Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Hunter, Whiteside Godfrey, 1841-1917 (Sc 1765), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1765. Letters from Whiteside Godfrey Hunter, former state legislator and U.S. Congressman, to E. Scott Brown, attorney, Scottsville, Allen County, Kentucky, requesting his support for Republican candidates. He also indicates he has requested Sidney P. Hardcastle be appointed postmaster at Settle, Allen County, Kentucky.

Living With Wikipedia: It’S Here To Stay, Charles W. Hayford

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

My name is Charles and I’m a Wikipedia addict.

I can’t help myself, but then, neither can 75,000 other “active contributors.” We don’t just look things up: we create articles, correct and introduce mistakes, send each other notes, and fuss over issues great and obscure. Anonymity lends a carnival air of freedom and community since, as the famous New Yorker cartoon had it, “on the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog” (and yes, the link is to a Wikipedia article).

Wikipedia is an internet galactic cloud of information. Nicholson Baker, who once crankily lamented the end of the library card …

Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845 (Sc 1768), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1768. Letter, 26 April 1825, from Andrew Jackson, Nashville, Tennessee to A. P. Maury, also of Nashville, in which he declines to act as guardian for the children of the late Major John Reid owing to ill health and increased responsibilities.

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 4, Robert J. Barnett

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

There’s a nice thing about literature about modern Tibet, which is that it is wonderfully polemical. It’s not that I like polemic, which destroys lives and wreaks havoc with societies. But it does make it ever so easy to organize one’s books. So instead of tedious hours sorting them by topic or author, I can arrange my Tibet books according to two or three viewpoints, perhaps four at most. One case for the books with a China POV, some shelves for those from the exile perspective, a few for the “I was a Heroic Western Explorer and Discovered Totally Unknown …

China In Socal

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

We don’t usually do posts about upcoming events, but there are so many involving China Beat-related folks (either contributors or people we’ve reviewed or referred to recently) in Southern California in the next few weeks that we felt remiss not mentioning them.

First, tomorrow (nothing like starting with the present!) USC will be hosting a day-long symposium on “Hong Kong, China and the World Art System.” It features many speakers, including China Beat contributor Richard Kraus.

The UCI Center for Asian Studies, in cooperation with several other units, will be hosting Michael Meyer, author of Last Days of Old Beijing, …

Coming Distraction: Factory Girls

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

As faithful readers may recall, China Beat contributor Leslie T. Chang has a forthcoming book, Factory Girls: From Village to City in Changing China, which will be released October 7. The book has received positive reviews, such as this one at Publisher’s Weekly and this one from China Beat’s Jeff Wasserstrom writing in Newsweek. You can read the first chapter for the book as a preview at Amazon, but we wanted to share a short excerpt, from Chapter 4, with you as well. In this excerpt, Chang describes how a mobile phone is not just a desirable accessory for migrant …

Looking Backward, Looking Forward: Puerto Ricans In The Quest For The New York City Mayoralty, José Cruz

Policy Documents

This paper examines the history of Puerto Rican efforts to win the mayoralty of the city of New York, highlighting the 2005 election. By doing so, it seeks to fill a gap in the history of Puerto Rican political participation in New York. The struggle of Puerto Rican elites to win representa- tion at the highest level of office in the city is long-standing. The paper chronicles the circumstances and terms according to which they sought political incorporation at that level. . The paper looks critically at the issue of runoff elections. The role of money is examined through the …

National Days Past: Five Things To Read Or Look At

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

To complement the last post on revolutionary anniversaries, here are some places to turn to get a sense of how October 1 has been marked in China between 1949 and 2007.

1) Let’s start with National Day 1950: for an idealized vision of the celebrations held that day, look at this poster.

2) For a fascinating discussion of past National Days that combines memories of personal experience and analytical moves rooted in the discipline of art history, see Wu Hung’s excellent Remaking Beijing.

3) For a look back at National Day 1984, when the 35th anniversary of the founding of …

Advocate, October 2008, Vol. [20], No. [2], Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

From the Editor's Desk: Shocking Wall Street: Disaster Capitalism and the Promise of Progressive Reform (p. 2)

Political Analysis: Three Days in the West Bank, Nirit Ben-Ari (p. 3)

Dispatches from the Front: Teaching Writing Intensively (and Often), James Hoff (p. 4)

Adjuncting: Graduate Student Health Insurance Is on Its Way — But Not For All, Renee McGarry and Jessie Goldstein (p. 5)

CUNY News in Brief (p. 5)

Grad Life: The Battle of St. Paul, Abe Walker (p. 6)

The Nurse Practitioner Will See You Now, Roisin O'Connor-McGinn (p. 8)

Profiteers, Union-Busters, Witch Hunters... Look Who’s …

Revolutionary Anniversaries

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Few Westerners will take note that this week it is time to celebrate Chinese revolutions. October 1 will be the 59th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (celebrated as National Day). Ten days later, on October 10, Taiwan celebrates its National Day (also known as Double Ten Day, and on its 97th go-round). On the mainland, Double Tens is used as an opportunity to commemorate the uprising that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, though not the Republic that followed it. Of course, which one you celebrate depends on location and political leaning, but either way early October …

Dakota Land In 1862, A Genocide Forgotten: How Civilizational Transformation Can Get Lost In The Fading Rate Of History, Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

The year of 1862 was critical in a process by which a land larger than many nations was transformed from one civilization to another. But the process was not a classic conquest easily recorded in history books. Rather, it was a slow "digestion" of over 20 million hectares of territory by one civilization, accompanied by moments of true genocide or "ethnic cleansing" during long periods of high death rates for one group and high birth rates and immigration rates for the other group. But this was sufficiently gradual that most historians did not record it on their lists of wars …

Demographics In World History—Population Explosion And Implosion, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Political Science Fall 2008, Dan Sabia

Political Science Newsletter Fall 2008

No abstract provided.

The 2008 Municipal Elections According To Nicaraguan Women: Nihilism, Hope, And Pragmatism, Teresa Cheng

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

China Annals: Interview With Antonia Finnane

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Antonia Finnane is Professor of Chinese History at the University of Melbourne, co-editor (with Anne McLaren) of Dress, Sex and Text in Chinese Culture (1999), and author of three books: Far From Where? Jewish Journeys from Shanghai to Australia (1999); Speaking of Yangzhou: A Chinese City, 1550-1850 (2004); andChanging Clothes in China: Fashion, History, Nation (2008). Read on for an interview with this prolific scholar and a review of her latest book.

Nicole Barnes: What first drew you to China studies?

Antonia Finnane: It’s hard to say, but the Cold War and the Vietnam War were probably factors. When I …

Coal Miner’S Daughter

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One of the most recent targets of China’s self-appointed net detectives—practitioners of the pernicious phenomenon known as the “human flesh search” (ren rou sou sou)—is not an unfaithful husband, a kitten killer, or a Tibet-friendly Chinese student. Instead she is someone who is, supposedly, a comely young woman whose father owns a coal mine and who recently immigrated to Seattle, cash, flashy cars, and Louis Vuitton luggage in hand. Definitely not from Butcher Holler. And, as it turns out, a fake.

The human flesh searchers, who mete out internet justice and facilitate the harassment of those who fail their moral …

Interview With Lijia Zhang

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

On Iowa Public Radio’s “The Exchange” (follow that link to stream the mp3 recording). Zhang is currently a participant in the University of Iowa’sInternational Writing Program. She discusses her book, Socialism is Great!, her life experiences, and China in the late twentieth century (as well as her book as a possible gift for Sarah Palin).

Her most recent piece at China Beat is “Ode to the Communist Song.”

Coming Distractions: Speaking To History

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Paul A. Cohen, professor of history emeritus at Wellesley College and also an associate at the Harvard Fairbank Center, has long been interested in not justwhat happened but also how historians tell the stories of the past. As one of the strongest advocates for China-centered historical work, Cohen has explored this tension between history and its telling in works that sometimes reveal unknown stories and sometimes confound the traditional tellings of well-known historical events. These earlier works include China Unbound: Evolving Perspectives on the Chinese Past, History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth,China and Christianity, and …

Political Conventions - Democratic, 1852 (Sc 40), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 40. Letter to Dr. W.P. Reyburn from four Louisiana state delegates to the National Democratic Convention, Baltimore, Maryland, June 1852, appointing him their representative and instructing him to vote for General Lewis Cass for President.

Culture And Collapse Revisited, Pierre Fuller

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

In May of this year I wagged a few fingers at British writer Simon Winchester for an op-ed piece he penned in the wake of Sichuan’s devastating quake. Appearing as it did both in the New York Times and in its global edition, the International Herald Tribune, his attempt at posing a supposedly quake-fit “West” or “America” against a Chinese people who had collectively all “turned their back” as early as the 16th century on science and construction know-how begged immediate comment.

I soon found myself in the bowels of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies’ …

Rodes Collection (Sc 33), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 33. Letter (facsimile) written by Andrew Jackson, U.S. President, 1845, Hermitage, Tennessee, to Major William B. Lewis, regarding national politics, and an invitation to Mr. & Mrs. John G. Barrett, Louisville, Kentucky, to a reception for President and Mrs. Hayes at the Galt House, Louisville, Kentucky, 1877.

Ward Family Letters (Sc 27), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 27. Letter written to Jonathan Ward, Plymouth, New Hampshire, by his brother, Daniel Ward, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1840, which concerns family affairs and politics, and a letter written to Ralph Ward by his mother, Mrs. Catherine Ward, Talbottom, Georgia, 1861, which concerns her experience of traveling on a railway car with Jefferson Davis and southern pre-Civil War sentiments.

Harrison, William Henry, 1773-1841- Relating To (Sc 28), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 28. William Henry Harrison campaign ribbon badge used for advertising during the 1840 presidential campaign, often referred to as the "log cabin and hard cider" campaign.

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 3–Comments By Pico Iyer And Pankaj Mishra

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Continuing our series seeking to draw attention to overlooked readings on Tibet, we are happy to be able to provide comments by two long-time friends of the blog, Pico Iyer and Pankaj Mishra, talented and versatile writers whose most recent books are The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and Temptations of the West: How to Be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet, and Beyond, respectively. It seemed particularly appropriate to ask Iyer and Mishra to suggest articles or books that they have found useful in thinking about Tibet but which might be under the radar of …

Schneringer, Kenneth E. (Sc 1743), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1743. Letter 17 November 2000 from Kenneth E. Schneringer, Woodstock, Georgia to Constance Ann Mills, Bowling Green, Kentucky in which he discusses the presidential election of 2000 and the candidates.

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 2

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This second piece in our ongoing series highlighting “In Case You Missed It” readings on Tibet, is devoted to reflections by Charlene Makley, a member of Reed College’s Anthropology Department. She was part of the same Boulder roundtable mentioned in our first post in the series, and she is the author of The Violence of Liberation: Gender and Tibetan Buddhist Revival in Post Mao China, published last year by the University of California Press in cloth and paperback editions.

Having just returned from a year in Tibetan regions of the PRC, I am not completely versed on the most recent …

Blog To Book: The China Beat Moves Into The Print World

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

This Self-Promotion Saturday will be the first of a series devoted to a book project:China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance. Rowman & Littlefield will be publishing it fairly early in 2009 and it will be edited by three people familiar to “China Beat” readers: Kate Merkel-Hess, Ken Pomeranz and Jeff Wasserstrom, all of whom are based at UC Irvine. Some of the content will also be familiar to “China Beat” readers, since the book will include material that first appeared on this site (though in some cases in an updated and expanded form). China in 2008 will also …

In Case You Missed It: Tibet Special, Part 1

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

It has now been six months since “China Beat” ran a series of reports about and suggested readings relating to the March unrest in Tibet. We thought this a fitting time to try to figure out what some of the best works out there are that deal with Tibet in general, not just a particular crisis involving the region and its people. So, we will be asking some people the following question: “Can you think of any particular article or book relating to Tibet that you wish more people had read?” We’ll run the answers periodically, as they come in. …

In Case You Missed It: The Thrill Of The Chase, Angilee Shah

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

My redeye flight from Singapore to Shanghai in August was timed purposefully before the Olympics ended, but my route was planned meticulously to avoid the big Olympics events.

Before the trip I likewise scoured the library of the Singapore school where I teach for fresh (or at least fresh to me) narratives on China–the kinds of simple but expansive journeys that unabashedly take young explorers “beyond the headlines” and spark awe-inspiring careers. I’d already read Peter Hessler’sOracle Bones and I was looking for more.

(My friend Anka was tasked with writing about life in China, and I was tasked with …

What Did The Cultural Revolution Look Like?

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Many people outside of China get their first ideas about the Cultural Revolution from reading memoirs or works of fiction that deal with the years 1966-1969 or the final decade of the Maoist era (1966-1976). It is also possible, though, to start to grapple with the meaning of that complex and traumatic period via its visual culture, and finding out about a new exhibit and a new online collection (new to me at least) has inspired this Top Five List. It includes some sites that have been mentioned before at China Beat, but seem worth referring to again.

1. The …