Roundup: Historians' Take

Walter Russell Mead: The Next American Upgrade

[Walter Russell Mead is Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. He blogs at The-American-Interest.com.] Social reform, asserted Confucius, begins with the rectification of names. I can think of one case where he’s unquestionably right: the use of the word ‘developed’ as applied to certain wealthy and industrialized countries mostly found in western Europ

Robert Kapp: How Hu and Obama Can Cleanse Toxic U.S.-China Relations

[Robert Kapp, former president of the US-China Business Council, heads Robert A. Kapp & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm. He taught Chinese history at Rice University and the University of Washington.] Heads of foreign government flow through Washington like water, often with little public notice outside the Beltway. Photos of President Obama with President Nicolas Sarkozy or Prime Minister Angela Merkel might not make the nation’s front pages. A visit by China’s

Julian E. Zelizer: Can Boehner's GOP Deliver on Promises?

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter," published by Times Books, and editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration, published by Princeton University Press.] Following a traumatic week for the nation in the wake of the Arizona shootings, Congress will get back to business this week. As House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's spokesperson announced, "It is im

Mark LeVine: Tunisia: How the U.S. Got It Wrong

[Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. His most recent books are Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).] One sign read "Game Over". But in fact, the game has barely started. The Facebook generation has taken to the streets and the "Jasmin Revolt" has become a revolution, at least a

Charles L. Zelden and R.B. Bernstein: Amendment Politics: How to Look Like a Statesman

[Charles L. Zelden, professor of History at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, is author of "Bush v Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis of American Democracy." R.B. Bernstein, distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School, is the author of "The Founding Fathers Reconsidered" and "Amending America."] Those who call themselves "constitutional conservatives" have odd ideas about what treating the Constitution conservati

Saul Cornell: What the "Right to Bear Arms" Really Means

[Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University, is the author of "A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America."] The public debate over gun policy has fallen into a somewhat predictable pattern. A tragic shooting -- like Jared Loughner's rampage in Tucson, Ariz., a week ago -- prompts outrage from across the political spectrum. After an immediate cathartic and emotional response, the t

Timothy Garton Ash: Look It Up: Wikipedia is Turning 10

[Timothy Garton Ash, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of European studies at Oxford University.] Wikipedia is 10 years old Saturday. It is the fifth-most-visited site on the Internet. About 400 million people use it every month. What is extraordinary about this free encyclopedia, which contains more than 17 million articles in more than 270 languages, is that it is written, edited and self-regulated almost enti

Mark Feldstein: A Half-Century of Political Dirty Tricks

[Mark Feldstein, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, is the author of "Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture."] It began in the fall of 1960, when the Kennedy campaign spread word that Vice President Nixon had secretly pocketed money from billionaire Howard Hughes, whose far-flung business empire was heavily dependent on government contracts and connections. Reporters for the St.

Jonathan Zimmerman: What 'Blood Libel' Really Means

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of “Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory.”] In 1255, an 8-year-old boy named Hugh was found dead at the bottom of a well in Lincoln, England. Rumors spread across the village, and soon everyone knew who had done it: the Jews.... And that, my fellow Americans, was a real “blood libel.” Not the kind invoked by Sarah Palin, who needs a little history lesson

Nicole Hemmer: Search for Renewal After Tucson Tragedy: What Palin Missed, What Obama Got Right

[Nicole Hemmer is a historian of American politics and media. She currently lectures at Manchester College, Indiana.] There are few areas liberals and conservatives see eye to eye when it comes to Barack Obama. But both supporters and detractors agree: The president gives a good speech.... In calling on Americans to better themselves and the nation, Obama joined a long line of national leaders who turned moments of tragedy into opportunities for renewal. In 1863, as he

Gil Troy: America's Search for Civility

[Gil Troy teaches history at McGill University. He is the author of Leading from the Centre: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents.] The tragic Arizona rampage that critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six citizens, including 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who wanted to see "how our government works," has triggered the predictable recitations about America's long history of political violence -without any evidence that this was a political cr

Garry Wills: Obama’s Finest Hour

[Garry Wills is Professor of History Emeritus at Northwestern. His latest book, Outside Looking In: Adventures of an Observer, was published in October 2010. October.] During the 2008 presidential campaign, I wrote a comparison of Barack Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race with Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union address during his own 1860 campaign. I noted that both men had to separate themselves from embarrassing associations—Lincoln from John Brown’s violent abolitionism, and

Juan Cole: Palin Borrows ‘Blood Libel’ from Israeli Far Right

[Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, maintains the blog Informed Comment. His most recent book, just out in paperback, is “Engaging the Muslim World.”] Sarah Palin in her response to the controversy over her violent political imagery

Victor Davis Hanson: The Tab Comes Due in 2011

[Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.] Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and both the elder and the younger George Bush all found the third and fourth years of their presidencies harder than the first and second. The nation and the world grew tired of their speechmaking. The novelty of a new commander-in-chief faded; poll numbers went s

Conrad Black: Tucson and the Failure of the Political Class

[Conrad Black is the author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom and Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full.] A very mild-mannered and civilized friend remarked to me today that if he encountered anyone else on the Fifth and Park Avenue social circuit who blamed the Tucson shootings on the Tea Party, he would resort to violence. The stampede to blame this terrible incident on a political movement that appears to represent more people than the traditional Republican and Democr

Allen C. Guelzo: Climate of Hate

[Allen C. Guelzo is Henry R. Luce III professor of the Civil War era, director of Civil War Era Studies, and associate director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College.] Once the shock of the Giffords assassination attempt had worn off, the next-most-amazing thing we beheld was the unembarrassed gloating with which the American Left, in its many forms, pointed a pompous and hysterical finger at “the Tea Party” or “the Right” or “talk-show hosts” (although the accusers clear

Joanne B. Freeman: When Congress Was Armed And Dangerous

[Joanne B. Freeman, a professor of history at Yale, is at work on a book about violence in Congress.] THE announcement that Representatives Heath Shuler of North Carolina and Jason Chaffetz of Utah are planning to wear guns in their home districts has surprised many, but in fact the United States has had armed congressmen before. In the rough-and-tumble Congress of the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s, politicians regularly wore weapons on the House and Senate floors, and sometimes used them.

Kathryn Olmsted: A Very American Conspiracy Theory

[Kathryn Olmsted is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and the author of Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy, World War I to 9/11.] Whether or not Jared Loughner is mentally ill, it's clear that his shooting rampage last weekend, which took six lives and critically injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, was motivated, at least in part, by his conspiratorial views of the U.S. government. According to his friends, he believed that Washington

Jon Wiener: Professors with Guns: The Arizona Plan

[Jon Wiener teaches US history at UC Irvine. His most recent book is Historians in Trouble.] The Arizona legislature is considering a proposal to authorize the carrying of weapons on campus by faculty members. The idea is simple -- in case of trouble in the classroom, somebody needs to be able to blast away at problem students. But the question arises, should all faculty members be armed? Adjuncts, for example --part-timers, "freeway fliers," paid by the cour

Julian E. Zelizer: Extremism is a Vice, Not a Virtue

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter," published by Times Books, and editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration, published by Princeton University Press.] Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- The mass shooting in Arizona has raised a political challenge for the Republican Party. Party leaders have spent the last few days rebutting charges from liberals that extr