Roundup: Talking About History

Bruce Bartlett: Reagan and Neshoba

[Mr. Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan, is the author of “Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past,” recently published by Palgrave Macmillan.] Right after receiving the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, Ronald Reagan gave his first campaign speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi on August 3. This is where three civil rights workers—James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner—had been murdered by l

Editorial in the Independent: Tudor terror ... John Guy is on a mission to bring history to the masses

It is the summer of 1535, just weeks after the execution of Sir Thomas More. A small rowing boat makes its way along the Thames from Chelsea to London Bridge. The oarsman's passengers are a 29-year-old gentlewoman, Margaret Roper, and her maid, who carries a basket. A horrific sight meets their eyes as they approach the bridge: a dozen or more skulls on poles protruding from the parapet, which have been boiled and tarred to prevent them being fed upon by circling gulls. As new heads arrive, the

Seth C. Bruggeman: Don't build on a cherry-tree myth--again

[Seth C. Bruggeman is an assistant professor of history and American studies at Temple University, and the author of "Here, George Washington Was Born: Memory, Material Culture, and the Public History of a National Monument."] Earlier this month The Free Lance-Star joined media outlets across the country in reporting on the discovery of George Washington's boyhood home by archaeologists working at Ferry Farm. This is the iconic home made famous by Parson Weems' ubiquitous

John L. Allen Jr.: The Pope vs. the Pill

[John L. Allen Jr. is the senior correspondent for The National Catholic Reporter and the author of “The Rise of Benedict XVI.”] FORTY years ago last week, Pope Paul VI provoked the greatest uproar against a papal edict in the long history of the Roman Catholic Church when he reiterated the church’s ban on artificial birth control by issuing the encyclical “Humanae Vitae.” At the time, commentators predicted that not only would the teaching collapse under its own weight, but it migh

Barbara Day: Forty years later, there are still lessons to be learned

[Barbara Day is a senior fellow and founding member of The Prague Society for International Cooperation.] Conferences on 1968 are stretching back-to-back across Europe this summer, offering retrospectives on the meaning of that year — what was gained, what was lost. I know what I lost. A scrap of tri-colored ribbon, pinned to my jacket as a talisman to see me through a train ride across occupied Czechoslovakia. I had spent 1965-66 as a student in Prague on a bilateral

Victor Davis Hanson: The Sixties Won’t Go Away ... What more can anyone say about the 1960s and all its legacies?

[Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal and the 2008 Bradley Prize.] Those who protested some 40 years ago often still congratulate themselves that their loud zeal alone brought needed “change” to America in civil rights, the environment, women’s liberation, and world peace. Maybe. But critics counter that the larger culture that followed was the most self-absorbed in memory. Everyone can at

Danielle Gonzales: Protect Mesa Verde cliff dwellings

In seventh grade, I visited the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings in Southern Colorado for the first time. The beautiful and ancient Puebloan structures were awe-inspiring for me and awakened my interest in Native American history, particularly those in Mesa Verde. From that day on, I wanted to know everything I could about the previous inhabitants of Mesa Verde, how they lived, worked, ate, socialized. In my opinion, the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings are Colorado's greatest landmarks,

Neil Faulkner: Hadrian and the Limits of Empire

[Neil Faulkner is Research Fellow at Bristol University and Features Editor of Current Archaeology.] President Bush’s failure to impose his imperial vision on Iraq and the rest of the Middle East may come to be seen as one of the great turning points in history. He would have been wise to have studied and learned lessons from the experiences in the region of two Roman emperors, Trajan and Hadrian, over 2,000 years ago. Trajan – Marcus Ulpius Traianus – was one of Rome’s

Charles J. Hanley & Jae-Soon Chang: Summer of Terror ... The massacre of 100,000 by South Korea

[Charles J. Hanley and Jae-Soon Chang write for The Associated Press.]This is the first of a multi-part article on the South Korean massacres of 1950, the US direct and indirect involvement in those massacres, and the subsequent cover up of the events in South Korea and the United States. Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed unto

Bruce Cumings: The South Korean Massacre at Taejon ... New Evidence on US Responsibility and Coverup

[Bruce Cumings teaches in the History Department and the Committee on International Relations at the University of Chicago and is the author of the two volume work The Origins of the Korean War and North Korea: Another Country.] In July 2008 the world media heralded the arrest of “the world’s most wanted war criminal,” Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. He had been in hiding for thirteen years, ever since he was charged with genocide by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in T

David McNeill: Japan’s Bone Man and the World War II Dead in the Pacific

[This is an extended version of an article that recently appeared in The Irish Times and The Japan Times. David McNeill writes regularly for a number of publications, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Irish Times and the London Independent newspaper. He is a Japan Focus coordinator.] The lone survivor of a Japanese infantry unit in World War 2, Nishimura Kokichi promised his comrades he would bring their bodies back to Japan. Sixty years later, he is still trying to f

Randy Alfred: Hiram Bingham 'Discovers' Machu Picchu

1911: Exploring in Peru, Yale archaeologist Hiram Bingham locates Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas. The event will set off a century of controversy. Bingham was born in Honolulu, the son and grandson of Protestant missionaries in the Pacific. He graduated from Yale University and did graduate work in history and politics at the University of California and Harvard. Bingham had already made two expeditions to South America -- and published a book on each -- when he ret

James Rodgers: Resurgent Reds in Russia

Stalin is back. For a while, it looked like Nicholas II, Russia's last tsar, might resist the Bolshevik threat - achieving in death a victory which eluded him in life. Now the Reds have seized control once again. Stalin has first place, the Tsar is still holding on to second, but then Lenin comes in third, like a second revolutionary wave waiting to sweep away the monarchy once more. A Russian woman carries a portrait of Soviet leader Josef Stalin in a Victory Day celebration in Mos

Hugh Eakin: The Devastation of Iraq's Past

In May 2003—some eight weeks after the American invasion had begun— Abdul-Amir Hamdani, the archaeology inspector of Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, traveled to Najaf to call on the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. He had an urgent request. "We needed his help to stop the pillage," Hamdani recalled. The province, which is midway between Baghdad and Basra, covers much of what was once the land of Sumer. In the third millennium BC, it was a fertile plain densely populated by such citie

Greg Grandin: Fidel Castro on Fidel Castro

[Greg Grandin teaches Latin American history at New York University and is the author of a number of books, including the just published Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism.] Readers of Fidel Castro's 'My Life' will hear all about the Cuban Revolution, but no apologies for its suppression of dissent. One of Fidel Castro's earliest political memories is of Spaniards arguing over the Spanish Civil War, and his first act

The real legacy of Margaret Thatcher is a nation divided

[Ian Hernon has been a journalist since 1969 and a lobby correspondent since 1978, with first-hand, inside information of what really goes on at Westminster.] RARELY has a political move sparked such a furious response as the proposal to give Margaret Thatcher a state funeral. Forget the fact that she is not dead yet, the very idea caused outrage. West Lancashire MP Rosie Cooper waded into action the last time this cropped up during Tony Blair's tenure, say

Clive Aslet: Ecological reasons for saving Britain's architectural heritage

This summer's vogue for holidaying at home means many of us are rediscovering our native land, swapping the baked orange earth of the Mediterranean for green hedgerows. As we drive around – providing we can afford the fuel – we will be able to enjoy the sheer volume of heritage around us. You don't get it much in the Algarve; and what there might have been in Miami has been obliterated by hotels and apartment buildings. But you can hardly move an inch in the UK without

Tom Lodge: Nelson Mandela ... assessing the icon

[Tom Lodge is professor of peace and conflict studies at the University of Limerick, Ireland. He was formerly professor of political studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is the author of Mandela: A Critical Life (Oxford University Press, 2006). His previous books include Politics in South Africa: From Mandela to Mbeki (Indiana University Press, 2003).] On the whole, the public celebrations that accompany elderly politicians' birthdays are not voluntary. I

C. W. Hayford: Red Star Over Edgar Snow

[Charles W. Hayford is Visiting Professor, Department of History, Northwestern University.] Edgar Snow’s birthday is sometime this week but they can’t agree on which day it is. The 1972 obituary in the omniscient NY Times had it as July 19, 1905, as does his most careful biography. 1 But maybe it’s July 17 if you go with the University of Missouri Archives, which has his papers and

American Conservative: How Good Was the Good War?

For many Americans, World War II remains the Great Crusade. For George W. Bush, John McCain, and legions of Churchill-worshipping neoconservatives, it is that and more: they take from the war—especially the war against Hitler—“lessons” that must inform current American statecraft. Patrick Buchanan disagrees. In Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War, a book critically reviewed for TAC by historian John Lukacs, he depicts the war as an avoidable disaster and object lesson in what not to do.