Roundup: Historians' Take

Miriam Pawel: We Should Critically Examine, Not Just Praise, Cesar Chavez

[Miriam Pawel is the author of "The Union of Their Dreams -- Power, Hope, and Struggle in Cesar Chavez's Farm Worker Movement."] Two years ago, a presidential contender touting his roots as a community organizer endorsed the idea of a national holiday to honor a legendary organizer. "As farmworkers and laborers across America continue to struggle for fair treatment and fair wages, we find strength in what Cesar Chavez accomplished so many years ago,"

T.H. Breen: Are Tea Party Protests Really Modeled on the American Revolution?

[T.H. Breen, a professor of American history at Northwestern University, is the author of the forthcoming book "American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People."] When Americans protest, whether it is today's Tea Party members or Vietnam Veterans Against the War being arrested on Lexington Green in 1971, they often lay claim to the ordinary patriots of the Revolution. The impulse of many protesters has been to assert kinship with the middling Americans

Daniel Pipes: White Elephant in Baghdad

[Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.]Iraq's recently-concluded, inconclusive elections will be followed in August by the pullout of American troops, making this a good time to ask what American taxpayers have achieved with the

Eric M. Patashnik and Julian Zelizer: Now the Real Health Care Fight Begins

[Eric M. Patashnik, a politics and public policy professor at the University of Virginia, is the author of “Reforms at Risk: What Happens After Major Policy Changes Are Enacted.” Julian E. Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, is the author of “Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security — From World War II to the War on Terrorism.”] Many liberals are euphoric about Congress passing health care reform. When President Barack Obama sig

Daniel Martin Varisco: Are the Hutarees on a Jihad for Jesus?

[Daniel Martin Varisco is Chair, Anthropology Department at Hofstra University.]Those Americans who feel compelled to rewrite our collective history as the emergence of an avowedly Christian nation are fond of quoting scripture. Take the seemingly noble sentiment in John 15:13, where Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” I say “seemingly noble” because even the Devil is good at quoting scripture

Tom Hayden: We Can't Afford to Be Quiet About the Rising Cost of College

[Tom Hayden is a visiting professor of sociology at Scripps College, in Claremont, Calif. His most recent book is The Long Sixties: From 1960 to Barack Obama (Paradigm, 2009).]"There are some things we feel, feelings that our prevailing, acquisitive, and competitive corporate life, including tragically the universities, is not the way of life for us. ..."That heartfelt plea for university reform, issued in 1969, is striking because it was voiced by Hillary

James Renton: Forgotten Lessons from Palestine and the British Empire

[James Renton teaches history at Edge Hill University.] In a speech to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies on 21 May 2009, David Miliband, the British foreign secretary, argued that the future of the west’s relations with Muslim-dominated countries lay in the building of broad coalitions based upon consent among citizens—not just ruling elites. Prior to making his case, he acknowledged the elephant in the room of Anglo-Muslim relations: Britain’s colonial record in the middle eas

Sean Wilentz: America's Long, Sordid Affair with Nullification

[Sean Wilentz is a contributing editor to The New Republic, and the author of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (Norton).] Historical amnesia is as dangerously disorienting for a nation as for an individual. So it is with the current wave of enthusiasm for “states’ rights,” “interposition,” and “nullification”—the claim that state legislatures or special state conventions or referendums have the legitimate power to declare federal laws null and void within their o

Juan Cole: Alleged Christian Terrorists Has Much in Common with Mahdi Army

[Mr. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. His website is http://www.juancole.com.] FBI raids on the Hutaree Christian militia brought to light this formerly little-known group based in Adrian, Michigan. Unlike the generally secular white supremacist organizations, Hutaree are explicitly Christians. Many seem to be millenarians, expecting the end of time to come soon. Like

Jennifer Burns: The Return of Market Fundamentalism

[Jennifer Burns is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia and author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Oxford, 2009).] THE CRAZIES have come out of the conservative woodwork. Enraged and infuriated by the election of President Obama, bereft of any intellectual leadership or compelling figurehead, unable to stomach their declining powers in a multicultural America, conservatism has been reduced to a rump movement of alienated working cl

William Astore: Military Clothing for Presidents? No, Sir!

[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 wastore@pct.edu.] This past weekend, President Obama made a surprise trip to Afghanistan, during which he doffed his civilian coat and tie and donned a "Commander-in-chief" leather flight jacket provided to him by the Air Force. I suppose the president believed he could

Robert Zaller: Bring Back the Drachma? The Greek Economic Crisis and Europe

[Robert Zaller is Professor of History at Drexel University. He appears in the recently released film documentary on the Barnes Foundation, The Art of the Steal.] When the euro—the ev-roh, as Greeks pronounce it—replaced the drachma as the currency of Greece, I decided to keep a few bills and coins in my pocket. The drachma was, after all, the oldest currency in Europe. Socrates bought his groceries with it (or, more likely, Xanthippe). It had been down before, but never fi

Victor Davis Hanson: Giddy About Remaking America

[Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a professor of Classics Emeritus at California State University, Fresno, and a nationally syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services.] If we assume that Obama & Co. wish to radically remake the United States — along the lines of a European socialist society, or perhaps to the left even of a Belgium or Denmark — the

John Charmley: The Special Relationship Has Been a Myth for Decades

[John Charmley is Professor of Modern History at the University of East Anglia.] Only in the UK would it take 60-odd years for MPs to realise that our relationship with the US is no longer particularly special; and even then the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee can’t bring itself to drop the word altogether. In 1951 the new President, Eisenhower, noted with some sadness in his diary that Churchill seemed to be living in the past with regard to the UK/US relationship.

David A. Nichols: Obama's Inner Ike

[David A. Nichols is the author of "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution."] President Obama gets it. So did President Eisenhower half a century ago. When you are breaking a decades-long legislative logjam, you take what you can get so you can do better later. Critics deplore the compromises Obama made on healthcare. And it's true that the bill he signed Tuesday doesn't accomplish everything reform advocates had hoped

Michael Bliss: The Problem of Saying No to the Sick

[Michael Bliss is a historian and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. His books include The Discovery of Insulin and biographies of Frederick Banting, William Osler and Harvey Cushing.] Modern health-care systems don't work very well. Despite the best efforts by the U.S. Congress, despite the single-payer system in Canada, there is no easy resolution of the fundamental policy issue. This is the conflict between the need to supply health care as a matter of right and th

Julian Zelizer: Risk for GOP Comes from Extreme Fringe

[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.] As he stood before the delegates of the 1964 Republican Convention in San Francisco, California, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, the party's presidential nominee, said, "I

Moshe Dann: Israel Won’t Be Bullied by Obama, But Bibi’s Tactic Could Fail as Well

[The author, a former assistant professor of history, is a writer and journalist living in Jerusalem.] Harsh condemnations of Israel for building in areas of Jerusalem acquired after the Six Day War in 1967 have backfired. If President Obama thought that he would move negotiations ahead and force Israel to make more concessions, he caused the exact opposite situation. Israelis have united in support of Prime Minister Netanyahu, while Arab Palestinian leaders have, on cue, stepped ba

Stanley Kutler: So Much for a ‘Post-Racial’ America

[Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus, is the author of “The Wars of Watergate” and other writings.] Thanks to Newt Gingrich’s loose lips, the cat is out of the bag: The Republican Party, answering the call of a large part of its following, will continue its subtle and not-so-subtle uses of the “race card.” Gingrich said during the health care debate that “much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years” when Congress enacted civil rights legislation, P

Natasha Gill: Britain's Historic Role in West Asia

[Natasha Gill is a research associate at Columbia University, New York] The reprimand of Israel by David Miliband, the U.K. Foreign Secretary, resonated sharply in an already difficult week for Israel. But Britain can do more to influence West Asia than register a complaint, expel a Mossad officer, or sit on the sidelines as Washington pursues its Sisyphean efforts to renew the peace process. Of all the western powers it is Britain that has a unique responsibility to Is