Roundup: Talking About History

Jewish Daily Forward: Liberate the Letter!

When Ron Chernow was travelling the country last year to talk about his new biography of George Washington, he was often asked about Washington’s 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport, R.I. — the one that famously promised that the United States government would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”“There were very few speeches that I made where people didn’t ask about that letter,” Chernow recalled. “I can vouch for the fact that there’s tremendous curiosity out there.”He’s curious, too. Even though Chernow spent six years reading through Washington’s papers to research his book, and was awarded the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for his effort, he’s never seen the original letter. In the last decade, hardly anyone has.

Mao Yushi: Judging Mao as a Man

Mr. Mao is an economist and the chairman of the Unirule Institute. Editor's note: This article is adapted from a longer essay that has now been removed from the website of Caixin magazine. After it was published, pro-Maoist groups have called for the author to be prosecuted for sedition and treason. The translation is by Jude Blanchette. Mao Zedong was once a god. With the uncovering of more and more documents and information, he is gradually returning to human form. Some still view Chairman Mao as a god, however, and view any critical discussion of him as blasphemous. If these people have their way, we will never be able to analyze him, never directly face his legacy, never question his spirit.

Eleanor Clift: Nancy Reagan at 90

Eleanor Clift is a contributing editor for Newsweek.As an aspiring actress in Hollywood, Nancy Davis shaved two years off her age, claiming July 6, 1923, when she was born in 1921. A woman being coy about her age is not uncommon, and the truth didn’t come out until the onetime actress was in the White House as first lady. “I told a little fib,” she said.Not that she minds anymore that well wishers are keeping count. Reagan turns 90 on Wednesday, a milestone to celebrate as much for the life she has lived as her longevity. She’ll mark the day by attending a luncheon in her honor at the home of a longtime friend, Ruth Jones, whose husband headed Northrup Corp. and whose birthday lunch for Nancy is an annual affair.

David E. Shi: A War of Independence that Divided American Colonies

David E. Shi, an Atlanta native, is president emeritus and professor of history at Furman University. He is the co-author of “America: a Narrative History.”History celebrates winners and often forgets losers. Yet it is worth remembering on this Independence Day that Americans both won and lost the Revolutionary war. The struggle for independence was as much a brutal civil war fought between Americans (“Patriots” versus “Loyalists”) as it was a conventional conflict between American and British armies. Americans killed Americans in large numbers.The act of choosing sides divided families and friends, towns and cities. John Adams of Massachusetts, one of the leading revolutionaries and a future president, noted that many of the Tories (a derisive term for Loyalists, implying that they were monarchists) were “my cordial, confidential and bosom friends.”Benjamin Franklin’s illegitimate son, William, was the royal governor of New Jersey. An ardent Loyalist, he sided with Great Britain during the Revolution, leading his disgusted father to remove him from his will.

Charles Desnoyers: Centennial Gala in Philly Inspired Today's China

Charles Desnoyers is associate professor of history and director of Asian Studies at La Salle University. His book on Chinese observer Li Gui is called, A Journey to the East (University of Michigan Press, 2004)'July 4th is the day on which Washington founded the nation. The evening before, at 7:30 p.m., the vice president and the mayor of Philadelphia attended a banquet with the exhibition officials of various countries, after which they took carriages to sightsee. The lamps of all the streets and thoroughfares lit up the heavens and the sound of guns shook the earth. There were hundreds of amusements on hand, and the exploding fireworks and flags draped everywhere all contributed to the festivities. ... The next three days saw similar scenes of celebration, and it was undeniably a very grand affair."

Gordon S. Wood: How the Complete Meaning of July Fourth Is Slipping Away

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor Emeritus at Brown University and the author, most recently, of Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815. At least one of the Founders thought that Independence Day would become important. When the Continental Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, John Adams, who more than any other single Founder was responsible for that vote, was ecstatic. America’s declaring of independence from Great Britain, he told his wife Abigail, marked “the most memorable Epocha in the History of America.” He hoped that the day would be “celebrated by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated,” he said, “as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one end of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

Alexander Heffner: Why Doesn’t John Adams Have a Memorial?

Alexander Heffner, a Washington Post intern, has written for the Boston Globe, Newsday and RealClearPolitics.When President Obama ponders tough decisions at the White House, he may join the cadre of presidents who have sought inspiration in the Truman Balcony’s stunning vista, gazing at the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial, which commemorate our first and third commanders in chief. But there’s a man missing from this presidential panorama.Where is John Adams, our feisty second president and lifelong American patriot? If George Washington was the sword of the revolution and Thomas Jefferson the pen, why have we neglected the voice of our nation’s independence?

Michael White: Ronald Reagan and the Joy of Myth-making

Michael White is assistant editor and has been writing for the Guardian for more than 30 years, as a reporter, foreign correspondent and columnist. He was political editor from 1990-2006, having previously been the paper's Washington correspondent (1984-88) and parliamentary sketchwriter (1977-84). I stayed the course with the Reagan posse after the unveiling of his statue in Grosvenor Square yesterday. That meant attending the gala dinner in the City of London's gorgeous Guildhall and being teased by colleagues in the hack pack for joining assorted toasts to the 40th president, the Queen and others deemed (by the hacks) to be Guardian class enemies. Never mind, it was a fascinating tribal occasion, as tribal occasions often are for non-tribalists.

Mehdi Hasan: Ronald Reagan Was No Hawk – and Certainly No Neocon

Mehdi Hasan is senior editor (politics) at the New Statesman and a former news and current affairs editor at Channel 4. His New Statesman blog is here. He is co-author of Ed: the Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader. Ronald Reagan is back. Today more than a thousand people crowded into London's Grosvenor Square to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the former US president.

Condoleezza Rice: Reagan's Vision of Liberty Still Guides us Today

Condoleezza Rice is a former U.S. secretary of State and is the official representative of former first lady Nancy Reagan at a series of Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation Centennial Celebrations in Europe this week. Nearly 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan spoke to the British Parliament and declared that the march of freedom and democracy would leave the Soviet Union" on the ash heap of history." Many remember these famous words as much for their boldness as they do for their prescience.

Jed Babbin: Bob Gates' Legacy

Jed Babbinserved as a Deputy Undersecretary of Defense under George H.W. Bush. He is the author of several bestselling books including Inside the Asylum and In the Words of Our Enemies. In five years as defense secretary, Dr. Robert Gates transformed the American military and put it on a course that will limit its ability to defend us for decades to come. Gates' term as defense secretary began under President Bush and ended after more than two years of Barack Obama's presidency. Of Gates' "accomplishments," three stand out, each of them a significant part of Obama's agenda. First is the sociological experimentation that he and Obama have imposed on the military. Second is the path of weakness and withdrawal from the global war against Islamic terrorism. Third is the diminution of our armed services' ability to develop and use conventional forces, investing only in forces intended to fight "unconventional" wars. Gates is the only defense secretary in history chosen by a new president to remain in office from one administration to another. But why?

John Heubusch: The Reagan-Thatcher Legacy Lives

Mr. Heubusch is the executive director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library. Speaking at Westminster Hall earlier this year, President Barack Obama hailed the British-American relationship as "indispensable to the goal of a century that is more peaceful, more prosperous and more just." The central threats he was referring to include the spread of terrorist networks and the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the modern age. Some 29 years earlier, President Ronald Reagan also stood before a joint session of parliament and pledged that the march of freedom and democracy, led by the United States and Britain, would "leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history." Such declarations of a shared destiny are important between these two nations that constitute the greatest alliance of the last 100 years. Both Britons and Americans must never forget the impact their "special relationship" has had on world peace—first in its restoration, second in its preservation. Words are fleeting though, and we often need visible reminders of our commitments. So today the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation is dedicating a statue of America's 40th President at Grosvenor Square in London.

Felisa Rogers: Thomas Jefferson, America's Original Foodie

Felisa Rogers studied history and nonfiction writing at the Evergreen State College and went on to teach writing to kids for five years. She lives in Oregon’s coast range, where she works as a freelance writer and editor.The table is set with an elegant fusion of Southern comfort food and fine French cuisine. The beef and lamb are grass-fed; the artisan smoked hams are from locally raised pigs. The produce is locally grown and, of course, organic. All this local bounty is enhanced by fine imports: Italian Parmesan, French wine, and extra virgin olive oil. No, you're not sitting down to eat with Michael Pollan; you're at the table of Thomas Jefferson, statesman and gourmand extraordinaire.Despite his service as legislator, the governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, and president of the United States, Jefferson likely believed his famous statement: "The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture." In honor of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we explore the author's lesser-known contribution to American culture: his influence on the country's culinary tradition.

William Dietrich: Put the Story in History

William Dietrich is the author of six novels, including the most recent Ethan Gage Adventures, NAPOLEON’S PYRAMIDS, THE ROSETTA KEY, and THE DAKOTA CIPHER, and the newest is BARBARY PIRATES.People learn through stories. Jesus told parables. Abraham Lincoln charmed his way with humorous tales. Ronald Reagan enthralled audiences with anecdotes he kept on 3-by-5 cards.Too many history textbook writers don't understand this, and the result is abysmal historical memory by many Americans. Most historians can't write, and so too many Americans "don't know much about history."One way to get them hooked is historical fiction, which emphasizes the "story" in history.The subject popped into the news recently with Sarah Palin's rambling mangling of the story of Paul Revere, a level of ignorance which has to be seen (YouTube) to be believed.It was followed a few days later by the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which showed only half of American students are "proficient" in history and only 2 percent of high school seniors understood the significance of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court decision striking down segregated schools.

Oscar Humphries: Why We're Debating 1788 and All That

Oscar Humphries is the editor of the art magazine Apollo. He was the launch editor of The Spectator Australia. In January 1788, the first fleet of ships carrying British convicts arrived in Botany Bay after an eight-month journey from Portsmouth. No British ship had been back to Terra Australis since Captain James Cook's discovery 18 years beforehand. Parliament had debated founding a penal colony in Australia on the relatively scant evidence provided by Cook and his officers. This was truly uncharted territory and must have felt even more so, in a way that is nowadays impossible to grasp with a 21st-century mindset. Indeed, up until the Australian High Court's famous 1992 decision in Mabo vs Queensland, which recognised the land title of indigenous peoples, the country was legally deemed to have been terra nullius (no man's land) prior to British settlement. In Robert Hughes's seminal (and revisionist) account of early Australian history, he describes the ship Sirius sailing past Point Solanda (now part of Sydney).

Patrick Smith: Kissinger’s Skilled Eye on China, Then and Now

TFT Columnist Patrick Smith spent nearly 30  years in Asia,  covering the Far East for the International Herald Tribune, The New Yorker, and other publications. His latest book, Somebody Else’s Century: East and West in a Post–Western World, was published by Pantheon last year.     Nearing age 90 now, Henry Kissinger has set down in a new book his extraordinary challenge four decades ago, when he brought together Mao Tse-tung, the giant of the peasant revolution, with the dedicated anti-Communist, Richard M. Nixon.  On China (Penguin Press, $36), whatever else it purports to be, is at its core the former secretary of state’s reflections on the most imaginative and elegantly fashioned diplomatic initiative of his career – and of his time. Kissinger explains the China he found when he began the spadework for Nixon’s visit in February 1972. This was an important project, for the past is ever-present in  the Chinese consciousness.

Tom Buchanan: The Secret History of Britain's Spanish Civil War Volunteers

Tom Buchanan is reader in modern history and politics at the Oxford University's department for continuing education. He has written three books on aspects of Britain's involvement in the Spanish Civil War: his new book, East Wind: China and the British Left, 1925-1976 will be published by Oxford University Press. The release of MI5's records on British volunteers during the Spanish civil war is a fascinating new source and an invaluable addition to the available archival information. However, claims in the media that these figures show that many more Britons volunteered than had previously been thought should be treated with caution. The new sources apparently suggest that some 4,000 Britons departed for Spain (compared with the standard figure of 2,500 or less) – a number that even exceeds the 2,762 that emerged from research in Spanish archives during the 1960s and 70s (at a time when the Franco regime, which had always sought to inflate the number of foreigners fighting in Spain, was still in power).

Alexei Bayer: Who Really Won World War II?

Alexei Bayer, a native Muscovite, is a New York-based economist.Russians react nervously to any narrative about World War II that differs from their own. When the United States, Britain or France pay tribute to their countrymen who fought and defeated Adolf Hitler, it is seen in Moscow as an attempt to diminish Russia’s contribution. Russians hold it as self-evident that they bore the brunt of Hitler’s fury and did the lion’s share of fighting with only minimal support from the Allies.

Kate Coleman: Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt: The Untold Story of the Black Panther Leader, Dead At 63

Kate Coleman is a journalist who has covered the Black Panthers since 1977 (“The Party’s Over,” New Times) and in numerous articles since. She is the author of The Secret Wars of Judi Bari, the Earth First leader.

Simon Schama: The Founding Fathers, Unzipped

Simon Schama is a professor of history at Columbia University.