Historians/History

Hitler's Contribution to Olympic Pageantry

by Tony Perrottet

Just how theatrical were the ancient opening ceremonies on the morning of day one? It’s hard not to let our imaginations run riot, blurring Hollywood movies and the pseudoclassical kitsch of our own lavish Olympics rituals. The torch relay, for example, is so ingrained in the modern choreography that most people today assume it was a revival of a pagan tradition

The Real Issue at the Heart of the Weinstein Controversy

by Maarja Krusten

Here's a cautionary note describing a possible backstory for questions about Allen Weinstein's nomination as U.S. Archivist. I have not found helpful some of the rhetoric that has surrounded the issue of Dr. Weinstein's nomination. Some of it undoubtedly is well intended. But keep in mind that past discussions of public access to government documents have used inflammatory and partisan rhetoric. As an historian and former archivist, I have found some of it downright scary. I suspe

Remember the Smithsonian's Atomic Bomb Exhibit? You Only Think You Know the Truth

by Robert P. Newman

What is new in the argument over Truman’s atomic bomb decision since the aborted National Air and Space Museum exhibition of 1995? Nothing, and everything.

Hiroshima, 59 Years Later ... And Still There Are Silences We Can't Break

by Tom Engelhardt

Even though we promptly dubbed the site of the 9/11 attacks in New York City"Ground Zero" -- once a term reserved for an atomic blast -- Americans have never really come to grips either with the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the nuclear age they ushered in. There can be no question that, as the big bang that might end it all, the atomic bomb haunted Cold War America. In those years, while the young watched endless versions of nuclear disaster transmuted into B-horror fil

Grade Inflation ... Why It's a Nightmare*

by Jonathan Dresner

My institution successfully passed through accreditation review, a multi-year process which examines everything from physical plant to institutional identity, missions and standards, goals and how we measure progress towards those goals, governance structures, faculty culture, and every other thing they can think of. Their initial recommendations included strong support and encouragement for student learning assessment, and more effective coordination (i.e. centralization) of governance to sp

The David McCullough Nobody Knows

by Philip Nobile

David McCullough has not yet claimed landing at Omaha Beach or hitting a game-winning grand slam for his high school baseball team. But based on mistakes in his two latest biographies--the current best-selling John Adams and the 1992 blockbuster Truman--McCullough may be on a slippery slope to the minors. Whether the errors were calculated or merely the result of reckless research is explored below. The false step in John Adams is a virtual copycat of the foul-up i

A Debate: Should Allen Weinstein Be Confirmed as Chief Archivist of the United States?

by Paul Gottfried, Ralph Luker, and Michael Etchison

President Bush has nominated Allen Weinstein, author of Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case and The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America- -The Stalin Era, to be the chief archivist of the United States. Some history groups have objected to Weinstein's nomination on the grounds that he has thus far failed to share the notes and documents on which he based his book, The Haunted Wood

The Secrets of Gerald Ford's Success ... 30 Years After he Became President It's Time to Consider What Made Him Tick

by Yanek Mieczkowski

August 9, 2004 marks the thirtieth anniversary of Gerald Ford's inauguration as president. Ford arrived at the White House through unique circumstances, not only by Richard Nixon's resignation, but also because he owed his elevation to the presidency largely to his character. In the atmosphere of moral turpitude surrounding Vice President Spiro Agnew's resignation and the Watergate scandal, congressmen wanted a new vice president with unblemished character, speculating that he might someday

We Need a Hot Line Teachers Can Call About Islamic History Textbooks

by Sandra Stotsky

Before September 11, 2001, history and social studies teachers had already been trying to learn more about a religion and a part of the world that most knew little about. After September 11, it is clearly urgent to teach K-12 students about Islamic history and culture. It is also crucial for their teachers to have suitable instructional materials that do not inadvertently promote some person’s or group’s religious or political agenda. What is needed is an independent, funded site, ma

How the History of the American Revolution Has Changed

by Pauline Maier

In the past few decades, historical research has shifted by and large from political to social and then cultural history. Some of the most dramatic additions to historical knowledge have come in the history of slavery, including the slave trade, in African American history; in women's history; and in the study of Native Americans. Three significant disjunctions characterize the intellectual landscape with reference to early American histor

Report on the Hearing on Allen Weinstein's Nomination as Archivist of the United States

by Bruce Craig and Bryan Heyward (contributor)

On July 22, 2004, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a confirmation hearing on the pending nomination of historian Allen Weinstein to become Archivist of the United States. Weinstein is the Bush administration's choice to succeed the present archivist, John Carlin. During questioning Weinstein put to rest issues that had arisen regarding the disposition of his own research notes relating to two controversial books. The nominee generally impressed committee members with

Testimony of Allen Weinstein Regarding His Nomination as Archivist of the United States

Opening Statement Prof. Allen Weinstein Hearing on His Nomination to be Archivist of the United States U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs Thursday, July 22, 2004, 3:30 p.m. Room 342, Dirksen Senate Office BuildingChairman Collins, Senator Lieberman, Senators on the Governmental Affairs Committee, Senator Lugar, Committee staff, Ladies and Gentlemen: I am honored and humbled by the President’s nomination of me to become the next Archivist of t

King Arthur's Black Descendants

by Anita L. Wills

Although the newest movie about King Arthur is fiction, research and documentation of my family history prove it is based on fact. I now have a personal interest in the Arturian period, and the legends of King Arthur and his Knights. After many years of piecing together my family history, one drop of DNA put it all together. In April of 2003, I received the results of my maternal line DNA test. The results proved my ancestry from Colonial Virginia, through Wales, France, Germany, Switzerland

Could 9-11 Have Been Predicted?

by Robert Divine

This article was first published at HNN in May 2002. For the past week, a controversy has raged over whether or not the Bush administration neglected vital warnings prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11. Two intelligence reports, an FBI memo in July pointing to the danger of Arab pilots receiving flight training in the United States, and a CIA briefing in August warning the president of the possibility that Osama Bin-Laden would try to hijack an American airliner, are at

Review of Utsumi Aiko's Sugamo Prison: The Peace Movement of the War Criminals (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 2004)

by Ishida Takeshi

"Sugamo Prison" became Sugamo Keimusho (jail) at the end of the occupation when it passed from American to Japanese-government control. Until that time, it was the place of confinement for convicted war criminals and suspects. Although located inside Japan, it was an abnormal space—one might call it a foreign country—where Japanese had their freedom restricted by the Occupation authorities. If we view it from a stance critical of "the Tokyo Trial view of history"

After 200 Years the Hamiltons Make Up with the Burrs

by Brian Murphy

With a pistol’s pop and a puff of smoke, an Aaron Burr impersonator “mortally wounded” an Alexander Hamilton impersonator last week along the Hudson River waterfront in Weehawken, New Jersey. Before them were two dozen television cameras and press photographers, flanked by a thousand spectators, many policemen, several big league historians, two Congressmen, and the Governor of New Jersey. Not to mention more than a hundred descendants of the original duelists.Flags w

The Filmmaker Who Hounded Nixon

by David Greenberg

As Fahrenheit 9/11 racks up another week of multimillion-dollar grosses, pundits are buzzing that no major documentary has been so scathing toward a sitting president during an election. Apparently, they've never seen Emile de Antonio's Millhouse: A White Comedy. De Antonio's name has barely been uttered in the clangor surrounding Fahrenheit 9/11, but from 1964 until his death in 1989, he made some of the left's most important political documentaries—inclu

What was Ronald Reagan's Real Record on Arms Control?

by Daryl G. Kimball

What was the actual history of arms control during the Reagan administration? It was more complicated than was claimed by the media after his death. Ronald Reagan came to the presidency as a long-time critic of arms control and detente with the Soviet Union, the preeminent U.S. strategic adversary during his eight years in office. Throughout the 1970s, Reagan had argued that the United States was falling behind the Soviets in the nuclear competition and that U.S. long-range ballistic mis

What If Aaron Burr Had Missed?

by Thomas Fleming

Let's reel back 200 years to July 11, 1804. Colonel Aaron Burr, the vice president of the United States under the banner of what would soon be called the Democratic Party, is standing on a grassy ledge on the Palisades, opposite New York City, aiming a pistol at General Alexander Hamilton, leader of the Federalist Party, forerunner of today's Republicans. Hamilton has an identical pistol in his hand. Burr killed Hamilton with his first shot. W

Clinton & Reagan: Thus Far They're Just Heroes to Their Own Parties

by David Greenberg

In the last month, Ronald Reagan's death and Bill Clinton's book tour have confirmed the two former presidents as political giants. Of course it's still too early to state with confidence how either man's historical reputation will shake out. (Indeed, the very notion that"history" will at some point render a final judgment is fallacious. As the Dutch historian Pieter Geyl said,"History is an argument without end.") But for now, they're the only two presidents to serve two full terms since Dwi