Historians/History

Franco Was Worse than You Thought

by David Wingeate Pike

"Not Worth a Bucket of Warm Spit"

by Patrick Cox

When it comes to commentary about the office of vice president of the United States, no statement is more repeated than John Nance Garner’s observation that “the vice presidency is not worth a bucket of warm spit.” Garner’s statement is part of the lexicon of studies on the vice presidency. The crusty, sharp-tongued Texan, known during his lifetime as “Cactus Jack,” built his reputation on biting commentary and one-liners. But regarding the “bucket&r

The Greatest Hoax In American History: Japan’s Alleged Willingness to Surrender During the Final Months of World War II

by Robert James Maddox

A staple of Hiroshima Revisionism has been the contention that the government of Japan was prepared to surrender during the summer of 1945, with the sole proviso that its sacred emperor be retained.  President Harry S. Truman and those around him knew this through intercepted Japanese diplomatic messages, the story goes, but refused to extend such an assurance because they wanted the war to continue until atomic bombs became available.  The real purpose of using the bombs was not to defeat an already-defeated Japan, but to give the United States a club to use against the Soviet Union.  Thus Truman purposely slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Japanese, not to mention untold thousands of other Asians and Allied servicemen who would perish as the war needlessly ground on, primarily to gain diplomatic advantage.

Vice Admiral Ross T. McIntire: A Reassessment of an American Hero

by Steven Lomazow, M.D.

Ross T. McIntire was personal physician to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from 1932 to 1945. During that time, he rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and Surgeon General of the Navy. The widespread presently-held view of Mcintire’s performance in that capacity is as an excellent and competent wartime administrator but as an abject failure as Presidential physician. While the former is undoubtedly correct, the latter could not be farther from the truth. As a result of intense research which

Lessons Not Learned at the Bay of Pigs

by Howard Jones

On April 17, 1961, a small band of 1500 Cuban exiles invaded their former homeland at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. Masterminded by the CIA, the operation hinged on covert action, a pre-em

Why this Is a Good Time to Remember Eugene V. Debs

by Ernest Freeberg

In June 1918, as American troops were entering the trenches of France, the socialist leader Eugene V. Debs gave a speech in Ohio declaring that rich men profit from wars, while poor men die in them. “You need to know,” he told his followers, “that you are fit f

The Reflections of JFK’s Closest Advisor, Ted Sorensen (Interview)

by Robin Lindley

For the past four decades, Ted Sorensen has led a distinguished career in international law.  Despite his many achievements as an attorney, however, he is best known as the closest advisor to Pres. John F. Kennedy—and is seen by many commentators as the greatest American presidential speechwriter. 

Was the Doctor Convicted of Killing His Wife Guilty? A London Mystery Involving an American Adulterer

by Ronan Thomas

LONDON--‘Hilldrop Crescent is a quiet suburban place, although in the inner ring of the Metropolis, and reasoning specifically, it would be the last spot one would have dreamt of for the scene of a sordid murder’. Thus did the British newspaper The Islington Gazette for 15 July 1910 describe the location of one of Edwardian London’s most notorious crimes; the poison murder by Michigan-born Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen of his German-American wife Cora at number 39 Hilldrop Crescent,

60 Years After Truman Beat Dewey: The Man From Missouri v. The Gangbuster

by Mark Weisenmiller

As Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona slog through the hot summer months continuously campaigning, this is a good time to review the 1948 Presidential campaign. That particular election eventually provided the most surprising upset in U.S. Presidential election history. Vice President Truman became President Truman in April, 1945 after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Considering the numerous ways in which F.D.R. redefined the role of the Presidency, Truman, u

The First Bush Presidency: Made in China

by Jeffrey A. Engel

Recent calls for President George Bush to avoid the upcoming Beijing Olympics as a stand against China’s human rights record bring to mind that he is

Is the Pulitzer Prize Board Clueless?

by Markian Pelech

In December 2002, I started a correspondence with the Pulitzer prize board about the rogue in their gallery of excellence, Walter Duranty, the British-born reporter in Moscow for The New York Times between 1922 and 1934. His dispatches quickly degenerated into parroting of Soviet propaganda. In 1932, he won a Pulitzer prize for foreign correspondence for a series of 11 articles and two separate articles written in 1931. After receiving the prize, he denied the existence of th

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A Journalist on the History Beat

by Tony Horwitz

I wanted a way back to studying history, but lacked the temperament or skills set. All I knew how to do was catch planes to strange lands, improvise once I got there, and chat up people entirely unlike me. Gradually it occurred to me that I could apply this m.o. to history. By going to the places where history happened and reporting on what I saw and the memory-keepers I met. A journalist on the history beat.

The National Archives: Alone in a Clash of Cultures

by Maarja Krusten

An executive branch agency, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), staffs and administers the Presidential Libraries of Presidents from Herbert Hoover through Bill Clinton. Soon a George W. Bush Presidential Library will be added to that number.The Libraries have differing cultures and NARA's officials face many challenges. The National Archives' Inspector General expressed dismay when agency officials themselves tried to retrieve stolen Clinton Presidential documents fr

Why Historians Should Write Books Ordinary People Want to Read

by Jeremy Cameron Young

Ask any administrator or professor in the humanities what use their field is, and the amount of equivocation and soul-searching you'll receive in response will clue you into a little secret: this is a time of crisis for practitioners of the humanities.  Thanks to university budget cuts and conservative attacks on their fields, humanities scholars are increasingly forced to defend something many of them have in past taken for granted: the importance of their research to the modern experie

Why Is It So Hard to Get Documents from the National Archives About the National Archives?

by Anthony Clark

While researching my book on the history of presidential libraries, I discovered a shocking but perhaps not surprising situation: the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is improperly withholding its own records. Theoretically a non-partisan as well as non-political agency, NARA is at the center of some of the most controversial issues of our time, including government secrecy, executive privilege, and timely access to presidential records. Rather than abide by legislative req

Conservatives Are in Denial About Their History

by Allan J. Lichtman

My new book White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement places conservatism within the big picture of modern American

Was Dwindling US Army Manpower a Factor in the Atom Bombing of Hiroshima?

by D. M. Giangreco

The US Army had been grappling with the question of how to man its rapidly expanding force even before Pearl Harbor.   This was an increasingly critical, though largely unknown, problem throughout the war.   In the midst of a partial demobilization after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Army called together some of its sharpest minds to examine the deteriorating situation as it geared up for the planned invasions of Japan in 1945 and 1946.   One of those men was Dr.

Did Columbus and Cabot Begin as Partners?

by David Boyle

On August 6, 1497, almost precisely five years since Christopher Columbus had first set sail for the New World, his Venetian rival John Cabot navigated his tiny ship Matthew back up the River Avon to the

History Doyen: William Hardy McNeill

by Bonnie Goodman

What he's famous for.