Recently Published

Politics: Reflections on Election 2000

by Walter Nugent

For a long while it looked like we would at long last behold Tilden’s revenge, but that didn’t happen. Instead, as my lawyer son observed, the Supreme Court reinvigorated the great tradition it established in Dred Scott v. Sanford and Plessy v. Ferguson. The doctrine of equal protection of the laws may very well escape from the Pandora’s box of Bush v. Gore and bedevil elections in many another state and many another year. Perhaps that will provoke a return to deciding

What History Tells Us Will Likely Happen to Those Giant Surpluses

by Bernard Weisberger

For good or ill, the great 2001 tax cut is an accomplished fact. Congress has chosen to believe the rosy projections of future surpluses piling up in the Treasury for years to come, and has taken the ax to the revenue codes.

Column: Do You Have to be a Democrat to Like the Jefford's Switch?

by William Thompson

As a Republican I share the feelings of losing once again, the feelings of once again being slapped in the face for identifying with the party of"bible thumpers" and Attila the Hun. It was a defeat to have Senator Jeffords leave the party. It was a defeat to lose control of the Senate. I do not want to play any"sour grapes" role, however, by reflecting on the good that could come from the change. Quite frankly, as the story unfolded, I (like many other Republicans) wished and wished that a

Politics: Family Feud

by Rick Shenkman

The Jeffords switch is teaching a great lesson about Washington politics. It’s not always about who gets what and how much. It’s often about raw human emotions like revenge.Revenge is a theme more commonly associated with foreigners like the Serbs, who, we learned during the Kosovo war, still can’t get over a humiliating defeat that occurred some seven centuries ago.But you don’t have to open up musty European histories to find a juicy revenge plot worthy of Shakespeare. Just pick

Postcolonial Wars of the Post-Soviet Era: Why Huntington is Wrong

by Juan R. I. Cole

The world in 2002 is plunged into war or preparation for it in a number of significant hotspots. During the past decade, we have entered the age of postcolonial wars that are aggravated by the collapse of the Soviet empire.Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington has called this the"Age of Muslim Wars." But most of these struggles have not had an Islamic character at all. Christian Serb nationalists, after all, launched the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo. The Gulf wars were st

Column: Did You Think John Ashcroft Wasn't Serious About Guns?

by P.M. Carpenter

Bush II's sometimes-we-mean-it-sometimes-we-don't"strict constructionists" are at it again and this time, it so happens, they don't mean it. One shouldn't need to keep score when it comes to tracking ideological consistency--which is presumably inherent in terms such as"strict" constructionism--but when a dog of ultraconservatism is chasing a rabbit of shinie

Public Appeal on Behalf of Historian Andrea Hamilton

Editor's Note On Monday May 13 the following appeal, signed by historians across the country, is being sent to the president of Baltimore's Bryn Mawr School, a private prep school for girls. The letter protests the school's decision to suppress the publication of a history of the institution written by Dr. Andrea Hamilton, a Tulane graduate who spent three years on archival research for her dissertation. The school's objection to the u

Do Historians Have a Death Wish?

by Keith Miller

Sigmund Freud, as he first suggested in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), then more fully stated in Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), had come to think societies, not just individuals, might well have a death wish--a"death instinct"--within the psyche, opposed to what he called Eros, or a principle for life. One evidence Freud had for a"death instinct" derived from his realization that soldiers in war conditions, not to mention people in other life-threatening situations

How Doris Kearns Goodwin Came to Resemble Lyndon Johnson

by Rick Perlstein

Rick Perlstein's commentary on the Doris Kearns Goodwin plagiarism case in 2002.

Column: Richard Hofstadter Was Right

by P.M. Carpenter

In his 1955 The Age of Reform, historian Richard Hofstadter reflected on reformist movements ranging from nineteenth-century Populism to the New Deal. The work contained masterful commentary on fundamental change over time (that, after all, is what the study of history is all about), and his insights were so superbly written that even those later revealed as

Jews Belong in Palestine (How Israelis See Things)

by Mitchell Bard

A common misperception is that the Jews were forced into the diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. and then, 1,800 years later, suddenly returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years, including a national language and a distinct civilization. The Jewish people base their claim to the land of Israel on at least four premis

I Have Cancer

by Stephen Ambrose

The following statement was released on April 30, 2002. Like millions of other Americans, I have been diagnosed with cancer. Since I just learned about my illness last Friday, I am still getting used to the idea. In the coming days and weeks, I will be seeking further diagnosis and discussing treatment options with physicians and my family. During this time, I would appreciate the news media and the public respecting our privacy. I have sp

7 Months Later and We're Falling Back into Apathy

by Daniel Pipes

Are Americans taking the necessary steps to protect themselves from further attacks? This question comes to mind on reading a news agency dispatch titled,"Iran Enthusiastically Celebrates the American 'Humiliation' at Tabas 22 Years Ago." It refers to Tabas, a remote desert town in Iran, which on April 25, 1980, was the site of a U.S. military disaster. A rescue team sent by President Jimmy Carter to spring 49 American hostages held in the U.S. embassy in Tehran had to

Column: Does the NRA Mistrust Democracy?

by Thomas Spencer

As someone who often writes about local topics in my historical research, I seldom am inspired by current events at the local level. Correspondingly, when I write for the History News Network, I tend to try to focus on current events using a rather long-term historical lens. However, the recent move by the legislature in my home state of Missouri to liberalize gun laws has changed this for the moment. I also must admit that the current debate over Michael Bellesiles's Arming America that

Column: Why Nevadans Are Reading Up on John C. Calhoun

by William Thompson

The annals of federal state relationships have been punctuated by several episodes of state efforts to nullify federal executive actions. In the past these efforts have been essentially extra legal (and/or illegal), and they have been basically unsuccessful. A contemporary nullification fight--one going on at this very moment--is different. It is taking place under the guise of federal law according to procedures set down in words by the national congress. The effort will, however, end the same

Response by Walter W. Stewart and Ned Feder

The article below is a response to Stephen Oates's, I Stood Accused of Plagiarism. Click here to read Oates's response to Stewart and Feder. Click here to read Feder and Stewart's response to Oates. There is broad agreement that plagiarism is the use of the ideas or words of others without adequate attribution. Judged by

OAH Resolution on Honesty and Integrity

by Executive Board of the Organization of American Historians

The following statement was approved by the OAH board on April 11, 2002. Honesty and integrity should undergird the work of all historians. Historians seek truth about the past in an effort to better understand historical developments and how they relate to the present and future. When students encounter historians in the precollegiate, community college, and university classroom, there is an implicit trust on the part of the student that the history teacher or professor wi

Response to Stephen Oates

by Arnita A. Jones

Click here to read Mr. Oates's, I Stood Accused of Plagiarism. History News Network earlier this week published an extended conversation on plagiarism, a conversation that was sparked by Stephen Oates's account of charges against him reviewed by the American Historical Association's Professional Division. We strongly object to Mr. Oates's characterization of the work of the Professional

Column: Al, Are You Listening?

by P.M. Carpenter

Al Gore's recent barn burner of a speech in Florida ignited both elation and, one suspects, acute depression. Most party faithfuls were thrilled right down to their partisan socks to hear Gore taking on Bush II with such refreshing elan, while other presidential hopefuls in attendance--John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, John Edwards, and Chris Dodd--likely were wishing Al would plunge off the stage, a la Bob Dole. The former vice president's performance seemed like a hard act to follow. On the oth

Israeli and Palestinian Fantasies

by Robert Toplin

As any viewer of television news knows, those who comment on the Arab-Israeli crisis offer many different explanations for the current outbreaks of violence. Rarely mentioned, though, are the unrealistic expectations that keep hostilities going. Both Palestinians and Israelis cling to fantasies about settling their peoples in the territory of their adversaries. As long as each group continues to indulge in these fantasies, significant compromise will be difficult to achieve. The principal