January 2008

Simon Payaslian authors new history of Armenia

In December Palgrave Macmillan published Professor Simon Payaslian’s The History of Armenia. In his Preface, the author presents the volume as a survey of the history of Armenia from antiquity to the pres- ent, with a focus on four major themes: East-West geopolitical competi- tions, Armenian culture (e.g., language and religion), political leader- ship (e.g., nakharars or the nobility, intellectuals and party leaders), and the struggle for national survival. It places Armenian history within the broader context of secularization, modernization, and globalization. We are pleased to reprint a section from a chapter on “Independ- ence and Democracy: The Second Republic”:

rmenians worldwide greeted the independence regained by the Republic of Armenia with great fanfare and jubilation. ASeven decades of Soviet hegemonic rule had come to an end, and Armenian expectations and imaginations soared high. National sovereignty strengthened national pride, and Armenians once more considered themselves as belonging to the community of nation-states. And the Republic of Armenia had much to be proud of, for it had built a modern country, even if under the shadow of the Stalinist legacy. Clearly the newly independent republic in 1991 appeared infinitesimally different from the soci- ety that had fallen to the Bolsheviks in 1921. Soon after inde- pendence, however, it became apparent that domestic sys- temic deficiencies would not permit the immediate introduc- tion of political and economic policies predicated on princi- ples of democratization and liberalization. The obsolete institutions, bureaucratic customs, and the political culture as developed under the Communist Party hindered the transition from the centrally planned system to a more decentralized, democratic polity. Moreover, the absence of the Soviet interrepublic industrial networks posed a serious challenge to the emerging Armenian economy. The republic hardly possessed the infrastructure necessary for independent eco- nomic development and long-term financial stability. The deplorable conditions inherited from the Soviet regime in the after- math of the earthquake in 1988 and the military conflict in Karabagh further exacerbated the situation. President Levon Ter Petrosyan sought to enlist the support of the diasporan communities to ameliorate the conditions, but widespread corruption, poverty, unemployment, and irreconcilable disagreements on foreign policy (e.g., Karabagh) undermined the legitimacy of the government and led to his resignation in 1998. The government of Robert Kocharyan, the second president since independ- ence, has developed a more balanced approach to domestic and foreign policy issues, particularly in relations with the dias- pora. By 2000, conditions appeared to has failed to institutionalize effective be improving somewhat, albeit slowly. means to check and balance presiden- Charles Capper wins The Soviet regime had failed to de- tial authority. The Constitutional Humanities velop democratic institutions even de- Court only recently has begun to gain cades after Stalin’s death, but Armeni- independence from political leaders Foundation fellowship ans were determined to create and culti- and politics; as a result, it has lacked a vate them in the new atmosphere of sufficient degree of credibility and le- In December Professor Charles long-awaited freedom and heretofore gitimacy necessary for a democratic so- Capper learned that he had received a untapped potentials and opportunities. ciety. Jeffrey Hen- In forming his new government, derson Se- THE TER PETROSYAN President Ter Petrosyan sought to estab- nior Re- GOVERNMENT lish close relations with the large search Fel- diasporan communities, especially lowship in The collapse of the highly central- those in the United States, and invited the Human- ized regime and the transition to inde- a number of diasporan Armenians to ities for the pendence required the institutional- serve in ministerial posts and as close academic ization of democracy and therefore a advisers. These included: Raffi K. year 2008- complete rearrangement of the politi- Hovannisian, the first minister of for- 09. As part cal structure and a metamorphosis of eign affairs of the post-Soviet republic; of the political culture. The newly independ- Sepuh Tashjian, minister of energy; award, he will have a semester of leave ent state faced enormous challenges in Vardan Oskanian, deputy minister of during which he will continue work on nearly all aspects of political economy. foreign affairs and later minister of for- his next book, tentatively titled “The Expectations for a system based on eign affairs; Gerard J. Libaridian, senior Transcendental Moment: Romantic In- principles of political and market liber- adviser to the president and secretary of tellect and America’s Democratic alization could not be disengaged from the Security Council and later deputy Awakening.” the geopolitical and economic realities minister of foreign affairs; and Mat- In the book Capper plans to focus on the ground as inherited from the So- thew Der Manuelian, chief of the on the Transcendental movement’s viets; moreover, the new republic was North American diplomatic desk. De- leaders and their writings, while placing mired in the military crisis in neighbor- spite the difficult conditions in the re- them within a narrative of connected ing Karabagh. public, the entire nation at home and episodes embedded in overlapping net- The task of institution building re- across the diaspora was ready to serve works of their followers, publics, and quired a viable constitution, which was the homeland, to give concrete shape milieus. At the story’s center is a coterie adopted by a national referendum in to its dedication to the imagined inde- of self-conscious and articulate figures July 1995. The newly independent gov- pendent republic that it had yearned who wrote voluminously and reveal- ernment, emulating the western tradi- for, from afar, for decades, to transform ingly to and about each other and tion, established three branches of gov- long-held aspirations into realities. The themselves. Capper intends to bring ernment: executive, legislative, and ju- first term of the Ter Petrosyan govern- the Transcendentalists into historical diciary. Within the executive branch, ment had begun with exhilarating en- view by two means. One is to narrate the presidency represents the chief of ergy, albeit in the midst of crises. ♦ their story around the major episodes state while the prime minister is head of that brought them into public view— government. The president is elected their battles with Unitarians over the by popular vote for a five-year term. He biblical miracles, their struggles to appoints the prime minister, who in The Boston University International found their avant-garde literary maga- turn appoints the members of the cabi- History Institute presents a lecture zine the Dial, their efforts to build a so- by net, the Council of Ministers. The legis- cialistic community at Brook Farm, lative branch, the National Assembly, and their intellectual leadership in the Thomas Nichols or Azgayin Zhoghov, is unicameral, antislavery movement. The other way consisting of 131 members elected by Professor of Strategy and Forrest is to show how all these projects, often popular vote for four-year terms. The Sherman Chair of Public Diplomacy seen as wildly contradictory, were judicial system is headed by the Consti- at the Naval War College driven by a varying but still single im- tutional Court composed of nine mem- pulse: the intellectual invention of ide- bers. The presidency, as developed un- “The Coming Age of alist individuality in America—or the 1991 der Ter Petrosyan since , emerged as Preventive War” notion that contained within the self the most powerful office. The National lay an infinity of meaning and value Assembly has oscillated between loy- Thursday, January 31, 4 p.m., SMG traditionally identified with the divine. alty to the president and paralysis be- 406, 595 Commonwealth Avenue cause of internal factional divisions and

Page 2 NEWS Professor Thomas Glick was in Rome in early December to participate in a me- morial to Mariano Artigas, co-author (along with Glick and Rafael Martínez— at left and center of photo) of Negoti- ating Darwin: The Vatican Confronts Evolu- tion, 1877-1902. The homage was pre- sided over by Cardinal Poupard (at right in photo), who had been chair of the commission appointed by John Paul II to revisit the Galileo case and whose re- port of 1992 led to the famous exonera- tion of Galileo. Father Artigas, a notable Galileo scholar,had served the commis- sion as consultant.While in Rome,Glick also lectured on “The Comparative Re- ception of Darwinism” in Rafael Martínez’s course on Science and Reli- gion.

Earlier this academic year an alumnus of the department e-mailed with a suggestion that seemed too good to ignore: One of the things I enjoyed about majoring in History at BU was that my classes would always point me in the direction of new and interesting books to read. However, since it has been several years since my graduation, I find it increasingly more difficult to find out which are the cutting-edge new books that are being published. Is there some sort of list that is currently compiled by the depart- ment that captures this information? If not, let me recommend that such a list be compiled every so often. It would only take up a few minutes of the faculty’s time to suggest one or two new books com- ing out in their field that they think are worth reading. Also, it’s a great way to keep the alumni con- nected to the department. So we have polled the department faculty and are pleased to provide the following sugges- tions:

From Betty Anderson (history of the Middle East): ■ Cairo Cosmopolitan, edited by Diane Singerman and Paul Amar (American University of Cairo Press, 2006) ■ The Yacoubian Building (American University of Cairo Press, 2004)

In my opinion, the best books to come out in my field in the last few years are those that have investigated what I can only describe as the “real life” of the Middle East. Cairo Cosmo- politan brings together brilliant articles about the globalized zones proliferating throughout Cairo, from coffee shops to movie theaters. While the book focuses on Cairo, the analysis can be used in cities like Beirut, Amman, Istanbul, and Dubai because these new arenas have polarized all of these societies in new kinds of ways. The YacoubianBuilding brings these societal divisions to life in a fictionalized ver- sion. The novel has quickly become a staple on every syllabus about the Arab Middle East. ■ Saba Mahmoud, Politics of Piety (Princeton University Press, 2005) Examines the role women have played in Islamist circles in Egypt. ■ Robert Vitalis, America’s Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier (Stanford University Press, 2006) Looks at America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and its oil industry. Many books have investigated the oil industry throughout the Gulf region, but this one looks at the personal relationships and the working conditions in the different oil camps. Vitalis, for example, exam- ines the Jim Crow laws established by Aramco, the largest of the oil companies, from its earliest days.

From Andrew Bacevich (US diplomatic history): ■ Michael H. Hunt, American Ascendancy: How the United States Gained and Wielded Global Dominance (The University of North Carolina Press, 2007) This is the best recent history of US expansionism, with acute relevance to the dilemmas facing the United States today.

January 2008 Page 3 more recommended reading: of international trade. The surviving Gibbonesque thesis: he shows how the commercial records have been studied long centuries of contact with Rome From Clifford Backman (medieval his- many times, but McCormick has en- turned the Germanic tribes into pre- tory): larged the data pool enormously by cisely the kind of multi-national force combing through the vast non- needed to break through Roman de- ■ Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle commercial records of the era (diplo- fenses. Thus the Romans inadvertently Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400- matic records, personal letters, sermons, created the very enemy that defeated 800 (Oxford University Press, 2007) travel guides, saints lives, etc.) and them, and they should have seen it com- This is the most ambitious and challeng- plucked out the hidden nuggets of com- ing. ing of the three books I have listed, since mercial information buried inside them. Framing and Origins are each 1000-page Wickham looks at the whole of the conti- With this huge pile of new data, he maps behemoths. Fall, a mere 560, is the most nental and Mediterranean worlds, from out elaborate communications networks accessible. Denmark to Egypt. He argues that schol- and shows that there was far more mari- ars have consistently misread early medi- time movement in these centuries than From Brooke Blower (US cultural his- eval history by looking at it backwards, previously recognized. Assuming that tory): from the standpoint of the nation-states ships carried goods as well as people, ■ Sarah E. Igo, The Averaged American: Sur- that emerged much later. What mattered McCormick suggests that Mediterra- veys, Citizens, and the Making of a Mass instead, he says, were the geographic and nean commerce did not decline after Public (Harvard University Press, 2007) economic structures within which all the Rome’s fall but, if anything, increased. long-resident peoples and the invad- ■ A lively new history that explores the ing/conquering hordes moved. These Peter Heather, The Fall of the Roman Em- pire: A New History of Rome and the Bar- ways in which Americans began to imag- structures did more to “frame” later me- barians (Oxford University Press, 2005) ine themselves as Americans—with cer- dieval development than the confusing tain norms, standards, and “average” Heather is sort of the Niall Ferguson of narratives of politics and Church did. ideas and practices—by engaging with so- ancient historians, a champion of intelli- ■ Michael McCormick, Origins of the Euro- cial scientific research (the Lynds’ study gent imperialism. He argues that the fall pean Economy: Communications and Com- of Middletown, Gallup polls, Kinsey re- of Rome is due overwhelmingly to the merce, AD 300-900 (Cambridge Univer- ports, etc.) during the middle decades of external pressures placed on it by the bar- sity Press, 2002) the twentieth century. barians, instead of the internal factors of Origins is somewhat mis-titled, for it’s economic decline and social decay; but ■ Victoria de Grazia, Irresistible Empire: not a study of the European economy as he puts a new twist on the old America’s Advance through Twentieth- a whole, but is focused on the single issue Century Europe (Harvard University

Professor Allison Blakely has spent the first part of his sabbatical year as a Visiting Fellow at the Dutch Royal Insti- tute of Anthropology in Leiden,continu- ing ongoing research for his book pro- ject tentatively titled “The Emergence of Afro-Europe.” From Leiden, in addi- tion to other cities in Holland, he has made research visits to Paris, London, Lisbon, and Hamburg. In all of these he has been visiting predominantly Black African neighborhoods where they ex- ist,interviewing community leaders,pol- iticians, and scholars, and collecting the latest relevant books,articles,and other literature.He has also presented related guest lectures in The Netherlands at the University of Utrecht, the Royal Insti- tute of Anthropology,and the University of Groningen. In January he will take up residency as a Visiting Fellow at Har- vard’s Du Bois Institute, where he hopes to begin the writing phase of the project. In the photo, Professor Blakely is second from left, and next is President Jose Amari Queta, head of the African community center in the district called Quinta do Mocho—most of whose residents are from Angola, Guineau-Bissau, Mozambique, and Cape Verde—in Sacavem, a suburban parish near Lisbon.

Page 4 NEWS more recommended reading: From Houchang Chehabi (central Asian (Princeton University Press, 2005) history): ■ Erika Lee, At America’s Gates: Chinese Im- Press, 2005) ■ Barbara Slavin, Bitter Friends, Bosom En- migration during the Exclusion Era, 1882- A well-researched history of Europeans’ emies (St. Martin’s Press, 2007) 1943 (University of North Carolina Press, 2003 resistance to, as well as appropriation A book on US-Iranian relations by a very ) and adaptation of, American models of well-informed journalist. ■ Eric Goldstein, The Price of Whiteness: production and consumption in the Jews, Race and American Identity (Prince- twentieth century. From Arianne Chernock (modern British ton University Press, 2006) history): ■ Irene Bloemraad, Becoming a Citizen: In- From Charles Capper (US intellectual ■ Linda Colley, The Ordeal of Elizabeth corporating Immigrants and Refugees in the and cultural history): Marsh: A Woman in World History (Pan- United States and Canada (University of ■ Stefan Collini, Absent Minds: Intellectuals theon, 2007) California Press, 2006) in Britain (Oxford University Press, 2006) The book traces the transnational travels ■ Nancy Foner, In a New Land: A Compara- A magnificent study by one of England’s of eighteenth-century Englishwoman tive View of Immigration (New York Uni- most distinguished intellectual histori- Elizabeth Marsh, skillfully using biogra- versity Press, 2005) ans. Nor only does he show, in his usual phy to shed light on world history (the ■ Violet Showers Johnson, The Other Black sparkling prose, the existence of an intel- Seven Years’War, American Revolution). Bostonians: West Indians in Boston, 1900- lectual class in Britain—something long 1950 (Indiana University Press, 2006) denied by many British “exceptional- From Barbara Diefendorf (early modern ists”—but he has much fascinating com- French history): For a good overview of the central parative light to shed on Continental ■ Benjamin Kaplan, Divided by Faith: Reli- themes of the last two centuries of immi- and American intellectual life in the fl gration to the United States, see the re- twentieth century. gious Con ict and the Practice of Toleration in Early Modern Europe (The Belknap Press cent Blackwell compilation of essays by fi ■ Leslie Butler, Critical Americans: Victo- of Harvard University Press, 2007) leading scholars in the eld, A Compan- rian Intellectuals and Transatlantic Liberal ion to American Immigration History.On A refreshing new interpretation of the the history of the contentious question Reform (University of North Carolina fl Press, 2007) problems of religious con ict and coex- of who has been allowed to become istence that troubled Europe after the American and who has been excluded, An important revisionary book by a tal- unity of western Christendom was bro- ented young intellectual historian. With see the two award-winning volumes by ken by the Protestant Reformation, this fi solid research and elegant writing, Butler Mae Ngai and Erika Lee. In the eld of book speaks to many current questions whiteness studies, see last year’s winner shows that rather than slumbering about the origins and nature of religious complacently through the Gilded Age, of the Theodore Saloutos best-book tolerance and the prospects for peaceful prize given by the Immigration and Eth- leading American Victorian intellectu- coexistence among competing faiths. als—often denominated as the chief con- nic History Society, Eric Goldstein’s The duits of the “Genteel Tradition”—were Price of Whiteness. Some of the best recent From Thomas Glick (medieval history, fi both deeply engaged in transatlantic ex- scholarship in the eld has taken a multi- Spanish history, history of science): changes with the era’s leading liberal in- sited and comparative approach. Two ƒ fi tellectuals in Britain and profoundly ■ Iván Jaksi , The Hispanic World and Amer- ne examples of such perspectives are 1820-1880 committed to developing a critical- ican Intellectual Life, (Macmillan the books by Irene Bloemraad and 2007 minded democratic culture and polity. Palgrave, ) Nancy Foner. Finally, for those inter- ested in local history and, in particular, ■ Near-definitive account of the activities Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God the issues raised by immigrants of Afri- of George Ticknor’s Circle of His- Wrought: The Transformation of America, can descent, see Violet Showers John- 1815-1848 2007 panophile Boston Brahmins, including (Oxford University Press, ) son’s The Other Black Bostonians. Prescott and Longfellow. The masterwork of the leading intellec- ■ tual historian of Early America. In his Carol Gold, Danish Cookbooks: Domestic- From James Johnson (modern European 1616-1901 sweeping narrative of these culturally ity and National Identity, (Uni- intellectual history): rich and politically volatile decades, versity of Washington Press, 2007) ■ Martha Feldman, Opera and Sovereignty. Howe shows that there was a lot more to How the standardization of cuisines in Transforming Myths in Eighteenth-Century the emergence of an American democ- fi the rst half of the nineteenth century Italy (University of Chicago Press, 2007) racy than merely the marketplace. He’s was a nationalist project, as were the Feldman’s book is brilliant (and im- especially good at connecting religious making of dictionaries and grammars mense), combining case studies of cru- revivalism, democratic politics, and the and collecting national folklore. literary “American Renaissance” and us- cial performances, anthropologists’ read- ings of status, myth and magic, detailed ing them to illuminate rather than dis- From Marilyn Halter (US social and im- musical and plot analysis, gender stud- place the important discourses of race migration history): and gender in this period. There is an in- ies, and evaluations of shifting political ■ Reed Ueda, ed., A Companion to Ameri- teresting backstory on the controversy power to assess the place of opera seria— can Immigration History (Blackwell Pub- over the production of this volume in a Italy’s most enduring lyric form in the lishing, 2006) recent issue of the New Yorker (in an arti- eighteenth century—in the breakdown of cle by former BU faculty member Jill ■ Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal allegiance to monarchical and elite rule. Lepore). Aliens and the Making of Modern America ■ Edward Muir, The Culture Warsof the Late

January 2008 Page 5 Renaissance: Skeptics, Libertines, and Opera ■ Wolfram Wette, The Wehrmacht: History, This deeply researched, beautifully writ- (Harvard University Press, 2007) Myth, Reality (Harvard University Press, ten book advances a major new interpre- 2006 Muir’s book, the Bernard Berenson Lec- ) tation of the postwar South and of recent tures on the Italian Renaissance, is attrac- A devastatingly persuasive documenta- American politics. tively slender, and its three chapters— tion and recounting of the Wehrmacht’s ■ Alice O’Connor, Poverty Knowledge: So- “The Skeptics,” “The Libertines,” “The intimate cooperation with the full range cial Science, Social Policy, and the Poor in Librettists”—stylishly depict the intellec- of war crimes (most especially, system- Twentieth-Century U.S. History (Princeton tual and cultural ferment of early- atic murder and death by neglect of 3.5 University Press, 2001) modern Venice, where supporting Gali- million Soviet POWs), its deeply rooted O’Connor’s research lays out a substan- leo was for many tantamount to atheism, and pre-Hitlerian anti-Semitism, its vol- tial reinterpretation of the origins and satires against the Church could have fa- untary and eager support of the SS kill- nature of the American welfare state. She tal consequences, and theater audiences ing units, and the willing and indeed ea- explains how conceptions of poverty in weren’t wrong to read sharp political al- ger participation of the majority of its of- general and black poverty in particular legories in what they saw onstage. ficers and many of its ordinary soldiers in shifted in the generation before the the several genocides of the eastern the- 1960s. The book explicates both the ideo- From William Keylor (modern French ater of operations in World War II. logical constructs and the institutional history and history of international rela- matrices—the interlocking foundations, tions): From Jon Roberts (US intellectual his- universities, and social service agencies— ■ Niall Ferguson, The War of the World: tory, history of religion and science): that underlay this crucial transforma- Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent ■ Catherine Albanese, A Republic of Mind tion. of the West (Penguin Press, 2006) and Spirit: A Cultural History of American ■ Michael Willrich, City of Courts: Social- Ferguson’s book is a bold attempt to Metaphysical Religion (Yale University izing Justice in Progressive Era Chicago 2007 2003 chronicle the murderous twentieth cen- Press, ) (Cambridge University Press, ) tury, during which more people perished An exhaustive (and exhausting) account Focusing on the Chicago Municipal as a result of the deliberate acts of gov- of the “metaphysical” traditions in reli- Court, Willrich breathes new life into the ernments than in any other 100-year pe- gion (spiritualism, “New Thought,” essential—but somewhat tired—issue of riod in human history. The author spares Christian Science, etc.) that argues that it Progressive Reform, showing the ways no one in his treatment of the wars, civil should be viewed as comparable in im- that legal traditions and legal processes wars, genocides, and other lethal devel- portance to the evangelical tradition. gave birth to the larger administrative 1900 fi opments from the Boer War in to ■ John Carson, The Measure of Merit: Tal- welfare state and de ned its limits. the NATO bombing of what was left of ents, Intelligence, and Inequality in the French ■ Sarah Phillips, This Land, This Nation: 1999 Yugoslavia in . and American Republics, 1750-1940 Conservation, Rural America, and the New ■ Thérèse Delpech, Savage Century: Back to (Princeton University Press, 2006) Deal (Cambridge University Press, 2007) Barbarism (Carnegie Endowment for In- An excellent comparative account of the My favorite recent book, a startlingly 2007 ternational Peace, ) changing meanings of “intelligence” in original work that rethinks the fields of Written by someone who has served in France and the United States. political history and environmental his- the French government and the United ■ Noah J. Efron, Judaism and Science: A His- tory (and the relationship between them) Nations and as senior fellow at the Na- torical Introduction (Greenwood Press, and does so with smarts and grace and tional Foundation for Political Science 2006) verve. in Paris, this powerful book systemati- fi cally probes the historical roots of the The rst sustained treatment of this long- From Nina Silber (nineteenth-century US current challenges the world faces and overlooked and important subject. history): ff ■ o ers suggestions for how to meet them. Ronald L. Numbers, Science and Chris- ■ Chandra Manning, What This Cruel War tianity in Pulpit and Pew (Oxford Univer- Was Over: Soldiers, Slavery, and the Civil 2007 From Cathal Nolan (US foreign policy sity Press, ) Wa r (Knopf, 2007) and diplomatic history): A collection of essays dealing with a vari- A book that argues that soldiers on both ■ Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The ety of topics in the history of the rela- sides of the conflict were very much in- Nazi-Soviet War, 1941-1945 (Hodder Ar- tionship between science and religion. vested in the question of slavery. nold, 2005) ■ Garry Wills, Head and Heart: American ■ David Blight, A Slave No More: Two Men A general history, but the most up-to- Christianities (Penguin, 2007) Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their date and systematic presentation of A survey of the history of American Own Narratives of Emancipation (Har- newly released Soviet archival informa- Christianity using the tension between court, 2007) tion. Arrogant in style and dismissive of head and heart as the springboard. Reprints two newly discovered and very all military history of the eastern war be- rare first-hand accounts of slaves who es- fore itself, but well-researched. From Bruce Schulman (twentieth-century caped to freedom during the Civil War, ■ Ernest May, Strange Victory: Hitler’s Con- US history): along with an overview essay by Blight. 2000 quest of France (I. B. Tauris, ) ■ Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another ■ Robert Cook, Troubled Commemoration: Read in conjunction with The Fall of Country: Mississippi and the Conservative The American Civil War Centennial, 1961- France: The Nazi Invasion of 1940 by Julian Counterrevolution (Princeton University 1965 (Louisiana State University Press, Jackson (Oxford University Press, 2003). Press, 2007) 2007)

Page 6 NEWS A look at how the war was being remem- An article written by Professor Jona- bered at the time of its 100th anniversary, than Zatlin entitled “Scarcity and Re- fl amidst the con icts of the Civil Rights sentment: Economic Sources of Xeno- Movement and the Cold War. phobia in the GDR, 1971 1989”ap- peared in the December 2007 issue of From Jonathan Zatlin (modern German Central European History. history): Professor Simon Payaslian pub- ■ fi Götz Aly, Hitler’s Bene ciaries: Plunder, lished a chapter entitled “Anatomy of Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State Post-Genocide Reconciliation” in (Metropolitan, 2007) Richard G. Hovannisian, ed., The Arme- Written in a clear and fluent style, this Visiting Professor Kathleen Dalton nian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Leg- controversial book argues that Germans had an article entitled “Finding Theo- acies (Transaction Publishers, 2007). supported the Nazi war against Europe dore Roosevelt: A Personal and Politi- This chapter contends that truth com- and the extermination of the Jews not be- cal Story” published in the October missions as practiced thus far in other cause of antisemitism, but because they 2007 benefited financially from the Third issue of The Journal of the Gilded Age cases (e.g., Rwanda, South Africa) are Reich’s policy of plundering other Euro- and Progressive Era. not applicable to the Armenian-Turkish peans and the theft of Jewish property. On December 2, Professor Bruce case. The paper instead proposes a two- ■ Rita Chin, The Guest Worker Question in Schulman published a piece in the phase process, whereby Armenian- Postwar Germany (Cambridge University WashingtonPost Outlook section, mark- Turkish negotiations would be con- Press, 2007) ing the 30th anniversary of “Saturday ducted under the auspices of a multilat- Night Fever” and the continued reso- eral body such as the United Nations, Although originally invited to West Ger- nance of that film today. Later in the followed by bilateral negotiations be- many during the 1960s to supplement a tight labor market, millions of predomi- month he traveled to Memphis to do tween the governments of Armenia and nantly Turkish workers have stayed on, research at the Southern Folklore Cen- Turkey. He also had an article, yet remain on the margins of a society ter Archives and visit the Delta Blues “Hovhannes Shiraz, Paruyr Sevak, and that continues to consider them alien— Museum in Clarksdale, Miss., where the Memory of the Armenian Geno- not least because they are Muslim. the collection includes the cabin in cide,” published in the Journal of the So- ■ Christopher Clark, Iron Kingdom: The which Muddy Waters grew up. ciety for Armenian Studies, vol. 16 (2007). Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 Al Sargis, retired Department Secre- This paper presents a comparative anal- (The Belknap Press of Harvard Univer- tary, dropped into Boston this past Au- ysis of the construction of the memory sity Press, 2006) gust between trips to several East Coast of the Armenian Genocide in the liter- Clark’s book is as long as the scope of his cities and Portugal. (He reports that ary works of Shiraz and Sevak, two of argument is wide: In this very long book, Prof. Norman Bennett is right about the most popular poets in the former he makes the surprising claim that Prus- Lisbon!) Al participated in a sympo- Soviet republic of Armenia. The analy- sia’s reputation as a bastion of reaction- sium on “China and Labor” at Harvard sis centers on poetry as the narrative of ary politics and military aggression is un- University’s Labor and Worklife Pro- historical memory, commemoration, deserved and that it was in reality one of gram, giving a paper on “The and mourning. In the same journal Pro- the most progressive German states. Significance of the 17th Party Congress fessor Payaslian published a book re- ■ Benjamin Nathans, Beyond the Pale: The for Labor.” Not one to remain topically view of David Gaunt’s Massacres, Resis- Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia challenged, he also delivered a lecture tance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Rela- 2004 (University of California Press, ) on “An Historical Survey of Military tions in Eastern Anatolia during World This brilliantly conceived and scrupu- Resistance Struggles and the Left in Eu- Wa r I . And he presented a paper enti- lously researched book reinterprets the rope and the U.S.” at Cambridge’s tled “The Political Economy of Geno- position of Jews in the Russian Empire, Center for Marxist Education. Mean- cide Denial” on a panel organized by arguing that they were more integrated while, he continues to pursue his enjoy- the Armenian Students Association at into Russian society than previously able career as retiree. Boston University. thought. In early December, Professor Betty On December 19 Professor William ■ Adam Tooze, The Wages of Destruction: Anderson attended a government- Keylor spoke to the Wardroom Club, a The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Econ- 2007 sponsored conference in D.C. on group of active and retired naval, coast omy (Viking, ) jihadis in the Middle East. In giving her guard, and marine officers in the An economic historian, Tooze neverthe- talk on Jordan, she spoke of the eco- Boston area, on the topic of the less integrates political ideology—Hitler’s nomic crisis the country is facing, the “Christmas Truce” during World War I. fear of America and hatred of the Jews— problems posed by the existence of al- To accompany his lecture he gave a into this excellent and pathbreaking (if most one million Iraqi refugees in the PowerPoint presentation depicting the long) account of how Hitler ended the country, and the political instability fraternization of British, French, and Depression, rearmed Germany, and launched World War II. that could arise from these economic German soldiers on the Western Front ♦ problems and the refugee situation. to celebrate Christmas eve and morn-

January 2008 Page 7 Department of History Boston University 226 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215

ing, 1914, prior to resuming the combat Brendan McConville, and Nina Silber; ex- that eventually resulted in more than 8 aminer in the minor field of international million battlefield deaths. history was Professor William Keylor. The Boston History and Innovation These students had their dissertation pro- Collaborative has appointed Professor spectus approved: Marilyn Halter to serve as a Project Ad- Dane Cash: “The Forgotten Debate: viser for an initiative on “Diversity as a These students passed language require- American Intellectuals and the Korean War, 1950-1953 fi Driver in the Innovation Economy: A ments through coursework: .” The rst reader will be Professor William Keylor, and the second will be Pro- Tool for Expanding Boston’s Talent Andrew Ballou: French fessor Andrew Bacevich. Pipeline.” Seth Blumenthal: German Kathryn Brownell: German Andrea Mosterman: “Sharing Space in a On December 13 Professor Eugenio Kathryn Lamontagne: Spanish New World Environment: African-Dutch Menegon presented his recent research Contributions to North American Culture, on “Jesuit Emblematica in China: Eu- The following students passed their qualify- 1626-1826.” The first reader will be Professor ing oral examination: Linda Heywood, the second will be Profes- ropean Allegorical Images in the Late 4 1630 On December : Kathryn Brownell. Ex- sor Brendan McConville, and the third will Ming Period ( s)” at the symposium fi aminers in the major eld of American his- be Professor John Thornton. “Papers on China,” held at the Getty tory were Professors Brendan McConville, Center, Los Angeles. This two-day sym- Bruce Schulman, and Nina Silber; exam- posium marked the scholarly opening iner in the minor field of nineteenth- and of the Getty’s exhibition “China on Pa- twentieth-century British history was Pro- American History Search fessor Charles Dellheim. per: European and Chinese works from The visits of two candidates in the On December 6: David Mislin. Exam- the late sixteenth to the early nine- American political search have al- iners in the major field of American history teenth century.” Organized by the ready been announced: Alice Getty Research Institute, the sympo- were Professors Brooke Blower, Charles Capper, and Jon Roberts; examiner in the O’Connor (January 16) and Eliza- sium brought together an international minor field of early modern European his- beth Borgwardt (January 18). The roster of distinguished scholars who tory was Professor Barbara Diefendorf. third finalist, David Greenberg, will used the themes of the exhibition as in- On December 7: Brian Casady. Exam- give his presentation on Friday, spiration to present case studies of top- iners in the major field of African history January 25, at 2 p.m. He received ics from their research, including car- were Professors James McCann, Bruce his PhD from Columbia and is tography and the history of science in Schulman, and Diana Wylie; examiner in currently assistant professor at fi China, publishing and print produc- the minor eld of geography was Professor Rutgers University; he is the au- tion in China and Europe, Chinese Curtis Woodcock. thor of Nixon’s Shadow: The History 14 travel narratives, and European pavil- On December : Stephen Arguetta. Ex- of an Image (Norton) and Calvin aminers in the major field of American his- ions in the Chinese imperial palaces. Coolidge (Henry Holt). ♦ tory were Professors David Mayers,