The "Madman Theory" Was Quintessential Nixon
By Zachary Jonathan Jacobson
The Latest 
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H.W. Brands on Ben Barnes's "Revelation" about the Iran Hostage Crisis
"In effect, Connally and Casey were telling the Iranians not to do something the Iranians had no intention of doing."
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An American Witness to the European Movement Against the Iraq Invasion
Brian Sandberg
The European Social Forum, held in Florence in November 2002, didn't stop the US invasion of Iraq. But it did usher in an era of pan-european civic action that remains powerful today.
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The History of State Interposition Shows Federalism is a Deliberative Process, not a Set of Rules
Christian G. Fritz
The efforts of state legislatures to oppose federal law have been varied. In sum, they show that the Supreme Court cannot dictate the distribution of power under federalism; Americans will have to keep figuring it out as we go, through political deliberation.
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Israel and Palestine Have a Way Forward. Will They Choose It?
Alon Ben-Meir
It is time for Israel and the Palestinians to face the bittersweet truth and accept certain realities on the ground that neither side can change short of a calamity. These inescapable realities will frame the contours of a peace agreement in the context of an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian confederation.
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O'Hanlon: Policymakers Need to Know More History
James Thornton Harris
"Studying war in this way should humble us about our ability to control and contain it in the future," says the Brookings Institution scholar, who urges security policymakers to read as much history as they can.
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ChatGPT Wants to Join SEIU in Breakthrough for Organized Labor
Jim Castagnera
Business owners looking to replace workers with automation beware; ChatGPT is a union bot.
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The Iraq Invasion Turns 20
Historians comment on the consequences of the invasion and efforts to control the narrative about how and why the US invaded.
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The Roundup Top Ten for March 24, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The Curious History of Ulysses Grant's Great Grandfather
John Reeves
The military experiences of Noah Grant in the French and Indian War typified changes in military strategy in the Americas and cemented a family commitment to the military that drove his great grandson Ulysses.
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Keri Leigh Merritt on the Politics of Grief and the Power of Historians' Witness to COVID
Three years since the public became aware of the seriousness of the COVID pandemic, a recent collection of essays turns the skills of historians toward reflection on grief, survival, and connecting understanding of the past to a better collective future.
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When World War II Pacifists "Conquered the Future"
Eric Laursen
Daniel Akst profiles the pacifists who opposed American involvement in the Second World War and their influence on the civil rights and peace movements that followed.
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Censoring History Education Goes Hand in Hand with Democratic Backsliding
Julia Boechat Machado and Ruben Zeeman
Regimes in the Philippines, India and Brazil have recently tried to censor the teaching of history in service of their poltical goals and claims to power. The pushback by scholars in these countries should inspire historians in Florida and elsewhere to resist the political censorship of research and teaching.
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The Nixon Library's Vietnam Exhibition Obscures the Truth about the War's End
Brian Robertson
The exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Paris Peace Accords chooses its sources selectively to present the negotiations as the product of Nixon's grand strategy, ignoring the role of domestic political machination.
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The "Critical Race Theory" Controversy Continues
Florida's legislature is working to implement the agenda laid out by Governor Ron DeSantis, including eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and putting control of faculty hiring in the hands of university presidents, not faculty.
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The Roundup Top Ten for March 17, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The Defiant Woman at the Center of New York's First Abortion Battle
Alan J. Singer
Carolyn Ann Trow Lohman, better known as Madame Restell, defied the authority of the medical establishment and moral crusaders to help women obtain abortions. Justice Alito's misuse of history to justify the Dobbs decision shows the need to remember her.
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Blog
"You Don't Belong Here": Elizabeth Becker Tells the Story of the Women Journalists of Vietnam
Robin Lindley
Elizabeth Becker discusses her triple biography of Frances FitzGerald, Catherine Leroy and Kate Webb, three women journalists who broke barriers to cover the war in Vietnam, and Becker's own ex...
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How The Irish Saved Wellington at Waterloo
Brendan Farrell
For centuries, the Irish provided manpower to the British military, never more notably than on June 18, 1815.
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What Makes a Rebel Into a Hero?
Stephen Dando-Collins
The same political process that made a hero out of the rebel Julius Caesar made villains out of his assassins, and burnished the reputations of some other rebels against the Roman Empire.
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Irish Legend Should Inspire the Fight Against Famine Today
William Lambers
The Irish show Riverdance has incorporated elements of legend derived from the Irish experience of famine, and raised funds to help victims of hunger around the world, an example to follow at St. Patrick's Day.
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The Roundup Top Ten for March 10, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
- Chair of Florida Charter School Board on Firing of Principal: About Policy, Not David Statue
- Graduate Student Strikes Fight Back Against Decades of Austerity, Seek to Revive Opportunity
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- Strangelove on the Square: Secret USAF Films Showed Airmen What to Expect if Nuclear War Broke Out
- The Women of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- New Books Force Consideration of Reconstruction's End from Black Perspective
- Excerpt: How Apartheid South Africa Tried to Create a Libertarian Utopia
- Historian's Book on 1970s NBA Shows Racial Politics around Basketball Have Always Been Ugly
- Kendi: "Anti-woke" Part of Backlash Against Antiracist Protest Movements
- Monica Muñoz Martinez Honored for Truth-Telling in Texas History
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