Roundup: Historians' Take

Julian Zelizer: Can Republicans Cut Defense Spending?

[Julian E. Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter," published by Times Books, and editor of a book assessing former President George W. Bush's administration, published by Princeton University Press.] ...In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reminded Congress that Gates had agreed to cut out billions that "he and his generals believe our military can do without."

Max Boot: Hosni Mubarak, Troublesome Ally

[Mr. Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is completing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.] As Hosni Mubarak teeters on the brink, a lot of wishful thinking is emanating from the West—both from those who want him gone and those who don't. But it does scant justice to the complexity of the situation to claim that Mr. Mubarak was a superb ally, or to imagine that we can manage an easy transition to a post-Mubarak regime. The best that

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: How the U.S.-China Relationship Needs to Change

[Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is a professor of history at the University of California, Irvine, the Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, and the author, most recently, of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know(published in April by Oxford University Press). A co-founder and regular contributor to The China Beat: Blogging How the East is Read, and a co-editor of China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, he has contributed commentaries and reviews to various newspapers and to maga

Nick Turse: Overkill Future Weapons, Future Wars, and the New Arms Race

[Nick Turse is a historian, essayist, investigative journalist, the associate editor of TomDispatch.com, and currently a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute. His latest book is The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Verso Books).  He is also the author of

H.W. Brands: Hitler Shares Nothing With Misidentified 'Fascist' Woodrow Wilson

Jan. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Pity poor Woodrow Wilson. The man who tried to save the world from tyranny is now being excoriated as a liberal fascist by the likes of Glenn Beck, Jonah Goldberg and other conservatives. The attacks on Wilson make mildly entertaining parlor polemics, and they serve the partisan purpose of those who would trace a line of descent from Wilson’s alleged fascism to the efforts of fellow Democrat Barack Obama to reform health care and otherwise expand the role of g

Max Boot: Obama Must Act Now on Egypt

[Mr. Boot is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is completing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism.] The president of the United States makes $400,000 a year. He has government-provided housing, a personal chef, his own helicopter and airplane, not to mention the best personal protection in the universe. It is at times like this that he really earns all those nice perks. There is no task more difficult than managing a revolution in progress. Jimmy Carter

Ronald Feinman: The Trivialization Of Ronald Reagan On His 100th Birthday

[Feinman is professor of American History, Government and Politics, as well as a lecturer on modern American topics.]President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday will be celebrated this coming Sunday, and the government will be giving extra attention to the historical significance of the 40th President over the next year.It is understandable that such recognition would be given, as Reagan, for good and for bad, was indeed a very significant President in the years from 1981

Anthony Grafton: How the Country Sees Historians

[Anthony Grafton (Princeton Univ.) is president of the AHA.] Last month’s presidential column provoked many responses. These included both posts on the AHA web site and others on independent blogs, two of which sparked long discussions, as well as a number of emails from historians and others. I’m grateful to all for these thoughtful responses. Let’s talk. Ann Little and Jeremy Young, the bloggers who responded at length, pointed out, in different ways, that my title wa

Kai Bird: Obama's "Shah Problem"

[A Pulitzer prize-winning historian, Kai Bird's memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, is a finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award.] President Barack Obama has a "Shah problem" in Egypt. Recent events in Egypt recall the street protests of 1978 in Tehran when President Jimmy Carter had to decide whether to remain loyal to the Pahlavi regime, a long-standing American-backed dictatorship—or whether the time had come

Glenn W. LaFantasie: Actually, We Already Had a Palin White House Campaign

[Glenn W. LaFantasie is the Richard Frockt Family Professor of Civil War History and Director of the Institute for Civil War Studies at Western Kentucky University. His most recent book is"Gettysburg Heroes: Perfect Soldiers, Hallowed Ground" (Indiana University Press, 2008).] ...Lately, I’ve been trying to put Sarah Palin into a historical context. It’s not easy to do. She continues to attract public and media attention, even while her national approval ratings keep falling. Nevertheless, th

Timothy Garton Ash: A New World Disorder

[Timothy Garton Ash, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and professor of European studies at Oxford University. He is the author, most recently, of "Facts Are Subversive."] Three Davos summits on from the West's Great Crash, we begin to see where we are. This is not the total collapse of liberal democratic capitalism that some had feared at the dramatic World Economic Forum meeting here in early 2009, but nor is it the great refo

Victor Davis Hanson: Proteus-in-Chief

[NRO contributor 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.] Barack Obama 1.0 had a solid record of hard-left governance as an Illinois state representative and U.S. senator. He voted for partial-birth abortion, wanted all troops out of Iraq by March 2008, and proved himself the most partisan of the 1

Mark LeVine: President Obama, Say the 'D-Word'

[Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. His most recent books are Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).] It's incredible, really. The president of the United States can't bring himself to talk about democracy in the Middle East. He can dance around it, use euphemisms, throw out words like "freedom" and &

John Lehman and Richard H. Kohn: Don't Expand ROTC -- Replace It

[John Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy, is an investment banker in New York and an overseer of the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering. Richard H. Kohn is a professor of military history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a former chief of Air Force history. Both served on the Independent Review Panel for the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review.] President Obama on Tuesday called for all college campuses "to open their doors to our military re

Ronald Feinman: Michelle Bachmann's Total Ignorance of American History

[Ronald Feinman is professor of American History, Government and Politics, as well as a lecturer on modern American topics.] Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is demonstrating her total ignorance of American history and the history of her Republican party, based on the text of her speech to be delivered tonight after President Obama’s State of the Union Address! She says slavery was ended by the Founding Fathers, showing she is unaware of the role of her Republic

Victor Davis Hanson: The Passing of the Old Order

[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.] American reality has been turned upside down in just 20 years. Americans no longer count on their news to be filtered and shaped by the Associated Press or the New York Times. Nor do millions have it read to them in the evening by CBS, ABC, or

Jonathan Zimmerman: How to Seize a Sputnik Moment

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University and lives in Narberth. He is the author of "Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory" (Yale University Press).] In his State of the Union Address this week, President Obama pledged to help American schools recruit and train 100,000 new science and math teachers over the next 10 years. But he left out the scientists and the mathematicians - as well as the economists, anthropologis

Mark LeVine: It's Time for Obama to Say Kefaya!

[Mark LeVine is a professor of history at UC Irvine and senior visiting researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University in Sweden. His most recent books are Heavy Metal Islam (Random House) and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 (Zed Books).] The democracy protests that swept Tunisian President Zine el Abedine Ben Ali from power are going viral, but sadly President Obama and other Western leaders seem immune. Indeed, it is quite likely

Dominic Sandbrook: Paying British MPs Has Proved an Utter Failure

[Dominic Sandbrook is a freelance writer on history and current affairs. His most recent book is State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 1970-1974 (Allen Lane). He is the regular columnist for BBC History Magazine.] Since the New Year always brings with it a spate of interest in anniversaries, perhaps we can start 2011 with one likely to raise a scowl in the vast majority of readers. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the introduction of payment for Members of Parliament

William Astore: Obama: It's a Darwinian World, So Work Harder!

[William Astore teaches History at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. He retired from the Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in 2005, having taught at the Air Force Academy as well as the Naval Postgraduate School. He writes regularly for TomDispatch.com and History News Network.] Last night's State of the Union address boils down to one point: In a cutthroat world, America has lost its edge. We're dull, and the Chinese are sharp. They have faster computers and high-speed rail.