After a two-week holiday hiatus, we're back again! Last time went well, so let's see if we can keep that up. I know 2014 is still young, but what new discoveries and publications does it have for us already? Feel free to give the some love to the end of 2013 too if you have something else in mind that came up recently.
This series is a place to discuss new developments in fields of history and archaeology. This can be newly discovered documents and archaeological sites, recent publications, documents that have just become publicly available through digitization or the opening of archives, and new theories and interpretations.
Have you guys heard of COINTELPRO, the massive government effort by the U.S. government to keep tabs on and in some cases discredit (primarily left leaning) civil society groups? Yes? Do you know why you've heard of it? The question had crossed my mind once or twice, but I just assumed the government had declassified stuff on it's own, eventually. Turns out... obviously not.
Turns out, the American public first heard the words because some radical college professors and similar types broke into an FBI office in suburban Philadelphia in 1971. They stole whole suitcases worth of documents, and then mailed them to major news organizations. Their identities were only made public this week. A new book on the robbery and subsequent fallout (The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret F.B.I.), which really did change America's knowledge about and relationship with the F.B.I., was released this week. The New York Times wrote up a little piece on about the book and the burglars, "Burglars who Took on F.B.I. Abandon Shadows", which I recommend. It includes, among other things, a video with cool news footage from the era.