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How Islamists Use the Crusades

by Jonathan Riley-Smith

Western men and women have wiped the reality of the crusades from their minds.

HNN Debate: Should Obama Lead from the Center or Not?

by Allan Lichtman and Gil Troy

HNN EditorRecently, Allan Lichtman recommended in a post on the Britannica Blog that Barack Obama should adhere to four simple rules followed by FDR. Three of the rules sounded the same notes being heard all over Washington these days: 1. Strike early. 2. Bring the people with you. 3. Think big and broadly. But the fourth rang a controversial bell: Don't govern from the middle.

Why Jewish Blood Runs in Modern Spaniards

by Shelomo Alfassa

On December 5, 2008, the New York Times reported that 20% of the population of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) had Sephardic Jewish ancestry and 11% had DNA markers reflecting Islamic ancestors. To those familiar with the long and dark history of the Jews of Spain and Portugal, this is not of tremendous surprise. To understand the history of the Sephardic Jews is to understand why the genetic testing returned such results. Jews most likely arrived in what

Another Great Depression? Very Close.

by John Paul Rossi

The U.S. is in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.  The  question is: how close are we to another Great Depression? The answer is: Very close.  Here’s why.The Great Depression was the result of the combination of the1929 financial crisis and serious structural problems in the American economy such as widespread poverty.  After the 1929 stock market collapse these factors joined to deeply cut business investment and person

The Meaning of Obama’s Election for China

by Kate Merkel-Hess and Jeffrey Wasserstrom

This has been a tough year for China—as we argue in our forthcoming book, China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, it is the most traumatic year in recent memory. Between the Sichuan earthquake, the Tibe

Obama’s Nixonian Dilemma with Iraq

by Brian R. Robertson

With several public commentators and scholars comparing President-elect Barack Obama to Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, it has surprised me that there has been little attempt to compare Obama’s election with Richard M. Nixon’s election, exactly forty years ago. Both inherited divisive wars from the previous administration and both campaigns failed to provide clear answers or solutions for disengagement from Vietnam and Iraq. Nixon largely avoided establishing a cle

Picking Up Where FDR Left Off

by Ira Chernus

As the economic crisis ripples through the world, some liberal commentators say that the only solution to it is a globalized New Deal. That's a fine idea if it globalizes the heart of the domestic New Deal: the promise of protecting everyone from the threat of abject poverty. U.S. foreign policy has never done that before. Now is the time to start. The New Deal of the 1930s aimed to give every American "a margin of security against the inevitable vicissitudes of life," as Frank

The Bible, Home Ownership, and the Housing Crisis

by Joshua Berman

In the wake of the mortgage crisis, a growing chorus of economists today questions the status of home ownership as the fulfillment of the American dream.  An argument supporting home ownership is found – of all places – in the Hebrew Bible.  Although usually read as part of

An Interview with Thomas P. Slaughter, Author of The Beautiful Soul of John Woolman, Apostle of Abolition

by David Liebers

Thomas P. Slaughter is Professor of History at the University of Rochester.  He is an award-winning author of many books including, Bloody Dawn, The Whiskey Rebellion and Exploring Lew

Who Is the Real Cleopatra?

by Joyce Tyldesley

Her people regarded Queen Cleopatra VII (reigned 51-30 BC) as a living goddess, the earthly representation of the divine mother Isis. Three hundred y

The Strong Wind at His Back

by Robert Brent Toplin

Well, the pundits were wrong. White voters didn't change their minds in the voting booth. Barack Obama's victory proves that some analysts gave too much weight to race, not only in gauging today's opinions but also in judging how the American people's attitudes have been taking shape for decades.Polls released in October suggest that Obama's recent political progress may have changed some ideas about race in America. A New York Times/CBS poll showed that nearly two-thirds of the people as

In the Footsteps of a Forgotten Emigration - America, Russia and the Archaeology of Genocide

by Tim Tzouliadis

At the height of the Great Depression, several thousand American emigrants left New York on the decks of passenger liners, waving goodbye to the Stat

How Lincoln Might Fix Our Economic Mess

by Richard Striner

     As America grapples with the worst economic chain-reaction since 1929 —— and as President-Elect Obama takes time to consider more closely the methods of Abraham Lincoln —— it is time to reconsider a monetary method that Lincoln and the Civil War Republicans used, a monetary method that America’s leading economists attempted to revive in the 1930s.  It’s a method that could work right now, but with a critical revision to adapt i

How Not to Deal with the Oncoming Depression: The Case of New York State

by Lawrence S. Wittner

New York State's public services—particularly education, healthcare, and programs for the poor—are currently in turmoil thanks to state budget slashing led by Governor David Paterson.In the spring of 2008, shortly after the legislature adopted the 2008-09 budget, Paterson ordered a 3.35 percent cut in the operating budgets of state agencies. Later in the year, pointing to a $630 million deficit that had opened up in the 2008-09 budget and to a projected $6.4 billion defici

Eisenhower's Thanksgiving Mission

by William Lambers

General Dwight Eisenhower needed rest. It was the first Thanksgiving since the end of World War II in 1945 and the general was suffering from bronchitis. With the holiday, you would think Ike could get his much-needed recovery time. But not so. On this Thanksgiving Day, Eisenhower was called for a special mission in Washington, D.C. The Congress was holding a hearing on whether to provide additional funding for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administra

Why Americans Are Reluctant to Admit Their Presidents Are Kings

by Frank Prochaska

'There is a natural inclination in mankind to Kingly Government’ observed Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention in 1787.  It was a view the Constitution did little to silence.  Vario

Obama Says He's a Realist in the Mold of George H.W. Bush. What Does that Really Mean?

by Lloyd Gardner

Statements Senator Barack Obama made during the campaign offering praise for President George H.W. Bush’s realist approach to ending the Cold War and dealing with Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait invite us

The Historians' Paradox

by Peter Charles Hoffer

History is impossible. Nothing I have written or could write in The Historians' Paradox: A Philosophy of History for Our Times, will change that brute fact. We cannot go back in time. But doing history, stu

The Myth of Arab Innocence

by Elliott A. Green

The myth of Arab innocence throughout history --particularly concerning Jews-- has long haunted British and American writing about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Professors Walt and Mearsheimer put it as follows in their anti-Israel tract: ...in the Christian West... Jews suffered greatly from the despicable legacy of Anti-Semitism... But ... the creation of Israel involved additional crimes against a largely innocent third party: the Palestinians. This art

When Writing About John Muir, I Had to See What He Saw

by Donald Worster

For the past seven years I have been busy writing, in my non-teaching hours, the life story of the great California naturalist, John Muir.  Part of the rea