Roundup: Historians' Take

Chalmers Johnson: Is Imperial Liquidation Possible for America?

[Chalmers Johnson is the author of Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007). It is the final volume of his Blowback Trilogy.] In politics, as in medicine, a cure based on a false diagnosis is almost al

Niall Ferguson: The Tragedie of George has three more scenes

[Niall Ferguson is Laurence A Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University www.niallferguson.org] ... George W Bush's dominant character traits, his decisiveness and tenacity, at first appeared to be strengths. But once he had been convinced by his advisers that the attacks of 9/11 furnished a pretext for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, these became weaknesses. As in Macbeth, King George was soon "in blood stepp'd in

David Greenberg: How Bush Stayed True to Conservatism

[David Greenberg, an assistant professor of history and journalism at Rutgers University, in New Brunswick, N.J., is the author of three books, “Nixon’s Shadow,” “Presidential Doodles” and, most recently, “Calvin Coolidge.” He writes the “History Lesson” column for Slate.] ... [Sen. Chuck] Hagel’s profession of unhappiness with today’s G.O.P. is not unique. Ever since the Iraq war turned sour and President Bush’s standing declined, a parade of right-wingers — journalists and intelle

Christine Stansell: A lost history of abortion

[Christine Stansell is the Edwards Professor of American History at Princeton University. She is writing a history of feminism. ] ... Often lost in the debate over D&X abortion is the fact that the procedure is exceedingly rare; in 2000, there were just 2,200 cases--or 0.17 percent of all abortions. The procedure is rare because it is used to end a pregnancy late in the second trimester or later, before viability, in a tiny number of cases when the woman's life is in danger. Abo

Bernard Lewis: Was Osama Right?

[Mr. Lewis, professor emeritus at Princeton, is the author, most recently, of "From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting the Middle East" (Oxford University Press, 2004).] During the Cold War, two things came to be known and generally recognized in the Middle East concerning the two rival superpowers. If you did anything to annoy the Russians, punishment would be swift and dire. If you said or did anything against the Americans, not only would there be no punishment; there mig

Barry Rubin: The Truth About Syria

[Barry Rubin is author of a new book, The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan) and is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center.] Last month, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress visited Damascus, flattered their hosts, and called for talks with the Syrian dictatorship.

Bernard Weiner: The Roots of Disaster ... Impeachment As Remedy

[Bernard Weiner, Ph.D., has taught government & international relations at universities in California and Washington, worked as a writer/editor with the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly two decades, and currently co-edits The Crisis Papers (www.crisispapers.org). To comment: crisispapers@comcast.net.] What was the route that led the U.S. to its present fiasco in Iraq and elsewhere? We'll g

Damon Linker: Farewell to Falwell

[Damon Linker is the former editor of First Things and author of The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege.] Jerry Falwell's friends and allies on the right tell us that he was a force for democracy in America. This is true. Thanks to Falwell, millions of conservative evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants now actively participate in the political life of the nation, consistently mobilizing on the far-right side of the Republican Party. This makes Falwell historically important.

Tom Engelhardt: The Graduation Speech I'll Never Give

[Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com ("a regular antidote to the mainstream media"), is the co-founder of the American Empire Project and, most recently, the author of Mission Unaccomplished: Tomdispatch Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters (Nation Books), the first collection of Tomdispatch interviews.] Graduates of t

Tom Engelhardt: The Nearly Two Million Dollar Gap

[Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com ("a regular antidote to the mainstream media"), is the co-founder of the American Empire Project and, most recently, the author of Mission Unaccomplished: Tomdispatch Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters (Nation Books), the first collection of Tomdispatch interviews.] What value has

Alan Wolfe: Jerry Falwell spent a career demonizing others. Upon his death, what else could he expect in return?

[Alan Wolfe's most recent book is "Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense Of Purpose And What it Needs To Do To Recover It" (Princeton University Press).] One never wants to speak ill of the dead, but in the case of Jerry Falwell, how can one not? Falwell will always be remembered for his "700 Club" comment in the wake of Sept. 11: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are activ

David Garrow: A 42-year rush to justice

[DAVID J. GARROW, a senior fellow at Cambridge University, is the author of "Bearing the Cross," a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.] LAST WEEK'S murder indictment of a former Alabama state trooper for the 1965 shooting of a young black voting-rights demonstrator is one more Deep South prosecution of a long-forgotten white defendant who ended up on the wrong side of the civil rights revolution. It's one of many. In recent yea

Faisal Devji: Christendom’s Muslim Midwife

[Faisal Devji is Associate Professor of History at the New School in New York. He has held faculty positions at Yale University and the University of Chicago, where he also received his PhD in Intellectual History. ] The re-emergence of Islam as a European force and the spark this has given to efforts to re-Christianize the continent were made manifest last year in the wake of Pope Benedict’s controversial speech at Regensburg. Not only did his Muslim opponents take Ben

Daniel Pipes: A Critical Moment For Turkey

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his blog.] My visit to Istanbul this week comes in the midst of the greatest challenge to the Turkish secular republic since its creation in 1923.Founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire, the republic came into existence at about the high-water ma

Eric Alterman: The crimes of the MSM

[Eric Alterman is Professor of English at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, media columnist for The Nation, senior fellow and “Altercation” weblogger for Media Matters for America, (formerly at MSNBC.com), senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and edits the “Think Again” column, and a history consultant to HBO Films.] I've written a few books about the limitations of the MSM and expect to write a few more before my number's up, but

Juan Cole: Paul Wolfowitz's fatal weakness

The executive board of the World Bank mulled a possible vote of no confidence in the leadership of its president, Paul Wolfowitz, this weekend. How did the renowned neoconservative and former deputy secretary of defense, a primary architect of the Iraq war, come to these straits? Is he, as he claims, the victim of a smear campaign by those who dislike his politics? Or do the charges of favoritism and nepotism reflect genuine character flaws? The small morality play unfolding at the

Avi Shlaim: It is not only God that will be Blair's judge over Iraq

[Avi Shlaim is a professor of international relations at St Antony's College, Oxford, and author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World.] Tony Blair's opposition to an immediate ceasefire in the Lebanon war last summer precipitated his downfall. Now that he has announced the date of his departure from Downing Street, his entire Middle East record needs to be placed under an uncompromising lens. Blair came to office with no experience of, and virtually no interest i

Stanley Kutler: While We Slept

[Mr. Kutler has written widely in American legal and constitutional history. He is the author of The Wars of Watergate.] Where was our attention for the decade following the Gulf War in 1991? Were we so consumed by the companionable travesties of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, as well as by the Republicans' effort to impeach Clinton? Did we fu

Mark Selden: A Forgotten Holocaust ... US Bombing Strategy, the Destruction of Japanese Cities and the American Way of War from the Pacific War to Iraq

[Mark Selden is a research associate at the East Asia Program, Cornell University, and a coordinator of Japan Focus. His recent books include War and State Terrorism. The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century.] World War II was a landmark in the development and deployment of technologies of mass destruction associated with air power, notably the B-29 bomber, napalm and the atomic bomb. An estimated 50 to 70 million people lay dead in its wake. In a

Niall Ferguson: New York - the new Venice?

[Niall Ferguson is Laurence A Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University.] ... [Venice] is the ideal place to ponder the vast economic changes we are witnessing in our time. For what befell Venice roughly 500 years ago may well be the imminent fate of the city's North American counterpart: New York. Just as the world economy tilted away from Venice in around the year 1500, condemning it to relative decline, slow stagnation and ultimate relegation from metropolis t