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History News Network

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Week of March 11, 2013


Up Front

HNN Hot Topics: Saint Patrick's Day
Tags: Hot Topics , Ireland, Irish, Irish-Americans, St. Patrick's Day
Did the New Pope Collaborate with the Argentine Military Junta?
David Austin Walsh
Historians press for caution, avoid rushing to judgment.
Tags: Argentina, Francis, junta, papacy

HNN Feature: The Official Historians of Congress

Matthew Wasniewski's Front Row Seat to History
Kelsey McKernie
Why the Historian of the House of Representatives loves his job.
Tags: careers, House Historian, Matthew Wasniewski, profiles
Donald Ritchie: The Senate's Expert on the Senate
Mariana Villa
It's a challenging, but rewarding, task to document a 224-year-old institution.
Tags: careers, Donald Ritchie, profiles, Senate Historian

News at Home

"Debt Crisis": The Myth Behind the Myth
Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica

Obama would have better luck with the budget when he remembers most Americans don't care about economic theory.
Tags: Debt crisis, economics, growth, Paul Krugman
Compromise as the Constitution’s Foundation
David Brian Robertson
The very concept of a written U.S. Constitution is a compromise -- and it's a good lesson for our leaders today.
Tags: Constitution, Founding Fathers, compromise, James Madison

News Abroad

The Epic Story of the C-130, the Air Force's Monument to Pork
Jeremiah Goulka
Or, how Congress learned to stop worrying and love spending money on planes even the Pentagon doesn't want.
Tags: Congress, corruption, Pentagon, pork-barrel spending
Hugo Chavez's Sullied Progressive Legacy in the Mideast
Juan Cole
He confused anti-imperialism and anti-Americanism with a genuine commitment to improving the lives of the people.
Tags: Hugo Chavez, Iran, Libya, Syria
A Modest Proposal to House Republicans: Cut the Nuclear Weapons Budget
Lawrence S. Wittner
The U.S. wastes hundreds of billions of dollars on a bloated nuclear arsenal.
Tags: budget cuts, defense spending, nuclear weapons, Republican Party
In Defense of Lars Hedegaard
Daniel Pipes
The Danish historian was the target of an assassination attempt by radical Muslims; now he's the victim of character assassination by the New York Times.
Tags: Denmark, Islamism, Lars Hedegaard, radical Islam
Senior al-Qaeda Veteran Captured, But His Successors Roam the Planet
Walid Phares
The trial of Suleiman Abu Ghaith is ultimately strategically irrelevant.
Tags: Al Qaeda, counter-terrorism, Osama bin Laden, Suleiman Abu Ghaith

Historians & History

When It Comes to Transparency, Obama's Channeling His Inner Nixon
Mary L. Dudziak
Nixon suppressed his own controversial foreign policy white paper in 1973.
Tags: Richard Nixon, Cambodia, Vietnam War, Barack Obama
Lucy Lobdell to Lilly Ledbetter: the First Steps on the Rocky Road to Equal Pay
William Klaber
"You could be housekeeper or wife: indentured servant or slave."
Tags: equal pay, feminism, gender, Women's History Month

Culture Watch

A Tumultuous Ride Back to JFK’s Camelot with "Jackie"
Bruce Chadwick
Tina Benko is sensational as the chic First Lady.
Tags: Jackie, JFK, City Center Stage, theater reviews

Books

Review of Colm Toibin's The Testament of Mary
Jim Cullen
A novel in vein of, yet distinct from, The Last Temptation of Christ.
Tags: Colm Toibin, Gospel of John, synoptic gospels, The Testament of Mary
Review of Ray Raphael's Constitutional Myths
Jim Cullen
A lively, engaging rebuttal to conservative Constitutional interpretation.
Tags: Constitutional Myths, Founding Fathers, Constitution, Ray Raphael