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President Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Coming: Something New in Presidents

… On this Presidents Day, it’s worth celebrating the fact that our nation is almost certainly about to make … Almost all were married and had children; only one was a bachelor (Buchanan), only one was divorced (Reagan), … Cleveland gets that designation in some trivia books, but when he was mayor of Buffalo, the city’s population was only …
The United Nations headquarters in Geneva.

Will We Turn the U.N. Charter into a “Scrap of Paper”?

… Great Britain [is] going to war,” Germany’s chancellor, Theobold von Bethmann-Hollweg complained as the First World War began. The “scrap of paper” was the treaty that Germany disregarded when it invaded Belgium. Because of such dismissal of … Will We Turn the U.N. Charter into a “Scrap of Paper”? …
George W. Bush and Al Gore

Bush v. Gore Twenty-Five Years Later

… On December 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision in theThe five-person majority found that the State of Florida was obliged to report its final presidential election … of the situation that took place in the winter of 1932-33, when the defeated incumbent Herbert Hoover remained in …
soldiers at the battle of Lincoln

King Stephen and The Anarchy: A Reign Reconsidered

… Henry I (1101-1135) and Henry II (1154-1189). His reign was dominated by The Anarchy (1138-1153), a civil war over royal succession … capitalizing on Empress Matilda’s absence in Normandy when Henry I died. With support from Londoners and the … Heather Tanner … King Stephen and The Anarchy: A Reign Reconsidered …
The theatrical poster for Birth of a Nation.

3/25/2015: At the Movies: "Birth of a Nation" After 100 Years

… cinematic spectacular : D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation  was the first 12-reel film in movie history and the first movie … the threat of the black mob in the climactic scene. When Dr. Cameron is besieged along with his daughter and … 3/25/2015: At the Movies: "Birth of a Nation" After 100 Years …
Auguste Chouteau—Founder of St. Louis and Head of the Chouteau family

Blood Rules the Water: Kinship Diplomacy in Early America

Review of Masters of the Middle Waters: Indian Nations and Colonial Ambitions Along the Mississippi, by Jacob F. Lee (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019)
… Jacob Lee’s Masters of the Middle Waters traces warfare, conquest, trade, and … and ceremony to form economic and political alliances. It was these same practices, Lee argues, that dictated their … and Otoe ) peoples. That is until the seventeenth century, when the Illinois peoples (Lee argues they constitute a …
This painting, which dates from 1859, reimagines the toppling of the equestrian statue of George III in New York City. Erected in 1770, the statue featured the regent garbed in Roman military regalia on horseback, in the fashion of Marcus Aurelius. It is doubtful that Native Americans, women and children were in attendance at this episode of iconoclasm by the Sons of Liberty.

Ten Memorable Monument Takedowns in History

… of Julia Aquilia Severa, wife of Roman Emperor Severus, was destroyed after the Senate decided to demolish all … of many of the Western canon’s great works of art. When Pope Julius II’s troops overtook the rebellious city of … as “Stalin World,” also exists in Lithuania . Many busts of Lenin, Marx, and Engels are on view in Budapest’s Szoborpark …
Flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

NATO Expansion in Eastern Europe: For What and For Whom?

… expansion into Eastern Europe goes on, sometimes taking on the aura of melodrama, sometimes of farce, there has been little attempt by to explain to Americans what NATO was and is all about. Perhaps history from the early cold … dollar U.S. defense expenditures in the post war period. When one looks back before 1945, NATO may also be seen as a …
French troops under Charles VIII entering Florence, 1494.

The Blood Behind the Beauty

Review of The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West, by Catherine Fletcher (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2020)
… Brutal violence is not typically the first thing that comes to mind when observing the artwork of the Renaissance’s greatest … is also inextricably linked to the human suffering that was experienced during the period that is now known as the … Review of The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the
Bust of Harlan Fiske Stone, the 12th Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Following Bad Precedents for Deciding Military Justice

The recent capture in Pakistan of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, … a classic example of primitive political justice. The case was a result of Japanese atrocities in the Philippines … United States in 1942 and tried by a U.S. military court. When the defendants appealed to the Supreme Court for writs …
Downstream view of Marco Polo Bridge by Thomas Child, 1877. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident (1937)

… War II began with Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, the roots of that global conflict actually reach back to the … history itself is segmented by events termed “incidents” when they occurred in efforts to minimize their importance. … liberated from colonialism by war’s end in September 1945, was working on it. And, more generally, what was then termed …
A Soviet junior political officer urges Soviet troops forward against German positions, 1942

Operation Barbarossa

their mutual ill-gotten gains, the Soviet-German Pact was an uneasy partnership. Growing tensions over Finland and … organized into three vast Army Groups. Their targets were Leningrad, Moscow, and Ukraine , respectively. At 3:15 am, … the Eastern Front: David Glantz and Jonathan M. House, When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. …
The Alcoholics Anonymous logo at a church. (Image by Rachel K)

A Brief History of Alcoholics Anonymous

… Ohio surgeon, co-founded Alcoholics Anonymous in Akron when they met for the first time on June 10, 1935.  This chance … an expert in the treatment of alcoholism, Silkworth was among the first to propose a disease rather than a moral …

As Cuba and the United States Reengage: The Presence of the Past

… 2014, Presidents Barack Obama and Raúl Castro announced to their respective nations that the United States and Cuba had … agreed to resume full diplomatic relations. The occasion was dense with history. It could hardly have been otherwise, … with the recognition that “change is hard,” especially “when we carry the heavy weight of history on our shoulders.” …
President George W. Bush

Policies for the Fearful: Rollback Then, Regime Change Now

… All indications are that regime change in Iraq is still on the agenda of the Bush administration. Ironically, the … of force is rarely the answer. The idea of containment was that force was available to use in the last resort. … the concept of rollback only once during the Cold War, when General Douglas MacArthur had the North Korean army on …
President Richard Nixon in 1969.

The Broken Scandal-Reform Cycle

… have come to expect great legislative victories in the wake of presidential funding scandals. After all, most … would ban soft money, has once again gone down in defeat. When earlier scandals erupted, an outraged public demanded … to an agency — the Federal Election Commission — that was established to publicize that information.  Scandal, by …