Polls

Did Jefferson Sleep with Sally Hemings?

by Robert F. Turner

In May the descendants of Thomas Jefferson's daughters (Martha and Maria) voted by a margin of 93 percent to deny admission to the descendants of Sally Hemings, the slave woman who was alleged to have been his" concubine" in Paris and thereafter and to have given him several children. The press and liberal pundits have had a field day denouncing the descendants as racists and bigots. The charge is unfair. Honorable people may disagree about the meaning of the very limited evidence

Poll: Has 9-11 Changed the Way You Look at History?

by HNN Staff

MY VIEW OF HISTORY NOT CHANGED9/11 has not changed my view of American history, nor has it changed my view of what I need to do as a teacher and scholar of my nation's history. Which is to think, teach, and write based on what I unearth in the documents or in the substantive reading I do, and to lay it all out as fairly as I can, leaving room for others' arguments, interpretations, and questions. There have been

Poll: Was Larry King Right?

by HNN Staff

HNN asked our readers to respond to Larry King's recent statement that 9-11 was"the most important event in the history of the United States." We received the following emails in response.PREMATURE VERDICTRanking the importance of historical events is a fool's game and of little value. At worst, it encourages a Casey Kasem approach to the study of the past that oversimplifies complicated issues and turns history into trivia.Still, it's fun. And if done in

Patrick Buchanan as Deep Throat? Why It's Not Such a Mystery After All

by Stephen Mumford

Most Americans believe that Deep Throat was a national hero. Many have been puzzled that he hasn't identified himself and basked in the glory. But that could be because his motivations were complex.Following a painstaking three-year investigation, University of Illinois Professor William Gaines's 40 students recently voted unanimously that they believe Patrick Buchanan was Deep Throat. But while they established that Buchanan had the opportunity and the means to play the role

Truman on Trial: Not Guilty

by Robert James Maddox

Philip Nobile's shrill tirade is long on invective and sarcasm, woefully deficient in logic and historical accuracy. It is as if he were caught in a time warp, repeating the discredited cliches of 1960s and 70s revisionism. In addition to the authors Ronald Radosh mentions, the work of Herbert Bix, Lawrence Freedman, and Saki Dockrill renders completely untenable the revisionist claim that the Japanese would have surrendered during the summer of 1945 if only they had been assured that t

What's Wrong with the Presidency (And What Can Be Done to Fix It)

by Lewis L. Gould

Mr. Gould made the following remarks at the Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, May 6, 2003, on the occasion of a talk and book-signing for The Modern American Presidency (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003). The story of the modern presidency is a cautionary tale rather than an American suc

HNN Poll: Are Evangelicals Winning the Culture War Over Religion?

In a recent issue of the Baltimore Sun the editors reviewed the history of the famous Scopes Monkey Trial (1925), which pitted William Jennings Bryan against Clarence Darrow."At the time," they wrote,"the trial was seen as a monumental test for a changing America, with the 20th century, science and city ways challenging the 19th century, fundamentalist religious beliefs and rural mores." Today,"the trial serves to remind of other things as well: how Christian fundamentalism, ridiculed un

HNN Poll: Do Historians Caught in a Scandal Deserve a Second Chance?

With the exception of Stephen Ambrose, who died, and one or two others, the historians who became enmeshed in scandal over the past two years have begun making comebacks. Doris Kearns Goodwin, who is finishing a book on Abraham Lincoln, was celebrated recently in a letter to the editor of the New York Times by a di

HNN Poll: Is President Bush Trying to Undo the New Deal?

Who is George W. Bush? In 2000 he described himself as a compassionate conservative. Three years later, do we know what he meant? Many liberals are convinced he is trying to undo the Great Society and the New Deal. Meanwhile, though he has retained the support of most conservatives, many acknowledge that he has piled up a record as a big spender, citing the Medicare bill as Exhibit A.Our poll this week: Is President Bush Trying to Undo the New Deal?

HNN Poll: What Can President Bush Do to Win If Iraq Remains a Mess?

In a recent article in the Village Voice , Rick Perlstein postulated that President Bush is very much in the same situation in which Richard Nixon found himself on the eve of his re-election bid. Like Nixon, he has a war on his hands he has to get out of in order to win in November. In the passage excerpted below Persltein suggests that one way President Bush can slip out of his dilemma is by changing the standards of

HNN Poll: Should Presidents Read Newspapers?

"It's not to say I don't respect the press. I do respect the press. But sometimes it's hard to be an optimistic leader. A leader must project an optimistic view. It's hard to be optimistic if you read a bunch of stuff about yourself." -- President Bush, in an interview with British journalist Martin Newland, Nov. 14, 2003In a recent interview President Bush revealed that he doesn't read newspapers. Though he occasionally glances at the

Should CBS Have Cancelled the Mini Series About the Reagans?

It is front page news across America. CBS has cancelled a mini series about the Reagans. What do you think? Should CBS have cancelled the series? What does the decision say about the media today? What does it say about the power of conservative groups? What does it say about the relationship of Hollywood and politcs? Food for ThoughtEditorial in the NYT: It is hard to know what CBS was thinking when it decided to order up a less-than-complimentary mini-series

HNN Poll: What Does Arnold's Race for Governor Say About American Democracy?

If California's recall election were held today, Democrat Gray Davis would be swept out as governor and Republican political rookie Arnold Schwarzenegger would be swept in. -- USA Today (August 11, 2003) He is not the first actor to run for office. Before Arnold there was Ronald Reagan; Sonny of Sonny and Cher fame; that guy from the"Love Boat"; and, in the 1

HNN Poll: Are We the Victims of Mindless Anti-Americanism?

"[I]t is a great and terrible spectacle to see one half of the globe so disfavored by nature that everything found there is degenerate or monstrous."--Count de BuffonEvery day evidence mounts that Europeans by the millions have reached the conclusion that there's something wrong with America. It is a familiar indictment. As Henry Steele Commager explained thirty years ago, many European intellectuals in the 18th century believed

HNN Poll: Why Do Presidents Lie Us into Wars?

While partisans defend the Bush administration's rationale for war in Iraq and detractors point to evidence that high officials allegedly misled the public, one question has curiously been largely neglected. Do presidents feel the need to fudge the truth about war because the American people can't handle the truth? Time and again presidents have lied about wars, beginning with James K. Polk. Is this because the public cannot accept the complicated reasons which actually

HNN Poll: Brian VanDeMark ... Does the Punishment Fit the Crime?

Last spring historian Brian VanDeMark, a tenured professor at the Naval Academy, was accused of plagiarism in a story broken by the NYT. Five scholars alleged that he had improperly borrowed passages from their work. The passages appeared in VanDeMark's Pandora's Keepers: Nine Men and the Atomic Bomb (2003). Little, Brown, the publisher, immediately withdrew the book. This week the Naval Academy announced that it had found that VanDeM

HNN Poll: What Does Arnold's Victory Mean?

The votes are in. Arnold Schwarzenegger, body builder and actor, has been elected the governor of the largest state in the union. According to initial media reports, he won 45 percent of the vote. Our question this week: What does his victory mean for American democracy? Food for ThoughtMark Z. Barabak, writing in the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 6, 2003):We've been here before, even though this has been a campaign unlike any other. F

HNN Poll : The Consequences of Indifference to History

Last week the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation released yet another report indicating that the states are neglecting the study of history and that students find history dull. Chester Finn, Jr., one of the authors of the report, identified one of the problems as t

HNN Poll: Is Wesley Clark America's Cincinnatus?

As Gil Troy has pointed out in See How They Ran, America is "haunted by the ghosts of George Washington and Andrew Jackson." Presidential candidates are required to be "as aloof , as virtuous, as restrained as Washington, while being as popular, as political, as dynamic as Jackson." The inherent contradictions in this formula have often been resolved by picking presidents drawn from the ranks of the military. Because military heroes have becom

HNN Poll: Is President Bush Likely to Lose Public Support If Soldiers Continue to Die?

Guerrillas killed two US soldiers in the region west of Baghdad, and wounded 11 (yes, 11!) others on late Thursday through Friday. In addition, US soldiers mistook Iraqi auxiliary Facilities Protection Services personnel (our guys) in Falluja for guerrillas and killed 10 of them, along with a Jordanian guard. The situation in Falluja has been tense all summer, and the temperature just went up several notches. At this rate we would have 2000 - 4000 wounded US troops a year,