Recently Published

How Historians Play the Game in Washington D.C.

by Scott McLemee

A member of Congress who says “history” is not necessarily thinking of the same enterprise as a professional historian. This is no Beltway-induced conceptual blockage: For civilians, the important thing about history is story, not methodology. (Even the most devoted viewers of the History Channel have no sense of the century-long debates over the “the objectivity ques

Political Correctness in The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History

by Jeff Lipkes

Ignoring the advice of his academic friends for a second time (he’d already responded to a review by Max Boot), Thomas Woods complained recently on this site that reviewers of his book The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History have dismissed it without bothering to refute its evidence or arguments. He has a point. Critical reviews have been long on indignation and short on substance. Most reviewers have been content to cite h

Does Islam Condone Beheadings?

by Timothy R. Furnish

Lately, losing one’s head for Islam has most appropriately referred to livid, murderous mobs in Afghanistan and Pakistan who, unfortunately, took at face value Newsweek and its false story of American interrogators’ desecration of the Qur’an at Gitmo. Lest we forget, however—since it hasn’t happened for some months—there is a much more literal and horrific sense in which someone can lose his head for Islam, particularly if he is non-Muslim. Between

Maybe Now the Watergate Conspiracy Theories Will Finally Go Away

by David Greenberg

As the historian Stanley I. Kutler noted in Slate a few years ago, Deep Throat's significance has surely been inflated by journalists, who have been entranced by a story that matters more to them than to history. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had scores of sources for their Watergate reporting, and while Deep Throat—or, as we should now say,

Here We Go Again: Deep Throat Revealed?

by Joan Hoff

Now we have another spectacular Deep Throat story that will have the mainstream press buzzing for days–enamored as it is of Woodward and Bernstein as investigative reporters. Even Ben Bradley agrees now that Mark Felt, former number two man at the FBI in the 1970s, was indeed Deep Throat. Before historians jump on the Watergate bandwagon again, please consider the following: 1) Read the Vanity Fair art

Forget Al Haig, David Gergen, L. Patrick Gray, Fred Fielding, Bush 41 ... Deep Throat Was W. Mark Felt

by Rick Shenkman

On Tuesday May 31, 2005 the wires reported that former FBI official W. Mark Felt has admitted that he was Deep Throat, the famous Watergate source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. A story about his admission

Richard B. Morris and the Columbia Riots of 1968: The Truth Finally Is Out

by Philip Ranlet

The riots that rocked Columbia University during the memorable year of 1968 remain the most well known of the student rebellions of that tumultuous time. However, the version of the disturbance that historians

Why Congress Has Every Right to Investigate Baseball and Other Sports

by Julian E. Zelizer

The chair of the House Government Reform Committee, Tom Davis, House Democrat Henry Waxman and Senate Republican John McCain have announced that they will propose legislation to impose uniform drug testing standards on the four major U.S. professional sports leagues. The suspicions about superstar athletes such as Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa have caused many legislators to doubt that sports officials can crack down effectively on steroid abuse. Yet, according to many Americans, Congres

The 4 Historical Misunderstandings About Social Security

by Edward Berkowitz

This article was delivered as a talk to members of Congress in mid-May. It was one of a number of talks being sponsored by the American Historical Association as part of the National History Center's Congressional Breakfast Seminar Series.

Did You Know that Half the Declaration's Signers Had Divinity School Training?

by Larry Schweikart

No phrase has been more egregiously misapplied than Thomas Jefferson’s infamous “wall of separation between church and state,” a line he used in a letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802.This line, along with references to the supposed lack of Christian faith among the Founders, has for decades fed the fires of the American leftist

A Spiked Helmet for Every Young American?

by Hans Koning

It is difficult to realize that thirty years have gone by since Saigon was liberated and the Vietnam war was over. Half a lifetime! At some point, in the middle of the warless period, it seemed that we were beginning to discover that the war and its two million casualties had been a criminal mistake, and not because we had not won but because the start of the war had been based on a fraudulent premise (the alleged torpedo attack by a North Vietnamese warship). That, and the domino theory, pr

Has the Bush Administration Made Nuclear Proliferation Inevitable?

by Lawrence S. Wittner

On May 27, the 2005 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, designed to shore up the international commitment to creating a nuclear-free world, concluded in shambles. According to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the gathering accomplished “absolutely nothing.” He added: “We are ending after a month of rancor . . . and the same issues continue to stare us in the eyes.”Originally signed in 1968 and enter

Why Stop at Boycotting Israel?

by Mark A. LeVine

With the recent vote by the British Association of University Teachers to boycott some Israeli academic institutions and scholars who support the Occupation, it is becoming increasingly difficult for scholars of the Middle East, and especially Palestine/Israel (or Israel/Palestine, or Israel and Palestine, or Palestine and Israel—there are historical-chronological reasons to put either one first depending on how far back one goes) to avoid publicly taking sides in this often acrimonious

What's Wrong with David McCullough's Kind of History?

by David Greenberg

This month marks the publication of 1776, David McCullough's rousing, feel-good tale of how George Washington led a ragtag crew of continental soldiers into their fateful battle for independence. It's safe to predict that 1776—the latest in a series of heavily hyped history blockbusters—will vault to the top of the best-seller lists, beguiling readers

Did the Media Accurately Report on the New Pope's Membership in the Hitler Youth?

by Stephen A. Bowden

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s recent elevation to Pope Benedict XVI has sparked a firestorm of controversy regarding his membership in the Hitler Youth and later the Germany military as a young man during World War II. Indeed, the day following his selection, one British tabloid ran a headline stating, “From Hitler Youth to…Papa Ratzi,” while another remarked that “God’s Rottweiler is Pope.” 1 A third British public

The Pope and Hitler Youth: An Interview with Michael H. Kater

by Rick Shenkman

Mr. Kater is Distinguished Research Professor of History, York University, Toronto and author of the book, Hitler Youth (Harvard University Press, 2004). The following interview was conducted by email.

Does It Matter if the Anti-Evolution Rightwingers Win in Kansas?

by Melissa Deckman

Recently in Kansas the nation’s eyes turned once again to the State Board of Education, which sponsored hearings on the merits of evolution. In 1999, the same board voted to eliminate the subject of evolution from the state’s science curriculu

Benedict XVI: The Man and the Novel

by Paul Wiebe

My April 19 surprise, that the newly-elected pope had chosen Benedict XVI as his papal name, was doubtless surpassed by the shock of the many believers, reporters, and the merely curious who, on hearing the news, had rushed to their computers, googled the name, and were instantly confronted with the offer of a PDF download of the op

Interview with Bancroft Winner Melvin Patrick Ely

by Ed Pompeian

In March Melvin Patrick Ely, a professor of history and black studies at the College of William and Mary, was awarded the Bancroft Prize for Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War (Knopf, 2004). The book tells the story of free Afric

Jonathan Edwards--The Forgotten Founding Father

by Philip F. Gura

If the number and popularity of recent biographies is any indication, Americans continue to be enthralled by their nation’s founding fathers, and mothers, brothers, and sisters. But while we hear much about Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Joh