Roundup: Historians' Take

Julian Zelizer: Pelosi Emerges as Powerhouse in D.C.

[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.] The passage of health care will certainly rank as one of the major political achievements of recent decades. Legislation that will eventually extend health care c

Amity Shlaes: Conservatives are Giving Liberals a Taste of 'Balance'

[Amity Shlaes is a columnist for Bloomberg News, senior fellow for economic history for the Council on Foreign Relations, and author of "The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression".] Lack of balance is the charge being levied against the Texas State Board of Education after it inserted changes to new standards in social studies programs in public schools. An Associated Press story said that a "far-right faction" of the board had succeeded "in i

Steve Haycox: We Prefer a Shiny Image of America

[Steve Haycox is a professor of history at the University of Alaska Anchorage.] In a conversation with Dick Cavett published in The New York Times last week, David Brooks, one of the more thoughtful and effective conservative political analysts now writing, noted the American empire is in significant decline.... It might seem logical that literate Americans would turn to major professional historians for meaningful analyses of an American decline. But as most historian

Michael Kazin: The History of Sarah Palin's Theology

[Michael Kazin teaches history at Georgetown University and is co-editor of Dissent. He is the author, most recently, of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan and editor of The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History.]Going Rogue: An American Life By Sarah Palin • HarperCollins • 2009 • 413 pages • $28.99The Persecution of Sarah Palin: How the Elite Media Tried to Bring Down A Rising Star By Matthew Continetti • Sentinel •

Burt Folsom: Race and Pearl Harbor

[Burt Folsom is a professor of history at Hillsdale College in Michigan.] Race is a delicate issue in American politics, and the misuse of history to promote racial intolerance should always be challenged. Tom Hanks is an excellent actor but is sadly ignorant of Japanese-American relations. In promoting a new miniseries on the Pacific front in World War II, Hanks said the Japanese “were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them be

Eric Foner: Twisting History in Texas

[Eric Foner, a member of The Nation's editorial board and DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, is the author of Give Me Liberty, an American history textbook.] The changes to the social studies curriculum recently approved by the conservative-dominated Texas Board of Education have attracted attention mainly because of how they may affect textbooks used in other states. Since Texas certifies texts centrally rather than by individual school districts, publishe

Ashley Cruseturner: The Clinton Strategy That We Almost Forgot: Confrontation

[Ashley Cruseturner teaches American history at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas.] In the aftermath of a crushing defeat in Massachusetts, President Obama found himself in a dreadful political predicament and, more pointedly, at a defining crossroads. Surely, it was time to cut his losses on health care. To survive, pundits advised, Obama would need to follow the example of Bill Clinton and move to the center. Seemingly on the brink of total ruin, the President defiantly

Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Going to Philadelphia...With Shanghai on My Mind

[Jeffrey Wasserstrom is a Professor of History at UC Irvine and the author of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, which will be published in April by Oxford University Press. ] ...There's a... specific reason... that I'm eager to get to Philadelphia, which has to do with Shanghai. Admittedly, Philadelphia was not one of the Western cities to which Old Shanghai circa 1930 was frequently compared, and New Shanghai, with its elevated freeways and giant video screens

Joseph A. Palermo: Brutal Weather is a Factor in the Cornell Suicides

[Joseph A. Palermo is Associate Professor of History at Cornell University.] Having spent ten years on the Cornell University campus as a graduate student, lecturer, and visiting assistant professor, I can tell you that it is one of the most beautiful and picturesque college campuses in the country. Its waterfalls and gorges surrounding the oldest part of the college fulfill Ezra Cornell's vision for a lovely spot where students would do their best work. Perched up on the East Hill

Juan Cole: Jeff Goldberg's Blood-and-Soil Israeli Nationalist Fantasy

[Mr. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. His website is http://www.juancole.com.]As a Middle East expert who lived in the Muslim world for nearly 10 years, travels widely there, speaks the languages, writes history from archives and manuscripts and follows current affairs, I found that none of my experience counted for much when I entered the public arena in the United States. It isn

Julian E. Zelizer: Obama Risks Being Called 'The Undecider'

[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.] President Obama has had trouble sticking with his decisions. In several high-profile cases during his first year in the White House, there has been a pattern where the preside

William J. Astore: Five Questions for the Pentagon

[William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and TomDispatch regular. He currently teaches history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology and may be reached at wastore@pct.edu.] When it comes to our nation’s military affairs, ignorance is not bliss.  What’s remarkable then, given the permanent state of war in which we find ourselves, is how many Americans seem content not to know.There are many reasons f

Jonathan Zimmerman: American History -- Right and Left

[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."] Once upon a time, Americans did some very bad things. They enslaved Africans, displaced Indians, oppressed women and exploited laborers. Then the Great American Government came to the rescue. Spurred by protest movements for freedom and equality, the government instituted changes that

Andrew J. Bacevich: General Petraeus Says Israeli and U.S. Interests Diverge

[Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University.] Gen. David Petraeus, commander of United States Central Command, may or may not have asked to add the West Bank and Gaza to the 4.6 million square miles of land and sea comprising his Area of Responsibility (AOR). Writing in Foreign Policy magazine' s "Middle East Channel," journalist Mark Perry reports that he did. Petraeus, leaving himself plenty of wiggle room, sa

Victor Davis Hanson: Reflections on the "Liberal Revolution" in America

These are exciting though scary revolutionary times, akin to the constant acrimony in the fourth-century BC polis, mid-nineteenth century revolutionary Europe, or — perhaps in a geriatric replay — the 1960s. This is an era when the fundamental assumptions of the individual and the state are now being redefined, albeit in a weird, high-tech, globalized landscape. A word of caution: we are not talking about hoi polloi versus hoi oligoi, or the commune on the barricades fighting the es

Victor Davis Hanson: Our Reset Reset Foreign Policy

[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.] Almost every element of Barack Obama's once-heralded new "reset" foreign policy of a year ago has either been reset or likely soon will be. Consider Obama's approach to the 8-year-old war on terror. Plans made more than a year ago to

Daniel Pipes: America's Shiny New Palestinian Militia

[Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.] Shortly after Yasir Arafat died in late 2004, the U.S. government established the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator to reform, recruit, train, and equip the PA militia (called the National Security Forces or Quwwat al-Amn al-Watani) and make them politically accountable. For nearly all of its existence, the office has been headed by Lt. Gen

Walter Russell Mead: Obama and the Jacksonian Zionists

[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.] Last week the Israelis handed the Obama administration an important advantage in the continuing struggle between the US and Israel over policy towards the Palestinians. By announcing a decision to move forward with 1600 housing units in East Jerusalem, the Israelis

Binoy Kampmark: Education in Texas is Moving Right & Going Wrong

[Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he earned his PhD in Modern History. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne.] Censors, it has been said, are paid to have dirty minds. Education panellists, at least in certain jurisdictions, are paid to prevent the exercise of one at all. For that reason, fifteen unknown individuals in a state should not be vested with the power to centrally control what is read or taught in texbooks. But that is cert

Diane Ravitch: Texas Promotes Ignorance in its Textbook Requirements

[Diane Ravitch is the author, most recently, of The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (Basic).] Here is a newsflash from Texas: The conservative majority of the Texas State Board of Education adopted new guidelines for social-studies textbooks that reflect their conservative political views. The new guidelines will emphasize the Christian beliefs of the Founding Fathers. Students in Texas will be expected to learn ab