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W. H. Auden, Humor, and the Politics of Today

by Walter G. Moss

Earlier this month New York Times columnist Paul Krugman posted a blog entry entitled “Soft Drinks, Sandwiches, and Kleptocrats.”  Almost all of it featured quotations from W.H. Auden’s long poem “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio” (1941-42), which Krugman thought were relevant to an earlier column he had written.  His quoting of Auden reminded me that the works of great writers seem to have lives as timeless as the figures on John

Still Fighting the Civil War in South Carolina

by Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts

Monday evening is shaping up to be quite a night in Charleston.  Confederate enthusiasts are throwing a grand ball there to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the state's secession from the Union.  Hundreds of people, many decked out in hoop skirts and militia uniforms, will drink mint juleps and dance the night away.  Jeff Antley, who has organized the Secession Gala, states that the event "has nothing to do with slavery."  He proposes that it is a comme

Zealous Moderates: Barack Obama and William Howard Taft

by Kenneth Weisbrode

Every season brings a new round of presidential analogies and comparisons.  Two years into his presidency, Barack Obama has already seen his share.  Supporters have compared him to Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy and even Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Opponents have latched on to Jimmy Carter and Woodrow Wilson. Obama himself has invoked Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush as important role models. But there's one president whose nam

Galileo and the Church

by John Heilbron

What Galileo believed about providence, miracles, and salvation, is hard to say.  It may not matter.  Throughout his life he functioned as the good Catholic he claimed to be, and he received many benefits from the church before and after the

China and Japan at War: A Primer

by Diana Lary

The Resistance War of 1937-45 was one of the greatest upheavals in Chinese history. It was a time of courage and sacrifice and a time of suffering and loss. Virtually the entire country was engulfed by war. All of C

Does the Commerce Clause Mean Health Care is Unconstitutional?

by Anders Walker

On December 13, 2010, U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson ruled that requiring citizens to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional.  Though two other f

The Military at a Crossroads Again

by Maria Höhn and Martin Klimke

The ongoing debate on the military’s “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy (DADT) brings to mind the debate on integrating the military some seventy years ago.  In many ways that debat

For God or for Fame? The Making of a Teenage Bomber

by Kambiz GhaneaBassiri

On November 26, Mohamed Mohamud was arrested for allegedly attempting to trigger a bomb at a crowded Christmas tree lighting ceremony in downtown Portland, Or

Remembering the Jewish Massacres in Mandate Palestine

by Edwin Black

As Israelis and Palestinians struggle with a twenty-first century peace process, the world must face the forgotten history that was so pivotal in determining the present crisis.  In many ways, a turning point was the

Channelling George Washington: The Presidency Imperiled?

by Thomas Fleming

“I haven’t been this upset in a century.”“What’s troubling you, Mr. President?”“The White House news that I—and millions of Americans—watched on TV and read about in the papers.  It’s prompted

Death, Taxes, and the American Founders

by Andrew M. Schocket

The proposed tax deal between President Obama and Congressional Republican leaders includes a revision of the federal estate (inheritance) tax.  At stake are issues as old as the nation:  individual property rights versus the democratic ethos, and the need for savings versus the need for resources for the common good.  For many of today's issues—such as Internet neutrality or nuclear disarmament—appealing to the founders seems clearly inappropriate.  But in t

What Did the Tories Want in the American Revolution?

by Thomas B. Allen

The grand story of the American Revolution forms the backdrop of today’s Tea Party, whose members tell us to look to our nation’s origin, when p

Slavery and Climate Change: Lessons to be Learned

by Jean-François Mouhot

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancunconcludes on Friday, December 10, history can teach us a few things about the surest and quickest way to achieve progress in tackling global warming.  In an interview last year about the previous UN summit, NASA's Jim Hansen suggested that only radical change would work, and that it would be better for the planet if the conference ended in collapse, rather than a flawed deal.  Hansen claimed that dealing with clima

WikiLeaks “Speaking and Writing the Truth”

by Alan Singer

Congressman Peter King (R-New York), the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Homeland Security committee, has called the release of classified government documents by the website WikiLeaks "extremely damaging to U.S. interests" and is demanding that the attorney general prosecute WikiLeaks and its founder for violating the Espionage Act.  He also wants Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to brand WikiLeaks, whose founder is an Australian citizen, a foreign terr

The American Revolution Does Not Loom Large in the British Imagination

by Robert J. Allison

In the great sweep of British history, the rebellion of the American colonies did not cause severe damage. After the thirteen American colonies became independent, the British Empire experienced its greatest triumphs—defeating Napoleon, absorbing

Reading Other People's Mail with Wikileaks

by Lloyd C. Gardner

In 1929, Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson shut down an ongoing code-breaking operation saying, “Gentlemen do not read each other’s mail.”  Stimson has come

The Texas Past and the National Future

by John Willingham

This fading year has provided even more evidence that many Texans remain loyal to the defiance and extreme individualism that have characterized much of the state’s past.  But the year has also witnessed a convergence of Texas attitudes with those of angry people across the nation.The year 2010 gave not only the state but all of America the “history wars” of the Texas State Board of Education.  That running gunfight between moderates and social conservatives gained the attention

Channelling George Washington: The Polarization Problem

by Thomas Fleming

“Polarization, polarization!  That’s all I hear coming out of my namesake town.  If it gets any worse, I’ll start thinking everyone in Congress is planning to become Arctic or Antarctic explorers!”“

WikiLeaks Reveals a Professionalism of Recent Vintage in the History of American Diplomacy

by Stephen Chambers

The leak of a quarter million State Department dispatches has, curiously, revealed the high level of professionalism in the United States diplomatic corps.  Though embarrassing to American diplomats, the cables are valuable precisely because are filled with astute, well-informed assessments of world leaders and geopolitics.  Yet, a qualified diplomatic corps did not always exist in the United States. For the first century of U.S. history, the consular service wa

Students Need to Stop Trying to 'Catch' Experts

by Margaret MacMillan

Do you remember when you were in school and wanted to aspire to a gold star on an assignment?  In my days that meant cutting pretty pictures out of NationalGeographic, tracing a map, or ge