Roundup

Why Lincoln’s last speech matters

by Louis P. Masur

Lincoln’s last speech, delivered on 11 April 1865, seldom receives the attention it deserves.

The new Joint Chiefs chairman should strive for independent thinking

by Max Boot

It's one thing to be a battlefield commander, even a four-star theater commander, and another thing to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs — a job that is more political than strictly military.

On the Perennial Nature of U.S. Urban Riots - An Analysis

by Lawrence Davidson

If one goes to Wikipedia under the subject of “mass racial violence in the United States,” one will find a “timeline of events” running from 1829 to 2015. There are so many race-related riots listed for these 186 years that, from a historical point of view, rioting appears almost normal.

The World's Tallest Buildings

Which buildings were the tallest in their day?  

Fighting on the Battlefield of Memory: Lessons from the Vietnam War

"The Vietnam peace movement must be remembered as having shaken our country to its foundations and for defending democracy against secrecy and bureaucratic tyranny."

The Clintons and Their Banker Friends

by Nomi Prins

The Wall Street Connection (1992 to 2016)

Roundup Top 10!

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

How 4/20 Became 4/20

by A.J. McCarthy and Rachel Stewart

Probably not the way you heard.

Turning Presidents Into Pharaohs

by Benjamin Hufbauer

For many, presidential libraries are just a fact of American political life, but what are their deeper meanings?

Israel needs to acknowledge the reasons for the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe

by Alon Ben-Meir

"Israel must not conveniently dismiss anti-Semitism simply as an incurable disease when in reality it is practicing “anti-Semitism” against a large segment of its own population."

Leave Jackson on one side of the $20 bill and put his nemesis, Cherokee leader John Ross, on the other

by Steve Inskeep

And that’s just the start. Let’s put Frederick Douglass on the other side of the Lincoln $5 bill.

Je Suis Pamela Geller

by Jonathan Zimmerman

She’s an appalling bigot, but we need to defend her anyway.

The dreams deferred by Baltimore’s mortgage crises set the stage for unrest

by Martha S. Jones

Baltimore residents have learned how dreams can be brutally deferred.

Open Letter to Anthony Kennedy

by Marc Stein

The Supreme Court should consider these questions before deciding the gay marriage cases. 

Bernie Sanders's Presidential Bid Represents a Long Tradition of American Socialism

by Peter Dreier

Long deployed by the right as an epithet, this form of left-wing populism is as American as apple pie.

What is the history of the Green Berets?

by John Prados

With Memorial Day fast approaching, it is worth examining the history of our armed services, including the modernization of the military during the Cold War.

The 2016 Results We Can Already Predict

by Larry J. Sabato, Kyle Kondik and Geoffrey Skelley

The battleground states will give you déjà vu.

Who Counts?

by Tom Engelhardt

Body Counts, Drones, and “Collateral Damage” (aka “Bug Splat”)

The War of Northern Aggression

by James Oakes

A leading Civil War historian challenges the new orthodoxy about how slavery ended in America.

On May Day, Longshore Workers Stop Work to Protest Racist Police Brutality

by Peter Cole

The San Francisco Bay Area longshore union voted to stop work at all Bay Area ports in solidarity.