Nell Irvin Painter: The History of White People

In November, 2010, John Jackson, at the Huffington Post, mentioned the Nell Irvin Painter and "The History of White People" this way: Nell Irvin Painter's The History of White People provides a fascinating look at the different perceptions of whiteness throughout history. What was white in the United States in 1900, is not what is white today. Irish and Italians were not part of the Anglo-Saxon protestant view of what constituted mainstream white American society. Some suggest that Hispanics of 'European' descent might go through a similar process. You can find that entire Huffington Post article here. In December of 2010, Wesleyan University announced a series of lectures on the "History of Race" for 2011. A listed speaker and lecturer is Nell Irvin Painter. For more information on that lecture series, see this webpage.

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The December 17, 2010 Charlie Rose Conversation with Stephen Cohen

CHARLIE ROSE: Joseph Stalin’s reign of mass terror on the Soviet Union has been called the "other Holocaust." Millions of men, women, and children perished in his vast web prison and slave labor camps which Solzinitzin called "The Gulag Archipelago." Millions of others though somehow survived and were freed after Stalin’s death in 1953. A new book by an NYU professor and Russian scholar Stephen Cohen tells the stories of these survivors that is called "The Victims’ Return." I’m pleased to have Stephen Cohen back at this table. Welcome. / STEPHEN COHEN: Thank you, happy to be back.

Read the full transcript here. The Moscow Times had this to say about the book:

As historian Stephen Cohen shows with sharp analysis and deep pathos in his new book, “The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag After Stalin,” the question of what to do with the gulag’s victims, and the legacy of the man who put them there, did not end with their liberation. It has continued to haunt Russia for decades, along with ever-changing interpretations of how the country should address its own past. Memoirs by Solzhenitsyn and other gulag survivors, as well as recent best-selling studies such as Orlando Figes’ “The Whisperers,” have familiarized Western audiences with accounts of the gulag. But Cohen, a professor at Princeton University, is one of the first to focus on survivors’ experiences after their release. “The Victims Return” draws on literary journals, memoirs and interviews with former inmates Cohen befriended in the ’70s to survey individual experiences of post-gulag life. At the same time, it analyzes the political decisions at the top that shaped them.

Read that Moscow Times piece here.

The West and China: Nobel v. Confucius from On Point with Tom Ashbrook Podcast

We take the long view on China's rise and the West's uncertain future, with Stanford historian Ian Morris. His new book is "Why the West Rules --for Now."

Download the podcast here. See also: The Dynamics of Ancient Empires: State Power from Assyria to Byzantium (Oxford Studies in Early Empires), The Greeks: History, Culture, and Society (2nd Edition), Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Key Themes in Ancient History)

Maira Kalman Travels Country to Fall Back In Love with America from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

All week long we have been talking about the idea of "home," and the physical attributes and emotional attachments we have to our homes. We end our series by talking with artist and writer Maira Kalman. She is the author of “And the Pursuit of Happiness,” a compilation of her year-long journey for our partner, The New York Times, to explore her adopted home, America. Kalman was not born in the United States, but she traveled the country to fall back in love.

Download The Takeaway podcast here.

Also, the NY Times had this to say:

If children’s picture books are on the wane, all the more reason to hail the advent of a new picture book for grown-ups. Kalman, the creator of a dozen books for children, and whose previous adult works include “The Principles of Uncertainty” and the unaccountably ingenious illustrated edition of “The Elements of Style,” now brings us AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS (Penguin Press, $29.95), an investigation of the historical underpinnings and current workings of democracy in America. Sort of. Really, it’s more like an impromptu interpretive dance about our country, executed in fat, frolicky color, unprissy brushstroke, a smattering of pleasantly pedestrian photo­graphs and perfectly rambunctious penmanship. Oh, Maira. May we call you Maira? You are like the imaginary childhood friend we never had. Never mind, we have you now, and in these pages you give us your giant, wistful heart; your unfettered, inquisitive prose; and your loving renderings of hats, noses, despondency, public restrooms, a numbered Civil War grave, a Brooklyn sewage plant, Thomas Edison in a cream-colored suit, napping on the grass, and various fried eggs. Wait — this is democracy? In Kalman’s eclectic, catholic, ecstatically skewed view, yes. All this and more.

See the full NY Times piece here. Don't forget, Kalman was on The Colbert Report as well.