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The Titanic sailing from Southampton in 1912.

Is History Really Bunk?

… of college students' knowledge of U.S. history yielded the sad fact that the students know little about the facts … advertising agencies, the less people knew, the easier it was to sell them goods by packaging that appealed to their … mass education and mass media dealing with public affairs when he wrote that "those who in vague rhetoric dwell on …
Dr. Aleš Hrdlička

“No law can change our blood"

Review of Blood Will Tell: Native Americans and Assimilation Policy, by Katherine Ellinghaus Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017.
… At the turn of the 20th century, the concept of “blood” took a … Still, much is at stake in the language of blood. Blood was part a broader strategy of elimination, a tool used to … from this was dubbed the “White Earth Tragedy.” Similarly, when the Dawes Commission dealt with the Five Tribes of …
Emancipation Memorial Statue

Emancipation by What Means?

Review of The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom, by H.W. Brands (New York: Doubleday, 2020)
… H. W. Brand's new book The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, … Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, both from Illinois. Douglas was already a nationally-prominent Democrat who tried to … anti-slavery crusade must grapple with the question of when, or if, it is ever appropriate to engage in violence …
The Dalai Lama speaking in front of Tibet's flag.

A New Chance for Peace in Tibet

The death of Deng Xiaoping creates an opportunity by which China can solve one its most vexing problems: the status of Tibet.  Next to Taiwan and Hong Kong, Tibet … the current leadership and immeasurably strengthen its hand when it tackles the far more difficult issue of Taiwan. Now …
President George W. Bush

Propaganda: Necessary but Difficult

… Confronted with the need to win world support for its fight against … news. In everything it did, the Office of War Information was committed to a “strategy of truth.” The agency also … elusive, and it is not clear what will happen if and when he is found. And with American war aims murky amid …
2009 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador, wearing the yellow jersey on June 26, 2009.

The Tour de France and the Yellow Jersey

… 2009 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador, wearing the yellow jersey on June 26, 2009. The iconic yellow jersey … of spectators were much larger in 1919 and the armband was not visible enough. Thus on July 19, 1919 in Grenoble, … so arduous. The longest stage in 2019 is a mere 142 miles. When the tour first began in 1903, the idea that France …
From left to right, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and Vice President Dick B. Cheney having a working lunch in 2007.

Foreign Policy Doesn’t Need a Mandate

… gridlock, that paralysis need not extend to foreign policy. The Constitution confers broad authority on the chief … of modern American foreign policy. Franklin D. Roosevelt was another “domestic president” who made his mark on … Rice possesses the combined experience, influence and bureaucratic savvy to ensure that foreign policy is not …
Joseph Stalin

Dismantling a Legacy: The Last Days of Stalin

Review of The Last Days of Stalin, by Joshua Rubenstein (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2015)
… “The breath of the tens of thousands of people jammed against … be seen the swaying shadows of the bare March trees. It was a terrible and a fantastic sight” Yevgeny Yevtushenko … figures such as Yevtushenko. Rubenstein candidly admits when sources are troublesome – memoirs that may have been …
Happy 2nd Lieutenant William Robertson and Lt. Alexander Sylvashko, Soviet Army, shown in front of sign [East Meets West] symbolizing the historic meeting of the Soviet and American Armies, near Torgau, Germany, 1945.

Top Ten Origins: The Best Moments in U.S.-Russian Relations

… Russians have featured prominently in the American press recently. Whether regarding Ukraine , … conflict, despite British pleas for assistance. The Empress was sympathetic to the colonists and believed that an … the USSR , playing six concerts: three in Moscow, three in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Accompanied by then-wife …
Portrait of Galileo Galilei by Justus Sustermans

400 Years Ago the Catholic Church Prohibited Copernicanism

What lessons can be learned from the thought and actions of Galileo, who became the “Father of Modern Science”?
… In February-March 1616,  the Catholic Church  issued a prohibition against the … attracted few followers. At first, Galileo himself was not one of them, although he was interested because his … trial 17 years later. Galileo kept quiet until 1623, when a new pope was elected, Urban VIII, who was a great …
Shakespeare For All Time, by Stanley Wells Book cover.

Shakespeare For All Time

Review of Shakespeare For All Time, by Stanley Wells (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
… almost four hundred years William Shakespeare has captured the imaginations of readers and actors. The sheer volume of … years. Rather unorthodoxly, he argues that Shakespeare was the "first great literary commuter," maintaining his … the Earl of Oxford. Rather ironically, this period was also when textual restoration began to gain steam. With the birth …
Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963.

President’s Commission on Race a Failure

… is dead on arrival. Most Americans had wished it success. They had hoped that commission members’ resolve and wisdom … discussions remained polite and politically correct; candor was not its most notable characteristic. No one should be … that race isn’t a handicap in our seemingly robust economy when even fast-food places are begging for workers. Much of …
The "We Can Do It!" war-propaganda poster from 1943 was re-appropriated as a symbol of the feminist movement in the 1980s.

Which Side Are We On in the Struggle for Women’s Freedom?

… For the last several years, the United States has depicted thethe first things the Nazis did upon seizing power in 1933 was to outlaw abortion. Family planning centers were closed, … repressive ones restrict them. Which side are we on when this administration votes with countries like Iran and …
The supreme court of Massachusetts sits at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston.

Gay-Marriage Decision: Just the Beginning of the Debate

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, that state’s … the Massachusetts supreme court ruled that slavery was unconstitutional in the Bay State. Although it would be … and its long aftermath also indicate that, regardless of when or if agreement between majority opinion and …
The Battle of Culloden by David Morier

9/12/2014: Top Ten Origins: Scotland and the United Kingdom

… In a landmark vote, Scotland will take to the polls on September 18 to determine whether it remains a … the UK Parliament, which meets at Westminster in London, was the only legislature for all four nations. While … Riots erupted in the streets throughout Scottish towns when a draft of the treaty was made public. Yet, despite …
KKK members displaying the Nazi salute and Holocaust denial signs.

Facing Anti-Semitism and American History

The United States is a young country, and it would seem to … how Swiss banks handled gold seized from Jews by the Nazis was beginning to die down. Pope John Paul II recently asked … And there are more subtle forms of anti-Semitism, such as when political or religious leaders refer to the United …
Immigrant rights march for amnesty in downtown Los Angeles, California on May Day, 2006.

Make Residency, Not Just Working, Legal

… between three million and eleven million people are in the United States illegally. During the visit of Mexican … as to seem empty. In English eyes, nomadic Indians wasted land better used for good English farms and homes. … perceive the change as an attack on old familiar ways. When the immigrant population hit upward of 20 percent in …
Monica Lewinsky's official government ID photo from 1997.

Another Watergate?

The assertion that President Clinton may have had an affair … who seems to be the source of some of the allegations, was a spy for the Nixon campaign in 1972. From a historian’s … do a disservice to the public’s understanding of history when they link events of vastly different magnitudes. …
A portrait of U.S. Brig. Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell, who advocated for air power in the 1920s.

Rumsfeld Must Modernize U.S. Armed Forces

The recent terrorist attacks on New York and Washington … a large standing military for much of its existence. When the United States went to war, it quickly demobilized …
Seen in 1986 with Ford Island in center. The USS Arizona Memorial is the small white dot on the left side above Ford Island.

Pearl Harbor Myth Poses Dangers

… Just a week after the terrorist attack on the United States, National Security … just as the history of United States – Japanese relations was too often forgotten. According to the myth, America was … prophecy: “There’s not going to be an end date when we’re going to say, `There, it’s all over with’.” …
A Jewish menorah, which is used during Hanukkah.

How Hanukkah Became the Jewish Christmas

… It’s Hanukkah time again. The annual rite allows Christians to pay lip service to … embrace of a festival that, despite its secular trappings, was fundamentally Christian. But parents couldn’t deprive … fruit salad,’ a composition of cream cheese and fruit that, when molded, resembled a menorah.” By the late ’50s, …
Hurricane Elena photographed from Space Shuttle Discovery, September 1, 1985

Rough Weather Ahead

Review of Sea of Storms: A History of Hurricanes in the Greater Caribbean from Columbus to Katrina, by Stuart B. Schwartz (Princeton University Press, 2015)
… Hurricane Elena was responsible for the best meal I had as a college freshman. The 1985 … scientific understanding of hurricanes started around 1700 when people began precisely measuring and formulating …