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Week of February 18, 2013


Blogs

The "War on Terror": A Ticking Time Bomb
Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica
Just as the Cold War flared up again after 1980, so too could the war on terror.
Tags: Cold War, Dick Cheney, Ronald Reagan, war on terror

Why Gender Equality Stalled
Stephanie Coontz
The main barriers today are not social, but economic.
Tags: Betty Friedan, Feminine Mystique, feminism, NYT

News at Home

Where Have All the Real Conservatives Gone?
Scot Faulkner and Jonathan Riehl
Conservatives could boast of Bill Buckley and Russell Kirk as intellectual leaders; now it's Dick Morris and Sean Hannity.
Tags: conservatism, Republican Party, Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley
Social Security: A Right or a Privilege?
Eric Laursen
Or, how to undermine the welfare state.
Tags: nation-building, rights, Social Security Act, welfare

News Abroad

Washington Tortures Everywhere ... Except Latin America
Greg Grandin
The continent seems to have learned from the terror of the CIA-backed Pinochet.
Tags: Latin America, Pinochet, torture, war on terror
Even the Israeli Center is Racist
Neve Gordon
Centrist party Yesh Atid justifies the two-state solution because of the "Palestinian demographic threat."
Tags: Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Yair Lapid, Yesh Atid
Ordering Off the Menu in China Debates
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
China is facing neither imminent collapse nor hyperpower status.
Tags: Gordon G. Chang, Martin Jacques, Mo Yan, Xi Jinping
Russia's Other Meteor Explosions
David Austin Walsh
In 1908 and again in 1947, meteors detonated high above the Siberian taiga.
Tags: meteorites, Russia, Sikhote-Alin meteorite, Tunguska event

Historians & History

The Afterlife of the British Empire
Robin Lindley
Interview with Jordanna Bailkin on the end of the British Empire and the beginning of the British welfare state.
Tags: Africa, British Empire, welfare state, postcolonialism

Culture Watch

The Ten Best Lincoln Moments in Film History
Thomas Doherty
From Henry Fonda and Raymond Massey to Nick Cage's weird obsession with Abe, for this Oscar season Tom Doherty selects the highlights of Lincoln on celluloid.
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, film history, Hollywood, movies
A Mediocre Evening with Sir Isaac Newton
Bruce Chadwick
Isaac's Eye can't surmount poor writing and a miscast lead.
Tags: Isaac Newton, Isaac's Eye, plays, theater reviews

Books

Review of Robert Sullivan's My American Revolution
Luther Spoehr
A delightfully eccentric travelogue of the Revolutionary War.
Tags: book reviews, My American Revolution, Robert Sullivan, American Revolution
 
Review of Richard Lingeman's The Noir Forties
Ron Briley
A solid cultural history of post-World War II America, filtered through the lens of Hollywood.
Tags: 1940s, book reviews, movies, Hollywood