Historians/History

Lessons from the 36th Congress on Party Rigidity Today

by Jordan Goldstein

The air in Washington stinks these days and I am not referring to the springtime heat that stirs up the swampy odours of the Potomac.  My favourite animated eight-year old, Lisa Simpson, sums up my sentiments perfectly:  “The city of Washington was built on a stagnant swamp some 200 years ago, and very little has changed.  It stank then, and it stinks now.”  The stench that Lisa and I refer to clings to the political environment.  It does not emanate from

The Death (and Life) of the Newspaper

by Tom Robinson

“The year the newspaper died.”  That is how some have described 2009.  There may be some debate over whether such a bleak view is justified, but few would argue that the long-term prospects for the newspaper are promising.Is the death of the centuries-old newspaper, parented by the printing pre

Misunderstanding Hiroshima

by Richard H. Minear and Mark Selden

Charles Pellegrino’s The Last Train from Hiroshima (Henry Holt, 2010) (1) came highly touted. Its special claim to fame seemed to be its scientific background. The jacket identified the author as someone who “has contributed articles to many scientific journals based on his work in paleobiology, nuclear propulsion systems for space exploration, and forensic archaeology.” A blurb from a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History (

What Role Should a Presidential Library Play?

by Maarja Krusten

In 2007, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) opened the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, California.  From 1990 to 2007, the Nixon Foundation operated a private library in Yorba Linda that housed some of Nixon’s pre- and post-presidential materials.  NARA held Nixon’s presidential materials in the Washington, D.C. area.  Historian Timothy Naftali is the federal director of the new library and museum. &nbs

"The Diary of a Public Man" Revealed

by Daniel W. Crofts

The Diary of a Public Man was first published in four installments in the North American Review in 1879.  It claimed to offer verbatim accounts, penned by a long-time Washington insider, of beh

A Fresh View of Cold War America

by Ron Radosh

Teaching in the universities about the so-called McCarthy era has become an area most susceptible to politically correct and one-sided views of what the period was all about. One historian who strenuously objects to the accepted left-wing interpretation that prevails in the academy is Jennifer Delton, Chairman of the Department of History at Skidmore College. In the March issue of The Journal of the Historical Society Delton writes: However f

A Dissenting View of Robert Proctor by a Fellow Anti-Smoking Advocate

by Alan Blum

For nearly forty years, I have taken a back seat to no one as an enemy of the tobacco industry.  In 1977, at a time when the American Medical Association was still silent on smoking (and accepting research funding from cigarette manufacturers) and the National Cancer Institute’s main effort on smoking was to find a safer cigarette, I founded Doctors Ought to Care (DOC), the first physicians’ anti-smoking organization and the first health group to purchase spa

Anonymous Slander on Amazon, Soviet Style

by Donal O'Sullivan

Days after pretending his wife had posted anonymous reviews to denigrate the books of colleagues, British historian Orlando Figes confessed he had penned the reviews himself.  Figes issued a statement:  "I take full responsibility for posting anonymous reviews on Amazon.  I have made some foolish errors and apologize wholeheartedly to all concerned." The public apology ended speculation about the true identity behind several nasty online remarks rocki

Anonymous Slander on Amazon, Soviet Style

by Donal O'Sullivan

Days after pretending his wife had posted anonymous reviews to denigrate the books of colleagues, British historian Orlando Figes confessed he had penned the reviews himself.  Figes issued a statement:  "I take full responsibility for posting anonymous reviews on Amazon.  I have made some foolish errors and apologize wholeheartedly to all concerned." The public apology ended speculation about the true identity behind several nasty online remarks rocki

Learning Nuclear Policy from an Iowa Farmer

by Lee Winningham

As America rethinks its nuclear policies on issues such as retaliation and the construction of new weapons, we will inevitably turn to former Cold War diplomats and policy experts for either praise or condemnation.  Though much can be learned from these individuals, perhaps we can further our understanding of nuclear policy by listening to a small farmer from Iowa, who also found himself in a dangerous and unpredictable world.  In the summer of 2007, I wrote about

Civility in Modern America Isn't as Bad as Before the Civil War

by Williamjames Hull Hoffer

On May 22, 1856, Congressman Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina used his gutta percha cane to beat Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts into bloody unconsciousness on the floor of the United State Senate chamber.&n

America's Complete History Includes Slaves

by Pearl Duncan

When I first started researching my ancestors in the 1990s, I gave speeches at venues where African-Americans whose ancestry is rooted in the South stood or walked to the microphone and asked how and where they could research their own ancestors.  Some had began researching, but reached a dead end, because for the first few centuries, African-American history was not recorded.  At conferences, where there were other presenters and speakers, I walked the audience members who as

Staughton Lynd: A Historian with a Place in History

by Carl Mirra

On April 9, 2010 Staughton Lynd was the featured speaker at the Organization of American Historian’s event, “Remembering Howard Zinn.”  Lynd concluded with a story taken from Zinn’s

Texas State Board of Education Tries to Dilute History of Women, Minorities

by John Willingham

The last days of February mark the end of Black History Month, and in March the nation will reflect on the accomplishments of women during Women's History Month.  Americans as a whole are encouraged to participate in readings and other forms of commemoration.  Meanwhile, in the midst of this national recognition, the dominant faction on the Texas State Board of Education is working to make these groups "redundant" in the state's curriculum. The g

The Texas State Board of Education and the Vindication of Joe McCarthy

by John Willingham

Some journalists and those under their spell believe that the Venona cables, publicly disclosed in 1995, provide an antidote to the poisonous influence of McCarthyism in the 1950s.  The cables confirm extensive Soviet espionage in America during the 1940s, and so, the story goes, the late Senator Joseph McCarthy deserves at least partial vindication. A leader of the social conservatives on the Texas State Board of Education for more than ten years, Don McLeroy, has

The Texas State Board of Education’s Reasons for Elevating Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson

by John Willingham

Recent news reports have commented on the Texas State Board of Education’s elevation of Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis in the social studies curriculum of the state, but in treating the development as just another example of the board’s bizarre behavior, the reports do not recognize that the action is part of a coordinated effort by social conservatives on the board to emphasize states’ rights and Christianity throughout the curriculum. From the beginni

Why is Texas Afraid of Thomas Jefferson?

by Matthew Crow

Who’s afraid of Thomas Jefferson?  Lots and lots of people, apparently.  Jefferson argued that unless there was a just distribution of goods and institutional structures for every citizen to actively participate in public decision making, the country would be headed “downhill” in the wake of the American Revolution.  After decades of oversimplified, if understandable, disputes among historians and the public about the importance of studying the figur

New York Times Article on Texas History Standards Misses How the Historical "Narrative" Has Changed

by Joseph A. Palermo

In his piece in Sunday’s New York Times, “Identity Politics Leans Right,” Sam Tanenhaus raises some thought provoking questions for historians.  He uses the current debate raging inside the Texas State Board of Educati

The Texas State Board of Education and History Standards: A Teacher’s Perspective

by Ron Briley

As a young boy growing up in the Texas Panhandle in the 1950s and 1960s, I was indoctrinated into the myths of the Alamo and Texas exceptionalism, although I do not recall learning much about the right of Texas to secede from the Union.  Despite learning more about Texas high school football than the contributions of blacks and Hispanics to the making of the state, the conservative orientation of the curriculum did not prevent me from questioning the Vietnam War and embracing the

In Defense of Historians as Expert Witnesses: A Rebuttal to Jon Wiener

by John C. Burnham

"I want to clarify some of the misunderstandings that underlie the current attempts to mobilize opinion in the current tobacco cases."