Roundup: Historians' Take

David P. Redlawsk: I Like Partisanship in American Politics

[David P. Redlawsk is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa and Director of the University of Iowa Hawkeye Poll.] This isn’t a popular position, but I am all in favor of partisanship. I know, the prevailing zeitgeist is that we are moving into an Obama-led post partisan world. We saw some of it here in Iowa, back in the now distant days of the Obama Iowa Caucus campaign. Part of the secret of Obama’s win in Iowa was that he reached out beyon

James Millward: Regarding the Guantanamo Uyghurs

[James Millward teaches Chinese history at Georgetown University and is the author of, most recently, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang (2006).] I never thought I’d see “Free the Uighurs” on the editorial pages of major U.S. newspapers, but there it was last Thursday

Jack Pitney: Obama’s Speech and Nixon’s Ghost

[John J. Pitney, Jr. is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College. He writes and teaches about elections, political parties, Congress, and the presidency, and has taught a course about President Nixon.] There is no escaping Richard M. Nixon. He did so much to shape the politics and policy of the last half-century that every president will end up echoing his words. Take President Obama’s address last night.The president spoke of reducing dependence

Julian Zelizer: Investigate Wall Street

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is completing a book on the history of national security politics since World War II, to be published by Basic Books. Zelizer writes widely on current events.] In Tuesday night's speech, President Obama attempted to calm the nation, explaining how his programs will stimulate the economy and create a foundation for long-term economic growth. Obama sought to

Jonathan Zimmerman: Touchy-feely 'Mad Men' ?

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory," which will be published in June.] Why do we love those unlovable men of the 1950s and early '60s? You can see them in the award-winning TV series "Mad Men" or in the blockbuster movie, "Revolutionary Road." Organization men by day, they took the 7:51 a.m. train to work in their long

Daniel Pipes: The Deceits of Bridges TV

From the start, however, Bridges TV amounted to a lie.On the political level, its raison d'être was based on the canard that Muslims in the United States suffer from bias and are victimized. That idea took formal expression in 2000, when the Senate passed a resolution inveighing against the"discrimination"

Niall Ferguson: The Axis of Upheaval

[Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University.] Seven years ago, in his State of the Union address on Jan. 29, 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush warned of an “axis of evil” that was engaged in assisting terrorists, acquiring weapons of mass destruction, and “arming to threaten the peace of the world.” In Bush’s telling, this exclusive new club had three members: Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Bush’s policy prescription for dealing with the axis of e

Robert J. Shiller: Can Talk of a Depression Lead to One?

[Robert J. Shiller is professor of economics at Yale and chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC. He and George A. Akerlof are the authors of “Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism” (Princeton University Press).] PEOPLE everywhere are talking about the Great Depression, which followed the October 1929 stock market crash and lasted until the United States entered World War II. It is a vivid story of year upon year of despair.

Thomas Sugrue: Obama must rise to urban challenge

[THOMAS J. SUGRUE is Kahn Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North." ] For the first time in three decades, we have a president who has pledged to put urban and metropolitan issues at the forefront of the national political agenda. Given the current economic crisis, and its devastating impact on metro Detroit, it's not a moment too soon. For t

Lincoln Mitchell: Should President Obama Be More Optimistic?

[Mitchell is an Assistant Professor in the Practice of International Politics, Columbia University.] In the last few days voices as disparate as John McCain's speechwriter, Mark McKinnon, and former President Bill Clinton have suggested to President Obama that he put a more optimistic mien on his presidency. I suspect that Bill Clinton's advice is meant to be constructive and, other than contemplating the colossal chutzpah of anybody associated with John McCain telling anybody to be

Robert Dallek: When the World Knocks at the White House Door

[Mr. Dallek is the author of biographies of JFK and LBJ and a history of Henry Kissinger's diplomacy.] At the start of his presidential term in 1913, Woodrow Wilson said prophetically, “It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.” Although he managed to win passage of major progressive reforms, including the Federal Reserve Act, his presidency was soon overwhelmed by problems abroad: first in Mexico, with American troops seizing the por

John Steele Gordon: Deficits are nothing new. It's the trend that should worry us.

[Mr. Gordon is the author of "Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt" (Walker, 1997).] When President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law yesterday, he was adding to what is already almost guaranteed to be the largest deficit in American history. In January, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the deficit this year would be $1.2 trillion before the stimulus package. That's more than

Ruth Rosen: What kind of economic stimulus do American women want?

[Ms. Rosen is Professor Emerita of History, U.C. Davis and Visiting Professor of History, U.C. Berkeley.] Ever since Barack Obama won the presidency, American women - battered by the George W Bush administration's assaults on their rights - have sensed the possibility of change and mobilised to make sure that the new president hear their voices and recognise their needs. No surprise here. During any great political transformation, women have almost always de

James Morone: Bipartisan fantasies

[James Morone is a professor of political science at Brown University.] “THIS is not a time for partisanship,” declared Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, when he accepted President Obama’s invitation to serve as commerce secretary. By last week, Mr. Gregg had changed his mind, citing “irreconcilable conflicts.” For historians, this outcome was predictable: Bipartisan dreams have been crashing into political reality from the earliest days of the Republic.

Tom Engelhardt: What Does Economic "Recovery" Mean on an Extreme Weather Planet?

[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 American Age of Denial. He also edited The World According to TomDispatch: America in the New Age of Empire (Ver

Ronald C. White Jr.: Lincoln's Memo to Obama

[Mr. White is the author of a new biography of Lincoln.] Illinois senator Everett Dirksen observed 50 years ago, “The first task of every politician is to get right with Lincoln.” As the inauguration of President Barack Obama converges with the beginning of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial, it is intriguing to think about what Lincoln might say across the years to the new president. In recent election campaigns many politicians, both Republicans and Democrats, have tried to associat

Kenneth Weisbrode: Why it's far too early to label the U.S. secretary of state a failure.

[Kenneth Weisbrode is the Vincent Wright fellow in history at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Italy.] Hillary Clinton's trip to Asia marks her first venture into the "vast external realm" as secretary of state. She is spending this week in Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, and China in order to give and gain what most likely will be salient first impressions. The trip already has been met with mixed commentary. The N

Ron Radosh: Are We Really All Socialists Now?

[Ronald Radosh is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at The Hudson Institute.] The question of whether or not we are all socialists now is not as silly as it may sound. Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas argue in their cover story for Newsweek that the United States, though remaining a center-right nation culturally, is increasingly coming to resemble the European social-democratic welfare states. While conservatives blast the Obama Administrati

William Astore: Is the U.S. Military Now an Imperial Police Force?

[William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), taught for six years at the Air Force Academy. He currently teaches at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. A TomDispatch regular, he is the author of Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (Potomac Press, 2005), among other works. He may be reached at wastore@pct.edu.] A leaner, meaner, higher tech force -- that was what George W. Bush and his Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised to transform the American mili

Kathy Olmsted: Why can't California pass a budget?

[Ms. Olmsted teaches history at UC Davis.] California’s lawmakers meet tonight to try to resolve the worst budget crisis in the state’s history. For more than six months, the majority Democrats and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have tried to win the support of three Republicans in each house of the Legislature, which they need for the constitutionally mandated two-thirds vote to approve the budget. As a result, the California budget has been held hostage for more than half a year