Roundup: Talking About History

Peter Kirstein: Teaching the Iraq War

[Peter Kirstein is professor of history at Saint Xavier University. He won his university’s Teaching Excellence Award and is on the council of the Illinois state AAUP conference. Academe accepts submissions to this column. Write to academe@aaup.org for guidelines. The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the policies of the AAUP.] Many conservatives such as David Horowitz, Laura Ingraham, Rog

David Fromkin: How Suez changed history

[David Fromkin, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, is the author of “A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East.”] FIFTY years ago tomorrow — on Oct. 29, 1956 — Israeli paratroops were dropped deep behind Egyptian lines in the Sinai peninsula, opening the way for the ground troops that followed. In a lightning campaign lasting less than five days, the Israelis took control of the entire pe

Paul Kennedy: How to account for the 20th century's violence and progress?

... What is to explain this apparent twentieth-century paradox: bloodshed and the obliteration of people and cities occurring at the same time as transnational prosperity, higher living standards, and much greater interconnectedness? ... How, then, is one to understand why extremes of violence occurred chiefly in certain regions, and at certain times? They were caused, [Niall Ferguson argues in his new book, The War of the World]—persuasively, to this reviewer —by an explosive mix

George Will: The founding fathers didn't establish a Christian nation

Not since the medieval church baptized, as it were, Aristotle as some sort of early — very early — church father has there been an intellectual hijacking as audacious as the attempt to present America’s principal founders as devout Christians. Such an attempt is now in high gear among people who argue that the founders were kindred spirits with today’s evangelicals, and that they founded a “Christian nation.” This irritates Brooke Allen, an author and critic who has distilled her an

Mark Solomon: Herbert Aptheker and African American History

[Mark Solomon is Emeritus Professor of History at Simmons College.] HNN Editor's Note: After Mr. Solomon posted the statement reprinted below at Portside's website, Jesse Lemisch submitted the following note to Portside on 10/22 (where it has not been posted): In his comment on Portside 10/22/06, Mark Solomon selectively omits words surrounding those that he quotes from my "About the Herbert Aptheker Sexual Revelations,"

Allen Barra: What exactly was gthe OK Corral shootout about anyway?

[Allen Barra, a contributing writer for American Heritage magazine, is the author of “Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends.”] EXACTLY 125 years ago today, about 2:40 p.m., three lawmen — Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan — and their friend Doc Holliday walked down Fremont Street, today Highway 80, in the silver-mining boom town of Tombstone, Ariz., and into a lot behind the O.K. Corral to confront four “cow-boys” (as cattle thieves were then called), t

Hugh Cortazzi: Revisionists are damaging Japan

[Hugh Cortazzi, a former British career diplomat, served as ambassador to Japan from 1980 to 1984.] LONDON -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has the reputation of being a tough nationalist. So far, however, he has shown himself to be a pragmatist in foreign-policy issues. His early visits to China and South Korea demonstrated that he wants to improve bilateral relations, which have soured in recent years. He has wisely eschewed mention of the Yasukuni issue. He realizes the vital importa

William Grimes: The 1841 Murder That Made Edgar Allan Poe New York’s Star Detective

Murder in the city casts a peculiar spell, a mixture of horror, fascination and relief. One more member of the herd has been picked off, but it was somebody else who attracted the invisible, anonymous hand that could strike anyone at any time. When the victim is a beautiful woman, sex enters the equation, and you have front-page news. That was certainly the case in the summer of 1841, when Mary Rogers, a young saleswoman at John Anderson’s Tobacco Emporium on Lower Broadway in Manha

Edward Rothstein: Digging Through the Literary Anthropology of Stowe’s Uncle Tom

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom saw children torn from their mothers’ arms and sold as slaves; he acquiesced as his master, whom he trusted with unwavering devotion, sold him downriver; he saw slaves beat into stupor and submission. And through it all, with Christian forbearance, he never withheld his forgiveness from those whose system of slavery brought on such evils, nor could he lift his hand in vengeance against the most horrific of masters. But even Uncle Tom’s tolerance mig

Kati Marton: Hungary 1956, from a young child's perspective

[Kati Marton is the author of “The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World.”] THE first time I saw deep joy on my father’s face — the kind that comes from within and which is a child’s most reassuring signal from a parent — was on Oct. 23, 1956. It was at Bem Square, on the right bank of the Danube, where thousands of students, a sprinkling of workers and even some young soldiers still in uniform had spontaneously gathered to hear the students’ list of demands

Peter Nadas: The Hungarian Revolution ... impotent, poignant, personal

[Mr. Nádas, a novelist, is the author, inter alia, of "A Book of Memories" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997).] So, on that Tuesday afternoon, a single flow of humanity was moving down the avenues; they were coming on Váci Avenue, on Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Avenue, but on Marx Square many stopped in hesitation: Which way now? The piled-up streetcars stood motionless where they had gotten stuck in their tracks, with the lights burning in the empty compartments. There were about 80

William Dalrymple: The last Mughal and a clash of civilisations

[East and west face each other across a divide that some call a religious war. Suicide jihadis take what they see as defensive action and innocent people are killed. But this is 1857. William Dalrymple on lessons from the Raj for the neo-cons. William Dalrymple is the India correspondent of the New Statesman. His book "The Last Mughal: the fall of a dynasty (Delhi 1857)" is published by Bloomsbury (£25)] ... The Siege of Delhi was a fight to the death between two powers,

Dominic Sandbrook : 1956 ... The year that changed the world (Suez & Hungary)

[Dominic Sandbrook is the author of Never Had It So Good: A History of Britain from Suez to the Beatles, published in paperback by Abacus, and White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties, published by Little, Brown] October 1956 was a good time to be young. After years of gloomy austerity, Britain was gradually awakening to the glorious possibilities of postwar affluence, and it was as though a Technicolor rainbow had suddenly lit up a slate-grey sky. If you had the mo

John Dickerson: Googling My Mother (writing biography in the digital age)

ne morning, my mother's grave appeared in my inbox. The grass had grown back around it after the burial. The stone looked pinker than I remembered. The "Beloved Wife and Mother" written on it struck me as odd. Was that inscription always there? It seemed antiquated, like something you'd see in a small town cemetery, and, in my mother's case, also a little limiting. These are the details you seize on when you're suddenly confronted by Section 3, Grave 1316-A-LH before your first cup of

Mark Stricherz: What's Wrong with Modern Presidential Campaign Books

[Mark Stricherz is working on a book about how secular, educated elites transformed the Democratic party.] Around the time Theodore H. White ended his Making of the President series, Jules Witcover emerged as his de facto successor. Witcover wrote big, sprawling books about the modern presidential campaign. By himself, he wrote three dealing with the 1968 presidential race--The Resurrection of Richard Nixon; 85 Days: The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy; and The Year the Dream Died--

Caroline Weber: Queen of the Zeitgeist (Yes, Marie Antoinette)

[Caroline Weber, an associate professor of French at Barnard College, is the author of “Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution.”] WHY,” the French journalist wanted to know, “do you Americans insist on taking what is France’s and making it yours?” Like the Cannes audiences who blasted Kirsten Dunst as the vapid, pampered party queen in Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette,” my interviewer seemed indignant that an American-born author of a book on th

Eric Konigsberg: Marie Antoinette, Citoyenne

SHE may never have said the words that got her in Bartlett’s — “Let them eat cake” — but she might as well have. Nevertheless, the image of Marie Antoinette — dauphine, villain, tea-party thrower in shepherdess garb — is in the midst of an extreme rehab. What with Sofia Coppola’s movie, two sympathetic books (“Queen of Fashion,” a biography by Caroline Weber, and “Abundance,” a work of historical fiction by Sena Jeter Naslund); and a PBS documentary, we’re having a Marie Antoinette

David Greenberg: The Merits of Bob Woodward's State of Denial

Dear David C., I'm pleased to have this debate with you as well, and I hope that, despite our differences, we can have a civil and enlightening exchange. I'll make some general remarks, then respond to some specifics. Like you--and like most TNR readers, I suspect--I've been consistently outraged by Bush's rhetoric and policies. The columnists I admire most include people like Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal who bring insight and rigor to their criticisms of Bush's dis

Joel Waldfogel: Which country is the best colonizer?

[Joel Waldfogel is the Ehrenkranz family professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.] A generation ago, Christopher Columbus was a hero. No longer. Even my preteen kids can tell you that Columbus' followers brought disease and death to many New World natives. But as the forerunner of European colonization, can Columbus also claim to have ushered in an era of higher standards of living? One of the deep questions in ec

David Horowitz: What’s Not Liberal about the Liberal Arts

[David Horowitz is the author of numerous books including an autobiography, Radical Son, which has been described as “the first great autobiography of his generation.” It chronicles his odyssey from radical activism in the ‘60s to his current position as the head of the David Horowitz Freedom Center and who one journalist has called"the left's most articulate nemesis." His book, The Art of Political War was described by White House political strategist Karl Rove as “The perfect guide to winning