Roundup: Historians' Take

Julian Zelizer: Washington has Always Helped Set Rules for Wall Street

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book is "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.] On Sunday, Sens. Chris Dodd and Richard Shelby said that they were close to a bipartisan compromise on financial regulation, which could be reached as early as this week.

Nicole Hemmer: Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are Not Guilty of Sedition -- But Over-the-Top 'Tea-Party' Rhetoric Doesn’t Help

[Nicole Hemmer is a lecturer at Manchester College and a PhD candidate in history at Columbia University. She is writing a history of conservative media.] Sedition. The word is all the rage as the nation commemorated the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing this week amid tumultuous times: a historic recession, massive deficits, nationwide “tea party” protests. As memories of the domestic terror attack resurface, critics of those tea party protests have shifted the debate f

Jonathan Zimmerman: Mark Twain's Travels With the 'Savages'

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York University and is the author of "Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century."] Italians are superstitious. Portuguese are lazy. Turks are dishonest. And the French? They're fat, and filthy besides. Welcome to the world of Mark Twain, who died 100 years ago this week. We know Twain best from his novels about life in America, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Shanghai’s Expo: What Everyone Needs to Know

[Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, is the author of “China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know.”] In exactly one week, the countdown clocks in Shanghai will all finally hit zero. This is because this year May Day will also be Opening Day for the 2010 World Expo, an event that has been largely ignored in the United States (at least until very recently), but has been the subject of an enormous amount of advance publicity

Elaine Tyler May: Promises the Pill Could Never Keep

[Elaine Tyler May, a professor of history at the University of Minnesota, is the author, most recently, of the forthcoming “America and the Pill.”] An end to poverty. A cure for divorce. The elimination of unwed pregnancy. Fifty years ago next month, when the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would approve the oral contraceptive, these were the highest expectations for it. At the same time, few of its promoters in 1960 imagined how the pill, as it quickly became known,

Greg Rosen: Should Labour Learn to Love Coalitions?

[Greg Rosen is visiting fellow at Goldsmiths, author of 'Old Labour to New' and editor of the Dictionary of Labour Biography.] It is more than 150 years since Disraeli claimed that England does not love coalitions. And, as any statement of its time, as an observation, it is 150 years out of date. That is not to say that the opposite is true either. A more accurate observation would be to say that England, and indeed the rest of the UK, has fallen out of love with many of its governm

Peter Clarke: Britain's Third Party Looks to History

[The writer's book, ‘Keynes: The Twentieth Century’s Most Influential Economist’ (Bloomsbury), is out in paperback.] This is the most interesting British election in 10 years – against extremely weak competition, admittedly. In 2001 and 2005, Labour was in control, the Conservatives were in disarray and the Liberal Democrats were in the shade. No longer. We need to go back not 10 but 100 years to gauge the significance of what is happening. All the politicians say it is

Francis Beckett: Britain Will Never Have It So Good Again

[Francis Beckett is an author, journalist, broadcaster and contemporary historian.] The year 1956 was when the old Britain died and a new one was born. It was the year that so many of the old assumptions were shattered: that Britain was a great power; that being British was something special; that politics and political dogmas and doctrines such as socialism could make the world a better place; that the British Empire was strong and benevolent and forever; that British theatre mirro

Henry Irving: Revisiting the 'Big Society'

[Henry Irving is a PhD Student at the University of Leeds whose AHRC funded research is focused on the interrelationship between economic policy and popular politics during the transition to peace after 1945.] Following the first televised Prime Ministerial Debate last week, Conservative party strategists have adopted an increasingly negative campaign focused on the potential dangers of a hung parliament. The reason for this negativity might be more complex than a simple reaction to

Jenna Phillips: Why the PM Candidates Should Mention the War

[Jenna Phillips is currently completing a PhD at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, on 'British policy during the Korean War, 1950-1951'. She also works at Huddersfield University as a research assistant. Jenna was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and was the Fox International Fellow from Sidney Sussex College to Yale University in 2006.] Party strategists may think that tonight's Sky News leaders' debate, focusing on foreign policy - will be less import

Erik Christiansen and Jeremy Sullivan: The Tea Party Challenge to History

[Erik Christiansen teaches history at the University of Rhode Island and at Roger Williams University. Jeremy Sullivan is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Maryland at College Park.] When considering the political scene of the moment, it is difficult not to see how historical allegory plays an important role in the public spectacle known as the Tea Party movement. From the name itself, an acronym (Taxed Enough Already) that fuses current concerns to a patriotic histo

Allan Lichtman: Vote for Your Favorite Corporation

[Allan Lichtman is a professor of history at American University and a national political analyst. His e-mail address is lichtman@american.edu.] Believe it or not, a corporation has announced an intention to run for U. S. representative in Maryland's 8th Congressional District in Montgomery County. No, this is not some silly joke like writing in Superman or Wonder Woman on your presidential ballot. It is an effort by the progr

Niall Ferguson and Ted Forstmann: Back to Basics on Financial Reform

[Mr. Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University and a professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School. Mr. Forstmann is senior founding partner of Forstmann Little & Company, and chairman and CEO of IMG.] A "trilemma" is like a dilemma, only there are three things to choose from and you can have just two. The current debate over post-crisis financial regulation suggests we face such a trilemma: We can choose any two of the following, b

Tom Palaima: Pre-Empted by the War in Iraq

[Palaima is a professor of classics at the University of Texas.] There are many ways we can begin looking at the likely legacy of what we have done through our pre-emptive use of military force in Iraq. We are in an end game achieved through a temporary upscaling of military force combined with making payments to factional leaders not to unleash violence. This so-called surge of men and money was a temporary measure. It is hard to understand why its success is being tak

Stephen Wertheim: When Humanitarianism Hurts

[Stephen Wertheim is a doctoral student in History at Columbia University.] A duty to intervene. The responsibility to protect. Never again. This is the language of international ethics in our time. It is the language of justice construed as categorical imperatives. To deny the force of these injunctions is, supposedly, to stoop to the amorality of realpolitik. But to accept them -- what would that mean? If we believe there is a duty to stop genocide, it matters only wh

Burt Folsom: Can We Get Out of this Economic Mess?

[Burt Folsom is professor of history at Hillsdale College.] The U. S. annual deficits of almost $1,000,000,000,000 per year are hard to comprehend. Think of it this way: One trillion dollars equals about $30,000 per second every second of every day for one full year. That adds up to about $1,800,000 per minute every minute of the year. Last week was tax week–how much of that time did you pay off? Most Americans paid only a fraction of one second’s worth of debt, and almost hal

Julian Zelizer: Inaction on Immigration Reform a Travesty

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book is "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security: From World War II to the War on Terrorism," published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.] Republicans and Democrats in Congress seem to have found one issue on which they agree. Neither party wants to get near immigration reform, the new "third rail" in A

Jonathan Zimmerman: AIDS, Sex, and Crime: Why is Darren Chiacchia Facing Jail Time?

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author, most recently, of “Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory.”] In 1943, the National Advisory Police Committee on Social Protection released a report on its wartime efforts to combat venereal disease. Whenever a soldier or sailor was found to have venereal disease, the report explained, he was required to notify officials about “the source of his infection.” The agency w

Bruce J. Schulman: The Costs of Crossing the President

[Bruce J. Schulman, Huntington professor of history at Boston University, is the author of “The ’70s: The Great Shift in American Culture” and “Lyndon B. Johnson and American Liberalism.”] Will the White House punish Democrats who defected on the monumental health care overhaul?... Effective presidents, particularly those with ambitious agendas, need to clarify for members of Congress the benefits of cooperation — and the costs of opposition. But they must

William J. Astore: American Kleptocracy -- How Fears of Socialism and Fascism Hide Naked Theft

[William J. Astore teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology (wastore@pct.edu). A retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), he has also taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School. A TomDispatch regular, he is the author of Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism.]Kleptocracy -- now, there’s a word I was taught to associate with corrupt and exploitat