Roundup: Talking About History

David H. Noon: The 29th anniversary of Carter's malaise speech

[David H. Noon teaches history at a fine public university at one of the many edges in the American West.]There are many ways to measure the failure of the Carter administration. Among them, we would have to include his inability to control the name usually associated with the most important and memorable address from his single term in office. Dubbed the “Malaise Speech” by the press, Carter’s televise

Editorial in the Middle East Times: The Forgotten Peace

Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty following the Camp David accords in 1978, yet it seems someone either forgot to inform the general public on Egypt's side of the border, or that the Egyptian public is still reluctant to accept the fact that peace may exist with a former enemy. In essence, the peace between the Arab world's largest country and the Jewish state is a peace which subsists between two governments, but not a peace between two peoples. A reminder of jus

Jonathan Marcus: Bush's Mid-East legacy

[Jonathan Marcus is BBC's diplomatic correspondent.] Its outcome, quite apart from the chaos in Iraq itself, has been a fundamental shift in the geo-strategic balance in the Middle East. Iran is resurgent. Iran's allies like Hezbollah and Hamas are the main beneficiaries of their patron's ascent. And pro-western Sunni Arab regimes are worried. That at least is the conventional wisdom. So with the end now in sight for the Bush administration,

Peter Turchin: A mathematician says history needs to be made more scientific

[Peter Turchin is professor of ecology and mathematics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA. He is the author of War and Peace and War: The Life-Cycles of Imperial Nations (Pi Press, 2006).] If we are to learn how to develop a healthy society, we must transform history into an analytical, predictive science, argues Peter Turchin. He has identified intriguing patterns across vastly different times and places. ### What caused the c

Melik Kaylan: So Much for the 'Looted Sites' of Iraq

[Mr. Kaylan writes about the arts and culture for the Journal.] A recent mission to Iraq headed by top archaeologists from the U.S. and U.K. who specialize in Mesopotamia found that, contrary to received wisdom, southern Iraq's most important historic sites -- eight of them -- had neither been seriously damaged nor looted after the American invasion. This, according to a report by staff writer Martin Bailey in the July issue of the Art Newspaper. The article has caused confusion, no

Frances Pugh: Remembering the real Mrs Pankhurst

[Frances Pugh is an author.] 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of the grant of a parliamentary vote to women over thirty and the 80th anniversary of equal franchise in 1928 which made women 52-53 per cent of the electorate. It is easy for us to take all this for granted. But for a measure of the mountain of prejudice suffragists faced consider the way the historian, A.J.P.Taylor, chose to mark the fortieth anniversary of the 1918 reforms in 1958. In an artic

Julia Keller: Nineteen-sixty-eight is all around us

[Julia Keller, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, is cultural critic at the Chicago Tribune.] Four decades back? Can't be. The year 1968—historically profound, politically momentous, artistically revolutionary—is still going on, still surrounding us, still repeating its crucial notes, like a record on the turntable with a skip in it. In the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama, on track to be the Democratic presidential nominee for 2008, many people hear d

Maury Klein: The Technological Revolution

[Maury Klein is Professor Emeritus of History, University of Rhode Island. His books include The Power Makers (2008), a history of steam and electric revolutions, and Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War (1999). This essay is based on his presentation at the F

Daniel Nichanian: After the Bastille

[Daniel Nichanian is an Atlantic intern.] On July 14th, France commemorates its first step towards overthrowing its last monarchy. Yet the glorious days of the 1789 Revolution did not suffice to establish a lasting republic. A review of The Atlantic’s archives reveals that the siege of the Bastille was only the first in a series of clashes between the French people’s revolutionary spirit and their leaders’ monarchical ambitions. By the time The Atlantic’s first issue w

Bill Berekowitz: George W. Bush goes back to touting 'compassionate conservatism' and the 'successes' of his faith-based initiative

In 2004, at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, President Bush's contribution to the evening's entertainment was his narration of a slide show that pictured him looking around the Oval Office for weapons of mass destruction. In one of the shots, Bush is looking under some furniture and remarked: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere." Flash forward four years: At this year's dinner, Bush played highlights from a number of his previous a

Patrick J. Kiger: Nixon ... The Comeback

[Patrick J. Kiger is an Orange Coast contributing writer and co-author of “Poplorica: A Popular History of the Fads, Mavericks, Inventions, and Lore That Shaped Modern America,” (Harper-Resource) and “Oops: 20 Life Lessons from the Fiascoes That Shaped America” (Collins).] He’s baaack, thanks to a spate of books, movies, and in an unvarnished version now playing at the Nixon library in Yorba Linda. But how will the former president’s image change now that it’s in the hands of histo

Sheldon M. Stern: When did the cold war really begin?

[Sheldon M. Stern served as historian at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston from 1977 to 1999. He is the author of Averting ‘the Final Failure’: John F. Kennedy and the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis Meetings (2003), and The Week the World Stood Still: Inside the Secret Cuban Missile Crisis (2005) in the Stanford University Press Nuclear Age Series.] It has often been argued that the ideological and geopolitical conflict between the former Soviet Union and the

Greg Grandin: Fidel Castro Tells the Story of His Life

[Greg Grandin is the author, most recently, of Empire's Workshop: Latin America, The United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism(Metropolitan). He is a professor of history at New York University.] One of Fidel Castro's earliest political memories is of Spaniards arguing over the Spanish Civil War, and his first act of censorship, he explains in My Life (Scribner, $40), was done in kindness. When asked by his family's illiterate cook--a "fire-breathing Republican"--

Spencer Dew: The Economy of Relics

[Spencer Dew is a PhD candidate in Religion and Literature at the University of Chicago Divinity School.] The most discussed aspect of this month's release of baseball card company Topps' "Triple Threads Baseball" series is, in fact, not related to baseball at all. Inserted in a single pack of baseball cards will be a "relic" of President Woodrow Wilson, a so-called "book" card – actually two cards together, which open like a book – wherein will be emb

Max Boot: Assessing Helms

Marc Thiessen, President Bush’s chief speechwriter, who spent years working for Jesse Helms, has a fond [1] remembrance of his late boss in the Washington Post today.No doubt other conservatives are feeling equally nostalgic for the late senator, a constant thorn in the side of liberals during his many years in Washington. Fred Barnes, for instance, wrote an admiring [2] account of Helms’ influence in 1997 that the Weekly Standard website has posted today. My own assessment of Helms

Editorial in the Independent: 1968 Olympics ... The divided legacy of black power

To a country that invented the Hall of Fame and idolises sporting heroes, the names Tommie Smith and John Carlos are still pregnant with symbolism. The photograph of their proud-but-solemn "black power salute" on the podium at the Mexico Olympics in the summer of 1968 remains one of the defining images of a generation. Yet exactly four decades after Smith and Carlos lifted gloved fists and bowed their heads in that dignified yet somehow menacing protest, their legacy has

Njoroge Wachai: Thumbs-Up For Bush's African Legacy

[Njoroge Wachai is a journalist who formerly worked for the Kenya-based People Daily.] This is a biased question against Bush: it already prejudges Bush’s legacy as horrible. But to be fair to the man, this is not the case. Unless you live on Mars, you can’t claim that there’s nothing good associated with President Bush. Of course, you don’t expect Bush’s detractors --- and those who have political points to score by poking holes into his presidency – to paint him white. They’d rath

Geoff Small: Remembering the Black Power protest

[Geoff Small is the director of Black Power Salute, which will be televised on BBC Four tonight at 9pm.] Though mention of their names would draw blank expressions from most people, we all owe a great debt to Tommie Smith and John Carlos. The American sprinters made history when they mounted the Olympic victory stand and thrust their clenched, black-gloved fists into the night sky over Mexico City, on October 16 1968. Their "Black Power" protest produced front page headlin

Gary Stix: DNA Study Traces Human Origins Across the Continents

A development company controlled by Osama bin Laden’s half brother revealed last year that it wants to build a bridge that will span the Bab el Mandeb, the outlet of the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. If this ambitious project is ever realized, the throngs of African pilgrims who traverse one of the longest bridges in the world on a journey to Mecca would pass hundreds of feet above the probable route of the most memorable journey in human history. Fifty or sixty thousand years ago a small band of

Frank Gannon: Nixon never said he had a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam

RN’s “secret plan” to end the Vietnam war is the Dracula of canards. No matter how many wooden stakes are nailed through its nasty heart, it’s up again at first light, brushing off the dirt and walking the land ready to be cited in yet another book or article.Two weeks ago it surfaced in Time and, one would have thought, our colleague Jack Pitney more than effectively hammered home a big wooden stake.