December 2010

Eugenio Menegon wins this study will offer to students of com- ject of “Intellectual Exchanges: parative court cultures materials and in- Women and Rational Dissent.”...Her Humanities Foundation terpretations to continue challenging research is featured this fall in BU’s senior fellowship past modernization narratives that rele- online Research Magazine (www.bu.edu/ gated ‘oriental despots’ to the dustbin research/highlights/magazine/features/ of history, showing instead the dyna- family-matters/). rofessor Eugenio Menegon mism and complexity of Asian monar- On November 4 Professor Allison (photo inset), who was pro- chies in the seventeenth and eighteenth Blakely presented a lecture entitled moted to the rank of associate P centuries.” “The Black European Response to the professor earlier this academic year, has Election of Barack Obama,” as fea- learned from tured lecturer for the Fiftieth Anniver- the Boston sary of the Robert D. Clark Honors University College, University of Oregon, in his Humanities capacity as recipient of the Honors Foundation College 2010 Alumni Achievement that he has Award. won a Hender- In November Professor Betty An- son Senior derson gave the paper “Liberal Edu- Humanities Professor Houchang Chehabi pub- cation and the Nature of Authority: Fellowship for lished “Li Kulli Fir’awn Musa: The The Case of the American University 2011-12. His project and the subject of Myth of Moses and Pharaoh in the of Beirut (AUB)” at the History of Ed- his research during this time, entitled Iranian Revolution in Comparative ucation Society conference in Cam- “Amicitia Palatina: Court Networks and Perspective,” Crown Paper No. 4, Oc- bridge, Mass.... Also in November she the Europeans in Imperial Beijing, 1601- tober 2010.... He also started his two- was the discussant for the panel “Ap- 1820,” will focus on the relationship year term as president of the Interna- proaches to the Cultural History of that China’s Qing dynastic household tional Society for Iranian Studies. Education in Mandatory Palestine” developed with its closest servants On November 12 Professor Nina for the Middle East Studies Associa- within the palace and the capital city, Silber participated in a panel discus- tion (MESA) Conference in San from the establishment of the dynasty sion, along with historians Eric Foner Diego, California.... She published in Beijing in 1644 to the early nine- and Charles Bryan, examining various the article “The SPC Man” for teenth century. He aims to demonstrate questions related to the coming of, MainGate, the alumni magazine of the importance of the informal dimen- and developments during, the US the American University of Beirut. sion of Chinese political culture as an Civil War. The discussion, sponsored Professor John Thornton’s article intermediate and connecting space be- by the History Channel and timed to “Angola e as origines de Palmares” tween monarchical autocracy and im- coincide with the Civil War sesqui- was published in Flavio Gomes, ed., perial bureaucratic institutions. His centennial, will appear on the History Mocambos de Palmares: histórias e fontes goal is to link his work to more general Channel’s website in March 2011. (seculos XVI-XIX) (Rio de Janeiro: scholarship of the last two decades fo- Professor Arianne Chernock’s arti- Letras, 2010). Thornton gave a depart- cusing on early modern state-building cle on “Feminism in the Provinces: T. ment seminar a couple of years ago which has resuscitated the importance S. Norgate and the ‘Rights of Woman’ on an article on this same community of the royal court and of the ruler’s in Norwich” will appear in a special that was subsequently published in household at the heart of the dynastic edition of the journal Enlightenment Annales in French. This article, in Por- state. “Finally,” he says, “I hope that and Dissent, organized around the sub- tuguese, is a different work with a different angle from the earlier one. Revision of undergradate history major Anyone who is interested but who cannot read these languages may re- approved quest Professor Thornton’s original English versions as a Word file. After three years of experience with the concentration in history approved in Professor James McCann has 2007 (which offers five tracks strictly within history—general, American, Euro- learned that his most recent book, pean, world/regional, intellectual/cultural, plus three interdisciplinary options— Stirring the Pot: A History of African history and art history, history and religion, history and international relations), Cuisine (Ohio University Press), has department faculty have decided to simplify dramatically the requirements for been named by the online Library the major. Journal second on the list of “best sell- In faculty deliberations last spring, Director of Undergraduate Studies Jona- ers in African history” (appearing just than Zatlin pointed out that “The tracks were not uniform in their requirements after a recent biography of Nelson [one required 10 courses, four required 11, three required 12], which not only in- Mandela). troduced serious administrative loopholes into our curriculum but also sowed Professor Marilyn Halter was an confusion about the major among students and faculty.” The new major estab- invited speaker on the subject “Be- lishes 12 as the number of classes required of all concentrators. “Raising the re- yond the Bodega—from Local to quired number of courses to 12,” Professor Zatlin continued, “sends a signal Global” at the Statewide Conference about the intellectual rigor of the History major. The new requirement has the on Immigrant Entrepreneurship spon- virtue of permitting History faculty more sored by The Immigrant Learning opportunities to work with undergraduates Center, Inc., and Babson College (No- by eliminating the possibility that students vember 17).... She was also the desig- can take a mere seven courses in our depart- nated discussant for a presentation at ment (by applying three AP courses to the “The intellectual 10 BU’s Center for the Study of Asia en- General track, which requires courses). At exchange that occurs titled “From Cultural Anxiety to So- the same time, History faculty do not be- in small classrooms, cial Mobilization: The Making of a lieve that 12 is too onerous for students. It is Chinese American Community in worth pointing out that even the 12 required where close proximity Boston, 1840s-1930s” (November 15).... courses for the interdisciplinary tracks have to professors is Finally she led two workshops this fall not prevented many students from double- possible and class on tracing migratory roots for stu- majoring in History and another discipline, discussion is promoted, dents involved in BU’s Family His- and that most students complete our re- constitutes the tory Project initiative co-sponsored by quirements without too many problems.” the New England Historical Genea- Most majors in CAS require 12 (or even centerpiece of our logical Society (September 29 and No- more) courses. major.” vember 3). The three most popular tracks in the post- 2007 major have proved to be (1) general, (2) See EVENTS OF NOTE, page 8 American, and (3) History and International Relations. The new major is composed of a general track, but students who prefer to specialize in a certain field may select optional tracks; thus the emphases offered by the current “Option B” (the spe- NEWS cialty tracks) may still be selected, but the tracks will not need to be declared officially in CAS. A student desiring one of these tracks will meet with an advi- of the History Department sor to select courses that are appropriate; in addition, the departmental website at Boston University will include guides to these tracks—those in American, European, intellec- is published monthly September tual/cultural, and international history are in the process of being written, and through May at the department office, new tracks in Asian and African are already complete. 226 Bay State Road, Boston, MA 02215. Restrictions on the levels of courses are being changed. At present students may take no more than four courses below the 300 level; in the revised major, Telephone: 617-353-2551 they may take no more than three classes below the 200 level. This change was ne- E-mail: [email protected] 200 300 Website: www.bu.edu/history cessitated by the fact that courses at the and levels are being renum- bered; as of fall 2011, the span of classes between hi 201 and hi 399 is to be con- Editor: James T. Dutton, Depart- ment Administrator sidered a single range of lecture courses, divided only by topic, not by degree of difficulty. Thus hi 333 (French Revolution), taken before fall 2011, is the same Items of interest for publication and course as hi 266 (its new number as of next fall). This change will take some get- changes of address should be sent to ting used to (on everyone’s part), but it was necessitated by the ever-growing the editor. See REVISED MAJOR, page 5

Page 2 NEWS Eighteenth Century Collections Online An extraordinary resource for source materials in history, social sci- ences, religion, philosophy, and many other subject areas. The history collec- tion offers a wide variety of full-text pri- mary sources, including Hume’s His- tory of England and Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, in addition to dozens of other major and minor works. The database is especially useful by Donald Altschiller for researching English social history, travel accounts, fashion, recreational History Bibliographer activities, and other cultural and politi- cal history during this time period. The number of electronic databases in the BU libraries seems to grow exponen- tially. Although most of these 312 databases offer specialized subject information Harper’s Weekly (1857-1912) (Contemporary World Music, Education Full-Text, etc.), a growing number provide in- Considered the pre-eminent US terdisciplinary coverage of academic journals (Academic OneFile, FRANCIS, 19th- and early 20th-century newspaper, JSTOR, etc.). The following databases may be of particular interest to history fac- with both national and international ulty and both undergraduate and graduate students. The easiest way to access these distribution, this digitized publication history-related databases is to go to the BU main library webpage (www.bu.edu/ provides superb replication of all its ar- library) and click on the “Databases” link, then scroll down the alphabetical list for ticles, illustrations, cartoons, maps, and the following resources. If you have any questions about these or other databases other features. or want any other information about the library, feel free to contact me ([email protected]). Please note: Most of our journals are still available in print Historical Abstracts (some titles are only in print) or microfilm, so faculty should inform students about Complementing America: History these multiple journal formats, which are noted in the BU library catalog. and Life (see above), this database is the major source for finding the contents Academic OneFile of international history periodicals (ex- An interdisciplinary database offering a large number of full-text articles. This cept for the US and Canada) from 1450 resource provides access to more than 200 historical journals. to the present.

American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876 Humanities Full-Text Offers fully searchable issues from more than 700 historical newspapers pub- Despite its name, this interdisciplin- lished in 23 states and the District of Columbia. These newspapers were scanned ary database has a large number of full- from the collections located at the American Antiquarian Society, the Boston text articles, but it still provides mostly Athenaeum, and the Library Company of Philadelphia, in addition to a few other summaries and citations. Since the da- archives and libraries. tabase includes many non-historical journals which publish history-related America: History and Life articles, this resource is an excellent The pre-eminent resource for finding journal articles (a growing number are full- supplementary source to America: His- text), book and media reviews, and dissertations on the history and culture of the tory and Life and Historical Abstracts. US and Canada. International Medieval Bibliogra- American National Biography phy 1967 A successor to the Dictionary of American Biography, this database provides al- Founded in with the support of most 19,000 biographies of notable American women and men. the Medieval Academy of America, this resource provides the most compre- hensive and current bibliography of British History Online (BHO) medieval history articles published in Created by the Institute of Historical Research and the History of Parliament journals and miscellany volumes Trust, BHO is the digital library of core printed primary and secondary sources for worldwide. the medieval and early modern history of Britain.

December 2010 Page 3 JSTOR University Press to make the JHU journals more accessible to readers, Project Muse This database provides full-text cov- has greatly expanded its collection to include a wide variety of university press and erage for over one thousand academic other academic journals. This database has some overlapping coverage with journals in the humanities, social sci- JSTOR but also provides unique access to many humanities publications, includ- ences, and sciences. Almost 250 history ing history journals. titles are included, and the database provides complete retrospective access WorldCat to each journal since it began publica- Although there is no comprehensive national library catalog that lists all the tion. Previously, the content of the books and other items held in American libraries, this database is the best currently most recent issues was not available due available resource to find library holdings. Continuously updated, this database to copyright issues, but beginning in offers many superb features: BU-owned books are highlighted and users can per- 2011, some current journal issues will be form searches by keyword, language, and/or format (including websites, videos, available. etc.). N

New York Times Historical (1851- 2006) This remarkable database can be HarperCollins issues new book from Robert Dallek searched for every word that was pub- lished in the “newspaper of record” (in- Former BU faculty member Robert Dallek has authored The Lost Peace: Leader- cluding advertisements and death no- ship in a Time of Horror and Hope, 1945-1953. “This is a book,” Dallek begins, “about tices) since it began publication in the the generation of leaders in the years of upheaval between the close of World War mid-19th century. The article is dis- II and the early Cold War. It is not a comprehensive history about why and how played in its original format, and users the Cold War began. Rather, it is an attempt to underscore the misjudgments and can also see a total page view when it ap- unwise actions that caused so much continuing strife and suffering, and suggest peared. [The Boston Globe Historical alternatives that might have made for greater international harmony. While I (1872+) and the Chicago Tribune Histori- highlight the fail- cal (1849+) are also alphabetically ar- ings of the notable ranged on the Databases page.] men who domi- nated the scene Oxford Dictionary of National Bi- during this time, I ography am not intent on Contains biographical portraits of denying them more than 57,000 people who “shaped their due, or in the the history of the British Isles and be- case of the greatest yond” from the 4th century bce to the villains of the day, 21st century. revising their repu- tations for wrong- Oxford Reference Online doing. My greatest This aggregated database brings to- interest is in revis- gether a wide variety of Oxford Univer- iting the decision sity Press reference works—formerly making and events available only in book form—in the hu- of the period as a manities, social sciences, and sciences. cautionary tale—a The history collection is wide-ranging reprise of what including The Oxford Companion to went wrong as a American Military History, The Oxford call for future im- Companion to British History, etc. Please provement in note: These works are general ready-ref- world affairs, or an erence sources mostly useful for pro- educator’s lesson viding a good overview of a topic and of what might especially helpful for students consid- have been done to ering a research topic. avoid the diffi- culties that beset strong and weak Project Muse nations around the Started in 1993 by the Johns Hopkins globe.”

Page 4 NEWS Douglas Wheeler (MA in 1960; REVISED MAJOR (cont. from page 2) PhD in 1963; Visiting Assistant Profes- sor of African History, 1969 and 1972; number of courses offered in the de- and member of several PhD orals and partment and by the fact that Interna- dissertation committees) writes: Here tional Programs courses require num- is news of three new books of mine bers within the History listing—the de- which were published this year: Co- partment was literally running out of author with R. Pelissier of História de numbers. Angola (published by Tinta da China, There are no changes in the revised Lisbon, 2009) an updated, expanded major in the basic required courses (hi edition in Portuguese of our Angola 200 and two seminars—formerly called Two very active alumni have recently (1971, 1977); 3rd edition of my Histori- colloquia). The department faculty sent us updates on their scholarly activ- cal Dictionary of Portugal (Scarecrow continue to see these courses as the ities: Press, 2010), with new co-author, Wal- core of the concentration: As Profes- ter Opello; and História Política de Por- sor Zatlin pointed out, “The intellec- Ronald A. Wells (CLA 1963, GRS tugal, 1910-1926, published in Lisbon tual exchange that occurs in small 1964 & 1967), Professor of History by Europa-America, Lda, the 2nd ed. classrooms, where close proximity to Emeritus at Calvin College, Michi- in Portuguese, with new bibliography professors is possible and class discus- gan, published his new book, Hope and preface—first ed. published 1985 sion is promoted, constitutes the cen- and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland by same publisher, from English ver- terpiece of our major. It is often the (Dublin: The Liffey Press, 2010). Pro- sion, Republican Portugal (Madison, hallmark of the student’s educational fessor Wells attended, and spoke at, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, experience.” the Irish book launch at the Ulster 1978). 30 Museum in Belfast on October and Though I retired from full-time To summarize the History concen- the English launch at Coventry Ca- classroom work at the University of tration as of fall 2011: thedral on November 3. The book is New Hampshire in 2002, I continue being published in Ireland, not North to lecture on history, especially his- There are no official tracks—just a America, by the terms of the grant tory of intelligence and espionage, to single “concentration in history.” Wells received from the Joseph Ken- audiences in New Hampshire, Massa- nedy Foundation, which supports pro- chusetts, and Maine, and will teach a 12 courses are required of all stu- jects for the common good in Ireland course on that topic again this winter dents. and Britain. It is available in North term at UNH’s adult learner division, The basic distribution requirement America through Amazon.com (see Granite State College, at Rochester, remains the same: one course each photo of cover below). N.H. in American, European, world, pre- modern. hi 200 is required of all students— and must be taken at BU. South Asian search Two seminars (formerly called col- loquia) are required of all stu- cancelled dents—and must be taken at BU or in a BU abroad program. To the dismay of department fac- No more than three courses below ulty, the search for a new assistant 200 may be counted toward the professor of south Asian history was major. cancelled by the College a few days before the search deadline. Students may select optional tracks Inevitably departments submit (American, European, intellec- more proposals for new faculty than tual/cultural, African, Asian, inter- can be funded; those that make the national history—with others to be initial cut (such as the south Asia one) developed); refer to information on are allowed to advertise “pending the website and consult with a fac- budgetary approval.” Unfortunately ulty advisor to choose a track. this year the History Department was on the wrong side of the final divide. Current majors may continue in The department received 60 appli- the tracks they have already selected cations for the position. (they are “grandfathered in”) until

December 2010 Page 5 graduation, and the department will demic Enhancement Fund. Below are samples of the students’ work from sev- support them with advising as usual. eral projects: As of fall 2011 only the revised major will be available for new History con- Silk Road Newscast (Jade Anderson, Avery Churchwell, Hallie Fischberg, centrators. One word of caution: Cur- Webster McEvoy, and Christina Rencis, director) rent students who have not declared a track within the current major (this These students produced a short newscast, with footage shot both indoors problem affects a substantial number) and on the Boston Common. The show began: “Good evening and welcome to run the risk of having to switch to the 7:00 evening news on Silk Road TV, your number one source for all things East- new major and thus being subject to ern Eurasia. I’m Webster and this is my cohost, Hallie. Tonight: Panic hits the 12-course requirement; they China as the Black Death sweeps across the nation into Europe and Southeast should declare a track (in cas b3) im- Asia. Reports confirm that the plague is being carried along the caravans of the mediately. Silk Road.” In the scene below, anchors Hallie Fischberg and Webster McEvoy The department will have a guide to announce from the studios of EMTV [see the logo at the bottom of the screen the major on the website by next below—we weren’t previously aware that the course instructor owned a TV net- spring’s registration period. N work] the outbreak of disease along the Silk Road. Webster has just discovered strange black dots on his arms, a sign that pestilence has struck him too. He will show more symptoms soon (better not to describe them!) and later pass out in front of the camera.

On the following pages are some poetic renderings of the life of a Buddhist Eugenio Menegon artist and of a long-distance merchant: guides HI 175 Silk Rap: The artist at the Buddhist caves of Dunhuang (Melissa D’Anna) Road Project Hey my name is Dong Baode I’m a pretty big deal on the Silk Road fter a week-long preparation, I’m an artist baby can’t you see the 53 students in Professor The king and everybody love me AEugenio Menegon and You may think an artist is pretty low class Teaching Fellow Kallie Szczepanski’s But ya you have that wrong cuz I’ve got pretty big tasks course “World History to 1500” (hi You know that ginormous statue of Buddha in Tibet 175) presented in class a series of skits, Along with all those crazy Chinese silken silhouettes PowerPoint presentations, a short Yea that was thanks to me movie, and poetic and musical perfor- The Nuns and those religious Buddhists pay thee mances on life along the Silk Road. The topics selected by students in- See HI 175, page 7 cluded social and gender relations, arts, religions, trade, ecology, and em- pires along this far-flung network of commercial and cultural routes ex- tending from China through Central Asia, Persia, and India all the way to the Mediterranean, between the 3rd and 10th centuries ce. With images from Buddhist sites, Central Asian music and costumes, monks’ robes and other props, students imagina- tively interpreted the biographies of several Silk Road social types during the 8th-9th centuries, based on Susan Whitfield’s Life Along the Silk Road (Univ. of California Press, 1999). Four projects were selected as winners in two categories (“Best Researched” and “Most Creative”) and received gift card prizes provided by the CAS Aca-

Page 6 NEWS Class on “Jews in the Modern World” visits Lower East Side

Our class “Jews in the Modern World” recently took a day trip down to New York City. The idea was to add substance to our class discussions about Jewish migration to the United States and the changes (and continuities) in Jewish employ- ment, politics, living conditions, and family life that this substantive demographic shift precipi- tated. Since we had just a day, we focused our touring in the Lower East Side, the section of New York that absorbed many generations of immigrants Students in the “Jews in the Modern World” class (clockwise from left): Sun Je Kim, and in the late nineteenth century became the lo- David Smigen-Rothkopf, Chelsea Elkaim, and Lizzie Bassett. cus of east European Jewish immigration to the United States. If the Lower East Side were a city, by World War I it would have had the largest Jew- ish population in the world. Jews didn’t just live on the Lower East Side, they worked there too, and in its shops and factories produced much of the women’s garments sold in the United States. We took a walking tour of the neighborhood and visited a number of landmarks such as the former Yiddish Daily Forward building, the Jarmulowsky Bank building, and the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Wealso took a guided tour of the TenementMu- seum (www.tenement.org) that took us to the reconstructed apartments of two Jewish families working in the garment trade (see photo below). Perhaps most importantly, we ate pastrami at Katz’s (photo above), a Lower East Side deli that opened in 1888. The trip was paid for by the CAS Student Academic Enhancement Fund.

Simon Rabinovitch Assistant Professor of History

HI 175 (cont. from page 6)

Cuz yea I’m a pretty hot commodity I’ve got my patrons like King Cao and Lady Zhai But also the monks and nuns wanna see my dye So thanks to my amazing works of art and monuments The future can discover the Silk Road settlements. So now it’s time to hand over my makeshift mic So you can hear from my commis- sioning nun Get Psyched

Poem: Forever a Merchant (Javier Bonilla) During their trip to Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Professor Simon Rabinovitch’s class visited the Tenement A Turk, a Chinese, or an Arab I could Museum and did the “Piecing It Together” tour, which takes one through the reconstructed apartments of be two Jewish families working in the textile trade. Photo by Lizzie Bassett (a member of the class) of the back of an old tenement building. See HI 175, page 8

December 2010 Page 7 Department of History 226 Bay State Road Boston, MA 02215

HI 175 (cont. from page 7) EVENTS OF NOTE (cont. from page 2)

Their languages I can speak Professor Eugenio Menegon was My grandfather, my father, his brothers, his cousins were all like me one of the organizers and presenters Merchants on the Silk Road we were meant to be. at the “Leisure and the State in Eur- asia” Workshop, held at the Institute We travel thousands of miles across arid deserts on Culture, Religion, and World Af- In caravans with camels humped and tall fairs at Boston University, on Novem- Complain of the scorching heat these beasts of burden won’t ber 5-6. This was the first workshop in Drink tons of water they don’t. a series organized in the multi-year re- search project at BU entitled “Leisure We brave the blinding sandstorms to glimpse the pot of gold at the end of the and Social Change Across Asia,” sup- road ported by the BU Humanities Foun- Endure the blazing torrid sun to refresh our pockets with riyals and liras dation in alliance with the Cluster of From selling our wares of Turkish wool and Chinese silk Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Dazzling gems and exotic jade Global Context” at the University of Weather the freezing and biting cold to bask in cozy pleasure Heidelberg (Germany). The work- That riches will assure. shop’s four panels (12 presenters) fo- cused on the relationship between lei- Be warned, my wise old man said sure activities and the state in pre- Steer clear of hot spots where Arab and Chinese armies clash modern and modern Eurasia, from Offer coins to border guards to let you go Turkey to South Asia to East Asia, and Don’t cross paths with ruthless bandits dealt with courtly life, aristocratic and Lest you lose those precious carats of stone and coveted satin clothes literary networks, and leisure; urban Fight those greedy creatures to keep their hands off your cash life, the state, and leisure; leisure as And the gifts of sparkling jewels for your doting wives source of tension as well as symbolic The bright-colored woolen furs for your darling babes. and political capital for the modern state in nation-building and societal We’ve got grit and guts, we’ve got glory, control. Among the presenters was Jesus Christ, Allah, Buddha, bless me, Professor Suzanne O’Brien of the A merchant I will forever be. N History Department. N