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History News Network

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Week of September 23, 2013

#1 There Is No Such Thing as the ‘Traditional Male Breadwinner’
by Stephanie Coontz

The whole concept was a late-arriving, short-lived aberration in the history of the world, and it’s over. We need to move on.

TIME MAGAZINE


#2 Reagan's Revolution Devolves Into a Food-Stamp Skirmish
by Stephen Mihm

We've been in this food stamp battle before.

BLOOMBERG


#3 A Century of American Dreams and Nightmares of China
by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

Fu Manchu is only the tip of the iceberg.

THE CHINA STORY


#4 The Unsung Hero Who Coined the Term "Genocide"
by Michael Ignatieff

If the history of the western moral imagination is the story of an enduring and unending revolt against human cruelty, there are few more consequential figures than Raphael Lemkin.

THE NEW REPUBLIC


#5 Surveillance and the FISA Court
by Bruce Ackerman

Proposed reforms, such as making public all opinions on important legal issues and creating a civil liberties advocate, would help.

LOS ANGELES TIMES


#6 Searching for Madame Nhu
by Katie Baker

Lyndon Johnson flirted with her. JFK hated her. Historians blamed her for South Vietnam's downfall.

THE DAILY BEAST


#7 How Alcohol Conquered Russia
by Stan Fedun

A history of the country’s struggle with alcoholism, and why the government has done so little about it.

THE ATLANTIC


#8 Stand Up to the Biggest Bully in the Room: Mental Illness
by Jonathan Zimmerman

Mental illness is the far more likely culprit than bullying in suicides and school shootings.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR


#9 Machiavelli: Still Shocking after Five Centuries
by Stewart M. Patrick

Machiavelli underlined the distinction between politics and morality.

THE NATIONAL INTEREST


#10 Is Obama Like Ike?
by Slava Gerovitch

If only.

COMMENTARY MAGAZINE