Historians/History

When Archivists Deal with Power Players

by Maarja Krusten

President George W. Bush reportedly is leaning toward Southern Methodist University (SMU) as the site of his Presidential Library, which will be administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).  A handful of people negotiate site selection for a Presidential Library.   A history professor at SMU has posted on his blog articles reflecting v

The English-Speaking Peoples Should Be Proud of Their History

by Andrew Roberts

 ‘We might have been a free and great people together.’ -- Thomas Jefferson, 1776 ‘I am here to tell you that, whatever form your system of world security may take, however the nations are grouped and ranged, whatever derogations are made from national sovereignty for the sake of the larger synthesis, nothing will work soundly or for long without the united effort of the British and American peoples. If we are together nothing is impossible. I

Breaking News in the Story of the May 4, 1970 Kent State Shootings?

by William A. Gordon

Blood Libel: Ariel Toaff's Perplexing Book

by Kenneth Stow

A week after its publication, Ariel Toaff has withdrawn his Pasque di sangue (in English: Bloody Passovers: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders) from circulation. Hopefully this will elegantly end an unfortunate episode.  The book’s thesis is unambiguous:  Jews crucified Christian children and used their blood ritually. The author’s disclaimers, like that which appears in a recent article in the Chronicle

It’s not Bush, Stupid! Polling “The Worst President”

by Lee P. Ruddin

Well before the ink had dried on Sean Wilentz’s article in Rolling Stone, lefty blogosphere’s were in meltdown sounding off the problem–plagued presidency of George W. Bush. This is compounded by the accompanying mala fideswebsite. Yet, since the Princeton historian’s piece ran last May we have been caught in a torrent of historians (a Nobel Prize laureate, Pu

Why Have Scholars Underplayed George Washington’s Faith?

by Peter A. Lillback

The faith of our founding father, George Washington, has been the source of debate among scholars throughout the 20th, and now into the 21st century. Prior to that, it was generally the case that very few questioned the strength or validity of the claim that George Washington was a Christian. It was not until around the time of the bicentennial of Washington’s birth, in 1932, that the consensus began to shift to the view that Washington was a Deist, that is, one who is generally non-rel

Reflections on Thomas Ryan’s Article About Barbara Weinstein

by Margaret Power

I was surprised, in fact appalled, to read the article on AHA president Barbara Weinstein published on the History News Network on January 30, 2007. Thomas Ryan wrote the article, which was originally posted on David Horowitz’s FrontpageMag.com. The article embodies precisely the kind of journalism that we as scholars repudiate. It is slanderous, replete with unsubstantiated aspersions and red herrings, and, most important

Bad Arolsen Holocaust Insurance and Corporate Revelations Years Delayed

by Edwin Black

When Jews too weak to work were routinely marched from their concentration camp barracks into oblivion, when shrieking families with arms and fingers outstretched were torn apart during deportations, when the winds of politics and opportunity scattered refugees and survivors throughout the world, many rightfully thought that the story of their persecution and fate would be as indistinguishable as a single ash rising from a chimney. Even though millions did not survive, much of their story

When Lawyers Go Wrong, Historians Set the Record Straight

by Ralph Luker

I spent a good share of early October working with a group of historians on an amicus brief that we filed on Tuesday the 10th in two cases that the Supreme Court is scheduled to begin hearing on 4 December. Known formally as Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and

Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?

by Guenter Lewy

The plight of American Indians represents not a crime, but a tragedy.

Look Before You Leap into Presidential Libraries

by Maarja Krusten

The Weekly Standard reported in its Jan. 22 edition on the controversy over housing the George W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of the Southern Methodist University (SMU). The Standard called the academics who signed a letter of protest "an embarrassment to scholarship." If you read the

President Bush and History

by Mark Nevin

Will history look favorably on President Bush? Admittedly, things don’t look good. In April, historian Sean Wilentz told us: “Many historians are now wondering whether Bush . . . will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history.” Although historians may be a liberal lot, they are not the only Americans to think that history will judge Bush harshly. In a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted last month

Harvard: Albert Einstein’s Disappointment

by Arnold Reisman

Harvard University’s websites proudly point to the fact that it awarded Albert Einstein an honorary SD degree in 1935. The university is making use of its honorary degree to Einstein even though as is well-known, the school at the time and for over a decade afterwards refused to hire Jews. However Einstein’s willingness to be used by Harvard is still something of a mystery on the 70th anniversary of his receiving the honor.

The Day It Became the Longest War

by Lt. Gen. Charles Cooper, USMC (Ret.)

"The President will see you at two o'clock."It was a beautiful fall day in November of 1965; early in the Vietnam War-too beautiful a day to be what many of us, anticipating it, had been calling "the day of reckoning." We didn't know how accurate that label would be.The Pentagon is a busy place. Its workday starts early-especially if, as the expression goes, "there's a war on." By seven o'clock, the staff of Admiral David L. McDonald, the Navy's senior admiral and Chief of Naval Operations, had started to work. Shortly after seven, Admiral McDonald arrived and began making final preparations for a meeting with President Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Gerald Ford: Both Steely and Nice

by Gil Troy

The late President Gerald Ford certainly earned the tributes he has received from Republicans and Democrats alike. His decency, his humility, his integrity made him an exceptional politician and human being. But even as we celebrate his life, we should not delude ourselves into thinking that one can become a veteran Congressman, the House of Representatives Minority Leader, and eventually, the President of the United States, even indirectly, without considerable backbone and ego. Nor should we p

The Baseball Player Who Used His Celebrity to Bring Mental Illness Out into the Open Royals and the Reich' Reveals Fateful History of Nazi Princes

by Barron H. Lerner

In 1952, a major league baseball player did calisthenics and hula dances in the outfield and mocked pitchers when he got on base. When the team sent him to the minors, he climbed into the stands to lead cheers for himself, ran around wearing only an athletic supporter and sprayed home plate with a water pistol when an umpire called him out. The player was Jimmy Piersall. His book, entitled “Fear Strikes Out,” helped to expose the realities of mental illness, a condition that

A New Story for America

by Bill Moyers

The following is an adaptation of remarks made by Bill Moyers to a December 12 gathering in New York sponsored by The Nation, Demos, the Brennan Center for Justice and the New Democracy Project. You could not have chosen a better time to gather. Voters have provided a respite from a right-wing radicalism predicated on the philosophy that extremism in the pursuit of virtue is no vice. It seems only yesterday that the Trojan horse of conservatism was hauled into Washington to disg

Martin Luther King's True Legacy: Revolutionary Ideals

by Randal Maurice Jelks

It was a momentous day this past November when the ground breaking for the monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., occurred. Erecting a monument for Martin Luther King, Jr. on the National Mall in Washington will honor a great American. However, when it is built the powerful message that King delivered to his contemporaries will be diluted by effusive rhetoric obscuring historical reality. The reality is that Martin Luther King held revolutionary ideals rooted in the 18th-century visio

Not Allowed to Teach the Nation's Founding? Not Again!

by J.L. Bell

Just before Thanksgiving in 2004 and again in 2005, American newspapers carried stories about a public school preventing a teacher from discussing the nation's founding. In both years, that formulation of the dispute turned out to be a distortion created by the teacher's politically conservative supporters. Will that pattern repeat in 2006? In both of the recent cases, the teacher and his supervisors were in the midst of an older, more complex disagreement. Their disputes wouldn't