Roundup: Historians' Take

Clarence Lusane: Racism, Shirley Sherrod and the Obama White House

[Clarence Lusane is a Professor at American University and the former editor of the journal Black Political Agenda. He is author of several books. This article is an excerpt from The Black History of the White House forthcoming in the Open Media Series by City Lights Books.] The Shirley Sherrod controversy, like the Van Jones incident one year ago this month, demonstrates the power of the right-wing media to rock the Obama White House when it comes to racial matters. On July 19, 201

Diane Ravitch: Obama's Race to the Top Will Not Improve Education

[Diane Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University. She is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.] President Obama spoke to the National Urban League this week and defended his "Race to the Top" program, which has become increasingly controversial. Mr. Obama insisted that it was the most important thing he had done in office, and that critics were merely clinging to the status quo.

Efraim Karsh: The Palestinians, Alone

[Efraim Karsh, a professor of Middle East and Mediterranean studies at King’s College London, is the author, most recently, of “Palestine Betrayed.”] ...While the “Palestine question” has long been central to inter-Arab politics, Arab states have shown far less concern for the well-being of the Palestinians than for their own interests. For example, it was common knowledge that the May 1948 pan-Arab invasion of the nascent state of Israel was more a scramble for Palesti

Ron Radosh: Oliver Stone's 'Empathy' for Hitler

[Mr. Radosh is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute and co-author of "A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel" (Harper, 2009).] In London for the British premiere of his new documentary on Hugo Chávez, film director Oliver Stone paused on July 25 to talk to the press about his forthcoming 10-hour Showtime television documentary, "The Secret History of America." Mr. Stone promised that his new series would put "in context&qu

Daniel Martin Varisco: Covering Afghanistan

[Daniel Martin Varisco is Professor of Anthropology at Hofstra University.]August 9, 2010 cover of Time MagazineAs usual for the end of the week, my Time arrived yesterday. It seems a bit unusual that I should receive the August 9 issue a week early, but then Time is not always accurate. The cover photograph is startling, haunting, disturbing and an unfortunate exam

Jon Wiener: Change Comes to Nixonland

July 17 marked the twentieth anniversary of the opening of the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, and the Nixon Foundation celebrated the occasion with what it called "the largest gathering of Nixon family, Nixon Administration alumni, campaign workers, Nixon Foundation members, fans and friends since the grand opening of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace." The schedule promised "three days of incredible experiences," including "a reception and dinner pools

William Astore: Our Military's Disturbing Transition to Warriors

[William Astore teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 2005, having taught at the Air Force Academy as well as the Naval Postgraduate School. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and History News Network.] A subtle change has been happening right before the eyes of Americans. Our troops are being told they're no longer primarily citizen-soldiers or citizen-airmen; they're being told they're warriors.

Victor Davis Hanson: Why Are We Beginning to Hate Congress?

[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.] Recent polls show that more than 70 percent of the public holds an unfavorable view of Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) wins about a 10 percent approval rating; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) has similarly rock-bottom poll numbers. Why this astound

Max Boot: Impact of Past Defense Cuts Should Warn of Risks

[The writer is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.] The prospect of an exit from Iraq and Afghanistan has sparked rumblings on Capitol Hill that it's time to cut the defense budget. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, says, "I'm pretty certain cuts are coming -- in defense and the whole budget." Defense Secretary Bob Gates is already pushing to cancel some big-ticket

Juan Cole: The Closing of the Zionist Mind

[Juan Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History and the Middle East scholar at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively on the Middle East and the West-Islam relations.]It finally happened. The Jerusalem Post has declared archeology itself anti-Semitic. To tell you the truth, I am frankly worried about some of my colleagues who are committed Zionists having difficulty in dealing with reality in the wake of the severe difficulties facing the Zio

Cary Fraser: Shirley Sherrod, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt and American Racial Hysteria

[Cary Fraser is a historian of international relations, who teaches the history of American foreign policy, American and Caribbean history in the 20th century and the history of the African Diaspora in the Atlantic world at Penn State University. He is the author of"Ambivalent Anti-Colonialism" (Greenwood Press, 1994), and his essays and articles have been published in Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is currently writing a study of race in American politics

Gary Wills: Obama's Legacy: Afghanistan

[Gary Wills teaches at Northwestern University.] ...It is time for me to break a silence I have observed for over a year, against my better judgment. On June 30, 2009, I and eight other historians were invited to a dinner with President Obama and three of his staffers, to discuss what history could teach him about conducting the presidency. I was asked shortly after by several news media what went on there, and I replied that it was off the record. I have argued elsewhere that the i

Scott Lemieux: Hugo Black, History’s Greatest Monster

[Prof Scott Lemieux is a member of the History and Political Science Faculty at the College of Saint Rose.]You might think that Jeffrey “how dare Shirley Sherrod call a mob beating someone to death because of his race a lynching” Lord would try to stop digging once he saw that even his colleagues at the American Spectator wanted nothing to do with his grotesque arguments,

Jeff Shesol: Obama vs. FDR

[Jeff Shesol is the author of Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. The Supreme Court. He is also a founding partner of West Wing Writers, a speechwriting and strategy firm and the author of Mutual Contempt. From 1998 to 2001, Shesol served as a speechwriter to President Bill Clinton. A Rhodes Scholar, he holds degrees in history from Oxford and Brown universities. His comic strip, Thatch, appeared daily in more than 150 newspapers from 1994-1998.] ...In the summer of 1934, the lead

Victor Davis Hanson: Obama’s Real Problem

[NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the editor of Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome, and the author of The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern.] According to a popular myth, President Obama’s declining poll numbers are a consequence of his failure to be liberal enough. On race, in the wake of the Shirley Sherrod mess, we are told he needs to appoint more African Americans and bring i

Niall Ferguson: Sun Could Set Suddenly on Superpower as Debt Bites

[Niall Ferguson is professor of history at Harvard University.] WE have been raised to think of the historical process as an essentially cyclical one. We naturally tend to assume that in our own time, too, history will move cyclically, and slowly. Yet what if history is not cyclical and slow-moving but arhythmic, at times almost stationary, but also capable of accelerating suddenly, like a sports car? What if collapse does not arrive over a number of centur

Julian E. Zelizer: Why Obama's Fate is Tied to Congressional Democrats

[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 editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration to be published this fall by Princeton University Press.] ...The past year and a half have been bruising for Democrats on Capitol Hill. The sluggish economic recovery and two wars have left many constituents drained and f

Melvyn Dubofsky: Labor's Role in the Obama Era: A Comment

[Melvyn Dubofsky is Distinguished Professor of History & Sociology Emeritus, Binghamton University SUNY, and author of numerous books and essays in U.S. history, including a major history of the IWW, a biography of John L. Lewis, a study of the role of the federal government in regulating labor-capital relations, and a collection of essays on labor history under the title Hard Work.]The following is a response to

Angus Johnston: Shirley Sherrod, the American Spectator, and the History of Lynching in America

[Angus Johnston is a historian of American student activism]So the American Spectator has a piece up claiming that Shirley Sherrod of the USDA — the Shirley Sherrod who recently lost her job after Andrew Breitbart disseminated distorted clips from a speech she’d given to the NAACP — lied in that speech when she said her relative Bobby Hall was lynched in Baker County, Georgia back in

Jonathan Tremblay: Obama Fires General McChrystal: A History of Military Submission

[Jonathan Tremblay is a historian and is a Breaking News editor for the History News Network] This past month, the general in charge of allied troops in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal resigned (was fired) by President Obama due to criticisms made by the General and his aides that appeared in a Rolling Stone Magazine article entitled “Runaway General”. They had let comments and insinuations fly about VP Biden, UN envoy Richard Holbrooke and the Obama administration in general whi