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President of the United States Ronald Reagan in a briefing with National Security Council staff on the Libya bombing on 15 April 1986.

The National Insecurity State

… this month, American voters chose Dwight D. Eisenhower as their next president. Though few realized it at the time, … that too much spending would break the national bank. It was better to assume that the Cold War might go on … Cheney explained: “There’s not going to be an end date when we’re going to say, ‘There, it’s all over with.'” In …
1992 portrait of General Wesley K. Clark.

Wesley Clark: In the Tradition of Generals Who Make Peace

… Gen. Wesley K. Clark’s entry into the Democratic presidential contest has delighted voters … plow after victory had been secured. In his own day, George Washington was explicitly likened to that Roman general: … retired to Mount Vernon, then answered the call once more when the new nation needed a president. Largely because of …
Detail from the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

Common Good and Common Evil in American Religion

Review of America’s Religious Wars: The Embattled Heart of Our Public Life, by Kathleen M. Sands (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019)
… Every election year is a good time to remind each other that you do not discuss religion, sex, or politics in … in our religious debates: foundations vs. walls. George Washington believed that religion needed to be the … conflicts were not simply hold-overs from an earlier time when religious differences were at the heart of so much …
St. Catherine of Siena depicted on a wood panel.

Speaking Truth to Catholic Power

… of Frank Keating to put on my dashboard. Until recently, the former Oklahoma governor was chairman of a panel of lay Roman Catholics appointed by … own interests instead of safeguarding their flock. Just when it seemed that the papacy had lost its moral authority, …
Col C.B. Winders shooting a gun in the 1910s.

Reconstructing the Second Amendment

… Yet even among hot button topics in American public life there is something perverse about the dynamics of the debate … the Second Amendment and only emerged in the 19th century when individual states began passing the first gun control … it, reminding their opponents that the Second Amendment was about an obligation citizens owed to their government …
Emancipation Memorial in Lincoln Park, Washington DC.

Bicentennial for Two Great Emancipators

… Abraham Lincoln, The Great Emancipator, has been much on our minds recently … rationales that justified slavery.   For Lincoln, this was a political principle and a moral imperative. He was … This is what he meant in his address at Gettysburg in 1863 when he promised that the war would bring “a new birth of …
The Palins and McCains in Fairfax, Virginia, September 2008.

Why the Sarah Palin Gamble Didn’t Pay Off

… whatever chance he had to become president on August 28, the day he invited Sarah Palin to be his running mate. In … did not choose able running mates simply because that was the responsible thing to do. They recognized that … as a test of their values and decision-making ability.   When both presidential candidates choose well, the vice …
American nuclear missile from the early Cold War in its original launch silo.

A Basis for Hope in the Middle East

… that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a grave threat to the Middle East. But even a resolution to the Iranian … and trust. A key step for the Americans and Soviets was the 1986 Stockholm Conference, which sought to reduce … President Reagan stated the policy — “trust but verify” — when the Soviets and Americans agreed to eliminate their …
The Pride Flag being hoisted onto the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.

Hatred Aimed at Gays Hurts All

… If the Senate passes the Matthew Shepard Act — known also as … orientation may finally approach an end. The legislation was stalled for years in Congress, but with Democrats now in … look’d as clean  As if they ne’re up A–se had been;  For when we use ‘em, we take care  To wash ‘em well, and give …
A traditional glass of Weissbier

Keeping Beer “Pure”: The 1516 Reinheitsgebot

… Prost ! This year marks the 500-year anniversary of a decree that became the famed … . Today, beer drinkers like to point out that the decree was innocent of knowledge of yeast and fermentation—revealed … to apply to West Germany, but not to breweries in the socialist East during the forty years that the Democratic …
Soup Cans by Andy Warhol - https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79809

Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans, 1962

… In the 50 years since they first went on display, Andy Warhol’s … 9, 1962 in the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, California. It was his first solo exhibition. The show was largely … Warhol himself once described Pop Art as “liking things.” When asked why he painted soup cans, he replied, “I used to …
"The Magnet Citizenship" March 1917 cartoon by Henry Mayer - Moving Picture Weekly (1915-1920)

U.S. Citizenship Is Based on Principles, Not Heritage

… "To inspire Western youth to organize on the basis of identity, with pride in their heritage and … its European heritage.    For the American founders, it was not our roots in Western Europe or the legacy of western …   Similarly, John Laurance of New York declared that when a newcomer brings "money, or other property" he …
Portrait of Jimmy Carter from 1979.

The Nobel Committee Speaks to America

… On Oct. 11, the Norwegians awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize to former … promoting peace and human rights. A one-term president who was defeated by Ronald Reagan in 1980, partly because of the … presents a different case. It is no coincidence that he won when the Bush administration was pushing the United Nations …
Allen Weinstein

Will They Be the National (Secret) Archives?

… On Inauguration Day, January 20, the classified papers of  former President George H. W. Bush … and until recently headed the Center for Democracy in Washington. The nomination suggested to many that the White … one, the president must show cause. Bush did not do that when he moved to replace Carlin with Weinstein. This …

Colombia: On the Brink of Peace with the FARC?

… On June 23, 2016, while most of the world was awaiting the outcome of the Brexit vote, … April 1948 engulf a trolley car in Bolívar Square. Third, when La Violencia led to the Rojas coup in 1953, the
Joel Roberts Poinsett on a background of poinsettias.

Poinsettia Day, the Monroe Doctrine, and U.S.-Mexican Relations

… Every holiday season, at least for the last 70 years or so, the red and green plant that most … troubled start to  Mexican-U.S. relations . The date itself was chosen to commemorate the 1851 death of Joel Roberts … interests because of its close ties to British business. When this rising opposition had some political successes, …
William Calley Jr. mugshot for charges involving the My Lai massacre.

Was William Calley a Scapegoat?

… After 40 years, 2nd Lt. William Calley is back in the news. For many years now the young lieutenant convicted … him a “classic scapegoat.” The occasion of the editorial was a speech this past August that Calley gave at a Kiwanis … is true. If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a …
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum with a sign announcing the 70th anniversary ceremony.

A Postcard from Hiroshima

… Only twice in world history have we seen the use of atomic weapons—the bombs dropped by the United … Japan at the end of World War II . On August 6, 2015, I was in Hiroshima for the anniversary of the bombing and was … left on their bodies. Several cried out for water, though when she fetched one man a cup of water, he died soon after …
Neil Armstrong stands by the Lunar Module "Eagle" during the first walk on the moon in 1969.

Fly Me to the Moon

… Neil Armstrong stands by the Lunar Module "Eagle" during the first walk on the moon … 1972. Anti-Vietnam protesters on the National Mall in Washington D.C., 1967. Those who were alive in the summer of 1969 recall where they were and how they felt when humankind became truly cosmopolitan. However, as we …
General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945.

Second-Guessing Hiroshima?

… Second-guessing the necessity and morality of the atomic bombing of … forces in the Pacific, recorded in his diary that MacArthur was "appalled and depressed by this Frankenstein monster." … available to them in the summer of 1945. Keep this in mind when, on Hiroshima anniversaries, you hear claims that …
The laser system of a CD-ROM drive.

From Manuscript to CD-ROM: A Longer Journey Than We Think?

… Books are dead. That is the provocative claim being made lately about the … copied by hand as late as the 18th century. The practice was especially common in monasteries, where book copying was … replaced. Things changed dramatically in the 19th century, when new, Industrial Revolution technology made mass …
The 1999 impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton, Chief Justice William Rehnquist presiding

How Presidential Power Became Untouchable

… 35 articles of impeachment against George W. Bush to the House of Representatives. Yet Congress is no more likely … Control Act and the 1982 Boland Amendment. Nevertheless, when eventually exposed, this executive action was not punished with impeachment. The majority Democrats on …
President Biden, standing in front of a blue flag with an eagle emblem

First 100 Days of the Biden Administration: Insights from History

… Faculty experts from the Ohio State University Department of History hold a … author of Colored No More Reinventing Black Womanhood in Washington, D.C. and the forthcoming America Goddam: … respond to your questions. Many of you submitted questions when you registered—and we’ll answer some of those to begin …