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The “Birther” Controversy of 1891

by Thomas Brown

The manufactured controversy over President Obama’s place of birth has occasioned an excess of media rumination. Commenters speculate that Obama’s “Birther” opponents must be racist in their public disbelief of his citizenship. But it’s just politics as usual, and it’s not even new. American political history is rife with “Birther”-like attacks—and yes, they do often revolve around race. The Birther controversy with the biggest his

Obama on Race: Process over Product

by Yossef Ben-Meir

What was revealed about President Barack Obama’s outlook on racial issues as he dealt with the controversy over the arrest of Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.? Interestingly, the principle view shown by the President was also highlighted by his Attorney General in a controversial speech he gave last February commemorating African American History Month. After making unintentional remarks about the arrest of Professor Gates in his home by Sergeant James Crowley of the C

Why Sotomayor Shouldn't Have to Apologize for Being Proud of Her Ancestry

by Nicholas Dagen Bloom

White America is touchy about minority “racism” these days. Leading national figures such as First Lady Michelle Obama and Judge Sonia Sotoma

The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome and the Future of Housing

by John F. Wasik

How did the U.S. succumb to one of the most devastating housing recessions since the 1930s? Was it as simple as saying that everyone from mortgage brokers

Why the Left Needs to Read Up on Reinhold Niebuhr

by Mac McCorkle

President Obama’s honeymoon with the liberal-left appears to be ending as his efforts on behalf of health care, financial, and other reform grow more ideologically questionable. But before a divorce happens, both parties need counsel from one of the President’s favorite political philosophers – Reinhold Niebuhr.When declaring his intellectual attraction to Niebuhr in 2007, candidate Obama clearly grasped the deceased theologian’s caution against undue optimism a

What's Been Missing from Obama's Response to the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates

by Arica L. Coleman

When the presidential election campaign began two and a half years ago I was a Hillary Clinton supporter. I supported Clinton not so much because she was a woman or that I believed she was the best candidate. I supported her because I believed the hype that she had the democratic nomination in the bag. I always believed The United States of America would have a white female president before it had a Black male president (a Black female president may have to wait until the next century) and so

Bowling, Basketball, BCS, Baseball, and Birdies: Obama’s Use of Sport to Connect

by Russ Crawford

President Barack Obama threw out the first pitch at Major League Baseball’s All Star Game after flying to the game accompanied by Hall of Famer Willie Mays, and visiting the players in the clubhouse before the game.  He also appeared, along with forme

A Progressive Era Legacy We Could Do Without

by Francis S. Barry

The historic election of 2008, and the spectacular collapse of the financial industry that preceded it, has brought talk of a new Progressive era, with reformers taking on moneyed interests and re-energizin

What Passes for "Populism" These Days Is Laughable

by Charles Postel

The news media has discovered a “resurgence of American populism” in the wake of the financial meltdown.” Read a newspaper, open a magazine, turn

The Dangers of Excessive Secrecy

by Kathryn Olmsted

President Barack Obama has made some laudable gestures towards reform and transparency, but he has proved unwilling to make meaningful changes in the oversight, accountability, and prerogatives of the secret agenci

The Tea Party’s Appeal Across the Political Spectrum

by Benjamin L. Carp

            Woden Teachout’s HNN article, “The Tea Party in Politics: Why the Event in Boston Harbor Keeps on Appealing to Conservatives,” raises some excellent points about the changing uses of American history, the powerful deployment of history in social movements, and the ways in which politicians can manipulate poorly understood memories of the American past.  At the

Are We Always Going to Be Preoccupied with Racism?

by William McKee Evans

        Has the election of Barack Obama put to rest the debate of historians about race in America?  Especially, whether they think race will continue indefinitely to divide

Why Jimmy Carter's Malaise Speech Is More Relevant than Ever

by Kevin Mattson

Thirty years ago, on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter went on national television and gave a shocking speech.  He looked straight at the American people and said: “Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgenc

Empathy in a Justice? You Bet.

by Joel K. Goldstein

We can expect to hear a lot about empathy when Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nomination to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court, appears before the Senate judiciary committee. Obama raised the subject when he identified "that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes." Conservatives immediately began taking pot shots at the idea of an empathetic judg

Lincoln and Obama: Parallel Paths to Power

by John C. Waugh

Barack Obama evoked the Lincoln paradigm often after he became president-elect. He appeared to be going to the presidency in Lincoln’s way, following Lincol

The Bureau of Missing Pols: Reflections on the Ever-So Mysterious Road Trips of Mark, Dick & Harry

by David Pietrusza

It’s a long way from Columbia, South Carolina to Buenos Aires, South America, though it is no doubt an immensely longer and harder journey for Governor Mark Sanford to retrace his steps to national respecta

Signing Statements: Is Obama Following in Bush's Steps?

by Nick Underwood

President Obama has recently surprised some by issuing a few signing statements that very closely resemble President Bush’s highly criticized use of this presidential mechanism.  In his second signing statement President Obama objected to several points in a bill. But instead of vetoing it and sending it back to Congress, he signed it and indicated how he intended to interpret the bill.  Because the presidential signing statement caused such a fierce public debate while Presiden

The Last Integrationist: A Note on Michael Jackson

by Jim Cullen

As we all know, Michael Jackson has and will be remembered in many ways: pop star, freak, business mogul, et. al. What I fear, amid all all the grief, cacophony, and distaste of these and coming days, is that we will lose sight of the truth that he was, whatever else he might have been, a great artist. Like his predecessor, Elvis Presley, Jackson was a distillation -- and extension -- of all that had come before him, in his particular case a tradition that runs from ring shouts to James Brown.

The Tea Party in Politics: Why the Event in Boston Harbor Keeps on Appealing to Conservatives

by Woden Teachout

With the Fourth of July, the Tea Parties are out in force again.  Begun in February by a Seattle blogger and introduced on national television b

What Cap and Trade Programs Are Really About

by Hugh Gorman

Is a “cap and trade” system for managing U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide likely to be as successful as the sulfur dioxide “cap and trade” program established by the Clean Ai