Recently Published

Examining the Myth of Okinawan Pacifism

by Gregory Smits

On August 28, 2009 the Okinawa Association of America marked its one hundredth anniversary by hosting the musical King Sho Hashi—a truly positive impact on the country.  I want to take that passionate Okinawan tradition and convey it to future generations using King Sho Hashi as the motif.”  The promotional poster for the musical says of Shō Hashi that “His vision united a kingdom.”Perhaps the most obvious critical detail that comes to mind in examining

George Jetson on the Unemployment Line?

by Hardy Green

In southern Iran along the shore of the Persian Gulf, a vast industrial area is under construction.  The complex known as the Pars Special Energy

Channelling George Washington: A Presidential Summit

by Thomas Fleming

“THIS IS TOO MUCH ABUSE FOR ANY PRESIDENT TO ENDURE! COMING FROM HIM, OF ALL PEOPLE. THE SO-CALLED ‘FATHER OF HIS COUNTRY’! AFTER HE PROMISED MRS. WASHINGTON HE WOULD TREAT ME DECENTLY!”The voice was shrill, almost hysterica

The Recession Is Dead! Long Live the Recession!

by Robert E. Wright

It’s finally official, or at least as official as it gets:  the economy began to grow again in June 2009, eighteen months after it began shri

Congress Takes Stand for Military History

by Ed Hooper

Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta will become the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.  He will be one of four, who have fought in Afghanistan, to receive the nation’s highest honor.  While President Obama will decorate a living soldier with the medal, Congress is considering a resolution to declare November U.S. Military History Month in America.  The bill was introduced by U.S. Representative John Duncan (R-TN) and is now garnering the

Islamophobia and Anti-Catholicism—Two Sides of the Same Coin

by Peter Walker

The ironically-named Dove World Outreach Center has just fifty members and undoubtedly belongs to the lunatic fringe of American society.  Its proposed Koran burning, however, was a manifestation—an extreme manifestation—of a much wider Islamophobia.  Fear of Islam has been prominent recently in the storm in a teacup over the Cordoba Mosque and in the contested memory of the September 11 terrorist attacks.  The 9/11 anniversary prompted many in Europe and America to voice, to varying

Memo to Jimmy Carter: Ted Kennedy Didn't Sabotage Healthcare Reform

by Timothy Stanley

Carter’s claim that he was victimized overlooks the fact that he made liberals many promises that he betrayed.

David Brooks’s Gentility Shift

by Stuart Semmel

It’s hard to know what’s more misguided about David Brooks’ September 9 column in the New York Times, titled

We Ignore Our Infrastructure at Our Peril

by Carl A. Zimring

The explosions were horrifying.  A quiet residential subdivision south of San Francisco was consumed by a massive fireball in the early evening of September 9.  Firefighters who rushed to the scene initially thought that an airplane had crashed into the neighborhood.No airplanes crashed, but the thought was understandable.  By the time the fire was contained, fifteen acres of suburban San Bruno had burned, with thirty-seven homes destroyed.  Within one week, six people were co

Did the 1960 Presidential Debates Really Matter?

by James L. Baughman

Probably not, but they have been election rituals ever since.

The Heat Wave that Changed American History

by Edward P. Kohn

During this past summer of record heat, we all enjoyed pictures of children playing in fountains and eating ice cream.  To the media, a heat wave means a holid

The Conscience of the Conservatives?

by Jonathan M. Schoenwald

A quick trip around the blogosphere finds critics calling Dinesh D’Souza’s

Fear and Loathing in Erdogan's Turkey

by Hakan Ozoglu

September 12, 2010 saw the approval of a referendum to amend twenty-six articles of Turkey’s constitution.  Although these articles appear to ameliorate the undemocratic elements in the constitution, prepared by the military after a coup in 1980, the amendments caused considerable controversy in Turkey.  The decisive margin (58 percent to 42 percent) boosted the government’s confidence in dealing with the opposition; however, it also stoked secularist fears that the governme

Russia, Stalin's Crimes, and Genocide

by Norman M. Naimark

Chechen deportees in 1944.

Why Aren't All the Nixon Tapes Now Available?

by Maarja Krusten

A recent article in the New York Times about the Watergate transcripts focused a spotlight on Richard Nixon’s White House tapes.  Prosecutors used 12-1/2 hours of the 3,700 hours of recordings in the Watergate trials.  Since 1977, when I helped move them out of the White House, all the tapes have been in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).   Efforts to open the

Arsenic, but No Old Lace—Medical Historian James C. Whorton on the Poisoning of Nineteenth-Century Britain

by Robin Lindley

Arsenic pervaded almost every aspect of life in nineteenth-century Britain, and the poison left a toll of death and illness.  A by-product of an

One of the World’s First Diplomats Goes Home

by Amanda H. Podany

On Tuesday, September 7, the United States returned to Iraq hundreds of historic objects that had found their way over here during the past decad

Beyond the Global Cabbage Patch

by Karen Dubinsky

Last year, immediately after the earthquake, the world’s media, relief and aid organizations, and not a few would-be adoptive parents, collectively tu

Police Torture Scandal Could Be the Real Reason Daley is Stepping Down

by Andrew S. Baer

A decades-old police torture scandal in Chicago may have helped convince Mayor Richard M. Daley to slip quietly out of City Hall’s seldom-used backdoor of retirement.  Early last week, Daley, whose very name has been a metonym for Chicago ever since his famous father took office over half a century ago, informed a stunned city that he would not be seeking an unprecedented seventh term in next year’s mayoral primary.  In the wake of his announcement, journa

Historians: Own Your Feelings or Leave Them Out

by Maarja Krusten

Personal reactions.  Own your sources or leave them out of your essays.  That’s my advice to my fellow historians, because mixing facts and feelings can be problematic.“As reality-based members of the American community, we have an obligation toward the truth, even when it isn't particularly convenient.”  That was Jamelle Bouie’s conclusion at the end of a review of Ma