Roundup

Thomas Jefferson Was a Muslim

by Abbas Milani

A candidate was accused of being a closet Muslim... in the 18th century, not the 21st.

The Paradox of Public Intellectuals

by Eric Hobsbawm

This age of the intellectual as the chief public face of political opposition has retreated into the past.

Seeds of Discord in Ukraine

by Scott Reynolds Nelson

Yes, Ukraine is rife with ethnic and nationalist frictions. But underlying its strife are its wheat fields.

The Conservative Heritage Foundation Needs a Major History Lesson About Latinos

"There’s nothing in the Hispanic experience in America that compares with the repulsive system of slavery."

The Technological Innovations of WWI

by Felix Bohr

In military history, the deployment of chlorine gas in Ypres is considered the moment when weapons of mass destruction were born, and the rapid development of additional chemical weapons ensued.

Roundup Top 10!

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

The Romantics and the Orient: What English Poetry owes to the Middle East

by Samar Attar

"To relieve their anxieties and fears they all turned to the East hoping to find a remedy and inspiration."

So Israel and the US Complain About Not Being Able to Divide and Rule the Palestinians?

by Juan Cole

What really dismays Washington and Tel Aviv, however, is the prospect of having to deal with the whole Palestinian people, not just a couple of hand-picked corrupt old warhorses who are easily bribed and intimidated.

Give kids the Muslim holidays -- and teach religious history in schools

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Of course New York should close its schools for Muslim holidays, as it does for Christian and Jewish ones. But it should also make sure that schools teach students of every faith about Islam as well as other religions.

T-Shirts for historians

by Mike O'Malley

"You are caricaturing my argument."

LBJ: Hero or Not ... A debate between David Greenberg and Michael Kazin

How do we deal with Vietnam? 

Cliven Bundy Wants to Tell You All About 'the Negro'

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

When people like Cliven Bundy assert the primacy of the past it is important that we do not recount it selectively. American enslavement is the destruction of the black body for profit.

Frank Rich says the climate of hate in Dallas was a product of the rightwing

Frank Rich: "I am impressed that James Piereson can peer into Lee Harvey Oswald’s mind posthumously and identify his 'likely motive' in assassinating John F. Kennedy."

Innovation: The Government Was Crucial After All

by Jeff Madrick

Fortunately, a new book, The Entrepreneurial State, by the Sussex University economist Mariana Mazzucato, forcefully documents just how wrong the conservative claims are that the government is inconsequential.

A populism spurned by the downturn’s discontents

by Niall Ferguson

European populism is more like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party than Boston’s, writes Niall Ferguson

The Color of His Presidency

by Jonathan Chait

Optimists hoped Obama would usher in a new age of racial harmony. Pessimists feared a surge in racial strife. Neither was right.

Take notes, Nate Silver! Reinventing literary criticism with computers

by Laura Miller

"I’m interested in understanding the culture at large, rather than just its best results."

Obama's problem with history

by Leon Wieseltier

Obama’s surprisability about history, which is why he is always (as almost everyone now recognizes) “playing catch-up,” is owed to certain sanguine and unknowledgeable expectations that he brought with him to the presidency.

The New Abolitionism

by Christopher Hayes

Averting planetary disaster will mean forcing fossil fuel companies to give up at least $10 trillion in wealth.

Does torture really (still) matter?

by Rebecca Gordon

Tolerating torture corrupts the moral character of the nation.