Roundup: Historians' Take

Julian E. Zelizer: Let's keep an eye on the spies

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism," will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.] In response to the growing pressure for an investigation into potential abuses by the CIA and former Bush administration officials, Republican Sen. John Cor

Susan Fernsebner: Five Things to Know about China's Links to World's Fairs and International Expositions

[Susan Fernsebner, an associate professor of history at the University of Mary Washington, is currently completing a book-length study on the history of China’s participation in world’s fairs and expositions.] The city of Shanghai will be the official host to Expo 2010, an international event celebrating the theme “A Better City, A Better Life,” with an opening celebration next May. As the event’s website and preview videos below revea

Sam Haselby: Out of the Mouth of Convicts

[Sam Haselby is a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and a historian.] The U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, is reported to be considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate torture by U.S. government personnel under the Bush administration. Reports from the International Red Cross, testimony from American soldiers and articles by Seymour Hersh and other investigative journalists leave no reasonable doubt that agents of the U.S. govern

Kenneth Davis: An American History Lesson for Pat Buchanan

[, Author of the Don't Know Much About books and America's Hidden History.] I did not hear right wing talking head Pat Buchanan's remarks on African American history the other day on MSNBC. According to an account on the Huffington Post, Buchanan and host Rachel Maddow had a hot exchange during which Buchanan said: "White men were 100% of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100% of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people w

Tom Engelhardt: The World at 65

[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

Juan Cole: Rafsanjani's Steps to Resolve Iran's Crisis

What was Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani trying to say in his Friday prayers sermon? (The text is below).The reform movement and its allies among pragmatic conservatives have developed a narrative about Khomeinist Iran. They allege that it is ultimately democratic, and that the will of the people is paramount. It is popular sovereignty that authorizes political change and greater political and cultural openness. Precisely because democracy and popular sovereignty are the key values for this

Gavan McCormack: Japan’s Unresolved Colonial Past and Today’s North Korea Problem

[Gavan McCormack is emeritus professor at Australian National University in Canberra, a coordinator at Japan Focus, and author of Target North Korea: Pushing North Korea to the Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe and Client State: Japan in the American Embrace. ] The year 2010 will mark the centenary of Japanese colonial rule over the Korean peninsula, but, 64 years after that colonial rule was liquidated, North Korea, Japan’s neighbour, remains the one country in the world with which it h

David Greenberg: The ritual of choosing a justice has a long history of fictions and evasions

[David Greenberg, a professor of history and media studies at Rutgers University, is the author of “Nixon’s Shadow: The History of an Image.” He is currently writing a history of political spin.] For decades now, the Supreme Court has been sharply and closely divided. On almost every major issue—including the selection of a recent president—liberal and conservative justices have split 5-4 or 6-3. As a consequence, for more than a generation, virtually every new appointment—not least

Victor Davis Hanson: Presidents Aren't What They Used to Be

From 1933 to 1960, America had nearly three decades of fairly successful presidencies -- through the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and the threat of nuclear Armageddon. Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower were all re-elected. While contemporaries were critical of all three, they proved successful, stable executives. In Roman times, the equivalent would have been the period of the "Five Good Emperors." The 18th-century histori

Jonathan Zimmerman: Actually, it's not always about the United States

[Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history and education at New York University, is teaching this summer in Ghana. His book Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory was published last month by Yale University Press.] Accra Barack Obama took the proud country of Ghana by storm last weekend with his pointed message of peace, democracy and accountability. At the same time, he tried to remind the rest of the world why Africa matters. “The 21st century will

Clare Spark: Multiculturalists and Wilsonians can’t diagnose “the new antisemitism”

Professor Bernard Harrison recently delivered a well-received lecture at a recent conference on antisemitism at the U. of Haifa, June 22, 2009. (The link is http://www.edu.haifa.ac.il/~ilangz/antisemitism_conference/. What follows is my critique of two aspects of his general argument: 1. His notion of “prejudice” is not analyzed sufficiently as a term developed by propagandists for the ”progressives” (conservative reformers staving off socialism and com

Rick Elgendy: The Radicalism of Caritas in Veritate?

[Rick Elgendy is a PhD student in Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. ] The Vatican recently released the long-awaited papal encyclical Caritas in Veritate, which ranges from theological to political and economic themes. Now that the dust has settled, the encyclical and reactions to it can be seen to be rather remarkable. Papal comment on social ethics is not itself unusual; Caritas in Veritate is the latest in a long line of encyclicals exploring Ca

Rick Elgendy: The Radicalism of Caritas in Veritate?

[Rick Elgendy is a PhD student in Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School. ] The Vatican recently released the long-awaited papal encyclical Caritas in Veritate, which ranges from theological to political and economic themes. Now that the dust has settled, the encyclical and reactions to it can be seen to be rather remarkable. Papal comment on social ethics is not itself unusual; Caritas in Veritate is the latest in a long line of encyclicals exploring Ca

Timothy Garton Ash: War on Terror is Over

[Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist.] The first thing I see every time I come to New York is something that is not there. That soaring absence of the twin towers on the skyline of Manhattan remains this city's most haunting presence. A landmark of air. But the shadow cast by the absent twin towers is no longer the defining feature of world politics in the way that the shadow cast by the Berlin Wall was for nearly 30 years. Most people don't an

Juan Cole: Conservative Hypocrisy on Race & Sotomayor

The tactic of congressional conservatives, of portraying Sonia Sotomayor as a reverse racist for her 'wise Latina' comment, has so many holes in it that you could make a Swiss cheese sandwich with it.First of all, her statement about the wisdom gained by members of oppressed and discriminated-against groups didn't have anything to do with race. It had to do with belonging to oppressed and discriminated-against groups. The thesis that if you have that background and you overcome it, the

Huw Davies: Will history repeat itself in Afghanistan?

[Dr Huw Davies is a lecturer in Defence Studies, King's College, London based at the UK Defence Academy.] General comparisons of Britain's first three wars in Afghanistan and the current conflict, are difficult and fraught with pitfalls and traps. However, if one compares the specific experiences of soldiers and officers, there is much to learn from Britain's history in Afghanistan. Many know that the British tried three times between 1839 and 1919 to subjugate Afghanis

Rick Perlstein: Why the GOP is falling out of love with gun-toting, churchgoing, working-class whites

[Perlstein is the author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.] The conservative opinion elite is divided—irreconcilably so—about Sarah Palin's decision to quit the Alaska governorship. One faction says good riddance: The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer had already judged her unfit for national office 24 hours before her announcement, and The New York Times's Ross Douthat now refers to her "brief sojourn on the national stage" in the pa

Michael T. Klare: Will Iraq Be a Global Gas Pump?

[Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is the author, most recently, of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy (Henry Holt). A documentary movie of his previous book,"Blood and Oil," is available at bloodandoilmovie.com.] Has it all come to this? The wars an

Julian Zelizer: Stimulus is too low, too slow

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. His new book, "Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security -- From World War II to the War on Terrorism," will be published this fall by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely about current events.] Vice President Joseph Biden has acknowledged that the $787 billion economic stimulus program has not yet had the impact that the White House was looking for.

Martin E. Marty: Homosexuality and Slavery in the Bible

[Martin E. Marty's biography, current projects, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.] Annually I write the report on "Protestantism" for World Book and other yearbooks. For a dozen or score of years now, the lead story always has to be about churches tearing themselves apart in lose-lose battles over the blessing of gay marriages and ordination of homosexuals, et cetera. One could wish it were oth