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Valerie Plame in 2008.

A Dirty–and Deadly–Trick

… motives, high Bush administration officials exposed the name of a CIA agent to columnist Robert Novak. For more … the first time a president has possibly connived at what was essentially an act of treason. Not that there’s been a … into the matter last month. The current affair began when two senior Bush administration officials revealed the

Are Women People? The Equal Rights Amendment Then and Now

… On March 22, 2017, Nevada became the 36 th state and the first state in 40 years to ratify … in legal limbo. A protestor’s sign at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C. in 2017. Forty-five years after Congress … ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment ( right ). When the ERA is described in terms of equal pay for equal …
Children at Play: An American History, by Howard Chudacoff Book Cover

Children at Play: An American History

Review of Children at Play: An American History, by Howard Chudacoff (New York: New York University Press, 2007)
… society that is at once protective and threatening. Even as the "built environment" has stolen space used traditionally … This recovery of the past play world of American children was probably Chudacoff's greatest challenge, but is this … America, most of it is devoted to the years after 1800, when middle-class Americans gradually acknowledged that a …
The culminating moment of Alice, when the pretense of power is exposed and collapses. Carroll was very concerned throughout his life with giving a wide audience of people, not just his Christ Church students, the tools of logical thinking so that they would not be the victims of demagogues and ideologies.

Everyone’s Inner Child Turns 150 Years Old

… Alice in Wonderland, the little girl created by Oxford mathematician and logician … our ear tells us a different story.   Lewis Carroll was already an ardent photographer when Oscar Rejlander took this portrait of him posing with a …
The Romanov Family

The Romanov Tercentenary: Commemoration, History, and Power

… A century ago, on May 25, 1913, Tsar Nicholas II entered the Cathedral of the Assumption in Moscow’s Kremlin, where … English translation, the smutnoe vremia (or simply smuta ) was a period of civil war, famine, and foreign intervention … laid the foundations for three centuries of Romanov rule. When Nicholas celebrated the family’s tercentenary, another …
The Education of Little Tree by Forest Carter book cover.

Fake Autobiographies: A Great American Tradition

… Let's stop wringing our hands over the recent rash of fake autobiographies. James Frey and … give us the cliches we want about life on the margins. Only when we end our romance with what we imagine is authentic … touring as a speaker for the Anti-Slavery Society in 1841, was told by abolitionist leader William Garrison not to …
Bust of Abraham Lincoln.

Getting Wrong with Lincoln

… dream about. He’s rewritten a part of American history. The Hollywood actor recently capped a bizarre speech to … member of the Whig and then Republican parties, Lincoln was a thoroughly committed advocate for the development of … system. But if anything, an actor knows a good line when he hears one — and Beatty must have understood that his …
Dick Cheney in 2003.

The Vice President: Heir Apparent in American Politics

When George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Ira and George Gershwin wrote "Of Thee I Sing" in 1931, they created a vice president named … Throttlebottom, whose relationship with government was so tenuous that he saw the White House for the first …
Plumes of smoke billow from the World Trade Center towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, after a Boeing 767 hits each tower during the September 11 attacks.

Security May Be Too Expensive

The United States is in its third week of a war with no … wiretaps to a specific phone number is obsolete in an age when people commonly  have multiple telephones and e-mail. … repression only to find later that the targeted population was little or no threat. When John Adams believed the nation …
Florida Supreme Court during the 2000 presidential election recount.

Disputed Elections: An American Tradition

… political analysts claim that without quick resolution of the current presidential election, Americans will lose all … As members of Virginia's lower House of Assembly, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson themselves "intervened" in … reveals thousands of pages devoted to contested elections. When elections were questioned, common sense, rather than …
Indian bicycle troops are pictured at the Somme in 1916

The Amritsar Massacre

… “Divide and Rule” was the motto of British colonialism in India . 1919 saw a classic example of this policy in action when hundreds of unarmed, peaceful civilians in Punjab were …

Hong Kong in Protest

… In the renowned Hong Kong crime thriller Infernal Affairs … to the People’s Republic of China  (PRC). The bill was introduced after Chan Tong-kai murdered his girlfriend, … the Yue peoples, who controlled the region until 111 BCE when the Chinese Han Empire conquered it. From that point …
Mosul Grand Mosque in 2007

Bush Needs War — FAST

… inspectors be given months or even a year to complete further investigations in that country, President George W. … outlets at the time for discussion of political issues. When American military action expanded in Vietnam in 1965, … prospects for conflict in the Middle East. This volatility was particularly evident when prospects for peace improved. …
Cartoon in Punch, 1906.

For Iraq, a Lesson from Africa

… to look in such an unlikely place. But it turns out that there's much to learn about how to handle the Iraqi quagmire … provide patronage and line the pockets of an elite. Nowhere was this noxious trend more pervasive than in what was then … the rest is where it gets hard. That is especially true when the people who would be free have spent their entire …
Gettysburg Museum and Visitor Center display.

America Needs New Words on Sept. 11

… To mark the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, both … for the people shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln was saying that the best way to honor the country’s brave … was addressing Congress and the nation on January 6, 1941, when Germany cast its shadow over Europe and Japan loomed …

The Illegalization of Marijuana: A Brief History

… On the first day of 2014, Colorado became the first state to … marijuana is expected to be offered for sale in Washington State later this year. Recently, the District of … danger of these drugs or the effectiveness of prohibition. When New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the New York …
Cover of Song of Wrath The Peloponnesian War Begins by J. E. Lendon.

A Time For War

Review of Song of Wrath: The Peloponnesian War Begins, by J.E. Lendon (Basic Books, New York, 2010)
Gemini 4 astronaut Ed White in open space, 1965.

Human Spaceflight Began Fifty Years Ago This Month, But Not Much Has Happened Lately

… century ago on April 12, 1961, Russian Yuri Gagarin became the first person to reach outer space and orbit the Earth. … years later the Space Race ended in an American victory when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped onto the moon. … for human space flight.   Racing to the moon in the 1960s was possible for two reasons:  First, major military …
Lockheed u 2c aircraft Image from Public domain images website

Brandishing Nukes–A Self-Defeating Policy

The Pentagon has put out the word that the United States … “Ultimately some President might have to decide that it was his duty to strike the first blow against the USSR. You … also used nuclear threats as psychological weapons. When Communist China shelled Taiwan’s outposts on the
Seal of the Vice President of the United States.

The Vice Presidency Should Not Be an Accident Waiting to Happen

… John Adams, while serving as the nation’s first vice president, characterized his job as … there were two brothers: one ran away to sea, the other was elected vice president — and nothing was ever heard from … Southerner and, until his nomination, a lifelong Democrat. When Harrison died of pneumonia a month into his presidency, …