Roundup: Historians' Take

Robert E. May: Slavery was the Central, But Not the Only, Cause of the Civil War

[Robert E. May, Professor of History at Purdue University, is the author of "The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854-1861" and "Manifest Destiny's Underworld: Filibustering in Antebellum America."] One hundred and fifty years ago, South Carolina seceded from the Union and put the nation on the path to its bloody civil war. The NAACP and media commentators argue that plans by the Sons of Confederate Veterans and other groups to commemorate the

Melissa Walker: Nikki Haley’s History Lesson Suggests Problems Ahead

[Dr. Walker is the George Dean Johnson Jr. professor of history at Converse College and president of the Agricultural History Society.] I have spent the past six months trying to support the campaign and then the governorship of Gov. Nikki Haley. As a historian of women in the United States, nothing warms my heart more than when women gain seats at the tables of power. Though her politics were often a bit to the right of my own, and I had concerns about her grasp of the complexitie

Mark LeVine: Tunisia: How the U.S. Got It Wrong

[Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. His most recent books are Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).] One sign read "Game Over". But in fact, the game has barely started. The Facebook generation has taken to the streets and the "Jasmin Revolt" has become a revolution, at least a

Anthony Grafton: History Under Attack

[Anthony Grafton (Princeton Univ.) is president of the AHA.] It’s not easy to think straight—not easy to think at all—when you are under attack. And we historians—like many other humanists—have been receiving more flak than flowers over the last few decades. From Allan Bloom to Mark Taylor, from Charles Sykes and Martin Anderson to Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, critics inside and outside the academy have leveled a rich and seemingly plausible indictment at us....

Juan Cole: Tunisian Revolution Shakes, Inspires Middle East

[Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, maintains the blog Informed Comment. His most recent book, just out in paperback, is “Engaging the Muslim World.”] The Tunisian uprising that overthrew the 23-year-old regime of strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had resonances throughout the Middle East. Leaders of countries invested in the region’s authoritarian and highly unequal status quo rejected the political revolution, while g

Walter Russell Mead: The Next American Upgrade

[Walter Russell Mead is Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. He blogs at The-American-Interest.com.] Social reform, asserted Confucius, begins with the rectification of names. I can think of one case where he’s unquestionably right: the use of the word ‘developed’ as applied to certain wealthy and industrialized countries mostly found in western Europ

Robert Kapp: How Hu and Obama Can Cleanse Toxic U.S.-China Relations

[Robert Kapp, former president of the US-China Business Council, heads Robert A. Kapp & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm. He taught Chinese history at Rice University and the University of Washington.] Heads of foreign government flow through Washington like water, often with little public notice outside the Beltway. Photos of President Obama with President Nicolas Sarkozy or Prime Minister Angela Merkel might not make the nation’s front pages. A visit by China’s

Julian E. Zelizer: Can Boehner's GOP Deliver on Promises?

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter," published by Times Books, and editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration, published by Princeton University Press.] Following a traumatic week for the nation in the wake of the Arizona shootings, Congress will get back to business this week. As House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's spokesperson announced, "It is im

Saul Cornell: What the "Right to Bear Arms" Really Means

[Saul Cornell, the Paul and Diane Guenther Chair in American History at Fordham University, is the author of "A Well-Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America."] The public debate over gun policy has fallen into a somewhat predictable pattern. A tragic shooting -- like Jared Loughner's rampage in Tucson, Ariz., a week ago -- prompts outrage from across the political spectrum. After an immediate cathartic and emotional response, the t

Jonathan Zimmerman: What 'Blood Libel' Really Means

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of “Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory.”] In 1255, an 8-year-old boy named Hugh was found dead at the bottom of a well in Lincoln, England. Rumors spread across the village, and soon everyone knew who had done it: the Jews.... And that, my fellow Americans, was a real “blood libel.” Not the kind invoked by Sarah Palin, who needs a little history lesson

Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey Wasserstrom: The Many Chinas

[Merkel-Hess is an assistant professor of history and Asian studies at Pennsylvania State University and co-editor of China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance; Wasserstrom is chair of the history department at the University of California at Irvine and author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know] What factors hinder the growth of"understanding and mutual trust" between China and the U.S.? Chinese President Hu Jintao called for more of both when he met with U.S

Timothy Garton Ash: Look It Up: Wikipedia is Turning 10

[Timothy Garton Ash, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of European studies at Oxford University.] Wikipedia is 10 years old Saturday. It is the fifth-most-visited site on the Internet. About 400 million people use it every month. What is extraordinary about this free encyclopedia, which contains more than 17 million articles in more than 270 languages, is that it is written, edited and self-regulated almost enti

Nicole Hemmer: Search for Renewal After Tucson Tragedy: What Palin Missed, What Obama Got Right

[Nicole Hemmer is a historian of American politics and media. She currently lectures at Manchester College, Indiana.] There are few areas liberals and conservatives see eye to eye when it comes to Barack Obama. But both supporters and detractors agree: The president gives a good speech.... In calling on Americans to better themselves and the nation, Obama joined a long line of national leaders who turned moments of tragedy into opportunities for renewal. In 1863, as he

Mark Feldstein: A Half-Century of Political Dirty Tricks

[Mark Feldstein, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University, is the author of "Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture."] It began in the fall of 1960, when the Kennedy campaign spread word that Vice President Nixon had secretly pocketed money from billionaire Howard Hughes, whose far-flung business empire was heavily dependent on government contracts and connections. Reporters for the St.

Gil Troy: America's Search for Civility

[Gil Troy teaches history at McGill University. He is the author of Leading from the Centre: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents.] The tragic Arizona rampage that critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killed six citizens, including 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, who wanted to see "how our government works," has triggered the predictable recitations about America's long history of political violence -without any evidence that this was a political cr

Garry Wills: Obama’s Finest Hour

[Garry Wills is Professor of History Emeritus at Northwestern. His latest book, Outside Looking In: Adventures of an Observer, was published in October 2010. October.] During the 2008 presidential campaign, I wrote a comparison of Barack Obama’s Philadelphia speech on race with Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union address during his own 1860 campaign. I noted that both men had to separate themselves from embarrassing associations—Lincoln from John Brown’s violent abolitionism, and

Juan Cole: Palin Borrows ‘Blood Libel’ from Israeli Far Right

[Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, maintains the blog Informed Comment. His most recent book, just out in paperback, is “Engaging the Muslim World.”] Sarah Palin in her response to the controversy over her violent political imagery

Victor Davis Hanson: The Tab Comes Due in 2011

[Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author, most recently, of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.] Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and both the elder and the younger George Bush all found the third and fourth years of their presidencies harder than the first and second. The nation and the world grew tired of their speechmaking. The novelty of a new commander-in-chief faded; poll numbers went s

Conrad Black: Tucson and the Failure of the Political Class

[Conrad Black is the author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom and Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full.] A very mild-mannered and civilized friend remarked to me today that if he encountered anyone else on the Fifth and Park Avenue social circuit who blamed the Tucson shootings on the Tea Party, he would resort to violence. The stampede to blame this terrible incident on a political movement that appears to represent more people than the traditional Republican and Democr

Daniel T. Rodgers: Economics in an Age of Fracture

[Daniel T. Rodgers is a professor of history at Princeton University. His new book, Age of Fracture, has just been published by Harvard University Press.] If crises change the way we see the world, the Great Recession of 2008-10 has to be reckoned, so far, as an anomaly. It has upended lives, set loose a storm of fears and anxieties, fueled a conservative insurrection in American politics, and shaken economic institutions on a scale not seen since the Great Depression. But in compar