Week of February 4, 2013
Up Front
 Important State of the Union Addresses in HistoryTags: State of the Union, presidential speeches, presidents, Congress |
 HNN Book of the Month: The Story of America: Essays on Origins -- by Jill LeporeTags: Book of the Month, February, Jill Lepore, The Story of America |
Blogs
 Ed Koch, Pat Moynihan, and the Politics of Patriotic IndignationGil Troy Sometimes anger is the rational response to challenges -- and can certainly pay off politically. Tags: 1970s, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ed Koch, New York |
 The Imaginary World of the “War Against al-Qaeda”Ira Chernus Perhaps most Americans have forgotten that another story is possible. Tags: al-Qaeda, drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, Osama bin Laden |
 How Do This Year's Oscar Nominees Rate on the Bechdel Test?Steve Hochstadt Seven for nine among Best Picture nominees, but that's being generous. Tags: Bechdel test, feminism, movies, Oscars |
 Fighting Old Wars (And Contemplating New Ones) ... Josh Brown's Life During Wartime John McCain and Chuck Hagel. Tags: Chuck Hagel, John McCain, Senate hearings, Secretary of Defense |
News at Home
 What's Still Missing From the Gun Control DebateJim Sleeper We're not talking about how we're sold violence. Tags: civics, Civil Rights Act, gun control, guns |
 Forget the Contrarians: Ed Koch Was A True LiberalRobert W. Snyder With a capital L, especially with his record on affordable housing. Tags: Ed Koch, liberalism, New York City, obituaries |
 The Income Tax Amendment Turns One Hundred and It’s Worth CelebratingRay Raphael Forget Grover Norquist -- the Sixteenth Amendment closed a massive loophole in American tax law. Tags: Constitution, income taxes, Sixteenth Amendment, taxes |
 Actually, Scalia's Legal Logic Permits Gun ControlAlan Singer Using Antonin Scalia's textualist legal school against him. Tags: Antonin Scalia, Constitution, gun control, textualism |
 Could We Actually Learn Something from '50s-Style Civics Education?Erik Christiansen Reinterpreting Cold War-era civic education. Tags: civic engagement, civics, education, Cold War, Freedom Train |
 Channelling George Washington: The Worthless ContinentalThomas Fleming A warning for our current Congress on why not to print your way out of debt. Tags: Channelling George, economics, inflation, paper money |
 The Politics of Debt in AmericaSteve Fraser From debtor's prison to debtor nation. Tags: debt, economic history, personal debt, TomDispatch |
News Abroad
 The American Lockdown StateTom Engelhardt Post-legal drones, the bin Laden tax, and other wonders of our American world. Tags: Barack Obama, drones, United States of Fear, war on terror |
 Women in Combat: Not New, but a Milestone NonethelessTanya L. Roth The next step is to rethink the hypermasculine culture of the military. Tags: combat, military history, U.S. Army, women's history |
 Is the Obama Administration Abandoning Its Commitment to a Nuclear-Free World?Lawrence S. Wittner Nuclear disarmament has been punted from "years" to "centuries." Tags: Barack Obama, nuclear disarmament, nuclear policy, nuclear weapons |
 Anti-Zionism is Anti-SemitismAndrew Seth Meyers Brooklyn College is hosting a B.D.S. event this week -- this is their fundamental mistake. Tags: anti-Zionism, BDS, Brooklyn College, Israeli/Palestinian conflict |
 The Hagel HearingsNick Turse The last best chance for the truth about a lost war and America’s war-making future. Tags: Chuck Hagel, Vietnam, war crimes, atrocities |
Historians & History
 The Caribbean Origins of American SlaveryAndrea Stuart The "white" and "black" races were invented on Barbados. Tags: Barbados, Caribbean, colonialism, slavery |
 The World's Train Station: Grand CentralKris Wood An interview with New York Times reporter Sam Roberts on the history of the seminal terminal. Tags: Grand Central Station, Manhattan, New York City, Sam Roberts |
 The Paris "Peace" Accords Were a Deadly DeceptionKen Hughes Richard Nixon let thousands of Americans die to further his political career. Tags: Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Vietnam, Vietnam War |
 NASA's History of Organizational ProblemsRobert Huddleston On the tenth anniversary of the Columbia disaster, a look back at great NASA blunders from the 1960s. Tags: administration, business, NASA, organizations |
Culture Watch
 Why the Volkswagen Super Bowl Ad Isn't RacistPearl Duncan Can we just celebrate a different culture already? Tags: racism, stereotypes, Super Bowl, Volkswagen |
Books
 Review of Aida D. Donald’s Citizen Soldier: A Life of Harry S. TrumanMurray Polner Was he a near-great president or in over his head? Tags: biographies, book reviews, Harry S. Truman, Aida Donald |
 Review of David Shambaugh's China Goes Global: The Partial PowerJim Cullen Could China in 2013 be in the same global position as America in 1913? Tags: book reviews, China, David Shambaugh, geopolitics |