Roundup: Talking About History

Max Boot: The Consummate Warrior

[Max Boot is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is writing a history of guerrilla warfare and terrorism, on which this article is based, for W.W. Norton.] In English-speaking countries, the French armed forces have become a joke. Literally. Entire websites are devoted to one-liners like: “How many gears do French tanks have? Six: five reverse and one forward.” This is a gross slander of a nation that, back in the

Kerry Madden: On the Trial of Harper Lee

[Kerry Madden is the author of "Up Close: Harper Lee" and the Maggie Valley series for young adult readers.] In her last in-depth interview about writing, Harper Lee talked about her hometown, Monroeville, Ala., in 1964, telling Roy Newquist: "We simply entertained each other by talking. It's quite a thing, if you've never been in or known a small Southern town. The people are not particularly sophisticated, naturally. They're not worldly wise in any way.

John Hanc: The Curious London Legacy of Benedict Arnold

[John Hanc is a writer for Smithsonian Magazine.] “You have five minutes,” the vicar said, as he led us through the foyer of St. Mary’s church in the Battersea section of London. “I’m sorry I can’t give you more time, but we have a meeting down there that’s about to start.” And with that, we descended a flight of stairs to see the tomb of America’s most infamous turncoat. I was on a London “Tory Tour” —an afternoon-long look at sites associated with the 7,0

Pierre Ranger: 'Tis the Season to March in Belfast

[Pierre Ranger is a teaching assistant in the history department of Queen’s University Belfast.] To an outsider, even a sympathetic one, Northern Ireland feels strange at the height of the marching season. The zenith comes on July 12, when tens of thousands of Protestant men, wearing sober suits, bowler hats and orange sashes, parade through the streets to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne.... Two days later, a quieter celebration takes place in Belfast. In a pub called

Luke Slattery: There's Always Been some East in the West

[Luke Slattery is an author and critic and a commentator on higher education issues.] THE idea of the West as a distinct yet endangered entity rose to prominence in the late 1980s during the debate known as the culture wars.... We are still dealing with the reverberations of this conflict whenever the phrase "clash of civilisations" is used. And of course it became something more than a rhetorical debate about literary culture and tradition after the attacks o

Lee Ruddin: Understandng Pakistan through the Film "Bhutto"

[Lee P Ruddin is Roundup Editor for HNN.] Last week’s triple attack in Lahore has only increased talk of terrorists taking over Pakistan’s Punjab province. Commentators had expressed concerns for the existence of the Pakistani state long before suicide bombers struck the bustling capital city, though, given the fissures within the Army – the country’s strongest institution. Yet it is the decline in capacity of institutions more generally that has earned the country its “critical” status in Fo

Evelyn Leopold: Here Comes the Queen: A Sense of History

[Evelyn Leopold, a freelance writer, was bureau chief for Reuters at the United Nations for 17 years until recently.] Queen Elizabeth II addressed the UN General Assembly for the first time since 1957, walking down the aisle with Prince Philip in bridal party fashion, with delegates standing and applauding. Although her walk to the green marble podium was similar to her first visit, the British Empire in 1957 still had colonies while many of the UN's 192 members now are former British

Thomas E. Ricks: The Worst Generals’ Memoir of World War II?

I've just finished reading Gen. Mark Clark's Calculated Risk, and I have to say I think it is one of the dullest war memoirs I've ever read, and certainly the worst I've seen by an American general who served in that war. (I have yet to read some of those by MacArthur and his band of sycophants, though-they are staring at me from the bookshelf but I have been avoiding tackling them.)...

T.H. Breen: The Secret Founding Fathers

[T.H. Breen is the William Smith Mason Professor of American History and Director of the Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies at Northwestern University and author of American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People.] Independence Day typically focuses attention on a cast of characters known as the Founding Fathers. Curiosity about these leaders—George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, to name only the most famous—seems insatiable. The d

Toby Lester: How America Got Its Name

[Toby Lester is a contributing editor to The Atlantic and the author of ”The Fourth Part of the World,” which comes out in paperback on Tuesday. For more about the book and the Waldseemüller map, see www.tobylester.com.] Each July 4, as we celebrate the origins of America, we look back ritually at what happened in 1776: the war, the politics, the principles that defined our nation. But what about the other thing that defines Ameri

Sean Wilentz: July 4th's Forgotten Partisan History

[Sean Wilentz is a history professor at Princeton University whose books include The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln and The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. A contributing editor at The New Republic, his new book, Bob Dylan in America, will be published in September by Doubleday.] Even at a time of bitter political partisanship and ideological division, celebrating the Fourth of July remains a surpassing national ritual of patriotic unity. The hot dogs and picn

William C. Kashatus: Was Thomas Paine an Anarchist or Founding Father?

[William C. Kashatus, a professional historian and writer, is former Director of Educational Programs at Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he curated the nationally recognized exhibit Just over the Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad.] ON THE EVE of the American Revolution, Britain's North American colonists were divided over the issue of independence. A third favored separation from England. Another third opposed it, and

Walter Russell Mead: London Fourth

[Walter Russell Mead is Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. He blogs at The-American-Interest.com.] London is an odd place for an American to spend the Fourth of July, but the way the schedule worked out this summer, this happened to be the best time for me to make a quick trip. I’ve been putting some ideas together about Anglo-American relations, the decline and

Jeremy R. Hammond: Israel’s attack on Egypt in June ’67 was not ‘preemptive’

[Jeremy R. Hammond is an independent political analyst whose articles have been featured in numerous print and online publications around the world. He is the founder and editor of Foreign Policy Journal (www.foreignpolicyjournal.com), an online source for news, critical analysis, and opinion commentary on U.S. foreign policy.] It is often claimed that Israel’s attack on Egypt that began the June 1967 “Six Day War” was a “preemptive

Joel Richard Paul: How We Really Won Our Independence

[Joel Richard Paul is a professor and associate dean at the University of California Hastings Law School and author of Unlikely Allies: How a Merchant, a Playwright and a Spy Saved the American Revolution.] Everyone knows that Benjamin Franklin was our first diplomatic envoy in Paris and that he almost single-handedly forged the alliance with France that provided the arms that clinched the American Revolution. Or, well, we thought so, anyway. In fact, long before Ben Franklin set fo

Bill Fowler: The Queen Still Rules the Waves

[Bill Fowler is Distinguished Professor of History at Northeastern University.] At more than 1,000 feet in length and with engines generating more than 150,000 horsepower, Queen Mary 2 dwarfs her puny ancestor Britannia, yet she carries on Samuel Cunard’s traditions. On July 4, 1840, thousands of cheering spectators crowded the docks of Liverpool, England, to bid farewell to Samuel Cunard and his steamship Britannia bound for Boston via Halifax. At a time when sailing s

Ian C. Friedman: We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident

[Ian C. Friedman is the author of four books; Manny Ramirez (2010), A to Z of Latino Americans (2007), American Rights: Freedom of Speech and the Press (2005), and Library in a Book: Education Reform (2003; revised 2010.) He is also the co-author of two books; Presidents: A Biographical Dictionary (2010) and American Inventors, Entrepreneurs, and Business Visionaries (2010.)] Thomas Jefferson was under enormous pressure and unyielding time constraints when he first sat down at a sma

Peggy Noonan: Happy 234th Independence Day

[Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal whose work appears weekly in the Journal's Weekend Edition and on OpinionJournal.com.] The tenderest words in American political history were cut from the document they were to have graced. It was July 1, 2 ,3 and 4, 1776, in the State House in Philadelphia. America was being born. The Continental Congress was reviewing and editing the language of the proposed Declaration of Independence and Thomas Jefferson, its

David Stokes: The Forgotten Old South Church of the American Revolution

[David R. Stokes is an author, columnist, broadcaster, and Senior Pastor of Fair Oaks Church in Fairfax, Virginia. His radio broadcast is heard at 2:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m., Monday-Friday on WAVA (105.1fm) in Washington, D.C and across North America on XM SATELLITE CHANNEL 170 “Family Talk” at 6:30 a.m. & 2:30 p.m. (all times eastern). He is the author of “APPARENT DANGER: The Pastor of America’s First Megachurch and the Texas Murder Trial of the Decade in the 1920s”.]In September of 1775,

Marc Grossberg: The Day a Jewish Immigrant in Texas Took on the Klan

[Marc Grossberg is a lawyer living in Houston.] My mother worshipped her mother, Yetta Wachstein Hochman, even more than she worshipped me. While that left me as a runner-up, I still liked my grandmother’s visits in the 1940s, when I was a boy in Houston. Even my little dog did. When my grandmother walked haltingly up the stairs, grasping the railing with both hands, the dog kept two steps behind her, as if poised to catch her if she fell. Every year as July 4 approache