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The Myth and Reality of Major League Baseball

by Ron Briley

As we begin the 2006 baseball season, the nation’s focus is upon Barry Bonds and his pursuit of the home run records established by Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. As sport commentators work themselves into frenzy over Bonds, steroids, and allegations of cheating threatening the sacred institution and records of baseball, it is imperative that we recall that the nation continues to face more important issues such as the disintegration of Iraq and immigration reform. For many Americans, never

Basketball's Best Once Were Blackballed from the College Game

by George Beres

College basketball was for many decades almost an all-White sport. Until the 1950s, Blacks playing on campus courts were rare exceptions. Howard (Hobby) Hobson, coach of the first NCAA champions, Oregon's Tall Firs in the first national tourney in 1939, gambled four years earlier by playing the university's first African-American, Charles Taylor. But after the 1936 season, albino became the dominant color again. At Oregon State, the first Black was Charley White in 1966. I remember th

The Romance of E-Mail: Ground Rules

by Michael H. Ebner

I am no Luddite about electronic communication. Quite the contrary. Exhilarating, intoxicating, and addictive most accurately describe my own romance with e-mail. I find much to agree with in the assertion recently proffered by my fellow historian Edward L. Ayers: e-mail’s ubiquity is another manifestation of humanity’s relentless search for community. But I do harbor some foreboding about my own, easily detectable, romance with e-mail. Hence this cautionary tale, reminis

The Founders Never Imagined a Bush Administration

by Joyce Appleby and Gary Hart

George W. Bush and his most trusted advisers, Richard B. Cheney and Donald H. Rumsfeld, entered office determined to restore the authority of the presidency. Five years and many decisions later, they've pushed the expansion of presidential power so far that we now confront a constitutional crisis. Relying on legal opinions from Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Professor John Yoo, then working at the Justice Department, Bush has insisted that there can be no limits to the power o

Remember When . . .

by Robert S. McElvaine

Remember when . . . Remember when conservatives were opponents of big government?Remember when conservatives warned of the threat of too much power being seized by the president and the executive branch?Remember when conservatives thought excessive federal power was a great danger to Americans’ freedom?Remember when conservatives believed in checks and balances?Remember when conservatives placed their freedoms above their fears?Remember when conservat

National Education Standards….They’re Back!

by Kevin R. Kosar

Over the past six months, the need for national education standards has been talked up. The idea, in short, is that the U.S. should have brief written statements of the skills and knowledge children should attain at each grade level for each subject area. The federal government would either encourage or require states to base their schools’ curricula on these standards. Education colleges, in turn, would train would-be teachers in the standards.

Mr. Bush ... Brought to the Bar of Poetic Justice (Finally)

by Robert S. McElvaine

Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Red State America; this is your wakeup call. It’s 11:55 PM. Do you know where the people being put in charge of our ports are coming from? You have been accepting any number of dubious (at best) policies and actions by the Bush Administration because you have bought the claim that this president is “keeping us safe.” “Remember 9-11” has been the high-decibel noise used to drown out debate on highly debatable policies and to justify anyt

Imperial Schism? The Firing of Bruce Bartlett as a Lesson for Historians

by William Marina

Two economists were in the news this week, with respect to having been, in effect, fired! One of them, Lawrence Summers, is the President of Harvard University. He is resigning, effective in June, rather than face a long period of nasty confrontation with a part of the faculty. He can, however, salve his wounds with the long-term financial remuneration of a tenured senior professorship, and on the lecture circuit, should he choose not to go into either the business world or return to

Katrina Journal: The International Community and New Orleans

by Günter Bischof

The world’s response and tremendous show of empathy to New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina disaster have been nothing short of astounding. International aid and technical expertise have been pouring in ever since the levees broke and Lake Pontchartrain and vast parts of the city became one. German engineers showed up to help with pumping the city dry; French divers came to help clear debris from the river to restart port operations; Dutch engineers are consulting on levees. Tens of

The Dubai Ports Issue is Really Wal-Mart and Toyota All Over Again!

by William Marina

Good Heavens! George Bush is threatening to veto a piece of Congressional legislation, breaking his record of never having used the veto. What's going on?A coalition of Democrats led by New York Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, joined Republican Senate leader, Bill Frist, as well as Christian conservatives such as Cal Thomas, see Dubai's acquisition of P&O's port concessions as a threat to American security. Why, two of the 911 bombers came from that small nation!

Katrina Journal: What We Need Is a Marshall Plan in Reverse

by Günter Bischof

President Bush recently called for a reconstruction of the Gulf Coast along the lines of the Marshall Plan. That makes more sense than ever now that almost the entire Gulf Coast has been devastated by the double punch of hurricanes “Katrina” and “Rita.” We would do well, however, to recall what was involved in the reconstruction of postwar Europe, and what it took to reconstruct it.In Central Europe historic and beautiful cities were burnt and smashed as a resul

Katrina Journal: What Needs to Be Done in New Orleans Now

by Günter Bischof

Thinking about New Orleans these days always produces ambivalent feelings and a jumble of emotions. Some parts of town (Uptown, French Quarter) begin to look normal even though a lot of businesses are still closed and people not back. Other parts continue to look totally blighted ( Lakeside, Gentilly, 9th Ward) and one does not know when and whether they’ll ever come back. While you see a growing number of people back in town going about their business, one can read stories every day ab

Katrina Journal: Forgotten in New Orleans

by Günter Bischof

A couple days ago we passed the “100 days after Katrina” mark. The public mood in New Orleans is grim. Despair and despondency are setting in. People realize that initial post-Katrina “rebuilding-New-Orleans-bigger-and-better” promises of public officials, only gave people hope in the short term (“Durchhalteparolen” we say in German). Three months after Katrina everyone realizes that in the intermediate and long term future nothing will happen quic

Good-Bye Larry Summers -- Without Regrets

by Jim Sleeper

“Larry Summers has weathered the storm. He will be president of Harvard for a very long time,” a celebrity professor who runs a major center there told me a year ago, just after the Harvard Corporation had upheld the embattled Summers against faculty outraged by his political incorrectness. Even now that he has announced his resignation, Summers’ defenders will still insist he’s been martyred by professorial mandarins who hyped up his gross manners, his dressing-down of the African-American sch

Why the Romans Are Important in the Debate About Gay Marriage

by Robert Frakes

Continuing legislative measures attempting to ban gay marriage show that this issue, so critical in our last national election, remains a controversial topic. Since many of our political institutions are derived from ancient Roman precedents, a quick look at Roman laws regarding homosexuality serves to illustrate what may be driving some of the current controversy surrounding gay unions in the United States.While the world of the ancient Greeks seems to have tolerated homosexuality (as

Was Gonzales's Historical Defense of Eavesdropping Convincing?

by Douglas M. Charles

In December 2005, after withholding the story for a year, the New York Times revealed to the public that President George W. Bush had authorized an illegal National Security Agency program. Through this program the NSA eavesdropped on American phone calls (and the like) without first obtaining a warrant from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which by federal law is required. In response, the administration claimed it did not need warrants and purported that the

Was There Always a Clear Dividing Line Between Fact and Fiction?

by Andrea Young

Knowing that biographers have, on occasion, exaggerated or embellished certain facts to provide color and captivate their audiences, why are James Frey's readers scandalized to discover that details about his life were manipulated and fabricated? Because he told A Million Little Lies in the process. His text about drug addiction and alcohol abuse is categorically misrepresented. But the dividing

Fake Autobiographies: A Great American Tradition

by Laura Browder

Let's stop wringing our hands over the recent rash of fake autobiographies.   James Frey and other authors of faux memoirs give us the cliche we want about life on the margins. Only when we end our romance with what we imagine is authentic will we stop getting fooled by literary cons.   First, let's dispose of the idea that these books are merely evidence of deplorable new trends in the world of publishing. Rather, they fall into a centuries-old American traditi

Is the Proposed Asbestos Settlement Fair?

by Rachel Maines

Congress is making its sixteenth attempt in 20 years to legislate an administrative solution to the asbestos claims problem. In a series of media presentations last spring, Dick Armey implied that sponsors of the asbestos trust fund bill S.R. 852, Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, propose to create a $140 million slush fund at the taxpayer’s expense. Specter responded in a May 16, 2005 op-ed article in the New York Times that the fund was one which “manufacturers &hellip

Katrina Journal: Notes from the Frontlines of a Novice History Chair

by Günter Bischof

When I drive to work from the interstate I-610, by the eerily empty St. Bernard Public Housing Project, I drive by two miles of blighted houses on my way to the Lakefront campus of the University of New Orleans. Crews clean up the debris of eviscerated houses emptied to the side of the streets. Piles of mold-covered sheetrock, electronic equipment, books, and furniture are telltale signs of happier days in the “Crescent City.”We reported back to work on the UNO campus on Ja