Recently Published

I Was Smeared

by Michael Lind

Last week HNN published Alan Wald's critique of an article written by Michael Lind for the New Statesman in which Mr. Lind argued that defense policy in the Bush administration is orchestrated by a group of people, many of whom are Jewish, who were allegedly shaped by Trotskyism. This week we publish an exchange between Mr. Lind and Mr. Wald. Below is Mr. Lind's statement. Click here for M

What Makes a Great President

by Karl Rove

Editor's Note: Mr. Rove delivered the following lecture on November 13, 2002 at the University of Utah's Rocco C. Siciliano Forum. A transcript of the lecture was made available a few days ago by the College of Social and Behavioral Science.[The presidency for good or ill plays a vital role in the life of the country.] The president’s performance is often a measure by which we all judge the performance of our country. A president who succ

Why Can't We See the Declaration of Independence?

by Timothy Walch

On this Fourth of July, the Declaration of Independence is nowhere to be seen. Yet it's not missing and it hasn't been stolen. Since July 2001, the precious, much-loved document has been in seclusion for much needed repairs.

Why People Ignore Poverty

by Joyce Appleby

Alabama's Gov. Bob Riley has astounded friend and foe alike by proposing a tax increase of $1.3 billion to lift the heavy tax burden from the state's poor. Admonishing critics that the New Testament teaches us "to help those who are the least among us," Riley is attacking an entrenched system of inequity in his state. Meanwhile, back in Washington, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has denounced a Senate bill to extend an increased tax credit for c

Are Trotskyites Running the Pentagon?

by Alan Wald

As a scholar researching for several decades the migration of United States intellectuals from Left to Right, I have been startled by the large number of journalistic articles making exaggerated claims about ex-Trotskyist influence on the Bush administration that have been circulating on the internet and appearing in a range of publications. I first noticed these in March 2003, around the time that the collapse of Partsian Review magazine was announced, although some may have ap

The Looting of Iraq Goes On

by Piotr Michalowski

It is two months since we learned of the looting of the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The news reports at the time were clear and consistent, but it now appears that they exaggerated the scope of the damage. Many of us reacted passionately to the news, writing editorials and letters expressing our sorrow and anger. Looking back at what I wrote at the time, I can only say that perhaps we should have realized we were dealing with preliminary repor

President Bush's Radical Break with a Generation of Middle East Diplomacy

by Daniel Pipes

"Our goal is two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side, in peace and security." So spoke President Bush at a Middle East summit on June 4. Then, despite the jump in violence over the next 10 days, leaving 63 dead, he reiterated on Sunday his belief in "a peaceful Palestinian state, living side by side with the Israelis," though now adding "we've got a lot of work to do." Bush's goal may appear to be just another diplomatic twist in the half

Are Labor Historians Closet Marxists--Or Do They Just Have Closed Minds?

by Anders Lewis

Rumors of Karl Marx’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet communism, the Old Man is alive and kicking. Indeed, among historians of American labor history, Marx is King and Adam Smith has never been heard of. This will not come as a surprise to readers of Frontpage Magazine, who well know that much of the academic world is dominated by militant left-wing apologists for terro

The Arabs' False View of the United States

by Robert Rabil

During my daily routine in Washington of reading the Arab press, I never cease to be astonished by the pervasive anti-American feelings that blame the U.S. for the miserable conditions gripping the Arab world. Although the charges are manifold, their common denominator is a belief that the U.S. does not understand or care about the Arab world. Monopolizing the Arabs' oil industry and making the region safe for Israel are held to be the driving forces behind American foreign policy

Burma's Martyr to Freedom

by Ralph Luker

The detention of a private citizen in a Third World country would not ordinarily get much attention elsewhere. But when Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned two weeks ago, world attention turned to the embattled hope for democracy in the impoverished southeast Asian country. Americans may remember Burma because of the controversy over its name. In 1989, Burma's military rulers appealed to nationalist sentiment by adopting the name "Myanmar" for their

The Oslo Trap

by Daniel Pipes

Can the "road map" that President Bush just launched do better than the dismal failure of prior Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy? Yes - if it avoids making the same mistakes. The failure of the last round was foreshadowed at its very start, on Sept. 13, 1993 - the day of the famous handshake between arch-enemies Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn and the signing of the Oslo accord.Less famously, the initiative's death knell came at the same mome

Did Bush Lie Us into War?

by John Dean

President George W. Bush has got a very serious problem. Before asking Congress for a Joint Resolution authorizing the use of American military forces in Iraq, he made a number of unequivocal statements about the reason the United States needed to pursue the most radical actions any nation can undertake -- acts of war against another nation. Now it is clear that many of his statements appear to be false. In the past, Bush's White House has been very good at sweeping ugly issues li

Reply to Ralph Luker

by Christine Heyrman

Dear Editor:I appreciate your offering me the opportunity to respond to Ralph Luker's article on Southern Cross, which I received from you on 9 June 2003. Let me begin by thanking Mr. Luker, as I did in my 7 May 2003 email to him, for bringing to my attention an undercount of Methodists in 1790 that appears in the statistical appendix to that book. I have completed a final revision of my tables and submitted s

Letter from Judith: Now What Should Be Done in Israel?

by Judith Klinghoffer

Here I go again with my advice. This time from Israel where the situation is fast deteriorating. Within days after the seemingly ground breaking Aqaba summit, in which the new Palestinian Prime minister dared call Palestinian targeting of civilians terror, they discovered that nothing has changed. A furious Yassir Arafat determined to prove his relevance struck back. No longer satisfied with cooperating with the rejectionists surreptitiously in order to keep Israel and the West in line

Oh My! The French Don't Like Us (Again)

by Thomas Fleming

Journalists and TV pundits who have been wringing their hands over America's unpopularity in France because of the war in Iraq are badly in need of a history lesson. Disillusion on both sides of this international equation goes back to 1778, the year that France signed a treaty of alliance with the infant United States, promising to fight the British until the Americans won their war for independence. The French sent a fleet to American waters and Washington rushed

Another Case of Plagiarism--This Time by a Journalist

by Rick Shenkman

In early February Eric Black, a Minneapolis Star Tribune staff reporter, provided readers with two essays outlining the history of Iraq. The essays were long and detailed, containing numerous quotations from a number of well-informed historians. Any newspaper would have been proud to post them. They were far more thoughtful than the usual fare published by regional papers on topics related to inte

Did Another Bancroft Winner Have Trouble Counting?

by Ralph Luker

Click here to read Christine Heyrman's response to this article.The book was published by Alfred A. Knopf and won a Bancroft Prize. It was widely praised for its elegant prose and provocative interpretation of an important dimension of American culture."... this is a wonderful book --" gushed an editor of the Journa

A Historian Remembers Her Father--And What United Them

by Ruth Rosen

MY FATHER always called himself a conservative Republican. "But I'm still for the little guy," he'd say, in an accent and manner that reminded everyone of Archie Bunker. For 40 years, he practiced law in an urban storefront office, typed his own briefs on a 1939 Royal, and helped poor people get their day in court. For 40 years, he voted for Republican candidates. The child of immigrants, he passionately loved this country, its Constitution and its rule of law. When I

Will the New Road to Peace in Palestine Be Washed Out?

by Harvey Sicherman

On June 4, 2003, President George W. Bush personally renewed the latest American quest for Arab-Israeli peace. Presiding over a summit at the Jordanian port of Aqaba, with King Abdullah of Jordan, Prime Minister Sharon of Israel, and the new Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, Bush pledged to see the parties through to a shared Holy Land: "a vibrant Jewish state" and a democratic, sovereign Palestinian state. As the Red Sea lapped gently behind them, Abdullah foresaw norm

Stop the Straussians Before They Lie Again

by William H. Leckie, Jr.

Back in the 1980s a conservative mantra was, "Ideas have consequences." It still is among the intellectual advisers to the administration of George W. Bush, for whom ancient history matters. They seem to want to take on what Atlantic correspondent Robert D. Kaplan calls a "warrior politics"-in a book of that title bearing an elegant, ancient Corinthian helmet on its cover--and assume the pagan ethic of Greece and Rome in our postmodern times, though most of them h