Historians/History

Should Professors Air Their Views on Controversial Subjects in the Classroom?

by Thomas G. Palaima

I have been teaching ancient Greek history to more than forty students this semester. We have often seen analogies with contemporary issues. This is understandable. Herodotus, the acknowledged father of Western history, traces the conflict between the Greek independent city-state cultures and eastern imperial kingly cultures that culminated in the Persian Wars (490-479 B.C.E.). He stresses significant cultural differences between East and West that affect events. Recently, the general secret

The People Who Gave the Soviet Union a Pass

by Arnold Beichman

        I begin with the following proposition:

What's Wrong with Social Studies

by Kathleen Porter

For an organization that claims to value diversity and debate as much as the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), precious little of either was to be found at its very own annual conference, held in Chicago in mid-November and attended by some 5,000 social studies teachers, professors, and itinerant experts. In fact, after scouring the program in search of sessions where the goals of social studies itself would be examined and, perish the thought, debated, I came up nearly empty. So I

Historians Who Succeeded in Getting an Op-Ed into the NYT

by Aaron Erlich

Beginning in the early 1970s the New York Times transformed journalism with the inauguration of the op-ed page, which gave writers and intellectuals from outside the newspaper the opportunity to weigh in on important public issues. This year HNN has kept track of the historians who have been published on the New York Times op-ed page (see below). For many historians publication on the op-ed page marks a major milestone in their car

Where Sovietologists Went Wrong

by Richard Pipes

An excerpt from Richard Pipes's VIXI: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger, which was recently published by Yale University Press:To understand the attitudes-and failures-of the Sovietological community in the United States one must bear in mind the conditions under which the study of the Soviet Uni

An Interview with John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr

by Jamie Glazov

Following is an interview with John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, authors of In Denial: Historians, Communism, and Espionage (2003). The interview was conducted by historian Jamie Glazov, the managing editor of frontpagemag.com, where the interview was first published.Gl

John Buchanan Document

The Horrifying American Roots of Nazi Eugenics

by Edwin Black

Hitler and his henchmen victimized an entire continent and exterminated millions in the quest for a co-called "Master Race," and IBM aided and abetted the effort.

JFK: 40 Years Later

To help readers keep up with the torrent of articles concerning the fortieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, HNN is collecting links on this page.Sheldon M. Stern, When John Kennedy Stood Alone and Saved Us from Catastrophe (HNN)William Kashatus, Why We Are Still Preoccupied with the Kennedy Might-Have-Beens (HNN)

When John Kennedy Stood Alone and Saved Us from Catastrophe

by Sheldon M. Stern

The declassified tapes of the secret Cuban missile crisis meetings now make it possible for any historian, teacher or interested person to listen to these unique discussions.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES What Should We Make of the Charge Linking the Bush Family Fortune to Nazism?

by Herbert Parmet

Editor's Note: Over the course of the past month several articles have been published on the Internet and in a handful of print publications that raised questions about the financial ties between the founder of the Bush dynasty and certain Nazi businessmen. We wondered what to make of the story and asked Herbert Parmet to investigate. This is his report.John Buchanan is a free-lance journalist with a mission. He intends to alert the media, and all who will listen, about how Prescott Bush, the progenitor of two presidents, was in league with some of Hitler’s “willing helpers.” Minimized or totally dismissed by the public, the story was revived from its World War II roots by Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin in their George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography (1992) and given a strong additional push in John Loftus’s sensationalist The War Against the Jews (1994).

The New Enola Gay Controversy: Pro and Con

Earlier this month a group of historians--the Committee for a National Discussion of Nuclear History and Current Policy--protested the plan of the Smithsonian to display the Enola Gay in a new exhibit. (See "The New Enola Gay Controversy.") Below is the Smithsonian's response (which was posted on the institution's website) followed by the historians' response. Smi

The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of

by Nick Turse

On October 19, 2003, the Ohio-based newspaper the Toledo Blade launched a four-day series of investigative reports exposing a string of atrocities by an elite, volunteer, 45-man "Tiger Force" unit of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division over the course of seven months in 1967. The Blade goes on to state that in 1971 the Army began a four and a half year investigation of the

John Buchanan Document

John Buchanan Documents

Editor's Note: John Buchanan, who discovered documents linking Prescott Bush to Nazi-era enterprises, showed them, at HNN's request, to Herbert Parmet. Below is a small sample of the documents. Click here to view other documents supplied by Mr. Buchanan.

The Story of the New Jersey Doctor Who Helped Kill Prisoners at Buchenwald in the Name of Eugenics

by Edwin Black

The "Little Camp"-the isolation and quarantine section of Buchenwald. Block 57. One morning in late May 1944. Three-tiered geometric wooden boxes lined the barrack. Each shelf housed as many as sixteen emaciated humans. A thirsty and exhausted Frenchman named Oliv struggled to climb down from the top for his day's work. But he was too weak. As Oliv lay limp, a fat, well-fed inmate doctor walked in. The other French prisoners pleaded with the doctor that Oliv was too i

The Ridiculous Criticisms of "The Reagans"

by Gil Troy

The criticisms that forced CBS to abandon “The Reagans” miniseries range from the disingenuous to the ridiculous. Complaining about manufactured quotations in a television “biopic” makes as much sense as complaining about gas mileage when test-driving an SUV. To insist – as the Republican National Chairman did – that CBS run a disclaimer every 10 minutes that the film is fictional, assumes that the American people are too foolish to distinguish between

The Nixon Papers: The Latest Ugly Turn in an Old Story

by Stanley I. Kutler

Reports circulated recently that Congress is considering a proposal to give former President Richard M. Nixon's Yorba Linda museum possession of his presidential materials, including some 46 million pages, hundreds of video tapes, and the unique cache of 4000 hours of taped conversations. Such legislation could close off public access, and allow for the destruction of millions of valuable, still-unprocessed, primary sources. After Nixon resigned in August 1974, the Ford Administrat

The Official Reprimand of Brian VanDeMark

by U.S. Naval Academy

28 Oct 2003 Naval Academy Holds Faculty Member Accountable for PlagiarismThe United States Naval Academy has the highest standards to promote personal integrity and honorable conduct amongst its faculty, staff and midshipmen. Our goal is to uphold these standards through strict accountability and an established process addressing the integrity of faculty research and scholarly activity. Accordingly, we completed a thorough inquiry into the allegations of plagiaris

Bias in the History Profession

by K.C. Johnson

Following is the statement of Mr. Johnson before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee. The committee, chaired by Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, is holding hearings on Intellectual Diversity. The statement was delivered on October 29, 2003.Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee:My name is Robert David Johnson. I am a professor of history at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center of the Ci