Roundup

Boycott toy guns

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Imitation firearms put the lives of children in danger.

Denying Espionage to the Grave

by Ronald Radosh

This was no 1950s ‘Red Scare’ victim. She was part of a Soviet spy ring and convicted of obstructing justice.

On the ‘Root Cause’ of Riots

by Abraham H. Miller

We should’ve learned it in the ’60s: White racism is not the core issue, and money is not the answer.

The Country's Most Revealing Memorial to the Sand Creek Massacre Used to Celebrate the Killings

by John B. Judis

Why, we wondered, have a statue commemorating the soldiers who perpetrated the massacre?

The Great Paper Caper

by Jill Lepore

Someone swiped Justice Frankfurter’s papers. What else has gone missing?

The brutal history of cotton debunks many of the most popular myths about capitalism.

by Eric Herschthal

Sven Beckert’s remarkable and unsettling new book, "Empire of Cotton: A Global History," puts capitalism in a new light.

Las Vegas and the Global Casino We Call Wall Street

by Rebecca Solnit

“Oh my God, I’m in hell.”

The Case for Reparations (to Undocumented Workers)

by Greg Grandin

A few scholars have started to make the connections between slavery and the history of undocumented labor migration from Mexico and Central America.

Warren Harding and the Emperor Diocletian

by Paul Krugman

"Harding 1921 'works' only because people don’t know much about it..."

Bush Admin. Spent Billions on an Iraqi Army with 50,000 “ghost” Soldiers

by Juan Cole

Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi announced to his parliament on Sunday that inspectors had uncovered 50,000 non-existent soldiers in four divisions of the Iraqi Army. Their pay was presumably being diverted to the officers in the division.

Is this any way to teach U.S. history?

by Chuck Chalberg

Under Common Core, we lose complexity in favor of a simplistic story line.

Anti-war leader moved by discussions on Vietnam

by Bruce Dancis

A two-day conference on “Vietnam – The War at Home” at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. was to observe the 50th anniversary of activism, anti-war and pro-war, at Cornell.

Five myths about lame-duck presidents

by Steven G. Calabresi

History shows they can get a lot done.

Why America Won’t Pay Ransom to Islamic State

by Max Boot

France, Germany and others shell out millions to terrorists, ensuring more kidnappings and bankrolling violence. Should we? No, but we have in the past.

Why 'The Graduate' Still Matters

by Jonathan Zimmerman

In the years since Mike Nichols made "The Graduate," we have transformed our universities into truly mass institutions. Soon, we are told, we'll have "college for all." But college for what?

Letter to My Friends: Why We Can't Expect to Win a Religious War in the Middle East

by William Polk

The only strategy that will work is to wait out the fanatics.  Eventually, their movement will mature.  Radical movements never last.  

Do you know the difference between a Holocaust and a holocaust? The Armenians do

by Robert Fisk

"My phone did not stop ringing. Armenians were outraged. Why did they not deserve a capital H, they demanded to know? Didn’t the Turks murder enough Armenians to qualify them for a capital H?"

Why C.E.O.s Are Growing Beards

by Stephen Mihm

A dialectical theory of facial hair and capitalism.

The Mormon Church backs a revisionist account of Joseph Smith. What it means.

by Tim Egan

Smith was a man of God, no doubt. But he was also a man, with considerable appetites.

Those Ungovernable Colonists

by Kevin D. Williamson

Our founding fathers knew when to build, and when to fight — and what to build, and what to fight.