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Week of March 18, 2013


Up Front

Rebutting David Greenberg's Broadside on Howard Zinn
Jesse Lemisch, Staughton Lynd, and Robert Cohen
Questions raised on the accuracy of an article in The New Republic.
Tags:  A People's History, David Greenberg, Howard Zinn, The New Republic
"My review was moderate in its tone and fair to Zinn."
David Greenberg
David Greenberg responds to Lemisch, Lynd, and Cohen.
Tags:  A People's History, David Greenberg, Howard Zinn, The New Republic

The Iraq War After 10 Years

The Iraq War: Learning Lessons, Ignoring History
Michael H. Hunt
The New York Times's disappointing coverage of the anniversary.
Tags: anniversaries, counterinsurgency, Iraq War, New York Times
Ten Years of "Police Advisors" in Iraq
Martha K. Huggins
U.S. police advisors enabled brutalities and set up a flawed justice system in Iraq.
Tags: anniversaries, Iraq War, Special Operations Forces, police
POLL: Has the Media Been Open Enough About Its Role in the Iraq War?
Tags: anniversaries, Iraq War, mainstream media, polls
What the U.S. Invasion Looked Like to Iraqis
Mark Kukis
"I turned a corner, and there they were, the Americans."
Tags: Informed Comment, Iraq War, Iraqis, oral history

Feature: Pope Francis

A Pope of Firsts, But Will Francis Actually Change the Vatican?
Anthea Butler
The apotheosis of Catholic History, or a repetition of a colonial past?
Tags: Catholic Church, Jesuits, Latin America, Pope Francis
Tenemos un Papa!
Anne M. Martínez

Pope Francis's election is not without controversy, but a Latin American pope is a huge step forward for an oft-hidebound church.
Tags: popes, Catholic Church, Latin America, Francis
Testing the New Pope's Commitment to Poverty
Walter G. Moss
If Francis wants to prove his devotion to the poor, he should canonize Dorothy Day.
Tags: Catholic Church, Dorothy Day, Francis, poverty
The Catholic Church's Long Struggle over Accommodating to Authoritarian Regimes
David Austin Walsh
The Church has had an ambiguous history under twentieth-century dictatorships.
Tags: Catholic Church, Nazi Germany, Communist Poland, Spanish Civil War

News at Home

Assessing Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In”
Stephanie Coontz
It’s not every day that a high-achieving woman proclaims herself a feminist.
Tags: feminism, "Lean In", MomsRising.org, Sheryl Sandberg
Can American Conservatism Be Salvaged?
Richard Striner
The clowns who run the Republican Party need to look to Lincoln, TR, Ike, and yes, even Nixon, for guidance.
Tags: conservatism, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Republican Party, Richard Nixon
The American Roots of Neoliberalism
Daniel Stedman Jones

The origins lay in war-torn Europe, but it took the fertile soil of America for the seeds to sprout.
Tags: Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, neoliberalism, University of Chicago

News Abroad

The President, in Israel, Giveth and Taketh Away
Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica
Obama's Niebuhrian foreign policy.
Tags: Barack Obama, Israel, special relationship, Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Historians & History

The Story of a Rape in Wartime
Nick Turse
Three American soldiers in Vietnam raped one of their bunkmates; unlike so many rapes in Vietnam, this one was reported.
Tags: Vietnam War, atrocities, war crimes, rape
A Primer on America’s Forgotten "Nasty Little War"
Robin Lindley
Gregg Jones on America’s imperial dream and the brutal conflict in the Philippines.
Tags: Gregg Jones, Philippines, Philippine–American War, Theodore Roosevelt
A New Left Historian Rewrites Some History
Ronald Radosh
Staughton Lynd's obituary of Herb Shapiro exaggerated the level of anti-communist "hysteria" and ignored the actual threat of communism.
Tags: academy, Minding the Campus, New Left, Staughton Lynd
Russia's Forgotten Genocide
Walt Richmond
The expulsion of the Circassians in the nineteenth century nearly destroyed a people.
Tags: Circassia, genocide, Russia, Russian Empire

Education

Let the Teachers Teach
David Patten

And not just teach to the standardized test.
Tags: education reform, history teachers, standardized tests, teaching

Books

Review of Dale Maharidge’s Bringing Mulligan Home
Murray Polner
A personal memoir about growing up with an ex-Marine dad.
Tags: Dale Maharidge, Marines, oral history, World War II
Review of Robert M. Lichtman's The Supreme Court and McCarthy-Era Repression
Robert D. Parmet
A comprehensive reference work on the subject.
Tags: Earl Warren, McCarthyism, Robert M. Lichtman, Supreme Court