Roundup: Historians' Take

Eric Rauchway: Presidents CAN do two things at once

[Eric Rauchway is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and the author, most recently, of Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America and Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America. ] Today is September 24. On this day in 1864, Abraham Lincoln presided over a country at war with itself and a party split to its roots over the question of how to plan for the nation’s reconstruction—to such an extent that on this day, Lincoln reluctant

Niall Ferguson: Rough Week, But America's Era Goes On

[Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University. His latest book, "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World," will be published in November.] ... We are living through the end of a phenomenon that Moritz Schularick of Berlin's Free University and I christened "Chimerica." In this view, the most important thing to understand about the world economy over the past 10 years has been the relationship between China and America. If you think

Daniel Pipes: Appease Iran?

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his blog.] After Hitler, the policy of appeasing dictators – ridiculed by Winston Churchill as feeding a crocodile, hoping it will eat one last – appeared to be permanently discredited. Yet the policy has enjoyed some successes and remains a live temptation today in dealing with the I

Eric Rauchway: How big a bailout?

Laura Conaway at Planet Money asks, “So how big is $700 billion, anyway?” And Brad Setser tells her, it’s five percent of GDP; it’s “real money.” Good, but maybe we can do better: remember the terrible horrible no-good very bad New Deal, which was, like, socialist and all that? All federal non-defense spending during the New Deal was only a few percentage points

Andreas Umland: Moscow’s Miscalculated Show of Strength

[Dr Andreas Umland is editor of the book series "Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society" ( http://www.ibidem-verlag.de/spps.html ) and administrator of the web site "Russian Nationalism" (groups.yahoo.com/group/russian_nationalism/).] In Western comments, the Russian army’s invasion of Georgia is portrayed as a manifestation of revisionist expansionism. Kremlin-controlled mass media, in contrast, presents R

Julian Zelizer: The Debate Questions We Need to Hear

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is the co-editor of "Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s" (Harvard University Press) and is completing a book on the history of national security politics since World War II.] The debates are starting. As I recently wrote in Politico, given the close nature of this presidential race, the debates can easily end up having the same impact a

Mark Naison: The Future of The Nation Is in the Hands of Obama Campaign Volunteers- Thoughts After a Weekend of Watching Football

After spending most of my weekend watching football, I am feeling very worried about the outcome of this presidential election. The millions of people who spend their weekends in football stadiums watching men- most of them black- bang into one another at full speed and scantily clad cheerleaders- most of them white- shimmy and shake, are going to be much more comfortable with John McCain and Sarah Pallin than they are with Barack Obama. You could easily see John McCain

Ted Widmer: When a New President Inherits a Mess

[Ted Widmer, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, is the author of "Ark of the Liberties: America and the World."] After a nerve-rattling week in which the U.S. financial system was shaken to the core, here's a simple question: Why on Earth would anyone want to be president right now? ven in the best of times, it's a grueling job. But the problems of 2008 seem unusually intractable, and despite the fine talk one sometimes hears about reconciliatio

E. Anthony Rotundo: Manliness and the presidential politics in 2008

[E. Anthony Rotundo, author of "American Manhood," is working on a book about conservatism, masculinity, and American culture.] Gender has captured center stage in the 2008 presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton barely missed being the first woman to seize a major party nomination for president. Sarah Palin now stands a good chance of becoming our first woman vice president. And the media have dealt constantly with issues of women in the campaign process. Certainly,

Andrew Roberts: Churchill ... secret conversations reveal views on Stalin and Gandhi

[“Masters and Commanders” by Andrew Roberts will be published by Allen Lane.] It was a wet Friday afternoon last year, and I was about to take the train back to London when it happened. The Churchill Archives in Cambridge were preparing to close, and I had finished working on the files I’d requested for my research on my new book, about the grand strategy of the Second World War. I’d love to pretend it was archival genius, or undue diligence, that encouraged me to take

Tristram Hunt: Groundhog capitalism

[Tristram Hunt's Penguin biography of Engels is published early next year.] Had Marx and Engels lived to see the day! The counting houses of global finance in freefall, traders going to the wall, and now Washington seemingly intent on nationalising its entire banking sector. As stockmarkets crash around the world, what we are now witnessing is an old-fashioned, full-throttle crisis of capitalism, and no event was more inclined to lift the mood of communism's founding fathers.

Scott Lucas: The manufacture of fear? US politics both before and after 9-11

"The chief costs of terrorism derive not from the damage inflicted by the terrorists, but what those attacked do to themselves and others in response. That is, the harm of terrorism mostly arises from the fear and from the often hasty, ill-considered, and overwrought reaction (or overreaction) it characteristically, and often calculatedly, inspires in its victims."―John Mueller1 I would like to begin with two incidents, one from the perspective of the academic, one (with apologi

Manisha Sinha: Sarah Palin and the Betrayal of American Women

The emergence of Sarah Palin as the Vice Presidential Republican candidate is one of the biggest acts of betrayal against women in American history. In a transparent and cynical ploy to appeal to women's votes, John McCain has picked an anti-women's rights woman candidate. The worst part is that both his gutter tactics and playing "identity" politics of the obvious kind seems to be working. White women as a group have shifted from Obama to McCain. It is about time that the press, leadi

Daniel Pipes: Must Counterinsurgency Wars Fail?

When it comes to a state fighting a nonstate enemy, there is a widespread impression the state is doomed to fail.In 1968, Robert F. Kennedy concluded that victory in Vietnam was"probably beyond our grasp," and called for a peaceful settlement. In 1983, the analyst

Julian Zelizer: '08 debates may resonate like Carter-Reagan

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He is the co-editor of “Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s” (Harvard University Press) and is completing a book on the history of national security politics since World War II.] John McCain and Barack Obama will square off Sept. 26 in the first presidential debate. This televised event — and the two others that will follow in October — will potentia

Jonathan Zimmerman: How Special are Your Needs?

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York University and lives in Narberth. He is the author of Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools (Harvard University Press).] Imagine two infant children, somewhere in America. One has a severe cognitive disability, while the other is born into extreme poverty. Which one deserves government assistance? In my mind, they both do. The disabled infant needs early speech therapy and a host of other services. But so does

Tom Palaima: No Issues, No Interviews, No Scrutiny, No Democracy

[Tom Palaima, a professor of Classics and ancient history at the University of Texas at Austin, is a regular commentary contributor to the Austin American Statesman and writes regular reviews for the Times Higher Education and the Texas Observer. He has contributed a number of pieces to HNN.] After Sen. John McCain announced that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be his running mate, Republican presidential campaign manager Rick Davis told us what kind of campaign they would run: "

Frederick W. Kagan: "No oil for blood"

[Frederick W. Kagan, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is a contributing editor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD.] This morning, I had the honor of testifying before the House Budget Committee on the situation in Iraq. The discussion was polite and civilized, and was a reminder that even now it is possible for people who disagree about what to do in Iraq to argue without raised voices and disagreeable language (apart from the Code Pink women, yelling for those who think

Joseph Lane: Sex Ed for Kiddies? McCain’s Skewing of Voting Records

A great deal has been written about whether the recent ads by the McCain-Palin ticket are “factually accurate,” “highly misleading,” or “just plain lies.” Whoever thought we could have a “calm, respectful general election campaign” “without biased distortions of the other candidate’s record” (I mean you, John McCain!) must have been smoking something at the time. However, the now famous “sex education for kindergarteners” ad signals something more than just another tortured distorti

Harold James: History provides little comfort

[The writer is professor of history and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University and Marie Curie professor of history at the European University Institute.] The drama of the past days – the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the rapid purchase of Merrill Lynch, the weakness of AIG, the threats to other institutions – all have no real historical precedent. It is impossible to find parallels for the extent of this week’s banking crisis since the