Roundup: Historians' Take

Priya Satia: Attack of the Drones

[Priya Satia, the award-winning author of Spies in Arabia: The Great War and the Cultural Foundations of Britain's Covert Empire in the Middle East, is an assistant professor of history at Stanford University.] "Attack of the Drones," a homage to the lesser of the Star Wars trilogies, is the headline of choice in reports on the One Good Thing to come out of the "war on terror": very cool gadgets. With the media stoking laddish pleasure in "weapons porn"

Nick Turse: Obama's Choice, Failed War President or the Prince of Peace?

[Nick Turse is the associate editor of TomDispatch.com and the winner of a 2009 Ridenhour Prize for Reportorial Distinction as well as a James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism.] When the Nobel Committee awarded its annual peace prize to President Barack Obama, it afforded him a golden opportunity seldom offered to American war presidents: the possibility of success. Should he decide to go the peace-maker route, Obama stands a chance of really accomplishing something signi

David Kaiser: Afghanistan - An historical perspective

[For the past thirty years I have been a historian of international and domestic politics, as well as an authority on some of the more famous criminal cases in American history.] Although I grew up amidst government decision-makers at various fairly high levels, I evidently decided at some unconscious level that their life was not for me. Like some of the characters in Solzhenitsyn’s First Circle, I prized time to think more than influence, and of that I have had plenty. Yet as you

David Kaiser: The enduring Republican victory

[For the past thirty years I have been a historian of international and domestic politics, as well as an authority on some of the more famous criminal cases in American history.] The Obama Administration's difficulties on the domestic front, I think, reflect a long-term shift in American opinion. In 1968, after 35 years of largely Democratic ascendancy which had created a relatively egalitarian economy and established a strong role for the government, the Republican Party, increasin

Victor Davis Hanson: Funny Money

[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. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College.] Obama recently promised $250 to seniors (who got no cost-of-living increases in Social Securi

Victor Davis Hanson: Just Not Into You, A Letter to Europe

[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. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College.] Norway stunned the world by awarding the coveted Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama, who wa

Thomas Frank: From John Birchers to Birthers

[Thomas Frank founded The Baffler magazine in 1988, and he edits it to this day. He has a PhD in American History (U. of Chicago 1994) and is the author of four books, all of them having to do with the cultural inversions of our times: The Conquest of Cool (1997), One Market Under God (2000) and What's the Matter With Kansas? (2004). His book about conservative governance, The Wrecking Crew, was published in 2008.] Next month will mark the 45th anniversary of the publication by Harp

Thaddeus Russell: Why Liberals Kill

[Thaddeus Russell has taught history, philosophy, and American Studies at Columbia University, Barnard College, Eugene Lang College, and the New School for Social Research. He is the author of Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class (Knopf, 2001) and the forthcoming A Renegade History of the United States (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2010).] The left may be pressuring President Obama to exit Afghanistan. But their heroes—from FDR to JFK—promoted U.S. involvem

Max Boot: The Incurable Vietnam Syndrome

[Max Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, and author most recently of War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today.] President George H.W. Bush thought that after the victory in the Gulf war we had "kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all." How wrong he was. The syndrome was on full display during the 1990s, when pundits and politic

Victor Davis Hanson: Confusions of the Age

[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. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College.] I get confused by the news quite often. Here are five anomalies that make no real sense.

Tom Engelhardt : Who's Next? Lessons from the Long War and a Blowback World

[Tom Engelhardt, co-founder of the American Empire Project, runs the Nation Institute's TomDispatch.com. He is the author of The End of Victory Culture, a history of the Cold War and beyond, as well as of a novel, The Last Days of Publishing. He also edited The World According to TomDispatch: America in the New Age of Empire (Verso, 2008), an alternative history of the mad Bush years.] Is it too early -- or already too late -- to begin drawing lessons from "the Long War"?

Martin E. Marty: Israel After Utopia

[Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com. ] Israel, its politics and policies and its religion(s) past and present, is the subject of so much pro and con (never neutral) comment in media, politics, and religious circles, that we could do enough sighting each week to fill this column. In such a complex scene, one trusts commentators who have won our trust already on o

Elyse Semerdjian: What do Google and the Protocols Have in Common?

[Elyse Semerdjian is associate professor of Islamic World history at Whitman College.] The protocols signed by Armenia and Turkey on October 10 engage in denial of the Armenian Genocide on several levels. Not only are the injustices of the past ignored. Those injustices rather than be acknowledged as a condition of peace are relegated to an undesignated commission that will pursue “an impartial scientific examination of the historical records.” This statement is in effect a call

Catherine Rottenberg and Neve Gordon: Teaching Tolerance In a Conflict Zone

[Catherine Rottenberg is a founding member of Hagar and sits on its pedagogic committee. Neve Gordon is a founding member of Hagar and is the author of Israel's Occupation. Distributed by Common Ground News Service.] BEER SHEBA, Israel - Educating children in a conflict zone is no simple matter. More often than not, those responsible for the curricula succumb to the masters of war and adopt a pedagogical approach that exacerbates rather than diffuses strife. Israel, unfortunately, i

Daniel Pipes: CAIR's Inner Workings Exposed

[Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.] The Council on American-Islamic Relations has, since its founding in 1994, served as the Islamist movement in North America's most high-profile, belligerent, manipulative, and aggressive agency. From its headquarters in Washington, D.C., CAIR also sets the agenda and tone for the entire Wahhabi lobby. A substantial body of criticism

Jonathan Tremblay: 2009: World Hunger Relief Has Officially Failed

[Jonathan Tremblay is a historian and is currently an intern for History News Network. The United Nations has released its most recent statistics concerning world hunger and the prognosis is dire. Despite decades of governmental programs, celebrity-incited events, charity-organized fundraisers and all the good-will in the world, the number of hungry and malnourished people on the planet has grown to over 1 billion. Not only has the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (F

Howard Meyer: Obama doesn't deserve a Nobel Prize given his stance on international law

To the Editor The award to President Obama is seriously questionable if one remembers what the NYTIMES disclosed in publishing a letter 7 December 2007, properly titled"International Law Matters, that candidate Obama, promised to hunt down bin Laden in Pakistan"without Pakistani permission if necessary." That prompted an international scholar here to ask,"What about international law?" He referred to the UNCharter's outlawry of such actions"without Security Council Authorizati

Andrei Lankov: Changing North Korea

[Andrei Lankov is professor of history at Kookmin University, in Seoul. This article was adapted from an essay in the Nov./Dec. issue of Foreign Affairs.] When it comes to dealing with North Korea, the United States and its allies have no efficient methods of coercion at their disposal; the regime is remarkably immune to outside pressure. Its leaders cannot afford change, so they make sure their state continues to be an international threat, using nuclear blackmail as a survival tac

Victor Davis Hanson: The Power of Payback

[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. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture.]Nemesis E

Victor Davis Hanson: Thoughts on the Hysteria About Afghanistan

[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. He is also the Wayne & Marcia Buske Distinguished Fellow in History, Hillsdale College, where he teaches each fall semester courses in military history and classical culture.] Afghan