Recently Published

Building the Erie Canal Was Messy: It's Worth Remembering That!

by Gerard Koeppel

The iconic Erie Canal is one of those pieces of Americana that exists today largely in the imagination. The Brooklyn Bridge, which joined Manhattan and Brooklyn in 1885, or the Panama Canal, which joined the

What's Wrong with the New History: An Interview with David Kaiser

by Mark Dragoni

This interview was prompted by a discussion on H-Diplo about the decline of diplomatic history. Professor Kaiser, a professor of strategy and policy at the Naval War College, blogs at History Unfolding. His latest book is

The Ongoing Danger of Nuclear War

by Lawrence S. Wittner

This August, when hundreds of Hiroshima Day vigils and related antinuclear activities occur around the United States, many Americans will wonder at their relevance.  After all, the nuclear danger that characterized the Cold War is now far behind us, isn't it?Unfortunately, it is not.  Today there are nine nu

Of Butterflies and Tipping Points: The Calamitous Summer of 1914

by William J. Astore

In chaos theory, the flapping of a butterfly’s wings off the coast of South America creates a minor disturbance which, propagating non-linearly and increasing in intensity, leads to a killer hurricane that devastates the east coast of the United States.  Large results can stem from small, even seemingly inconsequential, causes, especially in complex and unstable systems.  The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist 95 years ago this June was the butterf

The Limits of Power: An Interview with Andrew Bacevich

by Aaron Leonard

In 2008 Boston University historian Andrew Bacevich released, The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. In the book he pulls no punches--presenting a stark assessment of t

War Stories: Explaining Why We Fight to the American Home Front

by Susan A. Brewer

President Barack Obama confronts a formidable task as he tries to explain the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan to the American people. Not only does he contend with the troubled legacy of past policies, but he also inherits a long tradition of government

The Belief in Regenerative War: Why So Many American Intellectuals Supported the Iraq War

by Jackson Lears

One of the peculiarities of modern war is the fascination it holds for intellectuals. Since the 1890s, in the United States as in Europe, the loudest

History Offers Hope that We Can Reduce the Risk of Global Warming

by Jan Kunnas

While still writing on my doctoral thesis, I received as a comment on an early version from a professor in my university, “that few people today believe in history as the vita magistra.” At first this statement shocked me, but later on it turned into a great inspiration for further thought. The first question arising was, that if we do not believe that we can learn from history, then what is the justification of the whole academic discipline history. If it is just for our own fun, is

The Continuing Relevance of William Penn

by Kevin Kenny

William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1682 as a “holy experiment,” a place where European colonists of all religious backgrounds could li

Why the Left Needs to Read Up on Reinhold Niebuhr

by Mac McCorkle

President Obama’s honeymoon with the liberal-left appears to be ending as his efforts on behalf of health care, financial, and other reform grow more ideologically questionable. But before a divorce happens, both parties need counsel from one of the President’s favorite political philosophers – Reinhold Niebuhr.When declaring his intellectual attraction to Niebuhr in 2007, candidate Obama clearly grasped the deceased theologian’s caution against undue optimism a

What's Been Missing from Obama's Response to the Arrest of Henry Louis Gates

by Arica L. Coleman

When the presidential election campaign began two and a half years ago I was a Hillary Clinton supporter. I supported Clinton not so much because she was a woman or that I believed she was the best candidate. I supported her because I believed the hype that she had the democratic nomination in the bag. I always believed The United States of America would have a white female president before it had a Black male president (a Black female president may have to wait until the next century) and so

A Chance for Real Democracy in Honduras

by Kevin Coleman

Honduras is changing. In 1981, Ronald Reagan imposed democracy from the outside, yielding a constitution that minimized the participation of the citizenry in the decisions of their government and a process that repressed and decapitated the social movements—led by workers, peasants, and students—who sought to have their voices heard. Nearly three decades later, as President Manuel Zelaya made marginal steps toward reform, by raising the minimum wage from about $0.50/hour to about $1.

Historians' Muted Response to the Vassiliev Papers Is Surprising

by Steve Usdin

The recent public release, in defiance of the Russian government, of 1,115 pages of notes from the KGB archives has received a surprisingly muted response from historians. The notes, taken by Ale

The Midwestern Voice in American Historical Writing

by David Brown

It began in California. Nine summers ago, I flew to the Bay area for research on a biography I was writing of Richard Hofstadter. Not until a fe

Pitfalls with the Nixon Tapes and How to Avoid Them

by Richard A. Moss

On July 20, 2009, Secrecy Newsreported that the Office of the Historian at the U.S. State Department had quietly revised the preface to latest volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States to be published, an electronic-only volume on

Bowling, Basketball, BCS, Baseball, and Birdies: Obama’s Use of Sport to Connect

by Russ Crawford

President Barack Obama threw out the first pitch at Major League Baseball’s All Star Game after flying to the game accompanied by Hall of Famer Willie Mays, and visiting the players in the clubhouse before the game.  He also appeared, along with forme

Who’s Afraid of I.F. Stone?

by D.D. Guttenplan

Response to this article by the Wilson CenterD.D. Guttenplan's Response to the Wilson Center<

A Progressive Era Legacy We Could Do Without

by Francis S. Barry

The historic election of 2008, and the spectacular collapse of the financial industry that preceded it, has brought talk of a new Progressive era, with reformers taking on moneyed interests and re-energizin

What Passes for "Populism" These Days Is Laughable

by Charles Postel

The news media has discovered a “resurgence of American populism” in the wake of the financial meltdown.” Read a newspaper, open a magazine, turn

A Coup is Not a Coup. A Not-Coup is a Coup.

by Kevin Coleman

On Sunday June 28th, the Honduran military kidnapped their president, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya, and flew him to Costa Rica in his pajamas. In doing so, the military enforced an unconstitutional and undemocratic transfer of power from the Honduran left to the right. The international community immediately and unanimously condemned the coup d'état. Meanwhile, there is ongoing censorship of the press and several laws protecting Hondurans’ basic civil liberties have been indefini