Recently Published

The Shadow of Adlai Stevenson

by Nicholas Adell

Democrats, more than Republicans it seems, have always had a penchant for their "lovable losers;" those candidates, who despite passionate adherence to liberal causes, proved unable to capture the elected office they sought. Of course, the office is often the presidency, and the exposure afforded to any serious candidate provides him with a base of loyal supporters. The prominence these men acquire is often overshadowed by the victor's ensuing Administration and consequently smudged

War on Drugs: What Won't Work -- Again

by Hal Brands

On June 30, President Bush signed into law an initiative called Plan Merida, a $465-million program designed to help Mexico deal with the unchecked drug trafficking and violence that have recently turned much of the U.S.-Mexican border into a war zone. The initiative is the most recent chapter in the long history of attempts to regulate activity along America's southern frontier. It is bold and ambitious -- and it probably won't work. Plan Merida dwarfs previous U.S. counter-narcotic

Iraq: Even If We Win We Lose

by Jules R. Benjamin

            Has George W. Bush surged to victory in Iraq?  If so, he can thank Iraqi tribalism, the success of ethnic cleansing, the loss of legitimacy by Al Qaida in Iraq, the “standing down” of the Sunni militias and Iran’s willingness to let its friends in Baghdad make their own peace with Washington.  The anti-U.S. Shia militia of Muktada al Sadr also left the field.  Only one factor behind victory was

Lessons Not Learned at the Bay of Pigs

by Howard Jones

On April 17, 1961, a small band of 1500 Cuban exiles invaded their former homeland at the Bay of Pigs in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. Masterminded by the CIA, the operation hinged on covert action, a pre-em

Why this Is a Good Time to Remember Eugene V. Debs

by Ernest Freeberg

In June 1918, as American troops were entering the trenches of France, the socialist leader Eugene V. Debs gave a speech in Ohio declaring that rich men profit from wars, while poor men die in them. “You need to know,” he told his followers, “that you are fit f

The Reflections of JFK’s Closest Advisor, Ted Sorensen (Interview)

by Robin Lindley

For the past four decades, Ted Sorensen has led a distinguished career in international law.  Despite his many achievements as an attorney, however, he is best known as the closest advisor to Pres. John F. Kennedy—and is seen by many commentators as the greatest American presidential speechwriter. 

Tax Policies the Old Fashioned Way

by Bryan D. Jones and Walter Williams

Politicians are forever making claims based on the favorable case.  In particular, claiming ‘something for nothing’ is often just too tempting to resist.This often happens right where it is most imp

Was the Doctor Convicted of Killing His Wife Guilty? A London Mystery Involving an American Adulterer

by Ronan Thomas

LONDON--‘Hilldrop Crescent is a quiet suburban place, although in the inner ring of the Metropolis, and reasoning specifically, it would be the last spot one would have dreamt of for the scene of a sordid murder’. Thus did the British newspaper The Islington Gazette for 15 July 1910 describe the location of one of Edwardian London’s most notorious crimes; the poison murder by Michigan-born Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen of his German-American wife Cora at number 39 Hilldrop Crescent,

60 Years After Truman Beat Dewey: The Man From Missouri v. The Gangbuster

by Mark Weisenmiller

As Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona slog through the hot summer months continuously campaigning, this is a good time to review the 1948 Presidential campaign. That particular election eventually provided the most surprising upset in U.S. Presidential election history. Vice President Truman became President Truman in April, 1945 after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Considering the numerous ways in which F.D.R. redefined the role of the Presidency, Truman, u

America’s “Mission Accomplished” Syndrome

by Michael W. Williams

Recent events have highlighted a flaw in the American political system:  our tendency to declare “mission accomplished” after achieving what is merely the first step in a long process.  Passage of a law or amendment, victory in a war or election, the signing of a treaty or the launch of a new program is often seen as an end in itself.  Having completed Chapter One but assuming we have finished the book, we move on to the next controversy.  Meanwhile, the original

The First Bush Presidency: Made in China

by Jeffrey A. Engel

Recent calls for President George Bush to avoid the upcoming Beijing Olympics as a stand against China’s human rights record bring to mind that he is

Is the Pulitzer Prize Board Clueless?

by Markian Pelech

In December 2002, I started a correspondence with the Pulitzer prize board about the rogue in their gallery of excellence, Walter Duranty, the British-born reporter in Moscow for The New York Times between 1922 and 1934. His dispatches quickly degenerated into parroting of Soviet propaganda. In 1932, he won a Pulitzer prize for foreign correspondence for a series of 11 articles and two separate articles written in 1931. After receiving the prize, he denied the existence of th

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A Journalist on the History Beat

by Tony Horwitz

I wanted a way back to studying history, but lacked the temperament or skills set. All I knew how to do was catch planes to strange lands, improvise once I got there, and chat up people entirely unlike me. Gradually it occurred to me that I could apply this m.o. to history. By going to the places where history happened and reporting on what I saw and the memory-keepers I met. A journalist on the history beat.

No Free Lunch: Obama and Nietzsche in Berlin

by Andreas Daum

Would a President Obama offer a free lunch for the Europeans? Hardly so, at least not if one carefully reads Barack Obama’s Berlin speech of July 24, delivered — after much hassle about the appropriate location — in front of Berlin’s Victory Column.  “Your troops” are needed in Afghanistan, said Obama, and he meant German and European troops.  The Democratic presidential candidate did not hesitate to remind the audience of an estimated 200,000 that

Why John McCain's "Surge" Success Story Is A Lie

by Joseph Palermo

It really makes the Iraq debate easy for John McCain when he throws around words like "win" and "victory" and "prevail" and "success" without really defining what they mean. A short time ago he was calling for American troops to remain in Iraq forever and that Obama was "naive" for suggesting otherwise. Now that the Iraqi government has indicated its desire for the American troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2010, McCain has gone dovish cred

The National Archives: Alone in a Clash of Cultures

by Maarja Krusten

An executive branch agency, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), staffs and administers the Presidential Libraries of Presidents from Herbert Hoover through Bill Clinton. Soon a George W. Bush Presidential Library will be added to that number.The Libraries have differing cultures and NARA's officials face many challenges. The National Archives' Inspector General expressed dismay when agency officials themselves tried to retrieve stolen Clinton Presidential documents fr

Why the Vice-Presidential Nominees Will Be Presidential

by Joel K. Goldstein

Unlike many of their predecessors, this year's vice-presidential candidates won't be chosen primarily because they're from a large state or to balance the ticket's geography or philosophy. They'll be chosen because they're presidential. It's not that Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama are nobler than prior presidential nominees. Rather, they operate in a changed political context, which dictates that vice-presidential candidates themselves be qualified to serve in the Oval Office,

Why Historians Should Write Books Ordinary People Want to Read

by Jeremy Cameron Young

Ask any administrator or professor in the humanities what use their field is, and the amount of equivocation and soul-searching you'll receive in response will clue you into a little secret: this is a time of crisis for practitioners of the humanities.  Thanks to university budget cuts and conservative attacks on their fields, humanities scholars are increasingly forced to defend something many of them have in past taken for granted: the importance of their research to the modern experie

Why Is It So Hard to Get Documents from the National Archives About the National Archives?

by Anthony Clark

While researching my book on the history of presidential libraries, I discovered a shocking but perhaps not surprising situation: the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is improperly withholding its own records. Theoretically a non-partisan as well as non-political agency, NARA is at the center of some of the most controversial issues of our time, including government secrecy, executive privilege, and timely access to presidential records. Rather than abide by legislative req