Recently Published

The World's Longest War

by David Carlin

Everybody recognizes by now that the Arab-Israeli conflict is a singularly intractable one. The current struggle between Israel and Hezbollah is the sixth major episode in a 58-year-long war between Israel and its Arab neighbors that commenced in 1948 when the state of Israel was proclaimed. Fighting was renewed in 1956 over Suez, in 1967 in the Six-Day War, in the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and in 1982 with the invasion of Lebanon. Only an incurable optimist will imagine that whatever "peace&

Why the British Don't Remember Their Civil War and Americans Do Remember Theirs

by Diane Purkiss

In 1998, eight years ago, I was privileged to visit Gettysburg with my husband. The American Civil War had long fascinated me by its resonances with the more distant conflict on which I worked. The Battlefield Park was astonishing. There was not one single monument, as at Thiepval on the Somme, but hundreds to

Too Much Lewis & Clark History?

by David Mould

The story of the Lewis and Clark expedition, as author Stephen Ambrose aptly titled it, is one of “undaunted courage.” A 2 ½ year, 8,000-mile journey by river and land, to the Pacific and back, full of dangers and hardships. But the explorers would need a fresh dose of courage to face the deluge of history marking the 200th anniversary of their expedition.From St. Louis to the West coast, there are dozens of Lewis and Clark visitor centers and museums—from ma

The Truth About Capital Punishment: It's Inherently Cruel

by Daniel Gordon

On June 12, the Supreme Court ruled that Clarence E. Hill, a Florida prisoner facing execution, had a constitutional right to challenge the lethal injection procedure the state was planning to use on him. The Court's decision was unanimous. Why this consensus?   Because briefs to the court from physicians presented a ghastly truth: The method used to execute people in Florida and many other states sometimes produces excruciating suffering.   This raises an even bigg

Our Roman Predicament

by Harold James

In 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence, Adam Smith and Edward Gibbon published the first volumes of two works that used history to illuminate Britain’s imperial dilemma in the face of the American Revolution: The Wealth of Nations and The Dec

Not Many Senators Have Found Themselves in Joe Lieberman's Predicament

by Robert KC Johnson

On Tuesday, Democratic voters in Connecticut will cast their ballots to consider denying renomination to Joe Lieberman. The three-term incumbent trailed in the final pre-primary poll by 13 points; two-thirds of those who supported his opponent, Ned Lamont, said they did so because of their opposition to Lieberman and his policies, rather than their positive feelings toward Lamont. Those are hardly encouraging figures for Lieberman, who has sa

Radical Anti-Semitism: Phase 2

by Jeffrey Herf

After recycling ancient anti-Semitic tales about the death of Jesus in The Passion of Christ, a drunken Mel Gibson informed the local police and then the national media that yes indeed, the Jews are also the cause of modern wars. The implosion of the career of this undistinguished, if commercially successful Hollywood celebrity, would be a welcome aspect of the re-emergence of anti-Semitism he has helped to foster. Since the 1950s, the lines between hatred of Jews as Jews, and hatred of I

A Series of Inconvenient Truths

by Ron Briley

In this summer of our discontent, those of us who believe that President George W. Bush’s policies have destabilized the Middle East, fostered growing anti-Americanism abroad, and endangered civil liberties at home may be overlooking even more serious and deadly long range ramifications of the current regime.  The failure to acknowledge the consensus of the scientific community regarding the consequences of global warming led the Bush administration to withdraw from the Kyoto Proto

Castro May Be Dying, Castroism Isn't

by Alan McPherson

Wild speculation has followed Cuba’s announcement last Monday that Fidel Castro was temporarily transferring power to his brother Raúl to recover from surgery. Some anti-Castro exiles in Miami immediately concluded that Fidel had died, that he has cancer, or that Raúl is not really in charge. Others, more realistic, presumed the elder brother would not return to power, and others still that Raúl’s ascent will usher in significant reforms.

The Strange Origins of Thomas Sowell's Theory of Gangsta Rap Culture

by Marc Wiseman

Tartans and Bling: Thomas Sowell’s Tracing of Urban Black Culture to the Grady McWhiney’s 'Celtic Fringe'Thomas Sowell is perhaps the most unexpected heir to the legacy of recently deceased historian Grady McWhiney. Outside of their shared, conservative political leanings, they are quite different. Thomas Sowell is an African-American economist, columnist and historian born in the South (North Carolina), raised and educated in the North (Harvard, Columbia and the University of Chicago

Adlai Stevenson Had a Peace Proposal ... Shouldn't Democrats Today?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

Fifty years ago, Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic presidential candidate, injected a peace proposal into his hard-fought political campaign.  Speaking before the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 21, 1956, Stevenson suggested halting H-bomb tests and challenging other nations to do the same.  According to the Illinois Democrat, such actions would “reflect our determination never to plunge the world into nuclear holocaust” and “would reaffirm our purpose

Interview with Marjorie Murphy: War News Radio

by Nathan Calverley

Since March 2005, students at Swarthmore College have been on the air broadcasting stories about the war in Iraq. The program has been steadily gaining in popularity since its first broadcast over a year ago. Listeners tune in from as far away as Italy and Australia. The station broadcasts over the radio and online. Swarthmore Professor of History Marjorie Murphy oversees the program.HNN asked Professor Murphy, who teaches social

The Road to a New American Aristocracy

by Johann N. Neem

Legislators across the nation are considering eliminating estate taxes for the wealthiest Americans, even as we face budget crises and growing debt. Yet estate taxes, and other rules governing the transfer of wealth between generations, are vital to the American experiment. They help ensure equal opportunity and prevent the rise of a small set of families whose money and political power separate them permanently from the rest of us. Estate taxes protect us from the dangers of arist

The United States and the Japanese Mengele: Payoffs and Amnesty for Unit 731 Scientists

by Christopher Reed

Everyone has heard of Auschwitz, but what about Pingfan? This Japanese germ warfare headquarters and laboratory in Manchuria, northern China, did not hold as many victims, but atrocities committed there were physically worse than in the Nazi concentration camp, and lasted much longer. Many people know of Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi SS "Angel of Death" and a physician (though not chief medical officer) at Auschwitz

History Doyen: Harold M. Hyman

by Bonnie Goodman

What he's famous for.

Lebanon: How We Got Here

by Yoav Gelber

The beginning of Israel’s involvement in Lebanon dates back to the 1930s, before Jewish statehood. The Arab rebels in Palestine looked for guidance to their leader, the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Hussayni, who found refuge in a Lebanese village and from this secure shelter directed the rebellion in Palestine and provided the Palestinian gangs with munitions, provisions and funds while the French authorities in Beirut turned a

Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism: The Link

by Diana Muir

This week, the Spanish Foreign Minister felt compelled to defend Prime Minister Zapatero from charges of anti-Semitism. Zapatero had donned the black-checked keffiyeh that is the symbol of Palestinian determination to destroy the Jewish State and criticized Israel for using “abusive force that does not protect innocent human beings.”1 It was all too familiar. On any given day one can find some eminent European – a

So Hezbollah Can't Be Crushed?

by Diana Muir

Last Tuesday morning a “senior (Israeli) military source” said that Israel seeks "to significantly weaken Hezbollah but not crush it, since it is impossible to crush a popular, religious movement." Conventional wisdom is with the senior Israeli officer, but in fact popular, religious movements have been crushed by military force many times, and in all parts of the world. The Zanj movement formed in 868 CE in the vast delta where the Tigris meets

Why Israel's Campaign Will Likely Fail

by Michael Creswell

Many Americans see Israel's response to the capture of three of its soldiers as entirely justified. Why not, they ask, punish those who hold these men? Surely no other country would act differently in similar circumstances. The Bush administration agrees. It strongly supports Israeli military action in Lebanon against Hezbollah.   Yet Israel's military campaign is unlikely to succeed. In fact, it will probably backfire. Once before, Israel -- under the pretext of a justifiable

The Truman Parallel Bush Doesn't Want to Think About

by Ron Briley

            An unpopular President with low approval ratings presides over a frustrating war in which American power appears checked by a less technologically advanced enemy who also poses an ideological threat.  Members of the President’s party are openly critical of how the Chief Executive is handling the war effort.  Despairing of losing control of the Congress, former party allies of the President seek to distance them