| January-February 2006
Cultural Preservation | Film
& Television | History|
Literature | Visual Arts
G1 - Honoring Others Honors Ourselves
Johnson, Jean
American Indian, Winter 2005, pp. 16-22
“Various age-old traditions and rituals that celebrate life's
passages and achievements serve to demonstrate to Native Americans
who they are and their origins. The author offers an adage: "Tell
me how you honor and are honored, and I will tell you who you
are." She cites a number of these tangible tributes -- eagle feathers,
star quilts, blankets -- as well as intangibles, such as the creation
of songs and stories, naming ceremonies and other festivities
that enable the younger generation of Native Americans to realize
their honored place in the world. A sidebar describes the accomplishments
of seven Native Americans whose figures in bronze are present
in the National Statuary Hall, in the U.S. Capitol, in Washington,
D.C”. Jean Johnson is a writer for “American Indian”, a magazine
published by the recently (Fall 2004) opened National Museum of
the American Indian in Washington D.C. Request
Article
Film & Television
G2 - The Murrow Doctrine
Lemann, Nicholas
New Yorker; v.81 #45, January 23, 2006, pp38-43
The author examines the journalistic career of broadcast
pioneer Edward R. Murrow, whose famous confrontation with Senator
Joseph McCarthy in 1954 has recently been turned into a movie
by George Clooney – the critically acclaimed "Good Night
and Good Luck." Murrow eventually left CBS accepting
a job from President Kennedy as director of the United States
Information Agency. Fulltext
G3 - Spielberg's "Munich"
Schoenfeld, Gabriel
Commentary, Feb.06, v.121, #2, pp34-42
"Thirty-three years after the event, we now have a film by a great
director memorializing the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes
by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Olyrnpics in Munich, Germany.
But, although much hyped in advance, it has not exactly been a
blockbuster at the box office, and it has also engendered considerable
controversy... For his own part, Spielberg has said that he made
"Munich" out of a simple desire to commemorate
the slaughtered Jews of Munich. He also believes that the film
is relevant to our own troubled times, and specifically to the
current war against terror. As a comment on two adversaries trapped
in a "quagmire," and as an implicit "prayer for peace," "Munich"
tells us "something important about the tragic standoff we find
ourselves in today." Gabriel Schoenfeld is the senior editor
of Commentary. Fulltext
History
G4 - Benjamin Franklin - America's Inventor
Block, Stanton, Seymour
American History, February 2006, v.40 #6, pp38-49
"Born 300 years ago, Benjamin Franklin remains perhaps the
most inquisitive, creative and prodigious inventor, innovator
and thinker ever born on American soil. But which of Franklin's
many inventions' was actually his most important? This article
by a scientist provides an overview of Franklin’s inventions and
offers a somewhat surprising answer." Seymour Stanton Block
is a professor emeritus of chemical engineering at the University
of Florida and author of the recently published “Benjamin Franklin,
Genius of Kites, Flights, and Voting Rights.” Fulltext
G5 - The Two Worlds of Race: A Historical View
Franklin, John Hope
Daedalus, Fall 2005, vol.134, #4; pp118-135
"Measured by universal standards the history of the United States
is indeed brief. But during the brief span of three and one-half
centuries of colonial and national history Americans developed
traditions and prejudices which created the two worlds of race
in modern America." This article presents a perspective on colonial
and national history, and its implication to the American race
in the U.S., starting with the racial differences when Africans
were brought as indenture servants in the U.S. and explores the
status of the African-American during the American Revolution.
John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History
at Duke University, has been a Fellow of the American Academy
since 1964. Fulltext
G6 - "My Whole Soul Is In It"
Kearns Goodwin, Doris
Smithsonian, Jan 2006, Vol.36, #10; pp 48-55
"While Washington sweltered through the long, hot summer of 1862,
Pres Abraham Lincoln made the momentous decision that would define
both his presidency and the course of Civil War. The great question
of what to do about slavery had provoked increasingly bitter debates
on Capitol Hill for months. Back in March, Lincoln had asked the
legislature to pass a joint resolution providing federal aid to
any state willing to adopt a plan for the gradual abolition of
slavery; without the approval of the border-state representatives,
it went nowhere. Here, Goodwin details how Lincoln got his chance
to emancipate the slaves." Doris Kearns Goodwin received the
Pulitzer Prize for history for a previous book, No Ordinary Time
(1995). Fulltext
Literature
G7 - The Other Side of Paradise: Toni Morrison's (Un)Making
of Mythic History
Gauthier, Marni
African American Review, Fall 2005, Vol.39, #3; pp395-415
"Paradise (1998), Toni Morrison's seventh novel and her first
since becoming the first African-American woman to win the Nobel
Prize in Literature (1993), was greeted with the most mixed reviews
of the author's three-decade career...This article explores the
national ideal of Toni Morrison's Paradise and the way that national
history itself becomes inscribed in the collective imagination
as mythic history. Mythic history is that narrative of national
identity that partially represents experience and gains particular
currency in the popular imagination. Formulated as much from myth
as from historical occurrences, mythic history both produces and
reflects collective historical imagination." Marni Gauthier
is Assistant Professor of English at SUNY-Cortland, where she
specializes in contemporary literature. Fulltext
G8 - Begin Again: Reflections On Writing Post-Katrina
Krotzer Laborde, Katheryn
Poets & Writers, Jan/Feb 2006, Vol.34 #1; pp56-62
"Continuing the national narrative on Hurricane Katrina's destruction,
New Orleans-based writer Clark details his struggles during and
after the hurricane hit the city. He shares that after mourning
the hundreds of casualties, she realized that she had been given
rich material for a dozen personal essays, raw inspiration for
several books of water-clogged poetry, and a hard-to-shake diaspora
theme that will surely haunt his short stories for years to come."
Kstheryn Krotzer Laborde is a freelance writer. Fulltext
Visual Arts
G9 - Elizabeth Murray: Scary Funny
Westfall, Stephen
Art in America, Jan 2006, Vol. 94 #1; pp76-86
"MOMA's current Elizabeth Murray retrospective makes a convincing
case for her as one of the major painters of our time, able to
synthesize many modes of modernist exploration while developing
a vocabulary of domestic anxiety and pleasure... The Museum of
Modern Art retrospective, organized by Robert Storr, makes it
clear that her imagination is just as likely to incinerate the
kids at a birthday party as entertain them with animal balloons.
It also makes a strong case for Murray as one of the great painters
of our time, an artist who is a synthesizer and innovator of the
many forms of modernist painting while at the same time developing
and expanding imagistic themes of private domestic anxiety and
pleasure." Stephen Westfall is an artist who writes about
art. Fulltext
G10 - State of the Art
Gewen, Barry
New York Times Book Review, Dec 11, 2005. pp28-33
The author argues that art criticism have become "voiceless" and
discusses several philosophical issues at the heart of modern
art. Barry Gewen is an editor at the Book Review. Fulltext
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