Roundup: Historians' Take

Michael Klarman: Is Public Opinion on Gay Marriage Ahead of the Supreme Court's?

[Michael Klarman is a professor at Harvard Law School and the author of "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality," which won the 2005 Bancroft Prize.] Courts are almost never at the vanguard of social change. In general, they have required sweeping cultural shifts such as school desegregation only when it was clear that a substantial percentage of Americans supported them. So what does this portend for same-sex marriage litigat

Julian E. Zelizer: It's Obama's White House, But It's Still Bush's World

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the editor of the essay collection "The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment," forthcoming this fall, and the author of the forthcoming "Jimmy Carter."] When conservatives brand President Obama a socialist or a foreigner, his aides laugh it off. When critics disparage him as arrogant or aloof, they roll their eyes. But if liberals dare compare Oba

Jim Sleeper: Grand Strategic Failure

[Jim Sleeper is a lecturer in political science at Yale University and the author of Closest of Enemies: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York.] "When I asked [Charles Hill] why he had never written his own big book he only smiled," notes his former student Molly Worthen in her 2007 book about him, The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost. "There was no better way to get people to pay attention to ... your take on history, he explained, than to write ... beneath the

Allan Lichtman: Another Chance for Same-Sex Marriage

[Allan Lichtman is a professor of history at American University and a national political analyst.] It is not well known, but in 1973 Maryland became the first state in the nation to ban same-sex marriage legislatively with a Family Law clause (Section 2-201) stating that, "Only a marriage between a man and a woman is valid in this State." Attorney General Douglas Gansler has ruled that Maryland can recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Howev

Samuel Moyn: Human Rights in History

[Samuel Moyn is Professor of History at Columbia University.] A mere thirty-three years ago, on January 20, 1977, Jimmy Carter inaugurated his presidency by proclaiming from the Capitol steps, "Because we are free we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere.... Our commitment to human rights must be absolute." Most people had never heard of "human rights." Except for Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a couple of passing references, no president had re

Victor Davis Hanson: Everyone a Bigot?

[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.] Anti-Hispanic, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-black — it is hard to keep track of all the recent allegations of bigotry.... We live in a complex, multiracial, and religiously diverse society. A majority of black voters in California opposed gay marriage. Most Muslims probably concurr

David Aikman: The Ground Zero Community Center is Not About Freedom of Religion

[Dr. David Aikman was a journalist with TIME Magazine for 23 years, and is now a professor of history at Patrick Henry College in Virginia. He has authored more than a dozen books, including "Jesus in Beijing" (Regnery, 2003), "Billy Graham: His Life and Influence" (Thomas Nelson, 2006) and "The Delusion of Disbelief" (Tyndale, 2008). His latest book, "The Mirage of Peace" (Regal), was released in September. Aikman is also the founder of Gegrapha, an inter

William Astore: In Place of Mental Health Care, Are Some Troops Being Evangelized?

[Professor Astore currently teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology in Williamsport, PA. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and can be reached at wjastore@gmail.com.]Yesterday, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and Veterans for Common Sense sent a startling letter to Secretary of Defen

Julian E. Zelizer: A Governor Who Tests GOP Strategy

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Arsenal of Democracy" and a book on former President Jimmy Carter, and is editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration to be published this fall by Princeton University Press.] With all eyes focused on how the Democrats will do this November, the story about the divisions unfolding within the Republican Party have equally important lo

Niall Ferguson: ALP's Knight is a Thief in Rusty Armour

[Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University. His new book, High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg, has just been published by Penguin.] To a visitor's ears, there's something very Australian about using the acronym "GFC" to refer to the biggest global financial crisis since the Depression. In the US GFC brings to mind the recipe for deep-fried chicken devised by Colonel Sanders. KFC stands for Kentucky Fried

Jonathan Bean: Playing the Presidential Race Card

[Jonathan Bean, a research fellow at the Independent Institute, (www.independent.org), 100 Swan Way, Oakland, Calif. 94621 and a professor of history at Southern Illinois University and editor of "Race and Liberty in America: An Essential Reader."] ...Sadly, President Obama's racial fixation has become disturbing in recent months. By pandering to racial pride and grievance he is betraying the liberal tradition that enabled him to b

Steve Hochstadt: Saving the Earth for Our Grandchildren

[Steve Hochstadt of Jacksonville is a professor of history at Illinois College. His column appears every Tuesday in the Journal-Courier.] I’ll be 62 this month. Even if I live another 30 years, I won’t have to suffer much from the effects of global warming. Some more uncomfortably hot days, a few more storms, perhaps more expenses for air conditioning. I’ll be gone before it gets too hot. My children are in their late 20s. By the time they are ready to reti

Fouad Ajami: The Obsolescence of Barack Obama

[Mr. Ajami is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.] Not long ago Barack Obama, for those who were spellbound by him, had the stylishness of JFK and the historic mission of FDR riding to the nation's rescue. Now it is to Lyndon B. Johnson's unhappy presidency that Democratic strategist Robert Shrum compares the stewardship of Mr. Obama. Johnson, wrote Mr. Shrum in the Week magazine last month, never &

David Kaiser: Anger

[David Kaiser is a historian of international and domestic politics. He is the author of The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F Kennedy (2008).] A Fourth Turning or Crisis inevitably has a large emotional component. We cannot say exactly why accumulated anger seems to burst forth every eighty years or so in modern societies, but we have seen it happen again and again, beginning with the American and especially the French Revolution in the late 18th century, and continuing t

Stephen Eric Bronner: Socialism in America

[Stephen Eric Bronner is a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University. Chair of the Executive of US Academics for Peace, the Senior Editor of Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture, he is also the author of "Socialism Unbound."] Socialism had a checkered career in the United States. Its partisans never had a meaningful chance at gaining power. Around the turn of the 20th century, during the 1930s, and then again during the 1960s, however, th

Daniel Martin Varisco: Milking the Mosque Cow

[Daniel Martin Varisco is Professor of Anthropology at Hofstra University.]As I child I have vivid memories of attending an avowedly fundamentalist revival meeting on the then hot Cold War theme of “The Impending Holocaust,” the theme being that the Russian communists were poised to invade America, knock down all our electricity networks and raze every church to the ground (imagine what they would do to God-fearing virgins). It was those commie atheists who could not stand seeing

Carl S. Pyrdum III: Professor Newt's Distorted History Lesson

[Carl S. Pyrdum III is a graduate student in Medieval Studies at Yale University.] There are any number of reasons why an American might oppose the Cordoba House, the planned $100 million Muslim-financed community center that has come to be known in the press as the "Ground Zero mosque."  I don't think any of them are particularly good reasons, but the universe of potential justification is much broader than the narrow scope of this humble blog.  There is one justif

Yascha Mounk: Long Live the Fascist?

[Yascha Mounk is a PhD Candidate at Harvard University with research interests in political theory, intellectual history and comparative politics. The founding editor of The Utopian, he has written about European and US politics for the International Herald Tribune, the Boston Globe and Unità, among other newspapers and magazines.] Yesterday, at a dinner party of left-wing Italians, a radical friend with a provocateur’s smile suggested a toast to Gianfranco Fini. Gianfranco, whose v

Jonathan Tremblay: Superstition and Historical Leaders: “...All That is Wrong with the Western World”

[Jonathan Tremblay is a historian and Breaking News editor for the History News Network] Now that the World Cup of soccer has been won by Spain, much of the world and virtually all of North America will promptly forget about the sport altogether whereas they were buying merchandise and crowding bars as early as 7 AM to watch North Korea versus Senegal just a month ago. One person that has not forgotten and that used the World Cup as a topical addition to a seemingly endless speech l

John Ibson: The Honeymooners

[John Ibson, professor of American studies at Cal State Fullerton, is the author of "Picturing Men: A Century of Male Relationships in Everyday American Photography."] Steve and I have been together 32 years, yet after a recent trip to Vancouver, we're newlyweds. And while I'm a 66-year-old professor of American studies, this particular Canadian journey taught me fresh lessons about myself and my country.... I've taught the power and necessity of ritual for my