Recently Published

Jimmy Carter and The Myth That Gave the Iowa Caucuses Their Political Power

by Wallace Hettle

Carter focused on the state and did well in the caucuses, which set him, an unknown, on the path to the nomination. Presidential hopefuls have flocked to the state ever since. However, Carter’s story is not quite that simple. 

What Dreams of Canada Tell Us About Race in America

by April Rosenblum

At a time when American casualties in Vietnam were disproportionately African American, most of those who successfully made it to Canada to resist the draft were white.

Strange Obsession: President Trump's Obama Complex

by Robert Brent Toplin

While Trump’s dislike of Obama is complex and multifaceted, his behavior at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner may reveal an important source of the hostility.

Remembering Dennis Showalter, Grandmaster of Military History

by Paul A. Thomsen

On the evening of December 30, 2019, Dennis Showalter, a noted scholar of German, American, and military history, fought his last battle and rode off on a pale horse.

A Courageous Catholic Voice Against Antisemitism

by Stephen H. Norwood and Rafael Medoff

As the harassment and beatings of Jews in the streets of Boston reached epidemic levels in 1943, one hundred Jewish boys and girls, ages 12 to 16, sent a poignant petition to the mayor. 

Poles Apart: Putin, Poland and the Nazi-Soviet Pact

by Geoffrey Roberts

As the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, two of that war’s main victims – Poland and Russia – are once again embroiled in a highly emotional dispute about its origins. At the heart of the matter is the perennial controversy about the Nazi-Soviet pact of 23 August 1939. 

Ross Douthat's Prescription for Academia Won't Solve the Real Problem

by Ed Simon

Humanities departments have shrunk, tenure track jobs have disappeared, and the academy has increasingly come to rely upon an exploited underclass of contingent, part-time faculty. The argument of who exactly is responsible for this state of affairs rages on, but New York Times columnist Ross Douthat insists he knows the answer.

The World is Losing another Historic Generation

by Robert Mark Spaulding

We cannot prevent the passing away of China’s last generation from the pre-communist era, but we can do our part in helping to preserve the ancient culture they knew, so that it does not vanish completely with them. 

Four Speeches by Dr. King That Can Still Guide Us Today

by Alan Singer

Martin Luther King, Jr. challenged the war in Vietnam, U.S. imperialism, and laws that victimized working people and the poor, not just racial discrimination.

The Politics of an Inauguration Unlike Any Other

by Michael A. Genovese

Joe Biden's inauguration will be unlike any other, but he will need to draw on inaugural traditions of declaring purpose and invoking solidarity if he is to begin to repair national division.

Confronting "Who We Are"

by Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson

The Capitol riots should prompt consideration of how racism is sustained by mainstream institutions and operates through everyday patterns of thought and action, as much as in open eruptions of violence. 

Restoring Civil Society by Executive Order?: An Inaugural Reverie

by John L. Godwin

Joe Biden should defend the First Amendment right to peaceable assembly by a temporary emergency order criminalizing the carrying of firearms at public protest events and make clear that the threat of force is not part of the democratic process.

Stepping Back From the Brink of War

by Alon Ben-Meir

Trump’s order to kill General Soleimani is one of the most reckless acts taken by a president, who once again has put his personal political interest above the nation’s security.

Historians, Insurrectionists and Fragile White Folks

by James Brewer Stewart

A historian of abolition and an advocate of racial justice argues that historians must reject the psychological framework of some recent popular antiracist books and learn from the history of activists embodying Frederick Douglass's call for a "moral revolution" through engagement with others.

The Long Overdue End of the “Serious Conservative"

by Charles J. Holden

Two darlings of the conservative movement – Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley – found themselves in hot water last week after supporting the false narrative of election fraud that inspired the Capitol rioting. It's part of a long legacy of media-anointed "serious conservatives" whose smarts have been inflated.

Do Morals Matter in Foreign Policy?

by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

Examining 14 presidencies since 1945 shows that a radically skeptical view of morality is bad history. Morals did matter.

Why The West Is Losing The Fight For Democracy

by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes

We once had trouble imagining a future that is not essentially democratic and capitalist. That is not the way we think today. Most of us now have trouble imagining a future, even in the West, that remains securely democratic and liberal.

Trump Checks all of the Impeachment Boxes: Will it Matter?

by Donald J. Fraser

Unlike other presidents, Trump’s actions meet each of the requirements that the Framer’s laid out to impeach a president. Ironically, just as impeachment is needed most, the partisan tenor of the times may make it impossible to accomplish.

Can America Recapture Its Signature Exuberance?

by Tracy Dahlby

Walt Whitman understood transcendence of national mood is an uphill climb. Periods of division and strife sort new realities into a renovated sense of purpose. Yet periods of upheaval must necessarily lead to a refitting, not obliteration, of our common story or democracy is toast.

Cinema Paradiso: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Will Be The Home of Movies, Past and Present

by Andrew Fletcher

When it opens in 2020, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will be an interesting landmark for historians and movie buffs alike.