Roundup: Historians' Take

Daniel Pipes: Is Bush Mr. Palestine?

Called the best friend Israel ever had in the White House, George W. Bush is, in my view, worrisomely over-confident. He believes he has discovered the solution to a highly complex and subtle century-old conflict. But I expect major problems.The cover of the Nov. 24 Economist shows a picture of Bush under a bold headline that reads"Mr Palestine." The subtitle deems him"The only man who could make it h

Stephanie Coontz: Taking Marriage Private

[Stephanie Coontz, a professor of history at Evergreen State College, is the author of “Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage.”] WHY do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families. The parents’ agreement to the match, not the approval of church or state, was what confirmed its validity. For 16 centuries, Christianity also defined the val

Bernard Lewis: Have the Arabs finally decided to accept the existence of Israel?

[Mr. Lewis, professor emeritus at Princeton, is the author, most recently, of "From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East" (Oxford University Press, 2004).] Herewith some thoughts about tomorrow's Annapolis peace conference, and the larger problem of how to approach the Israel-Palestine conflict. The first question (one might think it is obvious but apparently not) is, "What is the conflict about?" There are basically two possibilities: that it is abou

Shelby Steele: Obama Is Right on Iran

[Shelby Steele, PhD., is the Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He specializes in the study of race relations, multiculturalism, and affirmative action. He was appointed a Hoover fellow in 1994.] After a recent Democratic presidential debate, Barack Obama proclaimed that were he to become president, he would talk directly even to America's worst enemies. One could imagine President Obama as a kind of superhero taking off in Air Force One for Tehran, the

Murray Polner: War Against Iran?

[Mr. Polner, a Book Editor at HNN, is the author of “No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran,” “Rabbi: The American Experience,” and, with Stefan Merken, edited the recently published “Peace, Justice & Jews: Reclaiming Our Tradition.” ] ‘American Jewish groups are aggressively attempting to rally support for isolating Iran until it ends its suspected nuclear weapons program,” the JTA recently reported. “They are lobby

Michael Kazin: Surging for Obama

[Mr. Kazin is the author of an award-winning biography of William Jennings Bryan.] Nearly every four years, millions of Americans who belong to that minority that cares about politics fall in love with an insurgent candidate for president. In 1964, conservatives swooned over Barry M. Goldwater; four years later, anti-war liberals rallied to Eugene McCarthy or Robert F. Kennedy. More recently, Patrick Buchanan thrilled one section of the GOP but spooked everybody else; while fans of

Gary Leupp: Killing the Buddha in Pakistan's Swat Valley

[Gary Leupp is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Servants, Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa Japan;Male Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa Japan; and

Daniel Pipes: Lee Harvey Oswald's Malign Legacy

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his blog.]What's wrong with American liberalism? What happened to the self-assured, optimistic, and practical Democratic Party of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and John F. Kennedy? Why has Joe Lieberman, their closest contemporary incarnation, been run out of the party? How did ant

Joyce Appleby: Awarding Electors by district is a good idea IF applied in every state

[Joyce Appleby is a professor of history emerita. She co-directs the History News Service.] Sacramento-based consultant Dave Gilliard is trying to revive an initiative to divvy up California's electoral college votes by congressional district rather than give all to one candidate as in the present winner-take-all method. The initiative was considered all but dead last month when GOP consultants abandoned the effort after the bad publicity about contributions from a donor to the cam

John J. Pitney, Jr.: Ghosts of 1992

[John J. Pitney, Jr., is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of American Politics at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, California. ] Senator Hillary Clinton has had to face questions about her toughness. The Boston Herald quotes Tobe Berkowitz, associate dean of Boston University’s College of Communication: “If you’re not tough enough to take the slings and arrows from Barack Obama, how are you going to deal with Putin or Chavez?” Senator Clinton helped herself with a confident performan

Allan Lichtman: Conservative Big Government ... Whither American Conservatism (Part 2)

[Mr. Lichtman teaches history at American University.] Conservatism has always been about the purposes of government rather than the size or scope of government. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that George W. Bush has built a form a conservative big government during his presidency. However, big government poses a serious political problem for conservatives because it contradicts their rhetorical defense of limited government, states’ rights, fiscal responsibil

Thomas Fleming: So the French President Likes Us ... It's Not Really a Surprise

[Thomas Fleming is the president of the Society of American Historians and a member of the board of directors of HNN.] President George Bush’s recent love fest with French President Nicolas Sarkozy made headlines around the world. The new president was reversing a decade of America-hating and America-obstructing by French politicians and diplomats. He amazed pundits from London to Washington to Moscow by getting elected as an open admirer of America. Almost no one seems to have

Jonathan Zimmerman: America's addiction to sports

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of "Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century."] Last week, when a federal grand jury indicted baseball star Barry Bonds for perjury, it confirmed an ugly truth: America's got a big drug problem. I'm not talking about steroids, Mr. Bonds' alleged performance-enhancer of choice. Instead, I'm talking about athletics themselves. Americans are addicted to c

Gary Leupp: Tobacco and the State ... A Brief History

[Gary Leupp is a Professor of History, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Religion at Tufts University, and author of numerous works on Japanese history. He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu. ] My son who just turned 18 announced, "Hey, now I can buy cigarettes." I'm sure he was just joking. But since he can, in fact, now legally do this in Massachusetts, it set me to thinking about the history of this problem of t

Frederick Kagan & Michael O'Hanlon: Pakistan’s Collapse, Our Problem

[Frederick W. Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Michael O’Hanlon is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.] AS the government of Pakistan totters, we must face a fact: the United States simply could not stand by as a nuclear-armed Pakistan descended into the abyss. Nor would it be strategically prudent to withdraw our forces from an improving situation in Iraq to cope with a deteriorating one in Pakistan. We need to think — now — about our feas

Deborah Lipstadt: Rwanda: A new form of genocide denial

On January 27th there will be a panel at Emory University regarding Rwanda genocide denial. These deniers cannot, of course, deny that the killings took place but they try to depict them as the "normal" course of business in Rwanda. The mantra of these deniers is: Tutsis have been killing Hutus for years. This was an example of the Hutus striking back. Other than simply being incorrect, this mantra essentially blames the victims for their own brutal deaths. Wh

David Greenberg: Is Barack Obama just another high-toned liberal doomed to failure?

[David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers, has two new books out:Presidential DoodlesandCalvin Coolidge.] All presidential candidates have their

Donald M. Seekins: Burma’s Military Regime ... Understanding SPDC Tyranny

[Donald M. Seekins is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Meio University. He is the author of The Disorder in Order: the Army-State In Burma since 1962. E-mail contact: kenchan@ii-okinawa.ne.jp.] Is anything new under the sun in military-ruled Burma? On August 15, 2007, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) military junta ordered a cut in subsidies for gasoline products, resulting in a 100 percent price increase for diesel oil and as muc

Eric Alterman: Liberals and Veterans ... Welcome Back

[Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow of the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College, and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His blog, “Altercation,” appears at www.mediamatters.org/altercation, His seventh book, Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, will appear early next year.] ... [George W.] Bush is the first American pre

Tom Engelhardt: A Question No One Wants to Raise About Drought

[Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com, is the co-founder of the American Empire Project. His book, The End of Victory Culture (University of Massachusetts Press), has just been thoroughly updated in a newly issued edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq.] Georgia's on my mind. Atlanta, Georgia. It's