Roundup: Talking About History

Heraldo Muñoz: Chile's 9/11 ... and the legacy of Gen. Pinochet

[Heraldo Muñoz, a dissident during the Pinochet era, is Chile's ambassador to the United Nations and the author of "The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet."] Thirty-five years ago today on a different 9/11, army Gen. Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected government of Socialist President Salvador Allende in Chile. Since that day, two issues have continued to generate contention: Should Pinochet be remembered merely as a tyrant who became an inte

Josh Green: China ... the pickled dictator tour

We paid our driver and hurried out of the cab that brought us to Tiananmen Square, determined to fight the crowds surrounding a large, beige building dominating the middle of the famous public space. The evening before, my girlfriend and I had resolved that this particular site was a must-see. "We have to do it," she said, poring over a travel book. "We have to see Pickled Mao." Why else would one travel to the East if not to see the preserved body o

David Ansen: Ronald Reagan made forgettable films, but Hollywood prepped him for the political stage

As Marc Eliot points out in his biography "Reagan: The Hollywood Years," the actor who became president gave short shrift to his Hollywood career in both his memoirs—and when he did mention it, he wasn't always upfront with the facts. Major biographies about Reagan similarly have averted their gaze from his 54 films, most of them forgotten B-movies he made under contract at Warner Bros. Eliot's book intends to be a corrective. "To fully understand Reagan the man," he writes,

Paul Harvey: Religion and Politics in US Elections ... A Short History

[Mr. Harvey is a Professor of History, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.] As an historian, whenever I ask students about why we are supposed to study history, they always repeat some variant of the standard cliche, "we have to learn the mistakes of the past or else we are doomed to repeat them." I like to respond with my own counter-cliche, "Yes, maybe, but after learning from past mistakes we'll just go on to invent new ones." More seriously, I find th

Paul Evans: Songs of freedom

[Paul Evans is a freelance journalist, and formerly worked for an MP.] When Valery Gergiev conducted Shostakovich amidst Tskhinvali's blasted concrete, he sought to present a humanitarian Russia, one that had brought safety and civilisation to South Ossetia. Those with long memories will recall that Shostakovich was not always so favoured by his homeland. In the wake of the Zhdanov Doctrine, works such as his Eighth Symphony were officially shunned for failing to convey

Paul Vallely: The Big Question ... Was Cromwell a revolutionary hero or a genocidal war criminal?

[Paul Vallely is associate editor of The Independent where he writes about ethical, cultural and political issues.] Why are we asking this now? The 350th anniversary of Oliver Cromwell's death yesterday was marked by the publication of a new book which suggests that the Lord Protector's reputation should be reassessed in the light of two massacres he conducted in Ireland. The slaughter at Drogheda and Wexford in 1649 rank among the greatest atrocities in Anglo-Irish hi

Jill Kamil: The threat pigeons pose to the Sphinx

While the SCA secretary-general was being interviewed for"Guardian's Spotlight" in July 2008, pigeons were seen pecking away at the eyes and ear cavities of the Sphinx and their droppings were splattered on the stone. The secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities had much to tell his interviewer on"Spotlight". Zahi Hawass waxed lyrical about"exciting things" that have been happening in the field of archaeology -- the discovery of a new tomb of a queen at Saqqara that ha

Recollections from Republicans on past conventions and vice-president selection process

Dan in Real Life By Craig Fuller And the Party Blinked By Bay Buchanan Reagan's Midnight Ride By Edwin J. Meese III The Quiet Man By Victoria Clarke

Allan J. Lichtman: How will Cheney go down in history?

[Allan J. Lichtman is a history professor at American University in Washington. His most recent books are "The Keys to the White House" and "White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement."] Since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the vice presidency has not been a purely ceremonial position (ironically, it was FDR's vice president, John Nance Garner, who said that the office "wasn't worth a warm bucket of spit"). Garner was im

Gavan McCormack: Korea at 60

[Gavan McCormack is a coordinator of Japan Focus and author of Client State: Japan in the American Embrace (New York, Verso, 2007, with Japanese, Chinese and Korean editions in press). He wrote this article for the Korean vernacular newspaper, Kyunghyang sinmun. Posted at Kyunghyang sinmun and at Japan Focus on September 2, 2008.]The Republic of Korea has turned 60. Birthdays are a time for looking back over the past as well as for planning the future. The sad truth, however, is that

Amy Zegart: The Legend of a Democracy Promoter

[Amy Zegart is an associate professor at UCLA’s School of Public Affairs. She is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, as well as a fellow at UCLA's Burkle Center for International Relations.] IT’S LEGACY time. As the Bush administration winds down, the race is on to shape how future generations will view the past eight years. The president himself seems keenly aware of the clock, declaring his intention to grab that most elusive brass ring, peace in

Isabella Ginor and Gideon Remez: New evidence of the USSR involvement in the Six Day War

[Dr. Isabella Ginor came to Israel from the USSR in 1967. She was a specialist on Soviet and post-Soviet affairs for Haaretz and other media, and a research fellow of the Hebrew University's Truman Institute. Gideon Remez, a historian by training, was a journalist with Israel Radio for almost 40 years, most of them as head of the Foreign News Desk.]Abstract: The authors continue their analysis of Soviet involvement in the 1967 War with a discussion of new evidence and a response to critici

Rupert Cornwell: Have we misunderestimated George W Bush?

[Rupert Cornwell has written articles published in The Independent.] History can throw up some improbable villains. Take, for example, Bud Selig. It can be argued that America's, and the world's, woes would now be less had Selig, owner of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team, in 1992 appointed George Bush, then the managing partner of the Texas Rangers franchise, to the vacant post of commissioner of baseball. But Selig, at the time acting commissioner, took the job himself. Bush, in

Peter Baker: Bush's role in history

... George Bush does not want anyone feeling bad for him. Hates the idea, in fact. Why should anyone feel bad for him? He knew what he was getting into, and he is doing what he thinks is right. But as he enters the twilight of his presidency, he finds it both a liberating and a deeply frustrating time. With the war in Iraq finally going better, the dark cloud that dominated the White House for the past few years has lifted. The overnight reports Bush finds on his Oval Office desk ea

Frank Gannon: Finally getting to know Nixon

[Mr. Gannon was a special assistant to President Nixon and the chief editorial assistant for "RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon" (1978).] On Aug. 8, 1974, the night Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Henry Kissinger assured him that history would judge him to be one of America's great presidents. "That depends, Henry," Nixon replied, "on who writes the history." Rick Perlstein, the author of the recent "Nixonland" -- an 896-pag

George McGovern: How he picked his veep

When I arrived in Miami on the Sunday before the Democratic convention in 1972, I had yet to select a running mate. I had already asked Ed Muskie, the senator from Maine, and Hubert Humphrey, the 1968 nominee and my longtime friend, if they would be on the ticket with me. Each had said no. So at the convention, I met with my staff in my hotel room on Thursday, the day after I was nominated. We had until 4 p.m. to find a vice-presidential nominee. My first pick that morn

Allan Massie: France Finally Forgets Vichy

[Allan Massie is a journalist.] The Fifth French Republic, the creation of General de Gaulle, is 50 years old. Of the many regimes since the Revolution of 1789 only the Third Republic (1871–1940) enjoyed a longer life. Nicolas Sarkozy is its sixth President, only four years older than the Republic itself, the first of its leaders to be free of the divisive wartime memories and the crisis that led to the collapse of the Fourth Republic and gave birth to the Fifth. This freedom repres

Robert Nedelkoff: Why are the Dems so silent about LBJ?

[Robert Nedelkoff, a resident of Silver Spring, MD, received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville and his Juris Doctor degree from Monterey College of Law in 1996. Since 1997, he has worked on behalf of the Richard Nixon Foundation at the National Archives in College Park, MD.] Tomorrow night, an African-American will receive the presidential nomination of one of America’s two major parties, for the first time in this nation’s history.It will be th

Alastair Harper: A popular history of history

[Alastair Harper is a freelance journalist.] Over the last couple of months there have been a spate of arguments about the state of today's history books. Popular history has, we are told, been dumbed down, rendered into porridgey pabulum for the lowest common denominator. Funnily enough, it's the popular historians that are complaining. Andrew Roberts has called for a regulatory authority (Ofhist, apparently) to cordon off the works of opinionated amateurs from genuine pieces of sc

Martin Gilbert: What Tolkien Taught Me about the Battle of the Somme

[Martin Gilbert’s book: “The Somme: the Heroism and Horror of War” is published in paperback by Holt, and is also available through his website: www.martingilbert.com.] J.R.R. Tolkien and the Somme were inextricably linked. I learned this forty-four years ago, shortly after I was elected to my first university appointment, at Merton College, Oxford. I was twenty-six years old.In those days there was a strict seating order at college dinne