History

Mrs. Shipley’s Ghost Reviewed in “The Chronicle”

by Phillip Witteveen May 24, 2013

“She looks harmless enough.” So begins the Chronicle of Higher Education’s review of Jeffrey Kahn’s Mrs. Shipley’s Ghost: The Right to Travel and Terrorist Watchlists. But Ruth Bielaski Shipley was in fact one of the most influential civil servants of the early 20th century, a woman whom Franklin D. Roosevelt described as ”a wonderful ogre” for her role as head of the State Department’s Passport’s Office from 1928 to 1955,. In this capacity, she “single-handedly delayed, thwarted, or otherwise constrained the travel plans of thousands of Americans,” writes the Chronicle’s Nina C. Ayoub in her review of Kahn’s book. The Chronicle recounts the [...]

If your body craves more ‘Gulp,’ an ‘Open Wound’ may satisfy

by Shaun Manning May 10, 2013

Mary Roach, dubbed “America’s funniest science writer” by the Washington Post, has fans hungry for more weird stories of the body’s inner working with her latest book Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. Roach, who provided a blurb for Jason Karlawish’s Open Wound, also gives a shout to that book in Gulp itself, calling Open Wound ”a fine and sleuthily researched historical novel.” Roach notes that, while Dr. William Beaumont’s thoughts on his experiments upon Alexis St. Martin are well-documented thanks to the doctor’s journals, St. Martin’s initial response to the “unusual proposition” of having his bullet wound used as a window [...]

Win a copy of Jason Karlawish’s ‘Open Wound’ in paperback!

by Shaun Manning May 8, 2013

To celebrate the paperback release of Jason Karlawish’s historical novel Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont, we’re giving away three copies to lucky readers on the social reading site Goodreads! Goodreads Book Giveaway Open Wound by Jason Karlawish Giveaway ends May 17, 2013. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win Dr. Karlawish’s novel gets to the heart of the strange relationship between Dr. William Beaumont and Northern Michigan fur trader Alexis St. Martin, who, after a shotgun misfires, bears a hole in his stomach which never quite heals over. Beaumont takes the opportunity [...]

WATCH: Roger Lipsey’s speech at UN honoring Dag Hammarskjöld

by Shaun Manning April 22, 2013

Video of the United Nations’ tribute to Dag Hammarskjöld, marking sixty years since his inauguration at the organization’s second Secretary General, is now online at the UN’s website. Roger Lipsey, author of the recently-published Hammarskjöld biography from the University of Michigan Press, was a featured speaker at the event. “I still ask myself how best to characterize Dag Hammarskjöld,” Lipsey began. “How to characterize him in a way that encourages us, not just to celebrate him in the distance as a lofty lost figure, but as a working example—close, inspiring. He was a sign of what is possible, but from time to [...]

Roger Lipsey to speak on Hammarskjöld’s legacy at UN

by Shaun Manning April 9, 2013

Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary General of the United Nations, will be honored with a symposium Wednesday at the UN to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of his taking office. Roger Lipsey, author of the highly-praised biography Hammarskjöld: A Life, will speak at the event and take part in a panel discussion. Serving as Secretary General from 1953 until his death in plane crash while en route to negotiate a ceasefire in the Congo Crisis, Hammarskjöld made efforts to improve ties between Israel and its Arab neighbors, journeyed to China to negotiate the release of captured American pilots, and helped to diffuse [...]

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