Roundup

The Never-Ending War in Afghanistan

by Andrew J. Bacevich

We’ve come to accept the conflict as a perpetual state, an enterprise to be managed rather than ended as soon as possible.

The Betrayal of Democracy

by Chris Lehmann

Steve Bannon may have been inspired by Christopher Lasch's "The Revolt of the Elites," but he completely misunderstood the book's point.

The Forgotten History of “Christian” Political Activism

by Philip Jenkins

Across the political spectrum, most Americans would automatically describe the country’s religious heritage as “Judeo-Christian.” Rarely, though, do they think about the origins of this term, or how exceedingly odd it would have appeared before the 1950s (and still does to many non-Americans).

The Secret History of Emotions

by Lisa Feldman Barrett

The classical view of emotion is simple and intuitive, and wrong.

The Paradoxes of Presidential Power: A Brief History of Executive Orders

by Dane Kennedy

While we can take some comfort in the fact that some EOs have proved beneficial and others have been fleeting and ineffectual, the history of this practice also gives us cause for concern.

The perils of comparing Trump to twentieth-century dictators

by Jeet Heer

A critique of Yale historian Timothy Snyder's claim that Trump's a fascist outside the American experience. 

How Nixonian Is Donald Trump?

by Tim Naftali

A little-known pre-Watergate Nixon scandal helps us understand the road the new president’s traveling.

Naomi Weisstein’s Contribution to Psychology, Science, and Women’s Liberation

by Jesse Lemisch

A historian’s take (who happens to be her husband.)

How the 'Green Book' Saved Black Lives on the Road

by Alexander Nazaryan

"The Negro Motorist Green Book" was 48 pages of practical scripture, offering safe passage through the United States—where you can sleep, eat and fill your gas tank.

Morton Keller & Julian Zelizer: How Significant Are Trump's Attacks on Obama?

by Julian E. Zelizer and Morton Keller

In the latest entry in their ongoing conversation, two historians debate the significance of the president’s wiretapping claims.

Ben Carson, Donald Trump, and the Misuse of American History

by Jelani Cobb

The habitual tendency to excise the most tragic elements of history creates a void in our collective understanding of what has happened in the past and, therefore, our understanding of the potential for tragedy in the present.

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editors of HNN.

Did American Racism Inspire the Nazis?

by Joshua Muravchik

A new book claims as much—and in so doing falls into the intellectual trap known as reductio ad Hitlerum.

It's not just Trump who's fond of Putin

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Why social conservatives have a thing for the Russian strongman.

Outsmarted

by Rick Perlstein

On the liberal cult of the cognitive elite

The press was way more political in Jefferson's day - but he defended it anyway

by John Fea

The Founding Father had his problems with the press. But what he didn't note was that despite his agitation with the press, he defended a much more biased press as a necessary part of free speech.

The new authoritarians

by Holly Case

Last century’s dictators wanted to reinvent their subjects as "new men." This century’s strongmen just don’t care. Why?

Why Trump EO is Still a Racist Muslim Ban

by Juan Cole

The way you can tell that the list is generated by prejudice rather than security concerns is that there are plenty of states that are in worse shape than some of the 6 named but which are not Muslim-majority.

The February Revolution and Kerensky’s Missed Opportunity

by John Quiggin

If democratic leaders had seized the chance to get Russia out of World War I, Lenin, Stalin, even Hitler would have been footnotes in history.

When Nasty Men Make Great Statesmen

by Gil Troy

Arthur Vandenburg was a piece of work in his personal life, but on the public stage, he evolved to became one of the greatest bipartisan forces in the arena of foreign policy.