Historians/History

A Titanic Hero Made by History: Interview with Author and Commentator Chris Matthews on the Elusive John F. Kennedy

by Robin Lindley

Almost anyone who is a baby boomer or older has a vivid memory of where they were when they heard that President John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas on November 22, 1963. And many remember the slain young leader as an almost mythical character: witty, handsome, idealistic, energetic, inclusive. But the reality of John F. Kennedy was much more complex and much more intriguing.Just a few days after the assassination, on November 29, his widow Jacqueline Kennedy told journalist Theodore White: “History made him, this lonely, sick boy.. His mother never loved him. History made Jack, this little boy reading history.”

Rediscovering the History Uncertainty Principle

by Gil Troy

Tenure is intended to give academics freedom to question, to experiment, to risk. But this freedom to fail often becomes a license to go stale. Too many scholars stick to their usual methods, forgetting to question assumptions, take fresh looks, to think boldly. We should continue stoking our original curiosity, refined by experience over time.Three years ago, Dr. Andrew Gyory of Facts on File asked me to update and revise the classic History of American Presidential Elections, originally edited by the legendary historians Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Fred Israel. Flattered, I agreed. He had no idea how significant that collection was to me, nor did I realize how complicated the project would be. I ended up taking an intellectual journey that challenged a central assumption most modern American historians share: that the information we work with is accurate.

A History Lesson for Newt Gingrich: Andrew Jackson was a Savage Indian Killer

by William Loren Katz

"It's not that I'm a good debater. It's that I articulate the deepest-felt values of the American people," announced the victorious Newt Gingrich in South Carolina. Republican voters [only two percent were African Americans] saw his tough, angry, racial language as straight talking. He eagerly strummed racial themes—black urban pupils ought to serve as assistant janitors to learn what is really needed in school, which is how to stick to a job and make and spend money. He then suggested the urban poor need to get jobs and learn decent work habits rather than accept handouts from the “greatest food stamp president.”

1876: The Year When Things Went from Bad to Worse for Indians and Blacks

by William Loren Katz

As 2011 ended the U.S. Senate voted 92 to 6 for the McCain-Levin amendments [S 1867] to the National Defense Authorization Act.  In the name of fighting terrorism, an astounding majority of Democratic and Republican leaders granted unlimited authority to the president [and future presidents] and the Army to arrest anyone, citizen or foreigner, here or abroad, and imprison them in Poland, Pennsylvania, or Guantanamo or anywhere else—indefinitely.  Ninety-two of our Senators agreed the detained could be denied access to attorneys and loved ones, and “enhanced interrogation” rather than legal procedures would determine if they are guilty of terrorist plots.  True, some rigid constitutionalists and libertarians from Senator Rand Paul on the right to the ACLU on the left have condemned S 1867 as a threat to our core beliefs and democratic system.  But S 1867 swept through on the 235th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence. 

Richard Nixon, from Mean-Spirited Disgrace to Elder Statesman

by Yoav J. Tenembaum

Richard Nixon was a man of contradictions.He was brilliant at delineating a worldview and mean at describing his fellow human beings.  His political thoughts could be all-encompassing in their reach while his personal instincts could be very short-sighted in their horizon. He said his dream was to further the cause of world peace, but he did much to create discord with individuals.It should be noted, though, that Nixon had close friends and intimate political assistants who were loyal to him.  He did not discriminate.  His disdainful comments about minority groups applied to them all without discrimination:  Jews, Italians, Poles, African Americans, etc. He could be equally denigrating in his remarks about them all.On the other hand, he would have no problem whatsoever working with people who belonged to any of those minorities he disliked.  Nixon drew a line between his personal dislike of a minority group and the political allegiance of an individual.  If a person shared his worldview, Nixon was more than ready to have him on his staff, notwithstanding his ethnic or religious background.  The closest person to him in shaping foreign and national security policy was Henry Kissinger, a Jew with whom Nixon, in his twisted ironic manner, would share his anti-Semitic remarks.

Restoring Indian History at Jamestown and Williamsburg: Interview with Historic Anthropologist Buck Woodard

by Priscilla Hart

Passions for the past — and jobs — come alive at history convention

Crossing the lobby of the Chicago Marriott Downtown hotel later this week, you might hear enigmatic snatches of conversation, like:"I'm intrigued by 'Constructive Aspects of Mass Violence.' And you?""I'm off to 'Pirates, State Actors and Hegemonic Systems in the pre-Modern Mediterranean.'"Those would be the voices of historians choosing from among the 257 sessions of their annual gathering. Upward of 1,500 scholars are expected to attend the convention of the American Historical Association, which meets in Chicago every half-dozen years or so....

Upcoming Sessions of Interest at the American Historical Association Convention

by HNN Staff

Thursday, January 53:00 pm to 5:00 pmSession #10: Reshaping History: The Intersection of Radical and Women's History (Marriott Los Angeles Room)Session #17: Roundtable: John McCormick's Machiavellian Democracy (Marriott Addison Room)Session #31: U.S. State Archives and Government Information Secrecy: Access and Historical Research (Marriott Clark Room)8:00 pm to 10:00 pmPlenary Session: How to Write a History of Information: A Session in Honor of Peter Burke (Sheraton Ballroom V)Friday, January 69:30 am to 11:30 amSession #34: Interviewing in the Job Market in the Twenty-First Century (Sheraton Chicago Ballroom VIII)

Does Anybody Remember the Battle of An Loc?

by Thomas Fleming

The answer to that question is a big NO.  But for a few months in the spring of 1972, it looked as if An Loc would join the historic turning point victories of Saratoga and Gettysburg in the American pantheon.  As we withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, perhaps we should remember why the message of hope An Loc sent to the free world faltered and failed so heartbreakingly.

Agent Orange is Still Killing People in Vietnam and America

by Fred A. Wilcox

Photographs by Brendan B. Wilcox WARNING: PHOTOGRAPHS BELOW ARE EXTREMELY GRAPHIC AND MAY DISTURB SOME VIEWERSIn the abominable history of war, with the sole exception of nuclear weapons, never has such an inhuman fate ever before been reserved for the survivors.—Dr. Ton That Tung, Vietnamese research scientist

"Did Alan Singer Actually See the Exhibition?" A Reponse from a Curator at the New-York Historical Society

by Richard Rabinowitz

Professor Alan Singer’s demolition job on the New-York Historical Society exhibition, Revolution! The Atlantic World Reborn, published on the History News Network on December 5, is so rife with distortions and misrepresentations as to require a response.  As the exhibition chief curator and writer, I cannot recognize our exhibition in the professor’s review.  I am grateful for Dr. Darlene Roth’s response (“Consider This: Response to Alan Singer,” posted on H-Public, 12/14/11), but I want to take up the cudgels myself and answer Singer’s charges point-by-point.

Rick Shenkman's Media Appearances

Rick Shenkman can regularly be seen on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC.

What's Wrong with School Reform: Interview with Diane Ravitch

by Craig Thurtell

Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, addressed teachers at the National Council for the Social Studies national conference on December 2, 2011.  She agreed to be interviewed for HNN the following week.Where do you rank poverty among the factors that push the U.S. so far down the international rankings in educational performance?

Arne Duncan Exhorts Teacher “Troublemakers”

by Craig Thurtell

The National Council for Social Studies held its national conference in Washington, D.C. from December 2-5. Craig Thurtell reports.There was no reason for the teachers attending a breakfast event at the NCSS conference to welcome Arne Duncan into their midst.  After all, he means them no good.  In concert with a phalanx of hedge fund sharks-cum-school reformers, he wants to make teaching in the public schools harder and more precarious, and maybe even superfluous.  Nevertheless, upon his arrival, the gathering clambered to its feet and offered him a standing ovation.  He returned the favor by flattering them with a story about the social studies teachers on his staff who warned him that their ilk was composed of "troublemakers" who always question authority.  But that's a good thing, Duncan said; without troublemakers the US would still be a colony, slavery would still be with us, women would still have no rights, and so on.  He thanked the gathering “for all the trouble you’ve caused.” 

How to Teach Students to Think Like Historians

by Craig Thurtell

The National Council for Social Studies held its national conference in Washington, D.C. from December 2-5. Craig Thurtell reports.There was not a seat to spare by the time Abby Reisman began her presentation at the 2011 National Council for Social Studies conference December 2.  Maybe teachers crowded in because Reisman’s dissertation, the basis for her presentation, won the NCSS’s Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation award.  Or maybe word has begun to spread about the effectiveness of teaching and learning history by exercising the analytical skills of the historian.  No matter, the attendees heard a fascinating and compelling argument for integrating historical thinking skills into their lessons.  (In addition to my notes on her presentation, Reisman graciously agreed to sit down with me later for further discussion, and subsequently sent me two forthcoming papers, from which I will draw in this account.  I cannot, however, hope to convey the full richness of her work.)

How Do Staid Museums Navigate a User-Generated World?

by Bill Adair, Benjamin Filene, and Laura Koloski

The traditional expertise of the history museum seems to be challenged at every turn.  Web 2.0 invites ordinary people to become their own archivists, curators, historians, and designers as they organize images on Snapfish, identify artifacts through Flickr, post text on wikis, and create websites with WordPress and Weebly.  Bricks-and-mortar museums, meanwhile, in pursuit of “civic engagement,” give community members more say in what stories the museum showcases and how they get told.  Exhibitions frequently shun the authoritative voice.

The Gift of Anguish—Psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi on Leadership and Mental Illness

by Robin Lindley

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness. Aristotle It seems reasonable to assume that the mentally healthiest people make the best leaders.  However, in his provocative new book A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness (Penguin Press), psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi, MD, MPH, posits a provocative inverse law of sanity: the best crisis leaders are either mentally ill or mentally abnormal; the worst crisis leaders are mentally healthy.        An expert on mood disorders, Dr. Ghaemi finds that historical leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Adolf Hitler, Franklin Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King all suffered from mental illness, particularly depression or mania.  These mood problems, according to Dr. Ghaemi, are characterized by four traits that enhance effective crisis leadership:  creativity, realism, empathy, and resilience. 

The Day of Infamy—How Japan’s Hollow Victory Spelt the End for Hitler

by Rupert Colley

Seventy years ago, on December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States.  In just two hours it crippled a large part of the U.S. fleet docked in Pearl Harbor and, in one swift stroke, forever destroyed U.S. isolationism, unified the country for war, and made the conflicts raging in Europe, Asia, and Africa one truly global war. The U.S. may have been expecting war but the attack on Pearl Harbor took it by surprise.  Yet eleven months before, one voice predicted such a possibility.  On January 27, 1941, the U.S. ambassador in Japan, Joseph Grew, cabled the White House warning that the Japanese might “attempt a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor using all their military facilities.” As 1941 wore on, the likelihood of war became more apparent but the U.S. ignored Grew’s prediction, believing that conflict, if it came, would either start in the U.S.-controlled Philippines or the Dutch or British possessions in Southeast Asia.

Pearl Harbor: Seventy Years Later

by Hiroshi Kitamura

Japan’s surprise attack of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was a dramatic event that destroyed and wrecked at least eighteen U.S. vessels and 188 planes, while killing some 2,400 Americans. The experience was spectacular and horrifying. Yet the impact of the military operation far transcended the immediate damages it inflicted on the strategically valued harbor. Throughout the years afterwards, the “day of infamy” would yield far-reaching influence on politics, diplomacy, society, and culture in the United States, Japan, Hawai’i, and other parts of the world. 

Remembering Pearl Harbor with Japanese and American Teachers

by Yujin Yaguchi

Every year on December 8, I ask my first-year undergraduate students if they can think of anything significant about that day.  Some students point out that it is the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Others say it is the day John Lennon was shot to death in 1980.Obviously the two incidents did not actually happen on the same date—Pearl Harbor was attacked at 7:55 a.m. Hawai‘i time on December 7 and Lennon was shot at around 10:50 p.m. in New York City on December 8th.  In Japan, however, the Pearl Harbor attack is remembered by Japan time—3:25 a.m. December 8—whereas Lennon’s murder is remembered by U.S. Eastern Standard Time, and it causes confusion among the students.