Professor of history and chair of the History and Literature program, Jill Lepore, has been honored for her most recent book, The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. In 2012, Lepore received the Sarah Joseph Hale Medal for Distinction in Literature. This year, “Benched,” her New Yorker article on the history of the Supreme Court, was named by Greenbag as an exemplary piece of legal writing, and “Battleground America,” an investigation into the history of the gun debate, was named by Longform as one of the year’s best political essays. In May, she will receive an honorary degree from Colgate University.

Congratulations Professor Lepore!

Peter E. Gordon considers “Marx After Marxism: What can the revolutionary teach us if the revolution is dead?” in a review of Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life by Jonathan Sperber.

*Credit: The New Republic

Peter Gordon, Amabel B. James Professor of History at Harvard and Davis Fellow at Princeton University in 2012-2013, has released a co-edited volume with John P. McCormick, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, entitled Weimar Thought: A Contested Legacy.

With four thematic sections - on law, politics, and society; philosophy, theology, and science; aesthetics, literature, and film; and general cultural and social themes of the Weimar period - the volume brings together a remarkable array of fields, with each individual essay serving as an overview for a particular discipline while offering distinctive critical engagement with relevant problems and debates.

Weimar Thought is published by Princeton University Press.

Annette Gordon-Reed, one of the foremost scholars of Jefferson, recently discussed her latest book project with Pat Harrison of the Radcliffe Magazine.  Gordon-Reed is Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Radcliffe, the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School, and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She began working on Jefferson with her first book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (University Press of Virginia, 1997). Her current book project, ‘The Most Blessed of Patriarchs’: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of Imagination, centers on Jefferson’s intellectual development.

For an excerpt of the new book, see the full article.

*Photo credit: Kathleen Dooher/Radcliffe Magazine

Harvard Oxford Summer Internship in Medieval Archaeology

One or two research internships will be awarded to Harvard undergraduates to accomplish an important scholarly mission in Europe this summer. Under the general supervision of Dr. Helena Hamerow, Professor of Medieval Archaeology, Oxford University, between ca. June 1 and July 30, the intern(s) will work on a medieval archaeology research project for approximately one month; a second month will be spent working on the archaeological excavation of an important late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon site. Based in Oxford’s Institute for Archaeology, the summer interns will meet and work with archaeologists, have opportunities to visit sites and excavations on their own initiative, and perform an invaluable scholarly service to the broader archaeological and historical community. By the very nature of their work, they will be exposed to some of the leading scholars in England, and gain unique insights both into a new and rising field, and into the academic and other aspects of life in a major intellectual and cultural center abroad. The successful interns will need some background in medieval studies and/or archaeology, and some basic understanding of scanning, databases, and general computer skills, as well as the ability to conduct independent work within a foreign institutional and academic environment. Previous Medieval Archaeology winners consider their Harvard-Oxford internship one of the highpoints of their College experience.

The Harvard-Oxford Summer Medieval Archeology Internship bears no independent funding but you may qualify for support from one of the myriad funding sources on campus. For instance, The Harvard-Oxford Summer Medieval Archeology Internship qualifies for support from the David Rockefeller International Experience Grants (DRIEG). Applicants for the internship should therefore apply to the Rockefeller Program specifying that they are candidates for the Harvard-Oxford Medieval Archeology Internship. You may not have graduated at the time that you will hold the award.

For information on student eligibility, funding expectations and the application process, please visit the Funding Sources Database (funding.fas.harvard.edu).

There are two separate applications and deadlines:

1. Application to the Harvard-Oxford Medieval Archaeology Internship:

Noon, Friday, February 1, 2013. See below.

2. Applications for most funding sources on campus are due around  February 10. For summer grant information and the application form, go to: http://www.ocs.fas.harvard.edu/students/summer_international_experience_internships.htm

Students will find their own lodgings.   At the conclusion of the summer, interns will submit a three-page report to Professor McCormick on their experience.

To apply for the Harvard-Oxford Summer Medieval Archeology Internship, submit by Noon, Friday, February 1, 2013:

o   a personal statement of why you should be chosen for the award (1 page maximum) and why this is an
important opportunity for you; please specify the foreign languages you can speak and/or read

o   a list of relevant medieval studies and archaeology courses you have taken

o   a transcript

o   a letter of recommendation from a Faculty member or Instructor who knows you and your work well

All materials for Application 1 should be submitted to Professor McCormick

c/o Ms. Liana DeMarco (demarco@fas.harvard.edu) by the deadline of Noon, Friday, February 1, 2013.

Olga González-Silén, PhD candidate in history, was awarded the 2012 Tibesar Prize, given by the Conference of Latin American History. This award recognizes the best article of the year published in the journal The Americas. Olga’s article, “Unexpected Opposition: Independence and the 1809 Leve de Vagos in the Province of Caracas,” was published in the January 2012 issue. The committee that picked Olga’s articles is ” charged with selecting that article which best combines distinguished scholarship, original research and/or thought, and grace of writing style.” Congratulations to Olga on winning this award!

More information can be found at The Conference on Latin American History.

Olga Gonzalez-Silen, “Unexpected Opposition: Independence and the 1809 Leva de Vagos in the Province of Caracas,” The Americas 68:3 (January 2012), 347-375.

Aditya Balasubramanian, a Harvard College senior concentrating in history, has won a Marshall Scholarship. Aditya will be studying at the London School of Economics for the academic year 2012-2013. Congratulations, Aditya!

Please visit the Marshall Scholarship website for the full list of winners.

On Saturday, the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2013 was elected. The history department is happy to announce that two concentrators, Julian Gewirtz and Ben Wilcox, were among the winners! All 32 student scholars will begin studies at Oxford in October 2013.  They were selected from a pool of 838 candidates who had been nominated by their colleges and universities.

Congratulations Julian and Ben!

For the full list of winners, please visit the Rhodes Scholarship website.

PhD candidate Rhae Lynn Barnes recently discussed her website project US History Scene with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Since its founding almost a year ago, the project has received endorsements from the Smithsonian, the American Historical Association, and the National Council for History Education. A staff of fifteen writes for the site, producing posts related to topics in American history complete with recorded lectures, video clips, scanned manuscripts, and other archival material. For the entire story, please visit the Graduate School’s website.

On behalf of the Harvard Asia Center and the Joint Center for History and Economics at Harvard and Cambridge, it is our great pleasure to announce the launch of the United Nations History Project website. The website, made possible by the support of the United Nations Foundation, offers a wealth of materials for researching and teaching the history of the United Nations and international organizations. The project provides a starting point for scholarly research through comprehensive guides to physical and online sources for international organizations. In addition, leading scholars on the UN have written about their experiences working in UN archives and discuss further research possibilities. The website also offers a wide range of teaching materials for UN history, including annotated bibliographies, timelines, lectures by experts on UN history, and resources from a course taught on the global history of the UN at Harvard in spring 2011. For further information or to get involved, please like our Facebook page or send an e-mail to unitednationshistory@gmail.com.