Recently Published

The Marshmallow Center of American Politics in the 21st Century

by Rich Benjamin

   Despite stark philosophical differences, Democrats and Republicans are recognizing a bipartisan lesson: Injecting race into American politics is treacherous terrain. When Democrats all

The Civil Rights-Black Power Nexus in African American History

by Kwasi Konadu

When I was a graduate student at Cornell University, I became fascinated but equally frustrated by the Civil Rights-Black Power movement nexus in North American historiography. 

Is Health Care a Human Right?

by Walter G. Moss

In a presidential debate in October 2008, moderator Tom Brokaw asked, “Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?” When Barack Obama answered, “I think it should be a right for every American,” he was following in the footsteps of three Roosevelts. When Theodore Roosevelt, the former Republican president, ran as the Progressive Party candidate in 1912, he ran on a platform that stated: "We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly

20 Years Later: The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Legacy of Erich Honecker

by Jonathan Tremblay

November 9th 2009 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and effectively the end of the Cold war and the reunification of Germany. As historians, bloggers and the mainstream media reconsider all aspects of this highly historical event, one of them

How the Arabs Manipulate the Media, Israelis and the West

by Alex Grobman

“One need not destroy one's enemy. One need only destroy his willingness to engage."

Reflections on Cambridge

by Alan MacFarlane

    Cambridge University is one of the oldest and greatest educational and research institutions in the world. Founded by teachers from Oxford University, who had fled the wrath of the townsmen of Oxford after a murder, or so it is believed, it celebrates its 800th

The Cost of Empire

by Deepak Tripathi

President Barack Obama is having a bad time. The health reforms he so confidently promised have been bogged down in Congress for months; his Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, said the other day that the pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay priso

The Role of Turkish Diplomats in Saving Turkish Jews in France: 1940-1944

by Arnold Reisman

During World War II, Turkish diplomats saved Turkish Jews living in France (many were French citizens others were holding Turkish passports) from c

Keeping Veterans Day Alive

by Ed Hooper

Veterans Day celebrations are in retrenchment all over the country.

Ahmed Wali Karzai Walks on Water While Marc Emery Goes to Prison: The Double Standards of the War on Drugs and the Historical Pattern of U.S. Complicity in the Global Narcotics Traffic

by Jeremy Kuzmarov

According to his numerous supporters and wikepedia page, Marc Emery is a peaceful and intelligent man who has accomplished much in his life as a libertarian activist working on behalf of a variety of causes. He was recently arre

A Day of Infamy: November 10, 1975

by Alex Grobman

Justice Richard Goldstone’s U.N. report charging Israel of “deliberate attacks” aga

The Appalling Decline of Literacy Among College Graduates

by William O'Neill

Everyone who cares about higher education in this country knows about the chronic under funding of public universities, which has been going on for at least 25 years but has now reached crisis levels owing to the curren

How Ike Can Help Obama’s No Nukes Quest

by William Lambers

Just over half-way into his presidency, Barack Obama has already seen North Korea detonate a nuclear bomb and continue its missile testing. But Obama is not the first president to receive nuclear shocks so soon after taking office.

What Savvy Leaders Could Do to Move Toward a Nuclear-Free World (Obama--Are You Listening?)

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Addressing a U.N. Security Council Summit on September 24, 2009, President Barack Obama observed that the resolution unanimously adopted by the Security Council earlier that day "enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons."But the enthusiasm for this measure among the representative

Barack Obama in the Footsteps of James Meredith

by Frank Lambert

On September 26, 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama arrived on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford, Mississippi for his first debate with the Republican candidate Senator John McCain.  Many of

The Moderometer: Charting Obama's Zig-Zag, September 28 to October 12

by Gil Troy, with Theodoric Meyer

 This is part of an ongoing project to track the ideological shifts of t

Why We Fear General McChrystal's Counterinsurgency Plan May Be Doomed

by Joseph Magagnoli and Andrew Enterline

American Gen. Stanley McChrystal, recently appointed military commander of allied forces in Afghanistan, contends that absent a significant change in strategy, the outcome of the counterinsurgency war against the Taliban and associated groups will result in a military defeat.  The critical question before President Obama and the allied nations engaged in the war in Afghanistan is whether a failed counterinsurgency  can be corrected and military victory achieved. In addressing this ques

Weimar America

by Steve Hochstadt

Dangerous political movements have threatened the peace and structure of democratic society throughout recent American history. Violent hatred has motivated groups on the left and right extremes, and sometimes these movements have gained considerable local power. I found Maine to be a most tolerant and peaceful place when I lived there for 27 years, but I learned to my surprise how pervasive the influence of the Ku Klux Klan had been in Maine during the 1920s, when it had 150,000 members. The W

The Woman Who Attempted to Etch Herself into the History of the Cuban Revolution

by Katrina Gulliver

Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary leader and close comrade of Fidel Castro, disappeared on 28 October 1959. The small plane in which he was travelling from Camagüey to Havana did not arrive, and searches of the Cuban coast and the Florida everglades failed to locate a crash site. Speculation and conspiracy theories began almost immediately: that the plane had been shot down by accident, or that it never took off and the sto

Why It's Time to Write Wives into the Story of the Civil War

by Carol Berkin

Perhaps no subject captures the imagination of Americans as much as the Civil War. Every year, thousands of families make their pilgrimage to the battlefields on