Hoover L&A Newsletter: April 2021

View this email in your browser

April 2021

Greetings to all of the friends and supporters of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

We look forward to seeing our usual complement of researchers as soon as we are able in the coming months. In the meanwhile, we offer below some updates about our collecting, scholarly support, publications, and programming. As the nation begins to emerge from its long COVID challenge, we wish you a bright spring.

-Eric Wakin, Director

Acquisitions

William C. Burdett

William C. Burdett was a World War II veteran and foreign service officer who became acting consul general and a member of the United Nations Security Council Truce Mission during the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. He also played an important role as a US envoy during the Suez Crisis leading up to the Second Arab-Israeli War in 1956. The collection includes a journal and photographs that document the heavy fighting for control of the Old City of Jerusalem and Burdett’s efforts to effect cease-fire agreements.

Wang Zuanxu

Wang Zuanxu began to rise to prominence in the 1920s and then became a military leader first for the Nationalists and then for the Communists. In 1957, as the Anti-Rightist Campaign began to surge in China, he was labeled a rightist and attempted to flee to Hong Kong, but was captured and died in prison. The collection includes many documents preserved by his family until the day they could finally be seen by scholars of modern China.

New & Noteworthy

UnArchived: Lessons from the Past

This spring Hoover Library & Archives has teamed with the Hoover Institution's Mary Jo and Dick Kovacevich Initiative, Educating Americans in Public Policy. Resources from the Hoover Archives will be featured in the "UnArchived: Lessons from the Past" series on the PolicyEd digital platform, which includes policy commentary by Hoover senior fellows. Visit the PolicyEd website to watch videos featuring Hoover senior fellows Victor Davis Hanson and John B. Taylor, and to read more about Hoover's holdings on WWII and free market economists.

Firing Line on HISTORIES

Two new HISTORIES about William F. Buckley Jr.’s Firing Line are now available online. The stories highlight key episodes that focus on the twentieth century American women's movement as well as some of the important literary figures who appeared on the show.

Silas Palmer Fellow Featured in The Caravan Notebook

Michael Brill, a former Silas Palmer Fellow at the Library & Archives, has written an article for The Caravan Notebook that addresses the United States Department of the Treasury sanctions against Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) Chairman Falih al-Fayyadh that were announced earlier this year.

From the Hoover Press

Upcoming Event: "Russia: Empire, War, and Revolution"

Join the Hoover Institution Press on May 13th for a discussion of two recent publications based on the acclaimed Russian collections held at the Hoover Library & Archives, moderated by Russian historian Robert Service. More information is available here. Register for the event here.

Fanning the Flames: Propaganda in Modern Japan

Available June 1, Fanning the Flames takes a comprehensive look at how Japan deployed popular arts for propaganda that created an imperialist fervor. Inside are scholarly essays by experts (including Dr. Kay Ueda, curator of the Japanese Diaspora Initiative, and Payson J. Treat Fellow Michael Auslin), with more than 100 rich color illustrations from the collections of the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, including woodblock prints, photos, posters, and the rarely examined street paper plays called kamishibai, many of which had been destroyed or lost by the end of the Second World War. The book is available for pre-order and public virtual events will take place on June 1 and June 10 to commemorate the publication.

Featuring our Collections

Tschernobylkinder: Die transnationale Geschichte einer nuklearen Katastrophe features several collections from the archives including the Archives of the Soviet State and Soviet Communist Party.

Last Train to Auschwitz: French National Railways and the Journey to Accountability features the Kurt Werner Schaechter collection.

Spanish Sorrow: The Blue Division and the Campaign in Russia features the memoirs of Vladimir Ivanovich Kovalevskii, located among the Globus Publishers records.

After Saigon's Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000 features the Ginetta Sagan papers and the International Rescue Committee records.

Our reading room is currently limited to Stanford-affiliated researchers. Up-to-date information concerning the reading room and remote access to materials can be found here.

Enjoy our exhibitions via Hoover Institution Stories.

Due to the evolving COVID-19 conditions, the Hoover Tower galleries will be closed to the public until further notice.

Founded by Herbert Hoover in 1919, the Hoover Institution Library & Archives is dedicated to documenting war, revolution, and peace in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. With nearly one million volumes and more than six thousand archival collections from 171 countries, Hoover supports a vibrant community of scholars and a broad public interested in the meaning and role of history.