Recently Published

ON A RECENT warm Sunday afternoon, joggers, bikers, strolling couples and picnicking families began filling up the Rosie the Riveter Memorial National Historical Park in Richmond. Tucked away in a spectacular waterfront setting, this national historical site, which opened in October 2000, commemorates some 18 million women who worked in the home-front defense industries that helped the United States win World War II. So who was Rosie the Riveter? With her slee

Mar 31, 2004

HNN Readers Who Attended the 2004 OAH Annual Meeting: Their Observations

General ObservationsBy Jeremy Greene (Teacher,Chelmsford (MA) High School )• In the future register on-line: If not, you were blocked from all walking tours even if you pre-registered, as I did, by mail. • The food: I was struck that the World History Association conference (see http://hnn.

Mar 30, 2004

Column: Alas, the 9-11 Commission Has Lost Its Luster

by P. M. Carpenter

For nearly two days last week the eponymous 9/11 Commission did a credible bipartisan job of publicly exposing various jurisdictional screw-ups leading to the tragedy. Members of both parties asked telling questions and often received telling answers. Atypical of past political boards of inquiry, the political rhetoric of feigned indignation and argumentum ad hominem were off the table. The commission seemed to be getting somewhere. Republican chairman Thomas Kean showed nothing but ma

Mar 30, 2004

How Can We Know for Sure When a Country Has Succeeded in Becoming a Democracy?

by Jonathan Dresner

There's been a lot of talk lately about creating democratic societies and systems, most prominently in Afghanistan and Iraq . But aside from the basic definitions -- popular sovereignty, voting processes, fair representation, individual rights -- how can we tell if the democracies being built are healthy, successful ones, or failures? A quick look at one of the oldest democracies, and two of the newest, is revealing: democracy is not institutions, but process. One of the greatest days

Mar 30, 2004

Mr. Clarke Goes to Washington

by Anthony B. Toth

Only in Washington D.C. could you conceive of a former bureaucrat having groupies. But here I was, playing hooky from a looming journal article deadline, forsaking a gloriously sunny spring day, walking eagerly toward the Hart Senate Office Building just to see one of my heroes, Richard Clarke, testify before the 9/11 Commission on March 24. Even before his book, Against all Enemies, came out recently, creating a stir because of its

Mar 29, 2004

Should the Allies Have Bombed Auschwitz: William J. vanden Heuvel vs. Rafael Medoff

In his recent book, The Conquerors, Michael Beschloss take Franklin Roosevelt and others to task for not bombing Auschwitz during World War II. In a recent edition of"Passport: The Newsletter of the Society For Historians of American Foreign Relations," William J. vanden Heuvel, co-chair of the Roosevelt Institute, harshly criticized Beschloss's account, contending that FDR had little choice but to conclude that the fastest way to bring the suffering of the Jews to an end was to end t

Mar 29, 2004

What Really Drives History?

by Thomas Fleming

As we ride an historical roller coaster in Iraq, it might be a good time to ponder a hot new word in the history game: contingency. It means that more and more historians are admitting that Marxism or Progress or some other abstraction is not the driving force of history. It is events -- often unexpected events or decisions made by prime ministers and presidents and generals. That could lead to a bad case of the jitters. Perhaps the best antidote is a look at some

Mar 26, 2004

Historians Against the War Petition the Organization of American Historians (OAH)

The people behind the organization, Historians Against the War (HAW), are celebrating tonight. This afternoon the executive board of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) decided to establish a committee to investigate reports of repression involving historians. The OAH is holding its annual meeting in Boston. The news was announced by HAW member Jesse Lemisch, a well-known Sixties radical, at a meeting sponsored by the OAH this evening to honor radical historian Howard Zinn.

Mar 25, 2004

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the World History Convention

by Jeremy H. Neill

What: World History: The Next Ten Years ... A Conference on Research, Teaching, and Graduate Education Where: John Hancock Hotel and Conference Center, BostonWhen: Friday - Sunday, March 12-14, 2004As a way of introduction, I'm at this conference as a Ph.D. student at Northeastern University here in Boston , on the verge of finishing up

Mar 23, 2004

Probably Nothing Could Have Stopped the Bush Crowd from War with Iraq

by Ruth Rosen

Was the War in Iraq inevitable? That was the question that panels of distinguished journalists and media critics implicitly addressed when they gathered at UC Berkeley last week for an international conference titled"The Media at War: The U.S. Invasion & Occupation of Iraq." Joining them were Joseph C. Wilson, former ambassador to several African countries, and Hans Blix, former U.N. weapons inspector. All the participants seemed to agree that the Bush adm

Mar 22, 2004

Column: Bushies Can't Admit the Truth About Iraq

by P. M. Carpenter

As the violent anniversary of “Objective: Peace” approached, the Bush administration's smidgeon-of-truth squad fanned out on Sunday morning talk shows in a Goebbelsesque enterprise of on-demand revisionism and shock-and-awe chutzpah. For students of official disinformation and sundry other forms of propagandistic distortion, these interchangeable senior operatives were a marvel to watch. In my viewing area, pod-squad member Secretary of State Colin Powell kicked things off on "

Mar 22, 2004

Why Bush Is Making Nuclear Proliferation More Likely

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Despite George W. Bush's repeated warnings about nuclear proliferation, he and his fellow Republicans deserve much of the blame for their increase. Ever since the advent of the Bush administration, it has charged that other nations are acquiring nuclear weapons. Justifying war with Iraq, the administration hammered away at that nation's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction. It has also assailed North Korea and Iran for their nuclear programs. On Feb. 11, in a major policy addr

Mar 22, 2004

Bill Clinton for Vice President? Forget It.

by Joshua Spivak

Much of the political chatter in the air of late has focused on presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry tapping Bill Clinton as his vice presidential running mate in November. The discussion has largely centered on whether Clinton can legally hold the position in light of the 22nd Amendment's two-term limit for election to the presidency. This question focuses on how the Constitution and its amendments define the term “eligible.”Some law professors argue that the two-ter

Mar 22, 2004

An Interview with Victor Davis Hanson

by Jamie Glazov

Following is an interview with historian Victor Davis Hanson, author of the newly released book, Between War and Peace: Lessons from Afghanistan to Iraq. The interview was conducted by historian Jamie Glazov, the managing editor of frontpagemag.com, where the interview was first published. Frontpage Magazine: Mr. Hanson, it is a pleasure to have you jo