Recently Published

1963: 11 Seconds in Dallas

by Max Holland and Johann Rush

Within hours of John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, the Kodak film exposed by Abraham Zapruder became the most important home movie ever made.

How the Discovery Channel Duped the American Public About the RFK Assassination Acoustics Debate

by Mel Ayton

In June 2007 the Discovery Times Channel broadcast a documentary, Conspiracy Test – The RFK Assassination, which relied on unscientific practices to sensationalize their story of how a second gunman acted with Sirhan Sirhan to murder Senator Robert F. Kennedy.   The documentary challenged the  Pruszynski Tape acoustics research carried out by two teams of experts --  Philip Harrison and Professor Peter Fre

Why New Laws Are Needed to Stop the Bullying of the National Archives

by Maarja Krusten

A federal judge recently overturned part of an order by President George W. Bush that had strengthened the ability of former Presidents to block disclosures from their files. She said the National Archives has the final say on what is opened from Presidential records. But the Archives' difficulties in releasing Richard Nixon's records suggest that the ruling may have little impact on what the public learns about Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush.

Ron Paul: The Only Presidential Candidate to Challenge the American Empire

by David T. Beito and Scott Horton

Flying under the radar of mainstream media coverage, supporters of Dr. Ron Paul, a seventy-two year old ten-term congressman and obstetrician from Texas, have staged a political revolution. Despite little publicity, they have raised over $15 million, mostly in small donations, giving Paul more money in the bank than John McCain. In a November 5 “money bomb” (inspired by Guy Fawkes Day as depicted in the film, “V for Vendetta”) the Paul Revolutionaries raked in $

The Bill Both Birchers and Leftwingers Oppose: For Good Reason

by Ralph E. Shaffer and R. William Robinson

With overwhelming bipartisan support, Rep. Jane Harman's "Thought Police" bill, HR 1955, passed the House 404-6 late last month and now rests in Sen. Joe Lieberman's Homeland Security Committee. Swift Senate passage appears certain. Not since the "Patriot" Act of 2001 has any bill so threatened our constitutionally guaranteed rights. The late historian Henry Steele Commager, denouncing President John Adams's suppression of free speech in the 1790s, argued that the B

Long Before There Was Stephen Colbert There Was Pat Paulson

by Raney McKool

The celebrity candidate is, nowadays, a common phenomena: Jesse Ventura, Jerry Springer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Howard Stern, Fred Thompson, and Ronald Reagan are prime examples. The list goes on. However, Stephen Colbert’s announcement on his nightly talk show, The Colbert Report, of his run for the presidency draws attention to a different kind of celebrity candidate: the comedian.  On Tuesday, October 16th Mr. Colbert appeared on his old stomping grounds, T

Was Nadia Abu El Haj Treated Fairly?

by Ralph Harrington

Last week it was announced that Nadia Abu El Haj, a professor in the anthropology departments of Barnard College, New York, and its parent institution, Columbia University, had been awarded tenure. Such news from the world of academe would rarely make much of a public splash, but this had been no ordinary tenure process.In 2001 Abu El Haj had her first and, so far, only book published by Chicago University Press. Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashio

Did David Brooks Tell the Full Story About Reagan's Neshoba County Fair Visit?

by Joseph Crespino

In his November 9, 2007, column in the New York Times, David Brooks discussed Ronald Reagan’s appearance at the Neshoba County Fair in 1980 and his use of the term “states’ rights.”  Brooks absolved Reagan of racism, but he ignored the broader significance of Reagan’s Neshoba County appearance. 

Jena Is More than Jena and a Noose Is More than a Nuisance

by James West Davidson

There’s no need any longer to make Jena, Louisiana our whipping boy. Over the past few weeks the New York Times, the Washington Post and other papers have catalogued a string of incide

Two Misunderstandings About Immigration

by Daniel Kanstroom

Much current immigration debate seems based on two misconceptions: one factual, the other theoretical.  As talk has increasingly turned from structured work programs with pathways to citizenship to border control and national security, one often gets the impression that virtually no enforcement is taking place. Quite the opposite is true: we are in the midst of a massive, decade-long deportation experiment that is exceptionally harsh by virtually any historical or comparative measure. Indee

Making a Picture Book: How TIME Does It

by Kelly Knauer

This is a giant of a book—about half as big as your common Casement window. How many people did it take? And how long did it take? Incredible as it may seem, this book was created by a staff of only five people, one of whom worked part time. The entire process took about nine months—three months for preliminary picture research, then six months of more picture research, while the process of design and writing moved forward. The names and titles of the staff are

Why Do Democrats Have an Identity Crisis? It Goes Back to the McGovern Landslide Loss

by Bruce Miroff

For the Democrats, all of the signs for the 2008 elections currently look favorable.

U.S. Water Boarding, 1899 Style

by William Loren Katz

Some high U.S. officials claim not be aware of it, and Judge Michael Mukasey, the President's choice for attorney general, prefers to equivocate, but water boarding has long been a form of torture that causes excruciating pain.

How Museums and Libraries Lose Stuff

by Samuel J. Redman

On Wednesday, October 24th, the Washington Post published a story with the headline, “Materials Missing at Library of Congress.”  Like many readers, I dashed to my computer mouse, thinking that an Oceans 11 style heist had taken place in our nation’s capital.  Perhaps a robotic device remotely operated by terrorists had stolen Thomas Jefferson’

Not Everyone Wanted to Bomb Hiroshima

by Leo Maley III and Uday Mohan

Paul W. Tibbets Jr., retired brigadier general and former businessman, died on Nov. 1. He'll forever be remembered for what he unleashed the morning of August 6, 1945. That day Tibbets's B-29 -- christened the "Enola Gay" after his mother -- dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The blast, fire and radiation killed 140,000 people. Many others were scarred and injured for life. Most of the bomb's victims were women, children, the elderly and other civilia

Is Paul Krugman a Good Historian?

by Michael Kazin

    Paul Krugman is a brilliant economist, and his scathing columns in the New York Times have made him an intellectual hero to left-wing Democrats everywhere. But is he a good historian?     His new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, is a sweeping manifesto grounded in a provocative interpretation of the American past. For Krugman, US history since Reconstruction can be understood as one grand cycle from darkness into light and back aro

What Did LBJ Know About the Cuban Missile Crisis? And When Did He Know It?

by Max Holland and Tara Marie Egan

Writing in August 2007 about the major candidates’ credentials, Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum concluded that it’s questionable whether foreign policy experience is essential for anyone aspiring to the presidency. Exhibit A in her argument was Harry Truman, and Exhibit B was Lyndon Johnson.. . . it’s far from obvious that any specific kind of experience has ever helped a president make good calls. . . . Lyndon B. Johnson had held national office for years before becoming president, but he still couldn’t cope with Vietnam.Applebaum’s implication was that Johnson did not absorb the right lessons while serving as John F. Kennedy’s vice president, even though one of the greatest teaching tools of the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, occurred during President Kennedy’s watch.But what if Johnson was not permitted to learn the right lessons, which would have had to begin with an accurate understanding of what had happened? What if Johnson was purposely denied important knowledge? What if Johnson thought he had drawn the right lessons, but actually was trying to replicate a manufactured illusion?

Why We Should Be Lucky Bill Gates and Warren Buffet Don't Take After Cornelius Vanderbilt

by Edward Renehan

A while back, Forbes Magazine ranked the richest Americans through history using 2006 US dollars weighted against historic GDP at the height of each individual's wealth. On the day of his death during his 83rd year in January of 1877, shipping and railroad titan Cornelius Vanderbilt was worth $105 million in 1877 dollars. According to the Forbes analysis, to control the same percentage of GDP that Vanderbilt controlled in 1877 one hundred and twenty nine years later in 2006, on

If You Could Ask the Author of One of Those Big Oxford Histories What He Learned He'd Say ...

by Daniel Walker Howe

I have just finished writing a thick book about a comparatively thin slice of history:  What Hath God Wrought:  The Transformation of America, 1815-1848.  Am I any the wiser for having done so?  I’m sure that I am—for my book did not simply confirm in detail a set of preconceived hypotheses.  I wrote the book to tell a story, not to demonstrate the truth of an argument.  Now that it is done, I am starting to comprehend the implications of its s

Jamestown at 400: Caught Between a Rock and a Slippery Slope

by Fred Fausz

Readers seldom take the pain to gather together all that hath been written on any subject but usually content themselves with one or two books and some former treatises, whereby they gain but a lame and partial knowledge, and so prejudice the Truth. -- Edward Waterhouse, Virginia Company Secretary, 1622The Commonwealth of Virginia is hosting an ambitious 400th birthday bash on May 11-13 to commemorate Jamestown as England's first permanent colony in North America. That festive