History News Network / History Nexus

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Posted by AndyEditor 261 days ago - Average Rating: 5 with 4 vote(s) (hnn.us)
Category: world history | Tags: history articles news commemorations videos podcasts book reviews history quotes

Run by George Mason University in the US, History News Network (HNN) presents a myriad of information on the subject of history.

A selection of articles are posted up on a weekly basis, with subjects for the week of December 10 including anti-Semitism, Putin's Russia, contemporary Japanese attitudes to WWII and conservative Christianity in the US.

The quality of the content is what you would expect from a published magazine, and it's refreshing to see such high standards on the WWW.

HNN welcomes contributions from across the political spectrum, and for those reading the site's content from Europe will be quite puzzled at the right-wing take on academia. Full of paranoia, frankly their opinions border on the McCarthyite - for Reds and Communists now read Liberals.

Other sections of the website worth examining are The Stupid Award, a selection of items from other news outlets that are chosen for bring historiography into the gutter; Echoes from the Past, which are quotes taken from yesteryear that have eerie topicality for today and website and book of the month.

History News Network is an ambitious project that at its heart attempts fuse the subject of history with contemporary news.

Posted below is their "Mission Statement". Admittedly grandiose, such a statement of intent is nevertheless welcome:

'Even those who profess utter indifference to history are beholden to it. History is inescapable. Who we are and how we react to events depends, to a great extent, on our past. As Eugene O'Neill has a character in Long Day's Journey into Night exclaim, at a critical juncture, "The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too. We all try to lie out of that but life won't let us."

Journalism is said to be the first draft of history. But journalists traditionally have had little use for historians. The list of occasions on which journalists feel compelled to call upon historians is short. Though a select number of historians recently have become media stars, the fact remains that few are publicly quoted, and hardly any are given the public platform regularly awarded economists, political scientists or pollsters. The last historian trusted to take a large and visible role in a national administration was Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and that was forty years ago.

Given how public opinion is shaped today, whipsawed emotionally on talk shows this way and that in response to the egos of the guests, the desire for ratings by the hosts and the search for profits by media companies and sponsors, historians are especially needed now. They can help remind us of the superficiality of what-happens-today-is-all-that-counts journalism.

Among the many duties we assume are these: To expose politicians who misrepresent history. To point out bogus analogies. To deflate beguiling myths. To remind Americans of the irony of history. To put events in context. To remind us all of the complexity of history.

Because we believe history is complicated our pages are open to people of all political persuasions. Left, right, center: all are welcome.'
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