Roundup: Historians' Take

Juan Cole: Obama on the Middle East

The transcript of President Obama's interview on al-Arabiya Television (Dubai)is at the latter's site and I will mirror it here, below.Just a few quick observations. Obama emphasized respect for the Muslim world, affirmed that the United States is not its enemy, and that, on the contrary, Washington has a stake in the well-being and prosperity of the Muslim world. He underlined that he has Muslim relativ

Lou Cannon: Obama’s Reagan Transformation?

Since the day Barack Obama was elected, many voices have urged him to combine the bold stimulus policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt with the inspirational message of change provided by John F. Kennedy. But the presidential exemplar that may be most useful to President Obama as he seeks to jump start the economy is a Republican whose single-mindedness in his first months in office enabled him to gain the confidence of the American people and approval of his proposals from a Congress he did not cont

Robert Dallek: L.B.J., Obama and Reassuring a Worried Nation

Barack Obama seems focused on the starts of the Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt presidencies as guides for action — appointing “a team of rivals” to his cabinet and promising immediate steps, a newer New Deal, to revive the economy. Mr. Obama’s use of history, however, defies G.K. Chesterton’s astute observation that “people who make history know nothing about history. You can see that in the sort of history they make.” There are dangers in relying on past remedie

Jean Edward Smith: How F.D.R. Made the Presidency Matter

When President-elect Barack Obama takes office Tuesday he will be facing high expectations. Americans expect their presidents to hit the ground running, and the initial 100 days set the tone for a president’s first term. That was not always the case. Until the adoption of the Twentieth Amendment in 1933, presidents were not inaugurated until March 4. Congress often did not convene until the following December, and a president’s first message to Congress was usually delivered at that

Richard Reeves: Kennedy’s Words, Obama’s Challenge

It was an anxious time, the beginning of 1961. In the eight years before Jan. 20, 1961, the Soviet Union had tested a hydrogen bomb and had put in orbit the first satellite, Sputnik, which passed over the United States for months. Central Intelligence Agency analysts estimated the the Soviet economy was growing at a rate of between 6 percent and 10 percent a year, compared with the United States’ growth rate of between 2 percent and 3 percent. Unemployment in America was at 7 percent and the cou

Ivan Eland: Presidencies of JFK, Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt Show Style Trumps Policies

[Ivan Eland is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute. He is author of the books, Recarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed, and Putting “Defense” Back into U.S. Defense Policy.] The last time a young politician oozing with charm and charisma assumed the presidency was 1961. The American public was enthralled with John F. Kennedy and conti

Edwin Black: Barack Obama and the Triumph Over American Eugenics

[Edwin Black is the author of War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create aMaster Race. Buy it here. The award-winning book is the basis for the just released film, War Against the Weak—The Movie.] Among Barack Obama’s many

Daniel Pipes: A Saudi Prince's Threat to the Obama Administration

Born in 1945 in Mecca to the future King Faisal, his official biography informs us Turki studied at the Ta'if Model Elementary and Intermediate School, the Lawrenceville School, and Georgetown University. His career began in 1973 as an advisor in the Royal Court. He served as director general of the kingdom's main foreign intelligence service for nearly a quarter-century, from 1977 to 2001, leaving that office just before 9/11

Howard Schweber: The Case Against Prosecutions

[Howard Schweber is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. ] There is a lot of talk about the idea that Bush, Cheney, and members of their administration should be prosecuted for violations of American criminal and international law. The arguments in favor of prosecution are straightforward: laws were broken, and the rule of law requires that lawbreakers be held accountable. Conversely, some of the arguments against prosecutions a

Jon Talton: Today’s Recession Is Different From Those of the 1980s

My Britannica Blog colleague Mark J. Perry laid out some telling statistics last week, contrasting the current downturn with the nasty recession of the early 1980s. For example, the prime rate was 20.5 percent in 1981 compared with 3.25 percent now. Inflation was 14.8 percent in 1980 — it was essentially zero in December 2008.His point was echoed in a Jan. 21 column by New York Time

Juan Cole: Obama's Vietnam?

[Mr. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. His website is http://www.juancole.com.] On Friday, President Barack Obama ordered an Air Force drone to bomb two separate Pakistani villages, killing what Pakistani officials said were 22 individuals, including between four and seven foreign fighters. Many of Obama's initiatives in his first few days in office -- preparing to depart Iraq, endi

Robert Jan Van Pelt and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski: Should Auschwitz be left to decay?

On the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, two experts on Auschwitz argue for and against the idea that the former Nazi death camp should be allowed to crumble away. Historian Robert Jan Van Pelt says that once the last survivor has died it should be left for nature to reclaim, and eventually forgotten. But former Polish Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, once an inmate, says Auschwitz must be preserved to bear witness to the fate of its victims. Jan Va

Arthur Herman: The Return of Carterism?

[Arthur Herman is the author most recently of Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age.] Among the first duties of the Obama presidency, all agree, is the restoration of America’s standing in the world. Poll after poll has shown how unpopular America is overseas, from London to Damascus to Beijing. Nor is there much disagreement as to the reason. As Fareed Zakaria puts it in The Post-American World, the reason is the “arrogance” displayed by

Bob Buzzanco: The Manchurian President

[Bob Buzzanco is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of History at the University of Houston. He was the recipient of the Bernath Book Prize and the Bernath Lecture Prize.] In late 2006 I wrote a piece for History News Network that was titled and asked “Is George Bush ‘The Manchurian Candidate?’” and said, “like a ’sleeper’ agent, or Laurence Harvey’s famed character, Sgt. Raymond Shaw, in The Manchurian Candidate, George W. Bush, the ultimate insider, is doing more to damage

Avi Shlaim: How Gaza became a Palestinian prison

[Avi Shlaim is an Iraqi-born British historian. In addition to a professor of International Relations at Oxford University, Shlaim is the author of many books including The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World and Lion of Jordan: The Life of King Hussein in War and Peace.] The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. Bri

Juan Cole: King's Anti-Imperialism and the Challenge for Obama

[Mr. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. His website is http://www.juancole.com.] The Martin Luther King, Jr. that most Americans know is the man who said,"I have a dream" at a massive rally 250,000 strong in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963, while standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That speech is about racial justice an

Ron Radosh: Bush’s Legacy in History and the Press

As George W. Bush leaves office, more articles have been appearing on the issue of his legacy. Journalism, of course, is known as the first draft of history, and the consensus has been offered: Bush was the worst President in American history. This assessment began a few years ago, when he was less than half through his second term, and was begun by Princeton University’s eminent historian, Sean Wilentz, who wrote two different cover stories for Rolling Stone arguing his case. Most

Robert J. Harris and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn: The end of black history?

[Robert L. Harris Jr. and Rosalyn Terborg-Penn are the co-editors of The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939.] Some pundits have predicted that Barack Obama’s inauguration as the 44th President of the United States spells the end of Black History. That his election as president is the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream, the culmination of the civil rights movement, the dawn of a post-racial society, and the demise of multiculturalism. Anyone who really heard Aretha Fr

Julian Zelizer: Is the Kennedy Dynasty Over?

There’s been a Kennedy in the Senate since 1952, but events this week suggest this era might be coming to a close. Caroline Kennedy informed Gov. David Paterson that she has taken her name out of contention to succeed Hillary Rodham Clinton as senator from New York. Sen. Ted Kennedy, suffering from brain cancer, was taken from the celebratory lunch on Inauguration Day; his medical prognosis is uncertain, at best. Many pundits had expected Caroline Kennedy to get the appointment. Aft

Ira Chernus: Obama's Promise of Change Comes Wrapped in Red, White and Blue

Obama's speech shows that there's no reason to let the right monopolize the powerful language of traditional American values. ### Like any important speech, Barack Obama's inaugural address was actually several speeches rolled into one. Each string of rhetoric the new president wove on this historic occasion holds different meaning for American progressives, a weary group following eight disastrous years of conservative war and plunder and hungry for a brand of change t