Recently Published

Historians and Facebook: In the Halls of an Electronic AHA

by Jesse Lemisch

Hobbling along with my cane, I have only recently arrived on Facebook, where I have found great numbers of youth already there, moshing, banging their heads together, high-fiving and dapping each other, singing their distinctive songs, giving new meaning to the term “friends with benefits,” and engaging in other rituals of youth. At 71, I may be the oldest person on Facebook. From the number of “friends” my Facebook friends a

Obama’s “New Politics” Inspired by Rush Limbaugh and Ken Starr

by Edward Olshaker

In the closing days of the primary season, unity was finally achieved—between the Obama campaign and the most extreme elements of the GOP attack machine, who spoke with a single voice as they eagerly ascribed the darkest imaginable thoughts and motives to Sen. Hillary Clinton simply because she mentioned the murder of Sen. Robert Kennedy. Just as remarkable, the Obama team was gearing up to resurrect the thoroughly yet fruitlessly investigated Whitewater controversy if the race had been

Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America

by Thurston Clarke

 In 1968, America was a wounded nation.

Could China Have Anticipated the Earthquake--And Prepared for it?

by Peter Navarro

The Economy: The Problem We Face

by Jules R. Benjamin

Our economic system has four principal characteristics. I will not give a name to that system as it tends to inflame the discussion. The four characteristics are: 1) it produces a great deal of wealth; 2) it distributes that wealth very unevenly (This is due to the differential value given to different kinds of labor and to the legal protection given to personal assets.); 3) it periodically produces wealth destruction -- euphemistically referred to as the “business cycle;” 4) th

Assassination Jokes: How Funny Are They?

by William Loren Katz

Republican Governor Mike Huckabee at the American Rifle Association heard a backstage noise and joked that it was Senator Obama diving to the floor to avoid gunfire. A week later came some less humorous imitators: Senator Clinton underscored her point that one never knows whether one's luck might take a fortuitous turn, by citing Robert Kennedy's assassination in June 1968, just two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The next day, an editorial cartoon of a squinty

Saving the Constitution from Lawyers

by Robert J. Spitzer

The profession of law is not only a necessary, but a virtuous enterprise. I'm no lawyer-basher: from a contract dispute, to murder, to divorce (n

Who's Being Partisan?

by Kevin Mattson Vs. Sean Wilentz

Sean Wilentz's ResponseKevin MattsonMr. Mattson is Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University.I've admired Sean Wilentz for years. I read Chants Democratic in graduate school and found his merging of labor and political history inspiring. His next major book, The Rise of American Democracy, was magisterial. Though I disagree with some his interpretations, Wilentz showed how 19th century

Iranian anti-Semitic Bloggers: From Mickey Mouse's Plot to Gaddafi's Jewishness

by Hamid Tehrani

Iranian anti-Semitic blogs reveal important information that can help us gain a better understanding about the roots and dynamism of anti-Jewish sentiment in Iran. 

How Americans in the Civil War Dealt with Death: One Historian's View

by Mark S. Schantz

Awaiting the Heavenly Country: The Civil War and America’s Culture of Death takes a fresh look at some old historical questions: Why did so many men—some 620,000—perish in the American Civil War? And how were Americans able to sustain and to comprehend the war in light of those astonishingly high losses? At its core, this book argues that cultural understandings of death and dying in antebellum America shaped in profound ways our willingness to make a war of catastr

The Challenge of the Absolute

by Thomas Fleming

There is no more intriguing or more important question in the world of history and the arts than the role of the absolute. Modernism, pragmatism, deconstructionism—all these supposed varieties of recent wisdom have supposedly banished the absolute from our concerns. There is no such thing as objective truth—which means objectivity is also an impossibility and an illusion. Anyone who claims to be writing the absolute truth is a candidate for psychiatric treatment at worst and con

American Democracy: The 10 Alarm Fire We're Ignoring

by Rick Shenkman

What was I thinking when I decided to name my book: Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter?  

Why Food for Peace Must Remain an American Priority

by William Lambers

The United States says it will be scaling back food donations to impoverished countries because of soaring food prices. This announcement deals a devastating blow to the survival of people in many countries who depend on food aid. In nations like Sudan and Afghanistan, peace and stability hinge on preventing hunger. Despite the financial burden for the United States, it is urgent that we continue to provide food to countries in need if we intend to nurture peace. Americans have risen to

John McCain Discovers Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament

by Lawrence S. Wittner

On May 27, in a major public address delivered at the University of Denver, Republican presidential candidate John McCain took what appeared to be a strong stand in favor of nuclear arms control and disarmament.In the speech, McCain argued that "it is our responsibility to build" a world in which there are "far fewer" nuclear weapons "than there are today." Therefore, he said, "the time has come to take further measures to reduce dramatically the nu

RFK 6/6/68 -- No Joking Matter

by Joseph Palermo

The lengthy primary campaign of 2008 has produced a bevy of tasteless references to political assassination in general, and to Robert F. Kennedy's killing in particular. The former Arkansas governor and Republican pr

George W. Bush's Revisionist History

by Allan J. Lichtman

With the mainstream media fixated on remarks by preachers at Trinity United Church in Chicago, it has largely ignored far more consequential comme

Does Barack Obama Have Testicular Fortitude?

by Arica L. Coleman

During this protracted Democratic primary season, issues of race and gender have taken center stage. Race and gender politics are no stranger to the political trail; however, they have become the competing elephants in the room now that the final choice for the nomination has come down to an African American male, Barack Obama and a white woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton. While this is undeniably a historic moment in American politics, the analysis of race and gender within the body politic, f

McCain’s Ministers of Doom

by Matthew Avery Sutton

John McCain had better get someone on his staff who understands American religion, and fast. In his efforts to court the Religious Right, he has taken the worst approach possible. Rather than build bridges to the new generation of evangelical power players such as Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and Joel Osteen, each of whom tries to put the emphasis on the compassion in “compassionate conservative,” he has instead been wooing tongues-speaking, fire-breathing, ministers of doom.O

How Monica Changed Everything: The Deal It Undid Between Gingrich and Clinton

by Steven M. Gillon

As the nation engages in another contentious presidential election we are reminded of the deep partisan differences that divide Americans. Democrats and Republicans are far apart on nearly all the big issues facing the nation. The moderate middle has disappeared. A number of forces have conspired to create this new hyper-partisanship, from well-financed special interest groups that require fidelity to their cause, to a 24-hour news cycle that values confrontation over consensus.

Incitement to Assassination Has a Special Place in the History of Racism

by Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore

When Liz Trotta, Fox News analyst, recently suggested on the air that assassinating “Osama, um, Obama—well, both, if we could,” would be a good idea, she followed a century-old playbook used to intimidate African Americans by warning that violence would follow if they exercised civil rights. Her comment became a popular You Tube viewing experience over Memorial Day weekend. Then she said, “I apologize to anybody