Recently Published

If We Want to Rein in the Imperial Presidency We Have to Grade Presidents Differently

by Lara M. Brown

It’s partly our fault.1 Presidents want and work to be imperial because of us – scholars. As often as we argue that presidents go beyond the boundaries of the Constitution because of historical precedents, constitutional paradoxes, strategic calculations, and irresistible calls of character, we neglect our own role in urging presidents toward imperial actions. It’s time we take responsibility for our normative judgments and engage in corr

Historical Truth Vs. Historical Fiction?

by Thomas Fleming

Was Robert E. Lee guilty of treason? I have written The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee to explore that question. But I am already getting letters from readers who are shocked by my temerity. Once more I find myself in an argument about the role of the novel

"War"-Time Thoughts on War-Anniversaries

by Dagmar Barnouw

With the Sixtieth Anniversary of the end of WWII safely behind us we can be sure that all we have believed over all those years has been reaffirmed and the that ceremonies of re-affirmation have become better and better over the years. As the NYTimes reported from Krakow on January 27, 2005, t he commemoration of the liberation of Auschwitz was “the largest ever,” bringing together “the presidents of Russia, Poland, Israel and Ukraine, as well as Vice President D

Teaching History: Why Multiculturalism Is So Important

by Howard Shorr

I started teaching with a multicultural perspective at a small Catholic girl's high school (San Gabriel Mission) in suburban Los Angeles in September, 1973. The principal hired me to teach the US history survey courses and US Government. She also asked me to create two one-semester 12th grade electives classes. Given the demographics of the campus, I chose to teach U.S.Women's History and Chicano History. Women's and Ethnic Studies were just emerging at universities and there existed ver

What Do You Do with Dead Soldiers?

by Michael Sledge

“What do you do with dead soldiers?” This is the question asked by Charlie Anderson (played by Jimmy Stewart) in the 1965 movie, Shenandoah, when he and his sons come upon the bodies of Confederate soldiers who were ambushed. Now, with the death toll of Operation Iraqi Freedom continuing to mount—but still less than three or four days’ worth of dying in World War II or a couple of tough weeks in Vietnam—we once again find ourselves, as J

Even Our Critics Have Made Mistakes Transcribing Presidential Recordings

by Timothy Naftali

Dr. Stern critiques 76 separate passages or individual words in 18 of them in the Appendix to his book, Averting ‘The Final Failure:' John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis Meetings . Thirty-one of the 76 “errors” he cites, or nearly half, are instances where we felt after team-review that the word or sentence fragment was so muddy that we preferred not to take a guess and left it as “[ unclear ]” in the reference transcript. We did this reluctantly and only after

Interview with MacArthur "Genius" Winner Emily Thompson

by Jamie Rodriguez

In September San Diego Associate Professor of History Emily Thompson won the highly coveted MacArthur Foundation "genius" award in connection with her research into aural history. She is the author of The Soundscape of Modernity. She was interviewed by email.What exactly is aural history? Most simply put, aural history considers the sonic dimensions of the past; what kinds of s

East Timor's Troubled Road

by Jeff Kingston

Click here for an updated version of this article 1-22-06. East Timor's 800,000 citizens are finding that the truth does not set them free and that justice and reconciliation are elusive. A recent report published by East Timor's Commission of Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR is the commonly used Portuguese acronym), estimates that the tiny island nation suffered a minimum of 102,800 conflict-related de

Rebuilding Hurricane-Devastated Areas- Why Not Follow LBJ’s Lead?

by Kevin R. Kosar

Last week, U.S. representatives and senators from Louisiana introduced the “Hurricane Katrina Disaster Relief and Economic Recovery Act” into Congress. The total cost of the bill popped quite a few eyes- $250 billion. The bill (S. 1765) runs over 400 pages and seeks funds for just about everything one could imagine. Some of the objects of funding seems perfectly reasonable--who, for example, would object to federal funds being used to repair damaged veterans’ medical facili

Why Real Reforms May Just Follow the Abramoff Scandal

by Nancy C. Unger

Will the guilty plea of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to charges of bribing public officials, tax evasion and fraud succeed in getting Congress to rein in lobbyists? Can any good really come out of congressional efforts to thwart corruption? The cynics say no. Yet democratic reforms have come out of past scandals. Many pessimists claim that reform is impossible because the United States today is suffering the worst corruption in the history of Congress. Even a cursory look at Congress i

White Ethnics Not Just Innocent Victims in America's Culture Wars

by Mark Naison

Anyone reading David Brooks's column on Samuel Alito's experiences at Princeton ("Losing the Aliotos" NY Times January 12 2006) would get the impression that families like Mr Alioto's were innocent victims of a liberal Kulturkampf in the late 60's which undermined values such as Hard Work, Patriotism and Respect for Authority which were articles of faith in white ethnic neighborhoods. But wha

Does Rumsfeld Remember His Own Vietnam Lessons for Iraq?

by James M. Carter

Despite the Bush administration’s assurances that the United States will prevail in Iraq, the creation of a modern, democratic state is slipping further and further from reach. The violence continues to grow more destructive daily. The number of U.S. soldiers killed topped 2,100 (844 for 2005), while conservative estimates put the number of Iraqi civilian dead at more than 30,000. Most Iraqis either energetically oppose the American presence or do not support it. Charges of waste, misma

In Iraq: Out on Patrol

by Richard F. Miller

At 17:15 hours our five Humvee convoy rolled past Camp Fallujah’s final checkpoint. Gunnery Sergeant Dagenhart, riding shotgun in the third vehicle, radios that all crews may insert—but not cycle—ammo clips into their rifles and pistols. Dagenhart and his driver, 19 year-old L/Cpl John Johnson from Shreveport, Louisiana, immediately place extra clips, flares and stun grenades on the dashboard. These items mutely testify to the unpleasant possibilities that might await this

Was Anything Learned from Vietnam?

by Carolyn Eisenberg

For many historians of a certain age, the Vietnam War was the formative intellectual experience, which shaped our understanding of the United States and its history. There were searing realizations from that time that never left us: how political leaders could lie -- boldly, blatantly and repetitively -- and win a mandate for unnecessary war; how the cynical invocation of democracy and freedom could conceal American domination and support for dictatorship; how easy it was for the Whit

In a two part series on the top young historians/professors under 45 years of age HNN examines both the up and coming young historians in the field, and those that are well on their way to success in their field of study. We have polled some of the most prominent universities and historians in North America to create our list. Among the historians that were consulted for this feature include: David Bell of Johns Hopkins University, Jack R. Censer of George Mason University, Frank

In a two part series on the top young historians/professors under 45 years of age HNN examines both the up and coming young historians in the field, and those that are well on their way to success in their field of study. We have polled some of the most prominent universities and historians in North America to create our list. Among the historians that were consulted for this feature include: David Bell of Johns Hopkins University, Jack R. Censer of George Mason University, Frank Couvares

Academic Jarheads?

by Jim Sleeper

One of the dubious contributions of the movie "Jarhead" to American popular culture involved showing that some Marines in Iraq call their corps "The Suck." That's not quite the dismissal of all moral meaning you hear when a friend says of some bad situation that "It sucks." The Suck is more and less than that. It gives institutional concreteness - in this case, the U.S. Marine Corps -- to the macho admonition to "Suck it up," to prove you can take a belly

You Want to Understand Fanatics? Understand Julius Rosenberg and His Ilk

by Steven Usdin

Terrorist acts against the West have focused attention on fanatics who seek to overturn political and social order, even totally destroy society, in the name of an all-encompassing ideology. Comprehending the motivations of fanatical ideologues is critical to disrupt

Do Any of the New Books and Documentaries Prove Who Killed JFK?

by Mel Ayton

Within the past six months three books, A Farewell To Justice by Joan Mellen, JFK and Sam – The Connection Between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations by Antoinette Ginacana, John R. Hughes and Thomas H. Jobe, Ultimate Sacrifice by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann - and a German television documentary produced by Wilfried Huismann - have returned America’s greatest ‘whod

Have Peace Activists Ever Stopped a War?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

The role of peace activism in ending U.S. wars has received very little attention from scholars. Despite the fact that historians and social scientists have studied U.S. peace movements extensively in recent decades, we know much more about peace movements' organizational history than we do about their impact upon public policy. Thus, what I have to say today is a preliminary report. Let me begin by examining the provocative comment by some observers that, rather than peace movements