Culture Watch

Pearl Harbor One Year Later: How We Remembered THAT Anniversary

by Mike Mattocks

How did Americans, one year later, remember Pearl Harbor? Differently, it turns out, than we, one year later, are remembering 9-11. Then, officials used the anniversary as the occasion to ask Americans to make sacrifices like giving blood. The War Department used the anniversary to provide information previously withheld from the public about the losses at Pearl Harbor. Newspapers took the opportunity to sell war bonds. School children dispatched messages to our figh

Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History

by Ronald Radosh

It is the claim of Jerrold and Leona Schecter, a husband-and-wife journalist-historian team, that the Cold War was made up "sacred secrets," that is, critical intelligence operations carried out by major nations, in particular by the Soviet Union. These operations were of such vital importance that they virtually demand a rewriting of history, because much of what has been written fails to consider the meaning and effect of these intelligence campaigns. Sacred Secrets

Historical and Cultural Amnesia: The Role of History in Modern Memory

by Ron Briley

As schools begin to reopen all over the country, teachers, especially those in history, will express disappointment over how much their students have forgotten during the summer. But perhaps we are too quick to chide our young people for not maintaining intellectual engagement. It may well be that their forgetfulness simply reflects the historical and cultural amnesia which seems to characterize modern memory in the United States. As we bemoan low test scores and the short attention span o

Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History

by Harvey Klehr

Since the end of the Cold War a flood of revelations about Soviet espionage in America has discomfited old leftists and startled many Americans. Easy assumptions about how Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs had been framed or Harry Dexter White and Larry Duggan hounded into their graves by false charges have given way to documentary evidence that all of them were guilty of providing confidential information to Soviet intelligence agencies. Reflexive mantras about American overreaction to nonexistent

One Can’t Go Home Again, But One Can Drive By

by George Beres

There is a kind of history that transcends what one finds in books. It's an awareness that accompanies passing years. Part of it is a reminder from a modern bard-- that one can't"go home" again. I found that out during a trip of memory back to the Illinois town that nurtured me through boyhood. It's chancy to retrace one's steps back into the past while sentiment lingers. So I learned when once again I trod the still familiar streets, and felt drawn to the house that had been my

So What's It Mean to Be A Patriot These Days?

by Paul Loeb

It's been almost a year since Sept 11, but the flags remain. They decorate our clothing, cars, and houses, to convey a sense of common spirit in a land now feeling vulnerable and threatened. Bush officials play on these sentiments, insisting that true patriots don't question. The anthem of Bush-style patriotism, Lee Greenwood's"God Bless the USA," was actually written during the Cold War (back in 1985). Reagan made it his campaign theme while his advisors were backing the Nicaraguan Contr

Deep Throat: The Man, His Voice, and the Mystery of His Anonymity

by Tom O'Malley

In June 2002, on the 30th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, Mr. O'Malley published an ebook, Deep Throat -- Fact or Fiction, Watergate Secrets Revealed, documenting his argument that Joseph Lowther was Deep Throat. In the tidal wave of stories published in connection with the anniversary, the book was overlooked. HNN asked Mr. O'Malley to provide a brief summary of his evidence so our readers could judge for themselves whether

David Horowitz Versus Christopher Hitchens

by David Horowitz

The British novelist Martin Amis has written a new book, Koba, The Dread about Soviet Communism and the utopian delusion. It is about the romance of western intellectuals with a fantasy whose real world incarnation has already killed at least 20 million citizens of the Soviet Union and probably 100 million all over the world. The crime committed by these victims of the progressive dream was their refusal to go along with the claims of “social justice” and the requirements of instituting a

Sure, It's the Thought that Counts...But What do These Gifts Mean??

by HNN staff

Gift-giving is a fundamental part of international diplomacy, a practice that extends back to the early years of the U.S. Republic. Each year, the president of the United States, his family, and other federal employees give and receive hundreds of gifts. Of course, the Constitution prohibits any government official from receiving foreign gifts without the express authorization of Congress. Thus, according to The New York Times,"American leaders may

Should College Kids Be Required to Read About the Koran?

by Juan Cole

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assigns three books to incoming students every year. This year, one of the books, by Michael Sells of Haverford College, is about the Koran. Amazingly, the assignment of the book has sparked controversy and now a lawsuit. The legal action by three anonymous students is supported by a right-wing Christian organization, the Family Policy Network. It alleges that the students' first amendment rights are being violated by a form of religi

Books: Bob Kerrey's When I Was a Young Man

by Stanley Kutler

The Vietnam War lies like an angry scar across America. The political and cultural divisions of the time echo and reverberate constantly. Certainly, the young men who fought in that war, distinguished for its length and futility, never again were the same. If they survived, they were changed; the war was their defining experience. And they are special, for they were part of a terrible national failure. Few stories more eloquently testify to such change than that of former U.S. Sen

Extremists on Campus

by Daniel Pipes and Jonathan Schnanzer

For three decades, left-wing extremists have dominated American academics, spouting odd but seemingly harmless theories about"deconstruction,""post-modernism,""race, gender and class," while venting against the United States, its government and its allies. Only these ideas are not so harmless. The radical notions espoused in the classrooms and in campus demonstrations have recently had dangerous consequences. These are especially visible with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Co

Is the Supreme Court's Decision on Vouchers Really as Historic as Brown V. Board of Education?

by John Barnhill

"We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. Therefore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others similarly situated for whom the actions have been brought are, by reason of the segregation complained of, deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." These are the words of Earl Warren, speaking for a unanimous court in

Books: John and Claire Whitcomb's Real Life at the White House: Two Hundred Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence

by Eric Rauchway

Editor's Note: The following review first appeared in June on H-Pol, a list serve run by the University of Michigan under the general name, H-Net. For authors John and Claire Whitcomb,"real life" is shorthand for"interior decorating decisions"--in other words, not real life at all, but crafted lifestyles. Had they called the book"window treatments and floor coverings at the White House" it might have complied more nearly with truth-in-a

Books: Robert R. Bowie and Richard H. Immerman's Waging Peace

by David L. Snead

Editor's Note: The following first appeared in November 2001 on H-Diplo, the web site of the scholarly society H-Net. Robert R. Bowie and Richard H. Immerman's Waging Peace is an outstanding addition to the historiography of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's decision making system and national security policies. More than any previous scholars, Bowie and Immerman detail how Eisenhower modified the national security decision ma

Books: Earl and Merle Black's The Rise of Southern Republicans

by David Lowe

ADVOCATES of activist government in the United States have long looked with envy at West European countries with ideologically based party systems. In 1950, a special committee of the American Political Science Association (APSA) argued:"An effective party system requires, first, that the parties are able to bring forth programs to which they commit themselves and, second, that the parties possess sufficient internal cohesion to carry out these programs."Thirteen years later, during th

Should We Be Teaching Our Kids to Stand in the Shoes of a Muslim Warrior?

by Daniel Pipes

"Become a Muslim warrior during the crusades or during an ancient jihad." Thus read the instructions for seventh graders in Islam: A Simulation of Islamic History and Culture, 610-1100, a three-week curriculum produced by Interaction Publishers, Inc. In classrooms across the United States, students who follow its directions find themselves fighting mock battles of jihad against"Christian crusaders" and other assorted"infidels." Upon gaining victory, our mock-Muslim warriors"Praise Allah."

The West: Old-Time Records

by Keith Miller

For twenty-five years I have collected, first record albums, in recent years compact discs, of old-time country and Bluegrass music. Not only has that music inspired me, but it has also much improved my writing over the years. Let me tell you why it has done both. The powerful lyrics, sung so well by a multitude of performers, backed up by instruments, such as the banjo, fiddle, guitar, and dobro, open the mind and spirit to what I would call the fullness of life. Where good writing

"Under God"--A Product of the 1950's Red Scare

by David Greenberg

Poor Alfred Goodwin! So torrential was the flood of condemnation that followed his opinion—which held that it's unconstitutional for public schools to require students to recite"under God" as part of the Pledge of Allegiance—that the beleaguered appellate-court judge suspended his own ruling until the whole 9th Circuit Court has a chance to review the case.Not one major political figure summoned the courage to rebut the spurious claims that America's founders wished to mak

So Conservatives Wave the Flag While Liberals Burn It?

by Peter Dreier and Dick Flacks

The liberal origins of many all-American patriotic rituals.