In the news this week, new restrictions and fees for researchers entering the U.S. raises concerns, Marilyn B. Young’s Decolonization lecture is now online, historian Robert N. Proctor continues to deal with Big Tobacco, ICHS gears up for Amsterdam 2010, and Newsweek takes a look at the last decade. On the topic of African American history we bring you two articles: one on Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center and the other on BlackPast.org.  Then we turn to the archives, looking to forgotten treasures and a turn to the digital. And finally, we round this post of with some fun: performer Lin-Manuel Miranda raps about Alexander Hamilton, a “historic gastronomist” recreates meals from the past, and the University of Chicago lets visitors “make [their] own academic sentence.”

• Brussels attacks U.S. plan to charge visitors
  A bill now working its way through Congress would add a new fee and new restrictions on researchers coming to the United States. In addition to making it more difficult for foreign colleagues to come here to do their work and participate in conferences, it also raises the potential for European retaliation in kind.
• Marilyn Young’s Lecture on “Limited War, Unlimited”
  A lecture given by Marilyn B. Young, professor of history at New York University, at the National History Center’s 2009 Decolonization Seminar is now available online.
• Big Tobacco Strikes Back at Historian in Court
  Big Tobacco continues to aggressively pursue Stanford historian Robert N. Proctor, accusing him of witness tampering, and trying to bar him from serving as an expert witness against them.
• History is alive in Amsterdam 2010
  The next congress of the International Committee of Historical Sciences (ICHS) will be held August 22-28, 2010, in Amsterdam in 2010.
• The Decade in Rewind
  Newsweek takes a look at historic and cultural moments of the first decade of the 2000s.

African American History

• Black History At Risk?
  Inside Higher Ed reports on concerns that Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center may be in trouble.
• BlackPast.org – Now on Facebook
  BlackPast.org is now on Facebook.  On their Facebook Page visitors can ask questions and get answers, find the latest updates on Blackpast.org, share information with Blackpast.org staff, and connect with others interested in African American history and news.

Archives and Libraries

• Rare Books Don’t Always Live in Glass Cases
  Geraldine Fabikant of the New York Times takes a look at lesser known archives and the treasures they house.
• Digital School Library Leaves Book Stacks Behind
  Cushing Academy, a boarding school in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, recently converted their 20,000 print library collection into an entirely computer-based collection. Although the library seeks to reach the new generation of students by offering an online academic research center, there are many skeptics in both researchers and students—not everyone learns via digital resources. You can listen to the complete story on NPR.

For Fun

• The Hamilton Mixtape
  Writer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda performs his Alexander Hamilton rap for the President and First Lady. See this and through the White House’s YouTube channel. Hat tip.
• Sarah Lohman, ‘Historic Gastronomist’
  The Serious Eats food blog takes a look at a short documentary on Sarah Lohman, a “historic gastronomist” who “recreates American recipes that went out of style hundreds of years ago.” See the video on Vimeo, and check out Sarah Lohman’s blog, Four Pounds Flour, where she shares recipes she recreates and gives their historic backgrounds. 
• Make Your Own Academic Sentence
  The University of Chicago pokes a little fun at writing in academia with their academic sentence generator. Create gems like: “The epistemology of history as such opens a space for the historicization of the public sphere.”

Contributors: Miriam Hauss Cunningham, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Arnita Jones, Jessica Pritchard, and Robert B. Townsend.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.