Roundup

How a Volcanic Eruption in 1815 Darkened the World but Colored the Arts

by William J. Broad

Investigators are still struggling to understand the most powerful eruption in recorded history, which gave rise to icy weather and pandemics, but also to great literature and art

What’s really at stake when a school closes?

by Jelani Cobb

Jamaica High School, in Queens, was once the largest high school in the United States. But after a hundred and twenty-two years, the school was closing; the class of 2014, which had just twenty-four members, would be the last.

An Error of Era?

by Scott McLemee

Review of Jacques Le Goff, "Must We Divide History Into Periods?"

Kissinger’s 4 lessons

by Niall Ferguson

Kissinger was never just a realist, as a review of his early life shows.

Roundup Top 10!

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

The Story Behind the POW/MIA Flag

by Rick Perlstein

That damned flag: It’s a shroud. It smothers the complexity, the reality, of what really happened in Vietnam. We’ve come to our senses about that other banner of lies. It’s time to do the same with this.

Why Republicans Reject the Iran Deal — and All Diplomacy

by Nicole Hemmer and Tom Switzer

Conservative hostility to this agreement is nothing new. G.O.P. hardliners denounced Nixon and Reagan’s diplomatic achievements too.

President Carter’s vice-presidential legacy

by Joel K. Goldstein

Part of his underappreciated legacy as president was the historic role he played in elevating the vice presidency from an awkward, standby position to a constructive part of government on an ongoing basis.

The Richard Nixon - Ray Conniff Incident

Historic coverage of an incident during a concert by Ray Conniff at the White House on January 28, 1972

NYT Roundtable: Should ‘Birthright Citizenship’ Be Abolished?

Should birthright citizenship be abolished and, if so, what impact would it have in the United States? What alternative citizenship model should the U.S. adopt instead?

It didn’t start with Limbaugh and Trump: The deep roots of the GOP’s war on women

by Heather Cox Richardson

Though Rush & The Donald draw attention for their vulgar misogyny, conservative assault on equality dates to Nixon

Wendell Willkie: a forerunner to Donald Trump

by Lewis L. Gould

The crowds in the galleries chanted “We want Willkie,” and the delegates yielded to what seemed an irresistible tide.

Who Is the Gravest Danger to World Peace?

by Noam Chomsky

Is Iran really a threat?

Seventy Years of Military Mediocrity

by William J. Astore

The Shared Failings of America’s Military Academies and Senior Officers

Let’s Change the Name of the South China Sea

by John T. Kuehn

This was the name was given to it by Europeans, the Chinese simply calling it the “south sea” for most of their own history.

Carter, Reagan, and Machiavelli

by Paul Krugman

Rex Nutting has a very nice article about the reality of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, which has been distorted out of recognition by the myth of Saint Reagan.

Is Pope Francis Right on the Science?

by James Lawrence Powell

"As remarkable as Francis’s understanding of science is his powerful and eloquent language."

Lessons that can be learnt from dockworkers who helped bring apartheid to its knees

by Peter Cole

While we might not have the power to boycott a ship, dockers provided a blueprint for action, a useable history for us to adapt to contemporary struggles. We can – as citizens, consumers, and particularly workers – exert political pressure, including in foreign lands.

The Atlantic is digitizing its archives. Here’s what the magazine claimed about women in 1903

by Lyman Abbott

The title says it all: “Why women do not wish the suffrage."

Xi’s history lessons

The Communist Party is plundering history to justify its present-day ambitions