Roundup: Historians' Take

John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt: The Israel Lobby

[John Mearsheimer is the Wendell Harrison Professor of Political Science at Chicago, and the author of The Tragedy of Great Power Politics Stephen Walt is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. His most recent book is Taming American Power: The Global Response to US Primacy.] For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has b

Martin Kramer: The Reality Behind Charges About "The Israel Lobby"

There is much ado today about"The Israel Lobby," a long essay written by Stephen Walt of Harvard University and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and published in the London Review of Books. The bottom line is simple and familiar: the Israel lobby has taken over Washington. Within the academy, it's the sort of thing that Juan Cole and Rashid Khalidi have been claiming all along, without getting any tracti

Niall Ferguson: Lame ducks can still bite back

TEACHING THE HISTORY of revolutions has been easy at Harvard this semester. As if to illustrate exactly how these strange historical upheavals work, the university has obligingly staged a revolution of its own. The outside world is under the impression that one of two things has happened at Harvard: Either a reactionary despot has been deposed by faculty freedom fighters, or a bold reformer has been thwarted by vested interests. Most revolutions get written up in these contrary way

Richard R. Beeman: Why Hamilton's Not the Founder to Follow on Presidential Power

[Richard R. Beeman is a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and is currently at work on a book on the Constitutional Convention of 1787.] We find ourselves at a moment when Americans are bitterly divided on the question of the constitutional limits of presidential power. It is certainly not the first time in our nation's history when the issue has presented itself. From Andrew Jackson's "war" on the Bank of the United States to Abraham Lincoln's suspensi

Stephanie Coontz: Activism or facing reality?

[Ms. Coontz is a teacher of history and family studies at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Wash.] With several state supreme courts due to rule on suits from same-sex couples demanding access to marriage, conservatives must be delighted to have a Justice Samuel Alito. During his confirmation hearings, Alito argued that judges should interpret the Constitution based "on the meaning that someone would have taken from the text... at the time of its adoption." But if c

Juan Cole: Fishing for a Pretext to Squeeze Iran

(Updated) On March 13, President Bush told an audience at George Washington University: “Coalition forces have seized IEDs and components that were clearly produced in Iran.... Such actions--along with Iran’s support for terrorism and its pursuit of nuclear weapons--are increasingly isolating Iran, and America will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.” Bush’s allegations about the Iranians providing improvised explosive devices to the Iraqi guerrilla insurgency ar

Howard Zinn: Lessons of Iraq War Start With US History

On the third anniversary of President Bush's Iraq debacle, it's important to consider why the administration so easily fooled so many people into supporting the war. I believe there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture. One is an absence of historical perspective. The other is an inability to think outside the boundaries of nationalism. If we don't know history, then we are ready meat for carnivorous politicians and the intellectuals and

Daniel Pipes: Sudden Jihad Syndrome (in North Carolina)

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his HNN blog.] "Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers." I wrote those words days after September 11, 2001, and h

Jonathan Zimmerman: It's time to give teaching more weight

Why did Larry Summers get forced out of the Harvard presidency? There were many reasons, starting with Mr. Summers's impolitic remarks about women's ability in the sciences. He also annoyed the faculty by suggesting that they teach more introductory-level classes, not just narrow courses about their research specialities. But as Mr. Summers must have known, mere exhortation will never change university teaching. Although we all give lip service to classroom instruction, there's simp

Martin E. Marty: Protestantism and Power

"Lessons of the old mainline for the new mainline" headlines the guest column in the conservative-to-moderate Christianity Today (March 2006). Speaking up for the "old" is Jason Byassee, a youngish editor of the moderate-to-liberal Christian Century. He begins with elegy: "We mainliners had our day in the sun." In the era of Prohibition and, I'd surmise, through the 1950s, "we did then what you do now. We imposed our way on a divided populace by sheer force

Gary Leupp: Why They Really Think They Must Defeat Iran

[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.] "The problem of the Iranian regime has become entrenched over the course of an entire generation,” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns told the House International Relations Committee March 8. “It may requ

Mark Naison: If the Academy Wanted to Honor Hip Hop, Is This the Right Group and the Right Song?

[Mark Naison is Professor of African American Studies and History, Fordham University.] I agree that people from the Civil Rights Generation must try to reach out to young people and try to understand their music and the experiences that music reflects, even when it makes us uncomfortable. I also agree that it is entirely appropriate for a major cultural institution like the Screen Actors Guild to honor the hip hop tradition in its song of the year category. But as a historian

Jim O'Brien: Historians Target Iraq War

Note: This article was published in February and includes dated references. Galvanized by a sense that the Iraq War represents a catastrophic policy based on an illegal set of political and military ends, historians and activists will convene in Austin, Texas, this weekend to explore what historical analysis and understanding can contribute to efforts to bring the war to an immediate end. Advance registration indicates that activists so far outnumber academics at the c

Daniel Pipes: CAIR ... Islamists Fooling the Establishment

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), headquartered in Washington, is perhaps the best-known and most controversial Muslim organization in North America. CAIR presents itself as an advocate for Muslims' civil rights and the spokesman for American Muslims. "We are similar to a Muslim NAACP," says its communications director, Ibrahim Hooper.[1] Its official mission—"to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims,

Martin Kramer: Islam's Coming Crusade

The Crusades began with a rumor of defilement. In 1095, Pope Urban II denounced the Muslims as "a race utterly alienated from God." Among their many offenses, Muslims had seized the churches of Jerusalem: "They circumcise the Christians, and the blood of the circumcisions they either spread upon the altars or pour into the vases of the baptismal font." Such false rumors were already widespread in Christendom. Urban tapped them to launch the First Crusade. Almost

Tom Engelhardt: Shark and Awe, From the Annals of Full-Spectrum Dominance

[Mr. Engelhardt is the author of The End of Victory Culture and co-editor of History Wars, the Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past.] We already have "stealth" aircraft, but what about a little of the stealth that only nature can provide? Navy Seals, move over -- here come the Navy sharks. Accor

Daniel Pipes: If the King of Pop Converts to Islam

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his HNN blog.] Michael Jackson, the king of pop, is"on the verge" of converting to Islam, CBS News reported last week. If that's true, it fits into a recurring and important African-American pattern.

Juan Cole: Headlines to make you laugh (and cry)

"Rumsfeld Cautions against too Many Troops in Iraq". I swear to God, that is what it says.

Tom Engelhardt: Why does the Iraq war not have an official name?

[Mr. Engelhardt is the author of The End of Victory Culture and co-editor of History Wars, the Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past.] Look at the polls. When Gallup's pollsters go out to ask Americans about the Bush administration and Iraq, they frame their questions thi

Timothy Patrick McCarthy: Summers of Our Discontent (As in ... Larry Summer)

[Timothy Patrick McCarthy ’93 is Lecturer on History and Literature and on Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. He is Secretary of the Harvard-Radcliffe Class of 1993 and a past director of the Harvard Alumni Association.] Today was supposed to be judgment day for University President Lawrence H. Summers. But rather than subject himself to the possibility of a second annual vote of “no confidence” from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard’s embattled president decided inste