History Carnival XLI

Welcome to History Carnival XLI! Lots of great stuff in this edition, especially good to get the week started off right.

Finding, Using (and Misusing) Evidence

My favorite post of the bunch: In Sponges, Moss, and Stones, Michael Gilleland of Laudator Temporis Acti provides an interesting compilation of various discussions of ancient defecation practices and cleansing techniques. “Papadopoulos does make an intriguing and attractive suggestion, that the Athenians may have used discarded ostraka (potsherds), with the names of prominent politicians scratched on them for ostracism, to wipe after defecation.”

Apparently Atlantis is now in Sardinia, though John MacKay explains why that’s silly in “Bad science writing and an old favorite”. In The Curse of the One Rabbit: Tree Rings Corroborate Aztec Folklore,” Daniel Collins points out that, for the Aztecs, “the year One Rabbit was strongly associated with catastrophic events such as famine. Tree-ring data suggest their fear was based on long experience.”

Though I highly doubt that Jonathan Dresner could ask a stupid question, he’s “asking stupid questions…so you don’t have to” about the ceremony of “rectification of names.”

In “The Wife of Bath, Writen Authority, and the Antifeminist Tradition,” History Geek notices a “dual effect” of the Wife of Bath’s rebellion toward her husband in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath.

In the Audience

Gracchi at Westminster Wisdom critiques a visit by Bernard Bailyn in American at the Academy. RandomAlex takes notes on a lecture on “New Science on Ancient Lives” in “A Tale of Three Egyptian Mummies.”. M.G. Sheftall writes “Self-Immolation Tactics as Media Spin, Cultural Pretense, and Strategic Initiative: Japanese and Jihadist Cases,” which is a “companion piece” to the October 10 lecture by Yuri Tanaka.

Of Revolutions and Agency

Feminish gets the award for most nominated blog. Natasha’s The March of the Women, Part I and Part II, recounts women’s activism during the French Revolution.

The Sappho Manifesto’s Revolutionary of the Week for September 27 was Elizabeth “Lizzie” Jennings. Jennings was a teacher and organ player who challenged segregated public transportation in New York in 1854.

Aboriginal Australians gets attention from John Tracey, as he discusses public toilets on Boundary Street (among other things), in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in “The History of Public Toilets, Community Notice Boards, and Welfare Agencies in West End.”. (I agree with Alun: the post’s title doesn’t do it justice.)

Early Modern Fare

At Early Modern Whale, Roy Booth talks about a sour footnote to the history of childhood: The case of the Witches of Warboys, 1593. Meanwhile, Giornale Nuovo introduces The Genius of Salvator Rosa.” “Genius” in this instances means “characteristic disposition.”

Archives and Memoirs, and Memories

Feminish’s “Past Lives: Women’s Journals Online alerts us to Harvard’s Open Collections, containing thousands of primary sources, including diaries. Jennie W. at American Presidents Blog recounts Children’s Letters to the President,” Jennie highlights a letter to Ronald Reagan by Andy Smith, a seventh-grader, who requested “federal funds to hire a crew to clean up [his] room.”

While we’re reading about diaries and memoirs, check out Natalie Bennett’s review of Walking to Greenham, a memoir by Ann Pettitt. Pettitt was “one of the founders” of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.

In “Buried Alive,”Nene Adams recounts a story from the Manchester Guardian (1851) of Martha Clarke, who buried her baby alive and was subsequently tried and sentenced to death in 1851.

The “Friday Find” at Joshua Rosenau’s Thoughts from Kansas involves the story of Fred Melcher, a family friend of Rosenau. The Melcher family papers are now at the University of Virginia, where a graduate student found an unpublished poem by Robert Frost. Melcher’s grandfather was a friend of Frost, and also helped create the Newberry Medal.

In “Some Kind of Evil,” Barista discusses the personal history of Myrtle Jones.

Museums

More reasons for me to visit England: Diamond Geezer reviews the Museum of Brands, Packaging, and Advertising, while Natalie Bennett reviews the exhibition Myths of Bengal in the British Museum at My London Your London.

Morgen Jahnke provides us with a nice overview of the history of Teatro La Fenice, the famed opera house Venice that was consumed by a fire in 1996.

Modern Issues

In “That 70s Show,” Evan Roberts challenges the stereotype of Democrats as “deficit-spending wastrels” by looking back to past events.

At Walking the Berkshires, Tim Abbott recounts the comic characters Willie and Joe, the “iconic WWII combat infantrymen” created by Bill Mauldin. Abbott weaves a nice story of how Mauldin was “no cut out for a successful stateside career,” and how Willie and Joe had similar difficulties adjusting to civilian life.

For another angle on WWII, check out John McKay’s Nazis in Antartica.

In “Holocaust Denial on Parade,” Andrew Mathis argues that Holocaust deniers deliberately seek to break the law to gain attention and news publicity, and are not simply victims of rights violations. Another article at Holocaust Controversies (this time by Sergey Romanov) illustrates “how the convergence of evidence works.”

Classics, Analogies, and Department Building

(Yeah, not a great category name…I’m running out of ideas.)

Kevin Levin at Civil War Memory highlights yet “Another Poor Historical Analogy,” this time made by Condoleezza Rice. Rice compared the war in Iraq to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

In a very interesting exercise, “Populate a History Department,” Mark Grimsley posted the seemingly simple question: If you could populate a history department of 15 full-time faculty, “what positions would you select, and why?” The comments are also a fantastic read.

The Little Professor’s Editorial elaborated on the meanings and implications of “classic” publications.

Digital History

The big questions this time around for digital historians are: What do we leave behind? How do we find it? And who’s in charge? Past Thinking and Tom Scheinfeldt’s Found History discuss History Matters’s effort to “[raise] awareness of the importance of history in our everyday lives and encouraging involvement in heritage in England and Wales.” Found History also critiques the Yahoo! Time Capsule.

While William Turkel of Digital History Hacks discusses the problems associated with searching for history, others have similar issues with tagging (folksonomy). Mills Kelly has raised some interesting questions on tagging history. In “Social Tagging and Museums,” Kelly Lewis at Curiouser and Curiouser… discusses how online museums can attract new “patrons” with tagging and folksonomy.

Jeremy Sandor gets the prize for best quote: “At the beginning of September, I never would have imagined that in a month’s time I would be explaining the basic uses of data structures. Is ‘data structure’ even a term that should be part of a historian’s vocabulary?” His “From the Digital History Trenches” compares three folksonomy-driven sites: del.icio.us, Technorati, and Flickr to determine which site’s tags brought up the most relevant results. Technorati’s results were “more informative;” User tagging on del.icio.us provided the least helpful results.

Humor (or Not)

Last, but not least, two funny contributions this round: Brooks Simpson of Civil Warriors points us to a YouTube clip prompting views to buy a book. And, lest any dashing academics out there wish for the life of adventure, heroism, and occasional skirmishes with the Nazis, Andy Bryan reports on the news that Indiana Jones was denied tenure in “Back from Yet Another Globetrotting Adventure, Indiana Jones Checks His Mail and Discovers That His Bid for Tenure Has Been Denied”.

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy the reading! The next History Carnival will be hosted by Sergey Romanov at Holocaust Controversies. Send nomination to sergeyhc[at]gmail.com or use the carnival form.

And if you didn’t get enough here, there’s plenty to read at the latest Asian History Carnival at Rhine River. The Carnival of Bad History takes place October 22 at archy. Send nominations to badhistory[at]aol[dot]com. And Recent Finds hosts the October 22 edition of Carnivalesque. Send nominations to hkarll002[at]henrikkarll.dk or use the form.