnival, and encourages bloggers to participate. Meanwhile, Katrina Guilliver offers the first submission.
• Military History Carnival #26
  David Silbey at the Cliopatria blog presents a roundup of military history articles, with items like, “Civil War Reconstructed” at the Wall Street Journal, a 1945 double murder investigation at Frog in a Well, a Vietnam War Clerk’s diary, and much more.

From the Archives

• "The Wonderful World of William Steinway" (Part 1 of 2)
  The National Museum of American History introduces its new site, The William Steinway Diary, 1861-1896, which is a digital and annotated version of 2,500 pages of Steinway’s diary.
• Forgotten Infographic Masterpieces by W.E.B. DuBois’s Students Show Black History
  Hand-drawn infographics from students of W.E.B. DuBois at Atlanta University in 1900.

More

• Stuff Academics Like
  One of these paper titles is not like the others, it’s fake. Can you guess which one is the imposter? That’s the goal of “The Guessing Game” at the blog “Stuff Academics Like,” profiled earlier this week at Insider Higher Ed. 
• Barcode-to-Bibliography App Makes College Ridiculously Easy
  A new iPhone and Android app called Quick Cite allows students or researchers the ease of scanning a barcode to create a citation for a book, though some commenters on this post think Zotero works better.

Contributors: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, Jim Grossman, Pillarisetti Sudhir, and Robert B. Townsend

This post first appeared on AHA Today.