Roundup: Historians' Take

Andrew Meyer: A "Deep Historical" and Pangeographic View of the Cartoon Fracas

[Andrew Meyer earned a doctoral degree in Chinese history. He teaches at the City University of New York.] The uproar over the Jyllands Posten "Muhammed cartoons" is the latest chapter in the tragic-comic deterioration of relations between"the Islamic world" and"the West." At this point questions about the right of Jyllands Posten to publish the cartoons and the nature of the response in the Islamic community have been discussed ad absurdum in the blogosphere a

Martin E. Marty: Bonhoeffer's Relevance Today

"Bonhoeffer Was Wrong," screams a headline in the National Catholic Reporter, atop an article by Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. (January 27). For balance, then, should we also read "Schroth Is Right"? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by Hitler and company one month before Germany surrendered, is the subject of a PBS documentary tonight. Watch it and think about "wrong" and "right." (For the record, the film, directed by Martin Doblmeier, is getting good advance

W. Clark Gilpin: Religion Scholars Challenge Patriot Act

[W. Clark Gilpin is Margaret E. Burton Professor of the History of Christianity and Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School.] On Wednesday, January 25, the American Academy of Religion (AAR), the world's largest association of scholars of religion, joined a lawsuit that challenges a key provision of the USA Patriot Act. Citing the 2004 revocation of a travel visa for noted Swiss scholar of Islam Tariq Ramadan, the suit contends that an "ideological exclusion"

Daniel Pipes: The Clash to End All Clashes?

Editors' Introduction: In belated response to a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed published in a Danish paper and subsequently reprinted across Europe, scenes of outrage filed out of London, Beruit, and Damascus, among other cities this weekend. Flags and embassies burned. Placards (in London!) read:"Behead those who insult Islam."In light of the anger unleashed, National Re

Neve Gordon: Why Hamas Won

[Neve Gordon teaches politics at Ben-Gurion University and can be reached at nevegordon@gmail.com.] Although it is still unclear what the future holds for Israelis and Palestinians, a few things can be said about the processes that enabled Hamas to win a landslide victory in the January 25 democratic elections and how the organization's triumph will likely affect the local political arena. Founded in Gaza at the beginning of th

Alfred W. McCoy: Why the McCain Torture Ban Won't Work

[Alfred W. McCoy is the author of A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror (Metropolitan Books, The American Empire Project, 2006) and a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.] Just before Christmas, two of the world's most venerable legislative bodies engaged in erudite, impassioned debate over what t

Fouad Ajami: The ballot is not infallible, but it has broken the Arab pact with tyranny.

[Mr. Ajami, Majid Khadduri Professor and director of the Middle East Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, is the author, among other books, of "Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation's Odyssey" (Vintage, 1999).] So, some now say, a people led for more than three decades by Yasser Arafat, a man who dodged all moral and political responsibility, have flunked a great democratic test. It wasn't a pretty choice that the Palest

Daniel Pipes: Cartoons and Islamic Imperialism

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his HNN blog.]The key issue at stake in the battle over the twelve Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad is this: Will the West stand up for its customs and mores, including freedom of speech, or will Muslims

Thomas J. Sugrue: Now Detroit Has to Face Its Real Self Again

[THOMAS J. SUGRUE is Kahn Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit"] Super Bowl XL brought the international limelight to the Motor City. Travel writers and out-of-town visitors for the most part marveled at the "new" Detroit. And minus a little post-game litter, Detroit's downtown sparkles. Downtown's new businesses include a Borders

Bernard Chazelle: France's Colonial Blowback

[Bernard Chazelle is Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University.] ... There is the creed of the French Republic. And then there is the reality: riots that convulsed the nation for 3 weeks last fall. The roots of the crisis go back to the labor shortage of the sixties. Boatloads of North African immigrants landed on France's shores to provide the transient workforce needed to sustain an unprecedented economic boom. The transient part of the plan took a hit when the guests g

NIall Ferguson: Missing the Cold War

MISS THE Cold War. I know I ought not to, but I just can't help it. So I was naturally delighted by last week's spy story. Admittedly, as one of the papers here in London cruelly remarked, it was more Johnny English than James Bond. In a television documentary that had Kremlin fingerprints all over it, four British Embassy staffers were accused of being spooks. Blurred video footage purported to show them fiddling with a rock in a Moscow suburb. According to Russian counterespiona

Daniel Pipes: Why Hamas Leaves Me Neutral

Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his HNN blog. Reactions to the lopsided Hamas victory over Fatah last week in the Palestinian Authority elections divided into three. Some, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee expressed dismay, worried about Hamas openly boasting of its goal to destroy the Jewish state, se

Yamaguchi Jiro: What Next for Japan’s Democratic Party?

[Yamaguchi Jiro (b. 1958) is a professor in the graduate school of Hokkaido University, specializing in political administration. Among his many writings are the books: Kiki no Nihon seiji (Japanese politics in crisis) and Sengo seiji no shuen (The conclusion of postwar Japan). Most recently he published Burea jidai no Igirisu (Britain in the age of Blair). This article was translated by Joshua Fogel, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Modern Chinese History at York University. He is a spec

William O. Beeman: United States Instigated Iran's Nuclear Program 30 Years Ago

[Mr. Beeman is Professor, Anthropology and Theatre, Speech and Dance and Past Director, Middle East Studies at Brown University.] 'The White House staffers, who are trying to deny Iran the right to develop its own nuclear energy capacity have conveniently forgotten that the United States was the midwife to the Iranian nuclear program 30 years ago. Every aspect of Iran's current nuclear development was approved and encouraged by Washington in the 1970s. President Gerald Ford offered Iran

Juan Cole: Top Ten things Bush won't Tell you About the State of the Nation

1. US economic growth during the last quarter was an anemic 1.1%, the worst in 3 years. 2. The US inflation rate has jumped to 3.4 percent, the highest rate in 5 years. 3. The number of daily attacks in Iraq rose from 52 in December, 2004 to 77 in December, 2005. 4. A third of US veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, some 40,000 persons, exhibit at least some signs of mental health disorders. Some 14,000 were treated for drug dependencies, and 11,000

John K. White: The Death of a Presidency

[John Kenneth White is a professor of Politics at the Catholic University of America. He is the author of The Values Divide: American Politics and Culture in Transition (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2003). The George W. Bush presidency is finished.... ... George W. Bush’s troubles are profound. And when presidents are beleaguered, they often look to their predecessors for guidance. At first glance, Bush can take heart from their experiences. Since Franklin D.

Lewis Gould: Abolish the State of the Union Address

It is time to end the meaningless annual ritual of the State of the Union address. What began as a yearly survey of the nation's condition has deteriorated into a frivolous moment of political theater and continuous campaigning.

Benjamin A. Kleinerman: The Lincoln Presidency Offers the Best Guide to Executive Power

[ Benjamin A. Kleinerman is assistant professor of international studies at the Virginia Military Institute.] ... In an article in the December issue of Perspectives on Politics, Mr. Kleinerman argues that Abraham Lincoln, who curtailed civil liberties more aggressively than any president before or since, conceived of his own wartime powers in a sophisticated way that modern-day presidents would do well to study. In an interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Kleinerman elaborated on his v

Michael Oren: Hamas Has Won. What's Next?

[Mr. Oren, senior fellow at the Shalem center in Jerusalem, is author of "Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East" (Oxford, 2002).] Hamas's landslide victory in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza general elections is being touted by the Western media as a turning point in the Palestinians' relationship with Israel and in the search for an Israeli-Palestinian peace. In fact, Hamas's triumph will probably have few, if any, ramifications for Israel'

Jonathan Zimmerman: Alito's mythical feel-good America

[JONATHAN ZIMMERMAN teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of "Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools."] ONCE UPON A TIME, Americans lived by a few simple maxims: God, country and family. Children respected their parents; students listened to their teachers; citizens followed the law. Then along came the 1960s, when liberal elites undermined traditional sources of authority. College kids smoked dope, feminists burned their bras an