Sorry for cross-posting. The Library of Congress has encouraged us to send them any information about growing scholarly use of "B.C.E." and "C.E." as opposed to "B.C." and "A.D." The article copied below might be a contribution to this. (The use of "city" and "state" in the article refers to New York, N.Y.)
-Stanley Nachamie Authority Control Librarian (currently on leave) City University of New York [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From The [New York] Daily News, Sun. March 27, 2005, p. 14: > P.C. profs.: Don't mark history by B.C. dates > BY JOE WILLIAMS > DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER > ----------------------- > THE TERM "B.C." may be going the way of the > dinosaur. > Politically correct history professors and > some textbook companies are switching from using > religious-based terms to mark history to more > agnostic phrases. Instead of "B.C." or "Before > Christ," the new phrase on college campuses is > "Before [the] Common Era," or "B.C.E." > The term "A.D." - which comes from the Latin Anno > Domini, meaning "in the year of our Lord" - is > giving way to "C.E.," or "Common Era." > "It is an effort to remove religious > influences from history, which is plainly a > fool's errand since religion is and always has > been an important force in human behavior," said > education historian Diane Ravitch. > Ravitch, whose book "The Language Police" > decries censorship and touch-feely editing of > textbooks and tests, noted that even the "Common > Era" begins with the birth of Jesus Christ. > "I think it's pretty common now," said UCLA > Prof. Gary Nash, director of the National Center > for History in Schools. "Once you take a global > approach, it makes sense not to make a dating > system applicable to only a relative few." > The state Education Department says it hasn't > mandated that textbook companies use any > particular style for dating historical events, > and that its Regents Exams and materials will > still use "B.C." and "A.D." > "There has been no discussion of changing > that," said Education Departmen spokesman > Jonathan Burman. > City school officials also said that there > were no plans to use the new terms. The city's > global history curriculum still uses the old > phrases. > But that doesn't mean textbooks and worksheets > using the new terms are not slipping into > courses. > The College Board, which administers national > Advanced Placement tests in subjects like > history, has used "B.C.E." and "C.E." for several > years, according to its Web site. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > With News Wire Services Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
