HNN Rundowns

Week of May 20, 2013

Up Front

The Real Story of the MS St. Louis
Richard Breitman and Allan J. Lichtman
Critics say FDR condemned nearly 1,000 Jews to death by turning them away from American ports, but the reality is quite different.
Tags: FDR, Cuba, Holocaust, MS St. Louis

HNN Hot Topics: Memorial Day
Tags: Memorial Day, holidays, Hot Topics, veterans

News at Home

How Did the IRS Get Investigatory Authority, Anyway?
Douglas M. Charles
The IRS didn't have an investigations division, until they decided to take on the Mafia.
Tags: IRS, Kefauver Committee, organized crime, scandals

Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea
Mark Blyth
There's no sound economic argument for austerity.
Tags: austerity, economics, financial crisis, welfare state

News Abroad

Is Russia Drinking Itself to Death?
Oliver Bullough
The Russian love affair with vodka is slowly destroying the nation.
Tags: alcohol, public health, Russia, vodka

Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Carter: Political BFFs?
Lee P. Ruddin
It's true -- Anglo-American relations would probably have been better if Jimmy Carter had been re-elected.
Tags: Falklands War, Jimmy Carter, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan

How the State Department Gets the Niqab Wrong
Walid Phares
Wearing the niqab and burqa are political, not religious, rights.
Tags: Islamophobia, liberals, Muslim Brotherhood, Barack Obama

Historians & History

Beware Social Nostalgia
Stephanie Coontz
Personal nostalgia is fine, but social nostalgia can distort our understanding of the world.
Tags: gender, New York Times, nostalgia, sexuality

A Different Thomas Jefferson Tried to Eliminate Slavery in Virginia
Thomas Fleming
TJ's grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, sponsored a bill for gradual emancipation in the Virginia legislature.
Tags: Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Virginia, emancipation, Nat Turner

1983: The Most Dangerous Year of the Cold War
David Austin Walsh
The National Security Archive releases new documents on Able Archer 83.
Tags: Able Archer 83, Cold War>, National Security Archive, Soviet Union

Was Joseph Kennedy Really an Anti-Semite?
Fatima Ahmed-Farouta
It depends on your definition of "anti-Semite." He was certainly no friend to the Jews, though.
Tags: anti-Semitism, Holocaust, Joseph P. Kennedy, World War II

Allen Weinstein's Truth to Tell About Alger Hiss
Ronald Radosh
The former National Archives head's 1973 book Perjury has just been reissued.
Tags: Allen Weinstein, Alger Hiss, Richard Nixon, communism

Education

At Universities, Too, the Rich Grow Richer
Lawrence S. Wittner
The outrageous salaries of college presidents are damaging higher education.
Tags: income inequality, tuition, universities, higher education

Books

Review of David Simonelli's Working Class Heroes
Ron Briley
An academic -- but accessible -- look at the impact of rock music on British society.
Tags: David Simonelli, rock music, Great Britain, Beatles