Roundup: Talking About History

Ian J. Bickerton and Kenneth J. Hagan: Clausewitz was wrong

[Ian J. Bickerton is a research fellow at the School of History, University of New South Wales. Kenneth J. Hagan is Professor and Museum Director Emeritus at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. He currently teaches US military strategy at the Naval War College, Monterey.] In his highly influential book On War (published posthumously in 1832), the military theorist Carl von Clausewitz asserted, ‘war is simply the continuation of policy – or politics – by (or with) other means.’ He arg

Laura Miller: Did Emerson and the American transcendentalists transform society or merely sow the seeds of American individualism?

Transcendentalism is the best-known American-bred philosophy, despite the fact that most well-educated Americans have no clear idea what it is. This haziness is nothing new -- even in Transcendentalism's heyday in the mid-19th century, people complained that it was hard to get a handle on. Was it even a philosophy at all, or just a crackpot religion? Hard to say, partly because Transcendentalism's leaders were notorious for writing and talking in lofty abstractions; the Boston Post complained th

Julia Baird: Eleanor Roosevelt was not just an idealistic First Lady, as a new collection of her papers reveals

... The recently published first volume of her papers, "The Human Rights Years, 1945–48," with a foreword by Hillary Clinton, provides important clues. It begins when Franklin Roosevelt died, and ends with the passage of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in which Eleanor played a crucial part. In allowing us to study her own words, in letters, speeches, columns and diary entries, a different portrait of the much-lionized woman emerges—one of a pragmatic, savvy politician. Whil

Emily Wilson: The Renaissance of Latin

Last year, a surprise best seller hit the British book market: a romp through Latin grammar, by a London journalist called Harry Mount. In Britain, the book was called Amo, Amas, Amat ... and All That, after the first verb (to love) encountered in elementary Latin class. But in the American edition, the title has become Carpe Diem. The phrase was coined by Horace in Odes 1. 11, a poem that recommends instant kicks (bad strained wine, quickie sex), since time is fleeting and the future unknowable

Michael Gerson: The Heart of Conservatism

[Mr. Gerson was President Bush's chief speech writer.] For many conservatives, the birthday of the movement is Nov. 1, 1790 -- the publication date of Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France." Burke described how utopian idealism could lead to the guillotine, just as it later led to the gulag. He rejected the democracy of the mob and argued that social reform, when necessary, should be gradual, cautious and rooted in the habits and traditions of the communi

Paul Raffaele: Christians in Ethiopia have long claimed to have the ark of the covenant. Do they?

"They shall make an ark of acacia wood," God commanded Moses in the Book of Exodus, after delivering the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And so the Israelites built an ark, or chest, gilding it inside and out. And into this chest Moses placed stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, as given to him on Mount Sinai. Thus the ark “was worshipped by the Israelites as the embodiment of God Himself,” writes Graham Hancock in The Sign and the Seal. "Biblical and

Eamonn Fingleton: The news out of both Japan and China was that neither country made a lot of noise on the anniversary of the rape of Nanking

[Eamonn Fingleton is the author of "In the Jaws of the Dragon: America's Fate in an Era of Chinese Hegemony," which will be published in March.] For observers of Sino-Japanese relations the big news in the past week has been that there has been no news. Although last Thursday marked the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the notorious Nanking massacre, political activists in both Japan and China have been notable - so far at least - for their restraint. Give

Bret Stephens: Why TR Claimed the Seas

[Mr. Stephens is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board. His column appears in the Journal Tuesdays.] On Dec. 16, 1907, the 16 battleships of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet sailed from Hampton Roads, Va., on a 43,000-mile journey around the world. The occasion was immediately understood as Teddy Roosevelt's way of declaring that the United States, already an economic superpower, was also a military one. Unnoticed by most Americans, this past Sunday marked its centennial.

Jason Maoz: Did the Baby Boomers really end the Vietnam War?

[Jason Maoz is the senior editor of The Jewish Press. Jason Maoz can be reached at jmaoz@jewishpress.com.] Dennis Prager, the sometimes controversial, always thought-provoking radio host and syndicated columnist, wrote a column last week on the legacy the baby boom generation has bequeathed to younger Americans. “We live in the age of group apologies,” wrote Prager. “I would like to add one. The baby boomer genera

Media Matters: Rove touted Russert question on Clinton library docs based on falsehood

Summary: On Hannity & Colmes, Karl Rove referenced a question posed by Tim Russert to Hillary Clinton during the October 30 Democratic presidential debate, in which Russert stated:"[T]here was a letter written by President Clinton specifically asking that any communication between you and the president not be made available to the public until 2012. Would you lift the ban?" In fact, President Clinton did not ask that such communications"not be made available"; he listed them as documents to be"

Eric Rauchway: ust because Tom Brokaw's dad says hippies are responsible for the U.S. going Republican doesn't make it so.

[Eric Rauchway is a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, and the author, most recently, of Blessed Among Nations: How the World Made America and Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore Roosevelt's America.] The key moment in the History Channel's "1968 with Tom Brokaw" comes when Brokaw interviews my onetime colleague, the historian Alan Brinkley. Brokaw prompts Brinkley, "The left went too far, excessive in its behavior on a daily basis?&q

George F. Will: Such are history's caroms—she was involved in the end of the Vietnam War and the beginning of the War on Terror

History, said Emerson, is "the biography of a few stout and earnest persons." But history also is a story of unpredictable contingencies and improbable caroms, and of a 4-foot-7, 15-year-old girl's leap from a dangerously bobbing boat to a pitching South Vietnamese ship in the South China Sea. It was April 1975. The Communists were overrunning South Vietnam. At that time, Osama bin Laden was 18. The arc of his life, and Anh Duong's, would intersect. Her leap propelled her

Lord Baker: It's time for a museum of British history

Everyone should have a clear idea of what has happened in our nation's history, how we got from the past to today. This is not romantic nostalgia but a practical recognition of how our society and our country works today or, in some cases, does not work. It also helps children to understand what it means to be British. In France and America, history reinforces their national pride. America, indeed, has a Museum of History in Washington, as does Germany in Berlin. Such a

Karin Chenoweth: Teaching students to read means teaching them facts

[Karin Chenoweth, author of It's Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools, is currently with The Education Trust, a national education advocacy organization. Before joining The Education Trust, Chenoweth wrote the Homeroom column for the Montgomery and Prince George’s Extras of The Washington Post, which gained a national readership for its focus on schools and education.] ... For decades there has been a systematic debasement of the role that knowledge plays in an educati

Max Holland: When newspapers get history wrong (Case in point: Nixon archives)

[Mr. Holland is the editor of Washington DeCoded.] Newspapers constantly make mistakes.[1] Anyone who works on an issue that makes news knows this. Reporters, in their haste to convey the gist, invariably gloss over nuances that mean everything to the people who follow an issue closely. Complexities are reduced to inaccurate simplicities, that is, when there is any kind of effort to describe them at all. Yet sometimes it is not reporters’ fault. A ca

David McNeill: Look Back in Anger. Filming the Nanjing Massacre

[David McNeill writes regularly for a number of publications including the Irish Times and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is a Japan Focus coordinator.] A crop of new movies released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre is set to again dredge up the controversy about one of the 20th Century’s most notorious events. How will Japan react? One way to learn what happened in one of history’s most noxious but disputed episodes is to ask Mizushima

Peter Riddell: When you are in a hole, history can show the exit

We have been here before. Almost every event has a precedent, never exact, but often revealing. Politicians and the media, however, often behave as if everything is new, risking a repeat of past mistakes. Demonstrating the relevance of history is the goal of the History and Policy website, a collaboration of Cambridge University, the Institute of Historical Research and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. This involves a network of historians and 60 short briefing pa

William Hogeland: Critics are misreading Hamilton's legacy to suit their own purposes

[William Hogeland is the author of The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty.] ... The once “forgotten founder” [Alexander Hamilton] is now the subject of a PBS American Experience feature, which aired in the spring and is likely to live on in classrooms on DVD. Between scenes of bewigged actors reciting their characters’ written prose in awkward soliloquy, Chernow and a raft of other historian

Teresa Goudie: Why weren't Japanese in Hawaii rounded up during WW II as they were on the US mainland?

[Teresa Goudie is Lecturer in Japanese Studies, University of New South Wales. t.goudie@unsw.edu.au.] ... Despite their desire to isolate the Japanese in Hawai’i and the fact that Hawai’i was the most obvious place for a ‘fifth column’ to exist ... only about 1,700 key community leaders were ever evacuated from Hawai’i and interned on the mainland (National Archives, RG210 and Office of the Secretary of War, RG107). Why were the majority of

Mark Schmitt: Baby Boomers are suddenly mad for the fifties

Democrats and Republicans are alike in one respect, according to the libertarian writer Brink Lindsey: their shared nostalgia for the 1950s. Except, he says,"Republicans want to go home to the United States of the 1950s, while Democrats want to work there." Indeed, from television (where Mad Men has faithfully recreated the furnishings, boozy smell, and chronic sexual dishonesty of the New York executive suite circa 1960), to the celebrated 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac's On the Roa