2011/2 "What's New? How Is the World Treating You?"
Table of Contents for the Second Quarter of 2011 Rape as a War Crime Today and during the Holocaust 29 June 2011A graphic and informative two-part article about the horrors of rape during wartime is available at CNN World. The second part of the article underscores the Germans as perpetrators during the Second World War. Well known in the literature, although not covered in the article, is the frequency with which Soviet soldiers raped German women (to be distinguished from German-Jewish women) as they progressed toward Berlin. There were many occasions of women committing suicide as a result of the indignation of rape and even cases of women who committed suicide as the Soviets approached because of the rumors that preceded their advance. The second part of the article does mention that the Soviets were often those who raped Jewish women they found in the concentration camps. The first part is at http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/06/23/war.rape.interviewers/index.html, and the second portion, which deals with the Holocaust, is at http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/06/24/holocaust.rape/. Both parts are dated 24 June 2011.Ukraine’s Ex-Prime Minister Tried, Apparently for Political Reasons 24 June 2011Ukraine’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, is being tried for abuse of office for an allegedly illegal natural gas deal with Russia. Tymoshenko claims that the current president, Viktor Yanukovych, is attempting to keep her out of the upcoming 2012 parliamentary elections and future elections by having her branded as a convicted felon. There is speculation that even if she is found guilty, she would not serve time in prison. The EU and United States have condemned the trial, and the Czech Republic has given asylum to her former economics minister. Tymoshenko was involved in the 2004 Orange Revolution that toppled Yanukovych from power, but Yanukovych won the presidential election in 2010 because of voter frustration with the economy. The AP release is available at: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Ukraine-s-ex-PM-faces-abuse-of-office-trial-1438382.php.EU Talks with Croatia on Accession Progressing 24 June 2011The European Council has targeted the end of June 2011 for the conclusion of negotiations regarding Croatia’s accession to the EU. It also expects to sign a treaty of accession with Croatia by the end of the current year with 1 July 2013 as an expected accession date. The European Council charged Croatia with continuing the reforms it must undertake to enter the EU, particularly in the areas of the judiciary and fundamental rights. In its report, the European Council concluded that: These developments bring a
new momentum to the European perspective of the Western Balkans,
provided these countries continue on the path of reform. The European
Council will return to this matter in its December 2011 meeting. In
this context, it welcomes the arrest and transfer to the Hague Tribunal
of Ratko Mladić, which constitutes a positive step for international
justice as well as for Serbia’s EU perspective. The 23-24 June 2001 Conclusions of the European Council, which contains the references to Croatia on p. 12, is available through the EU web site at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/123075.pdf. An AP release on Croatia is at: http://hosted2.ap.org/COGRA/APWorldNews/Article_2011-06-24-EU-Croatia%20Accession/id-36313617207c4159881a9f009ff7eaff. Dartmouth Students Help Restore Kosovo Jewish Cemetery 24 June 2011Students from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire travel each year to restore Jewish cemeteries in the Baltics, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans where the Holocaust has left few or no Jews to tend to the graves. This year, the students focused on a cemetery in Kosovo in Prishtina, the capital city. The web site for the project is: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~projpreservation/. An AP news release with photographs is available at http://www.vosizneias.com/86156/2011/06/24/pristina-kosovo-kosovos-neglected-jewish-cemetery-restored. There are a large number of neglected Jewish cemeteries in the region where Jewish communities have vanished as a result of the Second World War. The Nazis destroyed some cemeteries. One of the most famous cases is the Remuh Cemetery in the old Jewish Quarter of Kraków (Cracow), Poland. The cemetery since has been restored in part with headstones that the Germans had used for paving. Some headstones that could not be associated with a grave are displayed on the cemetery wall. In Bratislava, Slovakia, the regime of Msgr. Tiso, which cooperated with Nazi Germany, destroyed a Jewish cemetery in order to build a road and run trolley tracks to a newly-constructed tunnel. The authorities at the time preserved only a small portion of the cemetery, enclosing it in a masonry structure because the surrounding construction required that the area be graded to a higher level. That cemetery now has a new mausoleum, which includes the grave of Moshe Sofer (1762–1839), a noted Orthodox rabbi. Chinese Copy the Town of Hallstatt, Austria 22 June 2011To promote tourism, a subsidiary of the Chinese Minmetals Corp. is building an exact replica of the central portion of the Upper Austrian village of Hallstatt, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Chinese copy will be located near Huizhou in Guangdong Province. For more information, see http://www.chinapost.com.tw/china/national-news/2011/06/20/306835/Chinese-copy.htm.The Pink Tank Rolls Again in Prague 23 June 2011In 1991 the Czech sculptor David Černý, then in his mid-twenties, added a giant erect finger and a layer of pink paint to the Soviet tank that was part of the memorial in Prague to the city’s Red Army liberators at the end of the Second World War. The Russians complained, and the authorities repainted the tank green, but members of parliament again painted it pink. The solution was to remove the pink tank, and this author saw it not long afterwards when it was stashed away in a temporary location at the military archive and museum in the Žižkov section of Prague. It regular location is now in a museum outside of Prague.Today, the tank is on the move. To be precise, until 1 July it is swimming in the Vltava River. There is no controversy just yet, but one never knows. The tank, with its finger, is on a barge in the middle of the river as an artistic contribution to Prague’s Week of Freedom that commemorates the departure of Soviet troops from Czechoslovakia and the withdrawal of the country from the Warsaw Pact. Images and a brief video of the tank during transport are at http://www.lidovky.cz/ruzovy-tank-se-vratil-se-vztycenym-prstem-f2k-/ln_domov.asp?c=A110620_160222_ln_domov_mev. When asked why he painted the tank pink, Černý quipped that he did it to attract women. Černý went on to create other politically-loaded works of art. His sculpture “Kun” [Horse] of St. Václav riding on the belly of a dead upturned horse first appeared at the lower end of Václavské náměstí in Prague, on the opposite end of the boulevard from the famous statue of St. Václav by Josef Václav Myslbek. “Piss,” also known as Peeing Statues, features two men urinating in a pond whose outline reflects the borders of the Czech Republic. “Entropa” depicts stereotypes common to each country in the European Union (the representation for Bulgaria, for example, includes squat toilets; Germany's symbol is a swastika-like Autobahn). Černý’s web site is http://www.davidcerny.cz/. Click the button at the top right for views of some of his art and sculptures. His sculpture “Metalmorphosis” is located in Charlotte, NC, and can be viewed at Černý’s web site or through the live video camera at http://www.metalmorphosis.tv/. Photographs of “Entropa” are at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7827747.stm. There also is a gallery of his works at http://www.flickr.com/photos/calypsospots/galleries/72157623179643747#photo_1384765987. A brief interview with Černý is at http://www.cafebabel.co.uk/article/20960/david-cerny-president-klaus-is-a-dk.html. Restoration Complete on St. Paul’s Cathedral in London 22 June 2011Restoration work on St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which has taken 15 years and cost £40 million (approximately 64.2 million US dollars), is complete. Christopher Wren (1632-1723), who is interred in the cathedral, constructed the church after the 1666 fire destroyed the previous structure. The planning and construction took more than 45 years because Wren was working on changing the existing cathedral before the Great Fire. The actual construction lasted from 1675 to 1710, and St. Paul’s was dedicated on 25 December 1711, 300 years ago. Wren considered the cathedral to be in the Renaissance style that imitated Classical structures, but architectural historians commonly view it as a Baroque structure. An article about the restoration and a brief video of the cathedral is available from The Telegraph at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/architecture/8580467/St-Pauls-Cathedral-emerges-from-15-year-restoration.html. Photographs of St. Pauls and additional information are available from the Great Buildings web site at http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/Saint_Pauls_Cathedral.html.Seventieth Anniversary of the Barbarossa Campaign 22 June 2011Several articles have appeared in commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. Deutsche Welle interviewed a German professor of history, Wolfram Wette, which readers can view at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15154398,00.html. The BBC released an article available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13862135 that outlines some of the blatant signs of imminent invasion that Stalin ignored. The “Lens” blog of the New York Times has articles with amazing photographs from the Second World War by a German photographer. The article posted with the confirmed identity of the photographer is at http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/world-war-ii-mystery-solved-in-a-few-hours/. An earlier article, released at a time when the photographer was unknown, has photographs of prisoners and other scenes from the Eastern Front, Hitler, and Admiral Horthy of Hungary. It is available at http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/mysteries-of-a-nazi-photo-album/.Czech Health Care at Western Standards, but Opponents Fear American-Style Reforms 22 June 2011Radio Prague has released an article on the current state of Czech health care, noting that proposed changes may have a negative impact on the ability of average individuals to receive adequate health care. The article is at http://www.radio.cz/en/section/talking/czech-health-care-20-years-on-better-more-expensive-and-in-need-of-serious-reforms. Another article, available at http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/parliament-approves-first-stage-of-controversial-health-reform, presents the government’s point of view along with arguments against the reforms by the opposition Social Democratic party, which has threatened to test the reforms in court, should the legislature approve them.Bush White House Possibly Targeted Anti-War Professor Juan Cole during the Iraq War 20 June 2011Information has surfaced that the Bush White House called on
the CIA to investigate and discredit Juan Cole, a professor of history
at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, during the Iraq War. Cole
is an expert in the Middle East and writes a popular blog titled
“Informed Comment.” Based on his knowledge of the Middle East, he
opposed the war in Iraq and wrote blogs about it during the
hostilities. Information about the charges and possible Senate
investigation into the matter are at Cole’s web page, http://www.juancole.com/. News about the White House action against Cole is at: http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/retd-cia-official-alleges-bush-white-house-used-agency-to-get-cole.html. Cole’s interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! is at: http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/cole-on-goodman-cia-surveillance.html. On the Senate Intelligence Committee’s possible investigation of the matter as well as some heated responses to the affair, see: http://www.juancole.com/2011/06/feinstein-senate-intel-committee-may-investigate-cia-targeting-of-cole.html. American Children Sweep History into the Dustbin 14 June and updated 20 June 2011National
Report Card testing of 31,200 American grade school and high school
children revealed that they know few fundamentals of their own country’s
history. The results divide the scores into three levels: basic,
proficient, and advanced. In 2010, only 20 percent of fourth graders,
17 percent of eighth graders, and 12 percent of high school seniors were
above the basic level. The test has no failing category. One
explanation for the poor scores is that the “No Child Left Behind”
program stresses mathematics and sciences, prompting administrators to
reduce their commitment to other subjects, like history. More
information is in the New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/education/15history.html?_r=3&hp. The full report from the Nation's Report Card titled U.S. History 2010: A National Assessment of Educational Progress at Grades 4, 8, and 12 is available at http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ushistory_2010/ushistory_2010_report/.Turkey’s Justice and Development Party Wins Its Third Consecutive Election 13 June 2011On
12 June, the party of Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the
Justice and Development Party (AKP), won its third consecutive
election. The party received 49.9 percent of the vote and secured 326
seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM). The opposition
had feared that if the AKP had won the election with more than 50
percent of the vote, it could have rewritten the outdated military-era
constitution on its own and submitted the draft to a referendum. Had
the AKP won a two-thirds majority, it could have adopted a new
constitution without a referendum. Prime Minister Erdoğan, in his
victory speech, stated that “the people gave us a message to build the
new constitution through consensus and negotiation” and promised that he
and the AKP “will discuss the new constitution with opposition
parties.”The Republican People’s Party (CHP), a secularist party that traces its heritage to the founding of the Turkish Republic and once was the only party in Turkey, increased its number of seats to gain 25.9 percent of the vote and to become the second strongest party in the TBMM. The CHP, which identifies itself with Western European social democratic parties, expects to play a role in writing the new constitution. The European Union welcomed the election results, with the president of the European Council and the president of the European Commission sending Mr. Erdoğan a congratulatory letter. The EU awaits a new Turkish constitution, strengthened guarantees for democracy, and further economic development as it continues to weigh Turkey’s accession to the EU. Immediately after the elections, the Dutch former Foreign Minister Bernard Bot supported Turkey’s bid to enter the EU. The strength of the AKP derives in part from its conservative religious politics, which some claim could lead to Islamic fundamentalism, threatening the secular state that traces its heritage to the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Another source of the AKP’s popularity is the government’s capable handling of the administration and the economy. Turkish economic growth has been phenomenal in recent years, and the government has improved the infrastructure and national health care. A pre-election report by NPR is available at http://www.npr.org/2011/06/12/137135025/opposition-hopes-turkish-elections-balance-parliament. Official news about the election is posted on the Voice of Turkey’s web page: http://www.trtenglish.com/trtworld/en/news.aspx. Two Historians View the History of Opposition to Public-Sector Unions 13 June 2011In
an article for the History News Network, Steve Fraser and Joshua B.
Freeman, both American labor historians, consider the struggle of
public-sector unions against opposition from governing entities to their
existence and to having the rights that other labor unions enjoy.
Despite one’s opinions on the issue, the article by Fraser and Freeman
presents an important perspective to help understand the position of
both sides in the argument. The article is available at http://hnn.us/articles/139820.html.
Czech Art to Be Auctioned at Sotheby's 12 June 2011On
13 June 2011, Sotheby’s in London will auction a large collection of
200 works of art by well-known Czech painters and sculptors from the
Hascoe Family. The painters represented in the collection include Josef
Čapek (1887-1945), the brother of the writer Karel Čapek (1890-1938),
Emil Filla (1882-1953), František Foltyn (1891-1976), František Kupka
(1871-1957), Vojtěch Preissig (1873-1944), Alfons Mucha (1860-1939), and
Jan Zrzavy (1890-1977). There are works from several sculptors, such
as Otto Guttfreund (1889-1927) and Otakar Ševc (1892-1955), who is
famous for his massive monument to Joseph Stalin in Prague. In the
auction are a few pieces of cubist furniture, some by the architect
Otakar Novotný (1880-1959). The estimated value of the collection is
five million British pounds. The catalog is available at http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2011/property-from-the-hascoe-family-collection-important-czech-art-l11105/overview.html.The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has acquired a letter Adolf Hitler wrote in 1919 to a German soldier in which he expressed his beliefs that Jews are an alien race, can not assimilate into other societies, and have an insatiable “lust for gold and domination.” Because of the negative impact Hitler believed Jews had on society, the only alternative he saw, his “ultimate objective,” was “the irrevocable removal of the Jews in general.” The letter is on display at the Museum of Tolerance in New York and in July will become part of the permanent exhibition at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13692755. A translation of the letter is available at http://www.h-net.org/~german/gtext/kaiserreich/hitler2.html. Information about the letter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center is at http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467&ct=10863025. Government Coalition Wins Election in Macedonia (Updated from 5 June) 6 June 2011Pope Supports Croatia’s EU Bid 4 June 2011On a trip to Croatia, Pope Benedict has publicly supported Croatia’s application for membership in the European Union. For the papacy, Croatia’s entry would mean another strong Catholic voice in the EU to join Italy and Poland. In Croatia, however, there is the normal Euroscepticism present in many EU member states that is grounded on the distaste for surrendering sovereignty to a multinational body and objections to the EU’s large bureaucracy. Croats also are angry over the sentencing of Gen. Ante Gotovina at the Hague to 24 years in prison for ethnic cleansing in 1995 that involved killing more than 324 Serbs and driving approximately 90,000 from their homes. They had been residents of Krajina, which during the Yugoslav Wars had separated from Croatia and had proclaimed a republic. It is likely that the comments of the Pope, who is highly respected among Croatians, will bolster support for the EU in Croatia, especially in combination with the continued determination on the part of the Croatian government to join the EU and the solid backing of the EU from at least a quarter of the Croatian population. The recent arrest of Ratko Mladić in Serbia and his impending trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity during the Yugoslav Wars also may serve to soften the blow of Gotovina’s sentence. The AP release on Pope Benedict’s statements is available at http://www.salon.com/wires/allwires/2011/06/04/D9NKV3C80_eu_pope_croatia/index.html.Controversy in Poland over CIA Prison 3 June 2011Attend a Confederate Reenactment . . . Just Outside Berlin 3 June 2011Timothy Garton Ash on Mladić 3 June 2011The journalist and Central European historian, Timothy Garton Ash, published an article on 1 June in the Guardian that puts the arrest of Ratko Mladić into the broader perspective of recent prosecutions for crimes against humanity. It is available on line at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/01/ratko-mladic-extradition-great-day.House Panel Votes to End “Teaching American History” Grants 1 June 2011On
a strict party-line vote, the House Education and Workforce Committee
voted to end the Teaching American History (TAH) grant program, through
which the Department of Education raises the competency of teachers of
American history with the goal of improving student performance. The
measure also would end 42 other programs in the Department of
Education. For more information on the vote, see http://historycoalition.org/2011/05/27/house-panel-clears-bill-to-terminate-teaching-american-history-grants/. The web site for the TAH program is at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/teachinghistory/index.html. For a list of programs, including TAH, that the majority has deemed “wasteful,” see http://edworkforce.house.gov/UploadedFiles/SUMMARY_-_Setting_New_Priorities_in_Education_Spending_Act.pdf and http://edworkforce.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=242519.Evidence that Hitler Approved of Hess’s Mission: Interpreting Primary Sources 1 June 2011A
German historian working in a Moscow archive discovered that Karlheinz
Pintsch, the adjutant of Rudolf Hess, wrote a report in February 1948,
during his captivity in the Soviet Union, that Hitler had approved of
Hess’s May 1941 flight to Britain. The intent was to use well-connected
British contacts who were sympathetic to Germany to help negotiate
peace with Winston Churchill. The idea behind the mission was
consistent with Hitler’s immediate aims: conclude hostilities with
Britain so that Germany could take on the Soviet Union and acquire the
Lebensraum that Hitler long had desired for Germans. According to
Pintsch, a letter that Hess wrote to Hitler just before he departed
expressed Hess’s confidence in the mission but noted that if it fails,
“it will always be possible for you to deny all responsibility. Simply
say I was out of my mind.” That is exactly how the Nazi propaganda
machine presented the case to the public after the British had arrested
Hess.The newly-discovered document would end the debate of whether Hess acted alone or had Hitler’s approval were it not for conflicting evidence. After he had returned to Germany, Pintsch stated in a 1963 interview with a British journalist that Hess had acted without Hitler’s knowledge. Pintsch’s Moscow report also is tainted with references to anti-Western Soviet propaganda, including accusations that Britain and the United States were conspiring against the Soviets. At the time Pintsch wrote the report, Stalin viewed the British-American Bizone in occupied Germany as an effort to strengthen Germany for a war against the Soviet Union. Had Hitler approved of Hess’s efforts to cooperate with the British, the Soviets could point to a continuity between what they perceived to be British-German anti-Soviet policy in 1948 and wartime policy. The Moscow report of Pintsch does not decisively prove that Hitler authorized Hess’s mission, but it supplies additional evidence to fuel the debate. For more information on the document, see the article in Der Spiegel at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,765607,00.html and the article in the Daily Mail at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1392208/Hitler-gave-ahead-Rudolf-Hess-peace-mission.html. Mladić at The Hague 1 June 2011Despite
protests from his defense lawyer in Serbia, who claimed that Ratko
Mladić, the former military leader of the Bosnian Serb military, was too
ill to stand trial, doctors for The Hague determined that he was well
enough to be transported to the World Court’s detention center and to be
tried. As a result, Mladić made the trip on Tuesday, 31 May, and now
awaits trial for war crimes. A brief report on Mladić’s transfer by B92
is available at http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=06&dd=01&nav_id=74678.When Is Criticism of War Patriotic? 30 May 2011Doug
Bandow, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, wrote “Memorial Day
Tribute: Keep the Troops at Home” on 28 May 2011 for the Huffington
Post. While respectful of those who fought and especially those who
died defending America, Bandow raises some interesting points about
necessity of wars and calls on Americans to challenge leaders who want
to initiate military action.With hindsight, his arguments seem sound, but in many cases he fails to take into account the complexity of the situations in which America found itself before resorting to war. Furthermore, there are other incidents just shy of military intervention that Bandow neglected to mention that would have made his case even more compelling, such as the 1973 controversial removal of Salvador Allende as president of Chile. Bandow also simplifies some events abroad and internal affairs of other countries, causing the reader to speculate why America did not remain neutral. For students of Central Europe, his characterization of German and Austro-Hungarian politics as well as external politics of the Allied countries on the eve of the First World War raises questions: The "bad guys" included Wilhelmine
Germany, which had a constitution, elected Reichstag, and broader
franchise than Great Britain. Austro-Hungary [sic] was a somewhat
ramshackle and messy liberal autocracy with elected legislative bodies.
Not democrats by today's standards, but not totalitarians either. The "good guys" included Imperial Russia, the anti-Semitic despotism of the Tsar. Little Belgium committed big atrocities in the Belgian Congo, a heritage which continues to afflict the same tormented African territory. Italy came into the war to claim promised territorial booty–that is, the opportunity to force its rule on unwilling Austrians. France was intent on exacting revenge for its territorial losses in the Franco-Prussian War–after spending several hundred years ravaging all of its neighbors, including the German states. And Great Britain was a democracy which used brute force to rule over hundreds of millions of subject peoples around the globe. One indeed might wonder why America would go to war with developing democracies, but the question of democracy was not central to the problems that led to the First World War and America’s entry into the conflict. Yet, Bandow does not address those issues. Bandow’s notion that Americans need to be more circumspect about foreign military involvement is correct, but support for his argument could benefit from more histoical perspective. The article is available at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-bandow/memorial-day-tribute-keep_b_868387.html.28 May 2011. Obama in Poland 28 May 2011For the latest news on President Obama's visit to Poland, click on Polish Radio at http://www.thenews.pl/.Mladić Arrested in Serbia 27 May 2011Authorities
in Serbia on 26 May 2011 have arrested Ratko Mladić, the accused war
criminal from the time of the Yugoslav Wars. As the chief of staff for
the Army of the Republika Srpska, that is, the Bosnian Serb army, Mladić
is accused of atrocities linked with the siege of Sarajevo, which
lasted from 1992 to 1996, and the Srebrenica massacre, which in July
1995 claimed the lives of approximately 8,000 Muslim men and boys. The
European Union refused to implement the Stabilization and Association
Agreement it signed with Serbia until the Serbs turned over Mladić to be
tried at The Hague for war crimes. Mladić’s arrest, therefore, is not
only a means of bringing justice and closure to those who suffered
through the Yugoslav Wars but also the removal of a stumbling block that
had prevented Serbia from advancing toward full membership in the EU.
At 69 years old and appearing to be in ill health, the Serbian
authorities had some difficulties interrogating Mladić prior to
approving his extradition to The Hague.The NPR article on Mladić’s arrest is available at:
The report of the independent Serbian radio station B92 on Mladić’s arrest and health is at:
Information from B92 on further steps to extradite Mladić to The Hague are at:
What Is a History Major Worth? 24 May 2011
A significant study has emerged from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce titled What’s It Worth: The Value of College Majors that contains crucial information for those majoring in history. Engineers as a category are the highest paid professionals, receiving an average salary of $75,000 per year with bachelor’s degrees and $99,000 with graduate degrees. Petroleum engineers are the highest paid, with a salary of $120,000. Those who finish their undergraduate degrees as historians make $57,000 if they are American historians and $50,000 if they have other specialties. There are no statistics for historians with graduate degrees, although the study reports that 46 percent of those who study history go on to obtain a post-baccalaureate degree. The study placed historians in the broad category of liberal arts and humanities, and historians with bachelor’s degrees do better than the average for that category, which is $47,000. Those who receive graduate degrees in the liberal arts and humanities can expect an average salary of $65,000. The study provides evidence about what historians do with their majors, information that will cause students in history classes as well as the professors who teach them to give serious consideration to the particular mix of skills historians develop. While most assume that history majors end up in education, that is true for a mere 15 percent of graduates. The other top four fields are finance (14 percent), retail (10 percent), public administration (10 percent), and professional services (9 percent). There is no information about the professions of the remaining roughly 42 percent of the graduates or whether they use their degrees in history as a basis for entering graduate and professional programs in other fields. As far as occupations are concerned, 18 percent are in management, 16 percent are in sales, 15 percent are in office work, 11 percent are in education, and 6 percent are in business. The hard numbers of the study are encouraging to history majors who are at a loss to say what they will do with their degree, although it is disappointing to see the premium society places on technology and those careers that produce tangible profits. History majors also can be relieved that their salary is not at the bottom of the heap, where one finds community services and counseling as well as early childhood education. Ironically, those professions with the lowest pay are areas which, given higher salaries that would attract an even greater number of talented individuals, could do the most for society. The study also does not measure job satisfaction and does not ask such questions as how many engineers would have preferred to study history or music but felt compelled to select a major that would provide them with lucrative employment. Information about the study, along with links to the report and a summary are at:
The complete report is at:
The summary is at:
Commemorating Nakba Day, 15 May 2011 20 May 2011Juan
Cole at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has posted his analysis
of events on Nakba Day, 15 May 2011, when Palestinians commemorated the
loss of territory in 1948 to Israel. His blog also provides a glimpse
into the historic events surrounding the creation of Israel, beginning
with the treaties that ended the First World War. The original version
(he may update the blog) stated that League of Nation Mandate A
territories included those formerly a part of the Habsburg Monarchy,
which is incorrect. Mandate A territories were strictly former Ottoman
areas, while Mandate B and C territories were once under Germany. The
Habsburg Monarchy had no colonies and had no connection with League of
Nation mandates. This is but a minor glitch in what otherwise
thought-provoking blog, especially informative in light of President
Obama’s recent comments regarding Israel’s borders. For Juan Cole’s
full text, click on http://www.juancole.com/2011/05/the-arab-spring-comes-to-israel.html.Hitler’s Body Guard Gives Last Interview 17 May 2011Former
SS officer and former body guard of Adolf Hitler, Rochus Misch, now 93
and in ill health, has given what he termed his last interview. It is
available at http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/246754/The-last-survivor-of-Hitler-s-downfall-in-the-bunker.Post-Secondary Education: America’s Strength and Weakness 17 May 2011Despite
the difficulties with the educational system in America, one of its
strengths is that it provides opportunities for individuals from all
walks of life to attain a college degree. It does not peg children at
early ages as being unworthy of receiving a higher education and allows
children with a variety of difficulties, including some with learning
disabilities, to improve their performance over time and to gain
admission to colleges and universities.Among its weaknesses, however, is the lack of rigor in the schools that not only fails to challenge students but also rewards mediocrity through promotion to higher grades. In post-secondary education, crowded classes and administrative pressures to maintain high enrollments, products of the recent capitalization of education and the market-based competition among institutions for students, result in grade inflation and passing undeserving students, albeit with lower grades. The result devalues the degrees of even the best college graduates, although this is less true for colleges and universities with highly selective admission standards. Another problem is that American students, unlike their counterparts in many countries that offer free or low-cost post-secondary education, historically have had difficulties paying for their college education, even at state institutions. Long before the current economic crisis, the cost of higher education began to become prohibitive for many. Now, many of those who manage to stay in school sacrifice time for studying and subsequently good grades because they need to work in order to pay for tuition, housing, transportation, and food. Some rely on student loans, but American graduates now are faced with skyrocketing debt. A new report from the Pell Institute confirms what many already know: individuals from lower-income families are less likely to attain a college degree. The study indicates that not only do those from families with meager incomes suffer but those from the entire lower half of the income scale. The situation is worsening as Congress and various states restrict funding to programs that aid lower-income students. Since intelligence is not dependent on income, America is squandering a valuable resource, thus further ensuring its competitive decline. Information on the report is available at http://chronicle.com/article/To-Raise-Educational-Levels/127569/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en. The web site for the Pell Institute is http://www.pellinstitute.org/. The Pell Institute report “Developing 20/20 Vision on the 2020 Degree Attainment Goal” is at http://www.pellinstitute.org/files/publications-Developing_2020_Vision_May_2011.pdf. What Is Foreign to Our Legal System? 17 May 2011Several
states are considering laws to prohibit judges from taking into
consideration legal arguments involving references to foreign laws.
Many say it is a specific attack on Islam, but such laws may well create
internal contradictions in the American legal system. Consider the
last line of the news story from Democracy Now! on 16 May 2011:Supreme Court Increases Police Power to Conduct Warrantless Searches The Supreme Court has granted police
officers increased power to enter the homes of citizens without a
warrant. In an eight-to-one ruling on Monday, the Court upheld the
warrantless search of a Kentucky man’s apartment after police smelled
marijuana and feared those inside were destroying evidence. Writing for
the majority, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that citizens are not required
to grant police officers permission to enter their homes after hearing a
knock, but if there is no response and the officers hear noise that
suggests evidence is being destroyed, they are justified in breaking in.
In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asserted that the ruling
"arms the police with a way routinely to dishonor the Fourth Amendment’s
warrant requirement in drug cases." In other legal news, Indiana’s
Supreme Court has stripped citizens of the right to resist unlawful
police entry into their homes. Critics of the ruling say it eliminates a
common law right dating back to the English Magna Carta of 1215. This and other news from Democracy Now! for 17 May 2011 are available at http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/17/headlines. Commemorating the Second World War in Germany 13 May 2011Deutsche
Welle, the German foreign broadcaster, reported on how the Germans
celebrated the sixty-sixth anniversary of the end of the Second World
War in an article posted at http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15059962,00.html.
Berlin heard a performance of the “War Requiem” by the English composer
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), who scored the work for British, German,
and Russian soloists. The article notes that 1250 singers participated
in the concert, but it does not mention that the performance was part of
the Berlin Rundfunkchor series and was under the direction of the
English choral conductor Simon Hasley. In Bremen, officials opened the
Submarine Bunker Valentin Commemorative Site, a bomb-proof submarine
yard still under construction when in 1945 the British bombed it.
Further information on the site is available at http://www.denkort-bunker-valentin.de/index.php?id=2, which offers an English translation of its pages.Students! Awaken from Your An
author and English professor, Kim Brooks, considers the need for
teaching grammar in the high schools and the deplorable state of college
students’ writing skills in an article in Salon. One educator she interviewed for the article stated: |
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