Roundup: Historians' Take

Timothy Garton Ash: Norway's Many Lessons

[Timothy Garton Ash, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of European studies at Oxford University.] "Equal pay now! Equal pay now!" The chant echoed up to my hotel window in Oslo, as strikers and their supporters marched past the Norwegian parliament. How could this be? Are there strikes even in paradise? By most comparative measures, Norway is something close to a paradise on Earth. It is one of the wor

William Astore: Doubling Down in Afghanistan

[William Astore (wjastore@gmail.com) is a TomDispatch regular. A retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), he taught at the USAF Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School and currently teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology.] As Congress moves toward rubber-stamping yet another “emergency” supplemental bill that includes more than $33 billion for milit

Burt Folsom: Don’t Copy Europe

[Burt Folsom is professor of history at Hillsdale College.] In 1850, the U. S. was a second-rate power. We were way behind Britain in steel, railroads, and textiles. In fact, it was 1848 before we finished building our first large railroad with American-made rails. Before that we just imported most of our rails from Britain. In the area of science and chemicals, the Germans were the leaders. They invented or perfected many chemical products in the late 1800s and early 1900s, includi

Thomas Barfield: Yes, Afghanistan is Medieval

[Thomas Barfield is a professor of anthropology at Boston University and author of Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History, released in April.] In July 1973, Afghanistan's King Mohammed Zahir Shah was overthrown by his cousin Daud, who then abolished the monarchy and declared himself the president of a republic. The New York Times sarcastically editorialized that Afghanistan had just "leaped into the sixteenth century." Radio reports soon brought news of this slight

Paul Ortiz: Arizona's New Laws: An Attempt to Secure Cheap Labor?

[Paul Ortiz is an associate professor of history at the University of Florida. He is writing a book titled"Our Separate Struggles Are Really One: African American and Latino Histories," that will be published by Beacon Press.]Why are there 40 million poor people in America? When you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic eco

Shelomo Alfassa: Beware the Cordoba Initiative

[Shelomo Alfassa is the former US director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries and a scholar of Judaic life in Islamic Spain. He lives in New York.] The world should know that the ‘Cordoba Initiative,’ the New York City based organization desiring to construct a massive Islamic house of prayer at ‘Ground Zero,’ has posted on its website, a peculiar and disingenuous statement indicating the desire to bring back the atmosphere of, “interfaith tolerance and respect that we have lon

Joseph A. Palermo: Glenn Beck Riffs on My Article

[Mr. Palermo is Associate Professor of American History at CSU, Sacramento. He's the author of two books on Robert F. Kennedy: In His Own Right (2001) and RFK (2008).] All in all, I think Glenn Beck’s riff on my article was far more measured than I would have expected. Compared to the ad hominem attacks I’ve endured from many of Beck’s followers in the comments sections of various blogs, Beck himself was comparably very civil and fair. A former student had emailed me saying he saw B

Richard Sylla: The U.S. Banking System: Origin, Development, and Regulation

[Richard Sylla is Henry Kaufman Professor of the History of Financial Institutions and Markets, and Professor of Economics at New York University, a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Chairman of the board of the Museum of American Finance.] Banks are among the oldest businesses in American history—the Bank of New York, for example, was founded in 1784, and as the recently renamed Bank of New York Mellon it had its 225th anniversary in 2009. The ban

Roger E. A. Farmer: Economic Policy Through the Lens of History

[Roger E. A. Farmer is Distinguished Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of California Los Angeles. He is the author of two new books on the current global economic crisis. How the Economy Works: Confidence, Crashes and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, is written for the general reader and specialist alike, and Expectations, Employment and Prices is written for academics and practicing economists. Both books are published with Oxford University Press.]

Ron Radosh: The Flotilla Crisis and Israel’s Would-Be Friends

[Ron Radosh is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at The Hudson Institute, and a Prof. Emeritus of History at the City University of New York's Queensborough Community College] The truth about Israel and the terrorist flotilla is now apparent for anyone who wants to see. The problem, however, is the one various people, like Max Boot, have alluded to. Israel, by the way it dealt with the problem, handed Hamas and its opponents a major propaganda victory. Daniel Pipes makes much the same poin

Victor Davis Hanson: The Turkish Government as Global Arbiter of Ethnic Violence

[Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and editor, most recently, of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome.] The virulent worldwide reaction to Israeli’s handling of the Gaza flotilla has been quite instructive. The bankrupt Greeks, for example, are taking a holiday from railing at the Germans to demonstrate in solidarity with the Turkish-organized Gaza effort, which puts them on the same sid

Mark LeVine: Israel's 'Friends' Also to Blame

[Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Center 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).] Perhaps now Americans will understand the true nature of the Israeli occupation. It has never been about security. Not for one day. It has been about land and power. And this is where it has led. A

Nicolaus Mills: Conservative Split with the Tea Party

[Nicolaus Mills is professor of American studies at Sarah Lawrence College and co-editor with Michael Walzer of Getting Out: Historical Perspectives on Leaving Iraq.] In recent weeks nobody has been more critical of the Tea Party’s favorite new politician, Rand Paul, the Republican Senate candidate from Kentucky, than New York Times conservative op-ed columnist, Ross Douthat. In his May 24 column, “The Principles of Rand Paul,” Douthat delivered a blistering attack on P

Tom Engelhardt: Living in a State of Denial

[Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. He is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. His new book, The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s (Haymarket Books), will be published in June.]Graduates of the class of 2010, I’m honored to have been asked to address you today, but I would not want to be you.

Julian Zelizer: The Legacy of 'Drill, Baby, Drill'

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. His new book is "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.] The impact of the oil spill in the Gulf Coast is starting to be made vivid by the steady flow of still images and video that capture this catastrophe. For example, Phillippe Cousteau, the grandson of

Alan Brinkley: When Washington Took On Wall Street

[Alan Brinkley is the Allan Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University.] J.P. Morgan Jr. was terrified. He was the most famous and arguably the most powerful banker in the United States, and also among the most secretive. But in May 1933, in the aftermath of the greatest financial crisis in the history of the United States, he was being called to testify before the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency to explain how the catastrophe had occurred. Morgan dreaded the prospe

Juan Cole: Israeli Attack on the High Seas

[Mr. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. His website is http://www.juancole.com.] Wire services are reporting that Israeli commandos killed as many as 16 peace activists and wounded over 50 others as they boarded and commandeered the six ships of the Gaza aid flotilla. Among the ships boarded, on which Israeli troops killed aid activists, was a Turkish vessel, the Marmara, on which th

Jonathan Zimmerman: The Truth About 'Nam

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches education and history at New York University. He is the author, most recently, of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory."] At a Memorial Day parade in Milford, Conn., three years ago, Richard Blumenthal re called his return from the war in Vietnam: "We had to endure taunts and insults, and no one said, 'Welcome home,' " the Connecticut attorney general told crowd, which included relatives of a soldier killed i

Allen C. Guelzo: Don't Let the USS Olympia Sink from Memory

[Allen C. Guelzo is the Henry R. Luce professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College, and the author of “Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President.”] The USS Olympia was best known for serving as the flagship for Commodore George Dewey and the little squadron of warships that resoundingly defeated the Spanish Navy at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898.... Philadelphia has been Olympia’s home since she was decommissioned in 1922, the year after she brought home the body of

Andrew J. Bacevich: Memorial Day, for a Father Whose Son was Killed in Iraq

[Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University. His new book, "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War," will be out this summer.] Where I grew up in the Midwest during the 1950s and early '60s, Memorial Day was no more about remembering the nation's war dead than Labor Day was about honoring working stiffs. It was a "free day." Falling on a Monday, Memorial Day made possible that great innovation, "t