Roundup: Historians' Take

Clinton Biographer: "I'm Absorbed" by His Memoirs

From NBC, the Today Show (June 22 2004): ANN CURRY, anchor: As you may have heard by now, former President Bill Clinton's memoirs,"My Life," went on sale at book stores at midnight last night. And as people lined up to get their hands on a copy, the details Clinton reveals about his life continue to dominate media coverage. Well, David Maraniss is the author of"First In His Class," a Clinton biography. David, good morning. Mr. DAVID MARANISS (Clinton Biographer): G

Thomas Powers: U.S. Intelligence Problems Rooted in Past

Thomas Powers, in the New York Times (June 22 2004): Recent staff reports from the 9/11 commission, soon to be followed by the results of a Senate investigation into flawed intelligence before the invasion of Iraq, lend powerful new support to conclusions long fermenting in official Washington: American intelligence is broken, and the moment is ripe to do something about it. Prominently at stake in any reorga

Niall Ferguson: Will the World Experience A 21st-Century Power Vacuum?

Niall Ferguson, in the Wall Street Journal (June 21 2004): We tend to assume that power, like nature, abhors a vacuum. In the history of world politics, it seems, someone is always bidding for hegemony. Today it is the United States; a century ago it was Britain. Before that, it was the French, the Spaniards and so on. The 19th-century German historian Leopold von Ranke, doyen of the study of statecraft, portrayed modern European history as an incessant struggle for mastery, in whic

Gould, Dallek, Shenkman et al on Presidential Memoirs

From the Journal News (NY) June 20 2004: People have been anticipating Bill Clinton's memoir ever since he left the White House in 2001. But that's nothing compared to the length of time historians have waited for a truly great presidential autobiography. By consensus,"The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant" was the last. Twenty-one presidents have come and gone since 1885, the year Grant's book wa

Dallek, Brinkley and Greenstein on Bush and 9/11

from the Washington Post (June 19 2004): You're at a photo op, reading a book with schoolchildren and an aide suddenly whispers that a second plane has hit the World Trade Center."America is under attack." You're the president of the United States. What do you do? There have been other moments like this in American history, when the chief executive was suddenly plunged into a crisis, but they weren't caught on videotape. George W. Bush was on camera in an elementary sc

Tom Engelhardt: President "Above-the-Law" Bush

Tom Engelhardt, on his blog (June 16, 2004): Quotes of the week:"As early as Sept. 16, 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney, in his first interview after the 9/11 attacks, said, ‘It's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective'… In February 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said,"The reality is, the set of facts tha

Juan Cole: Bush Could Be in Trouble in Florida

Juan Cole, in his blog (June 12, 2004): Ron Fournier of the Associated Press has a fascinating article on the changes in Florida's political geography since the last election. He points out that over 700,000 voters have moved into Florida, which now has over 9 million voters, and the immigrants are disproportionately African-American and La

Daniel Pipes: "We Won't Kill Muslims"

Daniel Pipes, in the NY Sun (June 8, 2004):After an Islamist rampage in the Saudi town of Khobar on May 29 and 30 that ended in the deaths of 22 people, survivors of that atrocity have recounted how the terrorists went to great lengths to ensure that they would kill only non-Muslims. Their actions raise a delicate but urgent issue: how might non-Muslims best protect themselves if caught in such a situation? Even as the massacre was underway, the terroris

Cass Sunstein: The Second Bill of Rights ... FDR's Greatest Speech

Cass Sunstein, in the Chronicle of Higher Education (June 7, 2004): On January 11, 1944, the United States was involved in its longest conflict since the Civil War. The effort was going well. In a remarkably short period, the tide had turned sharply in favor of the Allies. Ultimate victory was no longer in serious doubt. The real question was the nature of the peace. At noon, America's optimistic, agin

Joshua Brown: George Tenet ... The First of the Falling Dominoes?

John Keegan: We Are Forgetting Our History ... Wars Usually End in a Mess

John Keegan, in the Telegraph (UK) (June 1, 2004):History is useful. That, at any rate, is the theme of Alan Bennett's new play, The History Boys. History gets you into a good university. History gets you a good job. History is a key to cracking the secret of life.Or is it? I have been a dedicated history boy for 50 years but these past few months I have b

Paul Johnson: D-Day Lessons for Iraq

Paul Johnson, in the WSJ (June 3, 2004):... The history of D-Day, and the fortnight that followed, showed the value of meticulous preparations, rehearsals, elaborate testing of every kind of equipment, and the study of logistics. Having secured the bridgehead, the Allied buildup was so rapid that, within a month, the Germans had palpably lost the battle in the West and with it the war. But that did not mean an early Nazi capitulation. Granted the Allied war

Daniel Pipes: We Need a New Relationship with Saudi Arabia

An interview with Daniel Pipes, the Australian Broadcast Corporation (May 31, 2004):TANYA NOLAN: Well this is the 10th deadly attack in Saudi Arabia in the past 12 months. And many are wondering what the desert kingdom is doing to try and stop terrorism and protect the world's largest oil reserves.And many wonder wh

Niall Ferguson: Why America Fails Usually at Foreign Interventions

From an interview with Niall Ferguson in the Atlantic (May 25, 2004):In the book you break down the typical pattern of U.S. intervention into a series of stages. So far in Iraq we have gone through the first and second phases—the"impressive initial military success," followed by"a flawed assessment of indigenous sentiment." Now we're heading into phase three,"a strategy o

Are Muslim Extremists Really Upset About the Crusades?

From an exchange on Richard Jensen's CNET list:Matthew Richer (5-14-04)The origins of conflicts are difficult to date, for sure. Some argue that our present conflict stems from the founding of Israel, others from our support for the Shah of Iran. But does anyone seriously believe that Muslims knocked down the Twin Towers solely because of a grudge over Crusades?Daniel Crandall (5-14-04) Solely because of a grudge over the

Joshua Brown: No Chalabi Left Behind

Franz Schurmann: Bush Could End the War by a Brazen Use of Force (Following in the Footsteps of FDR, Truman, and His Father)

Franz Schurmann, editor of the Pacific News Service and emeritus professor of history and sociology at U.C. Berkeley, in PNS (May 18, 2004): Much of the American media paint the President as helplessly caught in the vortex of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. But the fact is that Bush, by saying only a few words, can easily resolve the Iraq conundrum by announcing that the bulk o

Victor Davis Hanson: The Essay Is About Sherman's March, But Is He Really Writing About Iraq?

Victor Davis Hanson, on his website (May 21, 2004):General William Tecumseh Sherman--a quirky, difficult, and much misunderstood man--deserves a place on the roll call of great liberators in human history. More than any other person, he destroyed the institution of American slavery and the Southern aristocracy that was interwoven with it. In the late fall of 1864 he marched an ar

Christian Appy: My Lai Changed Attitudes Toward Vietnam ... Will Abu Ghraib?

Christian G. Appy, in the Boston Globe (May 16, 2004):ON MAY 4, CNN's Larry King asked Secretary of State Colin Powell about the photographs showing American GIs abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. "I don't know what to make of it," Powell said. "I'm shocked. I mean, I was in a unit that was responsible for My Lai. . .. In war these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they're still to be deplored." It was

Matthew Dennis: The Government's Lost Control of the Battle Over Pictures

Matthew Dennis, professor of history at the University of Oregon, in the Register-Guard (May 16, 2004):... The Bush administration has generally exploited every opportunity to shore up support for its war policy through images - both by supplying favorable ones and by denying access to those deemed unfavorable, or limiting photography altogether. But even the most