Good News Bulletin

May 1999

• Prof. Melvin G. Holli, The American Mayor: The Best and the Worst Big-City Leaders (Penn State Press, 1999).

• Prof. Robert V. Remini (emeritus) won the D. B. Hardeman prize for Daniel Webster: The Man and his Times. This award is bestowed by the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library upon the "best book" dealing with any aspect of the U. S. Congress. It was presented in February at a banquet at the LBJ Library.

• Prof. James Cracraft has won a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1999-2000.

• Grad students Nicole Buts and Keith Green have been awarded Fulbright fellowships for research in Switzerland and Germany respectively, and Karl Wood has won a Daad Fellowship for his work in Germany.

• Prof. Roger Biles' (East Carolina University, Ph.D., 1981) book A New Deal for the American People is excerpted in the 8th edition of Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History.

• Justin Coffey (Ph.D. program) authored biographies of Harry M. Daugherty and Thomas Collier Platt in the recently-published American National Biography.

• Prof. Gerald Danzer gave a presentation on "Great Cities: Perspectives on America's Urban Experiences" in a Focus on Teaching Day session at the OAH in April.
• Mara Dodge (Ph.D. 1997) has been appointed a tenure-track assistant professor at Westfield State College, where she will teach l9th-century U.S., Latin American, women's, and labor history.

• Prof. Hasia Diner (Ph.D., 1975) of New York University gave a paper on "Memories of Hunger: Food, Migration, and Ethnic Identities" at the OAH Convention.

• Prof. Perry Duis will direct the fourth annual summer session devoted to "Ethnic Chicago" for Elderhostel. The noncredit program is based at the UIC campus.

• Prof. Rick Fried gave a paper on The Ugly American at a philology conference at la Universidad de Salamanca in March and on "The Rise and Fall of Electoral Redbaiting" at the OAH Annual Meeting in April. His book was reviewed in the April 2 TLS and he was quoted (to no particular consequence) in an April 19 Sun-Times article on Mies van der Rohe and the FBI.

• Larry Hays (MAT) who teaches at the Highlands Middle School, LaGrange, Illinois, commented on Gerry Danzer's presentation at the Toronto OAH Convention in April.

• Prof. Arnold R. Hirsch (Ph.D., 1978), University of New Orleans, chaired an OAH session on "Political Culture and Urban Space in the Era of Deindustrialization, 1945-1980."

• Prof. Mel Holli's recent book (q.v.) has received reams of notice in such venues as The Chronicle of Higher Education (March 26), the Boston Globe (March 30), USA Today (April 8) a very positive New York Times review, and a dismissive shrug from the Chicago Sun-Times for the low rating Mayor Jane Byrne received. Mel was also quoted in the March 14 NYT on Irish ethnic politics.

• Prof. Richard R. John gave papers on "Making Enterprise Private: Rethinking Communications Policy in the Early American Republic" at a seminar in Washington, D.C.; on "Recasting the Information Infrastructure for the Industrial Age" at UCLA's Von Gremp workshop in economic history; on "The Challenge of Private Enterprise: The Prosecution of Independent Mail Delivery Firms in the Antebellum United Sates at a seminar at UCSB; and on "Theodore N. Vail and the Civil Origins of University Service" at the Business History Conference in Chapel Hill. He commented at a session on "Women's Businesses in the Postwar Era" at the OAH in April. He has been asked to serve on editorial boards of both the Business History Review and Enterprise and Society and on the by-laws committee of the Business History Conference. And (perhaps under the heading "conflict of interest") he confesses having been awarded an engraved pitcher by the Chicago Philatelic Society for the best presentation of 1998.

• Prof. Richard Levy was a talking head on "Deadly Deception," a program regarding the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which aired on the History Channel on May 11. Watch for rebroadcasts, shop your local Blockbuster, and, judging from the expert's self-review, look for new roles as an ax-murderer.

• Prof. Greg Schneider (Ph.D., 1996) of Emporia State University has received a grant from the Earhart Foundation for research on "paleo- conservatism.

• Prof. Mary Todd of Concordia University (Ph.D., 1996) has received a grant from the Lilly Foundation to attend the Rhodes Consultation on the Future of the Church-Related College. She reports that her book, Authority Vested, is soon to be published by Eerdmans.

• Prof. Deborah Gray White (Ph.D., 1979) of Rutgers University presided at a session on "New Frontiers in Minority History" at the April OAH Convention.