E-HELP and Historians

John Simkin · June 2, 2006

One of the reasons this Forum was established was as a means of communication for the European History E-Learning Project (E-HELP). Established in October, 2004, and funded by the European Union, the overall aim of E-HELP is to encourage and improve the use of modern technology by history teachers and their students.

Over the last couple of weeks we have begun interviewing a wide range of people about the process of writing history books. This includes academic historians like Colin Kidd and David Kaiser who believe that one should rely almost exclusively on contemporary documents. It also includes academic historians like Alfred W. McCoy and Gerald D. McKnight, who because of the subject matter they are interested in, have been willing to use the sort of evidence that historians usually ignore, for example, the testimony of “whistleblowers”. McCoy’s books on the CIA involvement in the drug trade (The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia) and torture (A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror) could not have been written without resorting to these sources. The responses of Kidd and Kaiser on the use of these sources highlight the dilemma that historians face if the choose to explore what I would call the area of “secret history”.

Another one being interviewed is Angela John, an academic historian who writes from the perspective of a committed feminist. We would like to interview others with a particular political perspective. Has anyone got any contacts willing to be interviewed on the forum?

We are also interviewing a former FBI agent you began his career as a historian by exposing the activities of J. Edgar Hoover (making him public enemy number one). William Turner went on to use the skills developed as an FBI agent to become one of America’s finest investigative journalists. He is also the author of several history books.

We are also interviewing several investigative journalists who went on to become historians: Robert Parry (Iran-Contra), Daniel Hopsicker (Drugs Trade), Jim Marrs (JFK assassination), Robin Ramsay (MI5 dirty tricks), Joseph Trento (CIA and KGB), Don Bohning (Castro’s Cuba) and Sander Hicks (9/11).

Several other historians have agreed to be interviewed. This includes Joan Mellen, Anthony Summers who has written biographies of people like J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Nixon, the Washington Post journalist, Jefferson Morley who is currently writing a book on the CIA, and probably my favourite historian of all, Peter Dale Scott of the University of California.

Nick Cullather, former CIA staff historian and now professor of history at Indiana University has also promised to answer questions on his book, Secret History: The Classified CIA Account of its Operations in Guatemala, 1952-54 (1999).

Lance Price has also agreed to be interviewed about his role as Tony Blair's spin doctor. He is also the author of a recent book on the Labour Government.

Please join in this questioning (also let me know if you have contacts whom would be willing to be interviewed about the process of being a historian). The results will eventually appear on the E-HELP website. I think it will be a unique resource for students of history.

Alfred W. McCoy

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6941

Don Bohning

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6932

Colin Kidd

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6978

David Kaiser

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6853

William Turner

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7007

Jim Marrs

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6850