Welcome to my World History blog, which I primarily use as a teaching platform. And welcome to the 89th History Carnival! Before I start, I have to thank those who nominated posts — Jeremy Young, Penny Richards, Sharon Howard, Brett Holman and Ffion Harris. I’ll highlight their fascinating nominations first, plus a few bonus tracks, and then I want to take a jaunt through about two dozen categories of the Cliopatria History Blogroll and pick out of each one a blog starting with ‘j’ or ‘d’ (Yes, they’re my initials: I had to pick some filter) which has an interesting June post to share. I hope this might inspire you to broaden your reading, and, more importantly, to nominate more posts next month!

The illustrious and eloquent Roger Ebert discusses My Vocation as a Priest, focusing both on the Vatican Council changes, and the interaction between religious and popular culture. And movies, of course.

Mike Dash at A Fortean In the Archives, discusses the curious case of
The Emperor’s electric chair, a “deconstruction of a popular legend that the Ethiopian emperor Menelik II ordered three electric chairs from the United States, only to discover that his country had yet to install electricity is a good example of his work.” (I can’t improve on the nominating note, so I’m just quoting it.) Not only does Dash deconstruct the legend, he traces it back as close to the sources as humanly possible.

Caroline Rance at The Quack Doctor shares Habitina – an infallible remedy for addiction which sold over a half-million dollars worth of …. well, I’ll let her explain the ingredients, but it’s definitely quackery.

The Encyclopedia of Connecticut History Online presents The Mysterious Case of Pineapple Cheese. Even having lived in a pineapple producing state, I’ve never heard of anyone making cheese with it….. there’s a reason for that, it turns out!

Karyn Stuckey, LSE Man and Cameraman Project Archivist presents an analysis of a picture of A Conservative and a Fabian in Russia: 1931, specifically the playwright George Bernard Shaw, and the conservative politician Lady Astor, and some Soviet hosts. The trip sounds absolutely fascinating, and a little bizarre.

Lucy Inglis at Georgian London raised the immortal question Historiography and the dream of objectivity, in particular about the tension between a social historiography and political historiography. An interesting discussion follows.

My addition to this collection (hat tip to Shane Landrum) is Tanya Roth‘s chronicle (part 1) of her participation in West Point’s Summer Military History Seminar. What makes it interesting is that she’s a social historian who studies military-civilian relations, rather than a traditional or “new” military historian.

Speaking of Shane Landrum, his post Digital methods, history dissertations, and scholarly careers is a thoughtful chronicle of the technological/generational shift that’s going on now, and the institutional/career problem which it’s engendering. High-skilled digital historians are in danger of being pigeonholed as technologists, which would be a tragedy for the profession in the long run.

While it’s not strictly history, there’s substantial historical context and discussion going on here: The Summer of Genji is the “Read a Big Book This Summer” project of the year. Is there anyone who teaches Japanese history who hasn’t assigned huge chunks of Genji Monogatari? (thanks Alan!)

Art, Literature, Culture: Will, at A Journey Round My Skull does a credible BibliOdyssey-style presentation of modern materials, such as Tracking the Trumpet Zebra.

Historians who write about Many Things: I can knock off two categories here, because Fëanor hosted the Giants Shoulders History of Science Carnival last month, and we should all dip into (and contribute to!) each other’s carnivals from time to time.

Academic Lives: Sherman Dorn discusses the motives for lying and the difficulty for detection in higher ed assessment, but it’s a perennial issue in historical sources, as well.

Ideas and Beliefs: Lori Taylor at The Juvenile Instructor discusses Mormon-Native American interactions in popular memory.

History of Science & Technology: The Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Distillations podcast looks at Thalidomide, as part of a series on 20th century mistakes.

Digital History: Frances Deblauwe at Digging Digitally discusses the problem of keeping data connected to reality. As I commented to Shane Landrum the other day, I’ve noticed that cliometricians often take numbers too seriously once they’re generated, and rarely go back to examine the sources to confirm reliability.

Material Culture & Public History: The DumpDiggers go, well, dump digging, and find antique bottles.

World History: Lapham’s Quarterly’s Deja Vu blog compares Obama-McChrystal and Polk-Taylor.

Women’s History: This category has neither ‘d’ nor ‘j’ entries, so I’m just going to take the time to highlight Historiann’s Of Fraudsters and Scholars, a thoughtful 2-part discussion of pedagogy and time management, with excellent comments.

Ancient History: Mary Beard (A Don’s Life) visits some museums and discusses matters of display and provenance.

Pre-Modern History: Dianne Tillotson at Dianne’s Medieval Writing discusses differences between contemporary and medieval ideas about text and property.

Modern History: Darwin’s Bulldog at The Dispersal of Darwin, highlights a realistically colorized picture of a Darwin statue.

United States History: The Journal of American History Podcast features an interview with an author of a paper on “Suicide, Slavery, and Memory in North America”.

Regional Histories: Jeremiah Jenne at Jottings from the Granite Studio has a series on “violence and historical memory in China”: discussions include the Opium War, the Korean War, and the Boxer Uprising

Military History: Jenny Goelnitz at Drawing the Sword just announced the completion of a Gettysburg photographic collection covering monuments at the battlefield site.

Institutional: Duke U Press noted an interview with author Rebecca Karl about her work on 20c China.

K-12: Dave, at his “internet lounge” Cites Benedict Arnold in conjunction with the World Cup.

Primary Sources: Finally, an old classic, the Diary of Samuel Pepys.

The August History Carnival, #90 in the series, will be hosted by Mr. K.L. Katz at the US History Blog. Nominations through the History Carnival Nomination Page, or we could, perhaps, revive the one-year dormant Delicious tag. I don’t know if Mr. Katz wants to use one of his Twitter feeds for nominations, but check them out, anyway!