Recently Published

The UN: Oh, But It Was Such a Great Dream!

by Richard Jensen

Some thoughts on American unilateralism. As far as the UN is concerned, let's recall to the original vision of Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt regarding what a League/UN could accomplish. Their idea was that a world body could transcend parochial national interests and bring greater wisdom to a crisis. That dream failed. They never envisioned that states could simply walk out (Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union), be excluded (Germany and China at different times) or game the system

Consulting All Sides on "Speech Codes"

by David T. Beito, Ralph E. Luker, and Robert KC Johnson

Few controversies have polarized higher education more than that of Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado (CU). Many conservatives, including Governor Bill Owens of Colorado and Newt Gingrich, have demanded that Churchill be dismissed for characterizing the victims of 9/11 as “Little Eichmanns.” Professors and students at CU and elsewhere have responded with rallies and petitions to defend Churchill’s academic freedom. They emphasize that the health of the academy rests

Teaching the Vietnam War in a Time of War

by Marilyn B. Young

If you happen to be teaching a course on the Vietnam War and you happen to read the newspapers regularly, opportunities to connect the past to the present without undue risk of presentist violations abou

Same-Sex Marriage: It's Just One of the Many Challenges to an Old Institution

by Vern L. Bullough

According to Nancy Cott, our concepts of marriage in the United States were heavily influence by the French Enlightenment philosopher, Baron de Montesquieu who in his Spirit of Laws emphasized marriage and the form of government as mirroring each other. Marriage was a voluntary union paralleling the new government.1 Marital relations were envisioned as a symetrical union of reciprocal rights and responsibilities. This idea was carried over into t

The Facts About the Fortas Filibuster: Why Orrin Hatch Is Wrong

by John Dean

The debate over whether to use the "nuclear option" when it comes to Senate filibuster rules continues. Senate Republicans, consistent with their conservative beliefs, claim they are only employing the "nuclear option" to preserve a Senate tradition - not to change one. It is not their own "nuclear option," but rather the Democrats' use of the filibuster to block judicial nominations that, they claim, is truly "unprecedented." Leading this charge is Se

The Grim and Overlooked Anniversary of the Murder of the Rev. George W. Lee, Civil Rights Activist

by David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito

The FBI’s decision to exhume the body of Emmett Till has riveted attention on a notorious atrocity of the modern civil rights era. More Americans than ever have now heard the tragic story of the brutal slaying of the fourteen year old in August 1955. (See here and here )

The End of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Ago: Lessons from the Total Defeat of the U.S.

by Gabriel Kolko

The war in Vietnam that ended 30 years ago with a complete triumph for the Communists was the longest, most expensive and divisive American war in its history, involving over a half-million U.S. forces at one point, plus Australian, South Korean, and other troops. If we use conventional military criteria, the Americans should have been victorious. They used 15 million tons of munitions (as much as they employed in World War Two), had a vast military superiority over their enemies by any stan

Why China Was So Worried About Those Student Protests

by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Western reports on the recent anti-Japanese protests by Chinese students have ofte

The Folks Who Are Sanitizing and Celebrating the History of the Bomb

by Greg Mitchell

Judith Miller has a WMD problem. She sees them where they don't exist. Where they did exist she tells only half the story.   Her prominent articles for the New York Times in 2002 and 2003 about alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq helped pave the way for a war that has killed or damaged thousands of soldiers and innocent civilians. Yet in a little-noticed essay in the same newspaper she recently downplayed the effects of WMD detonated in the United S

The First Gay Sit-in happened 40 years ago

by Marc Stein

Fifty years ago, three teen-agers in Philadelphia took an extraordinary step by refusing to take a step. Their sit-in began on Sunday, April 25, 1965, at Dewey's restaurant near Rittenhouse Square.

An Interview with Julian Zelizer: His Talk to Members of Congress

by Rick Shenkman

In April the American Historical Association invited Mr. Zelizer to deliver the inaugural address for the National History Center's Congressional Breakfast Seminar Series. The series introduces members of Congress and their staff to historians who discuss pertinent issues of the day ranging from congressional reform to Social Security.HNN interviewed Mr. Zelizer by email. Do you know how you happened to be picked to deliver the first talk?

Collateral Damage to Historical Research from the “War on Terrorism”

by Anna Kasten Nelson

The penchant for secrecy on the part of the Bush Administration plus the traumatic events of 9/11 have set back access to historical information by more than two decades. Any attentive American has heard about the failure to open information for the 9/11 Commission and the Congressional Intelligence Committees but few realize the full effect of the Bush Administration and their wars, both against terrorism and for “democracy” in Afghanistan and Iraq. War always expands the power

Did Allen Weinstein Get the Alger Hiss Story Wrong?

by David Lowenthal

Allen Weinstein is now the Archivist of the United States. Despite concerns over the politics of the appointment and Weinstein’s scholarly record, the inaugural drew accolades. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who administered the oath of office, called Weinstein “a scholar whose work I have long admired.” Harvard’s Daniel Aaron termed him “always a sound historian, and always preoccupied with evidence.”1 Preoccupied wit

The Talking Cure: How It Might Help in the Middle East to End Nuclear Threats

by William Lambers

Everyone realizes that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a grave threat to the Middle East. But even a resolution to the Iranian nuclear dispute won't remove the vicious cycle of hostility and arms buildups in the region. Only by establishing confidence-building measures among all nations in the Middle East can this be achieved. In an area filled with animosities this idea may seem hopelessly idealistic, yet the Cold War enemies, the United States and the Soviet Union, learned to build co

Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949

Translation of KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim Checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya against scanned photo copies of Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 (received from David Lowenthal, April 4, 2005) and Gors

Why Getting Rid of the Filibuster Is Still a Good Idea

by Julian E. Zelizer

Democrats are making a major mistake by opposing filibuster reform.   By opposing the proposal of Sen. Bill Frist, the Republican Senate majority leader, to prohibit filibusters against judicial nominees, Democrats will miss a massive opportunity to reform one of the most outdated and anti-majoritarian practices in American politics. And, as liberal Democrats who attacked the Electoral College after the 2000 election reminded us, majoritarian democracy can be a good thing. &n

Alan Brinkley: Liberalism in Collapse?

by Jesse Lemisch

Response by Alan Brinkley Response by Jesse Lemisch Columbia historian and leading liberal Alan Brinkley has once again illustrated in his behavior something of the hypocritical and contradictory state of much of contemporary liberalism. A year ago, Columbia Graduate Student Employees United struck (as they did again last week). In a s

Why Japan Has Even Worse Relations with North Korea than We Do

by Gavan McCormack

On 14 April, the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting, adopted a resolution drafted and submitted jointly by Japan and the EU on the situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). It called on North Korea to immediately return Japanese abductees and on the UN General Assembly to take up the question of North Korean human rights violations in general.[1] The No 1 abductee whose return is sought by Japan is Yokota Megumi

What Kind of Education Is Required in a Democracy?

by Tom Palaima

My friend Robert Ivie up at Indiana University offers a course in rhetorical theory called Democratic Deliberation. Its Web site - www.indiana.edu/~ivieweb/deliberative.htm - is worth visiting simply for its choice selection of quotations about democracy.George Bernard Shaw, as we might expect, was drily ironic: "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve." H.L. Mencken was wi

Are We a Peace-Loving Country or a Violent One?

by Ira Leonard

"Increasingly, Americans are a people without history, with only memory, which means a people poorly prepared for what is inevitable about life -- tragedy, sadness, moral ambiguity -- and therefore a people reluctant to engage difficult ethical issues."-- Elliot Gorn, in the Chronicle of Higher Education (April 28, 2000)In August 2002, President George Bush began to drum up a war fever in America with a view to toppling Iraqi dictator Sad