American Billionaires' Ties to Moscow Go Back Decades
By Harvey Klehr
The Latest 
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Alexa: What Can Apollo 11 Teach Us About Our Relationship with Technology?
Tracy Dahlby
The fact that we pulled off Apollo 11 at all is a testament to American ingenuity and pluck. Yet while the successful moon landing decided the race for space in America’s favor, it didn’t undo our subliminal angst about the tightening embrace of technology.
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HBO’s Chernobyl and the Rendering of History
Walter G. Moss
The value of HBO’s Chernobyl is not just what it tells us about the failings of the Soviet system. It offers much more.
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Say It Ain't So Joe: Strategies of Segregation in Ventura County
Frank P. Barajas
The desegregation busing laws that Joe Biden opposed in the 1970s have given way to "a more insidious segregation" in this California community today.
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Mary Jo Kopechne’s Legacy
William C. Kashatus
This weeks marks the 50th anniversary of the night Senator Edward M. Kennedy drove his black Oldsmobile off a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island. His 28-year-old passenger was killed in the accident.
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Billionaires and American Politics
Lawrence Wittner
Big money politics in America has always existed, but the influence of billionaires has become increasingly influential in recent years.
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5 Times Presidents Lost Big in the Midterms But Won (or nearly won) Reelection
Donne Levy
While presidents have previously overcome midterm election losses, Trump isn’t following any of the previously established paths to rebound and win reelection.
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The Civil War Battle Decided By A General's Mistakes
M. Andrew Holowchak
The battle for Lynchburg, Virginia, a pivotal city in the Civil War, was decided by one general's mistakes.
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Blog
What Does It Mean to Be Patriotic?
Steve Hochstadt
A survey one year ago showed that 72% of Republicans rated themselves “very patriotic”, whil...
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The 2020 Election Presents a Unique Opportunity to Elect a “New Generation of Leadership”
Ronald L. Feinman
Promoting change and uniqueness in political leadership could result in higher voter turnout and potentially would enhance efforts to address the challenges of the 21st century.
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Roundup Top 10!
This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editor of HNN.
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DJ Alan Freed: The Inventor of Rock and Roll
Bruce Chadwick
Rock and Roll Man is a treasure house of entertainment history and the payola scandal.
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Jimmy Carter, Public Historian
Evan A. Kutzler
The work that the Carters do at the local level meets the National Council on Public History's inclusive definition of the field: "public history describes the many and diverse ways in which history is put to work in the world."
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Fictional History, Patriotism, and the Fight for Scottish Independence
LuAnn McCracken Fletcher
As promoters of Scotland as a tourist destination continue to embrace “tartan heritage” in an effort to support Scotland’s important tourist industry, they unwittingly reinforce a version of history that serves the purpose of political propaganda, rather than disseminating a nuanced understanding of Scotland’s past.
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Blog
Gresham's Law of Reading: Bad Reading Drives Out Good
Jim Loewen
On my last day on earth, however, I shall be sad if I have not finished Cloud Atlas. I doubt I'll lament not having finished the latest AARP.
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Flight Girls: Remembering World War 2's Women Airforce Service Pilots
Noelle Salazar
"I was stunned by anecdotes of bravery, death and outright misogyny. And I was baffled the subjects of these stories had tried to be heard, but still, seventy-seven years later, for the most part were unknown to the greater public."
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Report on the National Strategy Meeting of Historians Convened by Historians for Peace and Justice
Margaret Power
Close to fifty historians attended the day-long National Strategy Meeting of Historians at Columbia University on May 28, 2019.
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The End of Humanitarian Intervention? A Debate at the Oxford Union With Historian David Gibbs and Michael Chertoff
David N. Gibbs
Michael Chertoff -- former Secretary of Homeland Security during the presidency of George W. Bush and coauthor of the USA Patriot Act – defended humanitarian intervention; Gibbs argued against the practice.
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Historian Ian Reifowitz on How the Race-Baiting Invective of Rush Limbaugh on the Obama Presidency Led to Trump
Robin Lindley
Reifowitz's latest book traces the election of Donald Trump and the recent rise in white supremacist activity to the incendiary language of racism that the right-wing relies on to win politically.
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Charles Reich and The Greening of America – an Appreciation
James Thornton Harris
Charles Reich, author of The Greening of America, passed away last month at the age of 91.Reich’s book, a combination of history, sociology and philosophy struck a chord in a somber time of war and national protest.
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Who Says Historians Can’t Travel Back in Time?
Erik Moshe
“Both astrophysicists and historians can travel back in time, but only historians can do anything about the past.” An interview with Carnegie Mellon University historian Ricky Law.
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Roundup Top 10!
This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editor of HNN.
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A Declaration of Independence from Hunger
William Lambers
Food is of the utmost importance to our domestic and foreign policies. Each one of us can do something about it, especially when it comes to helping charities fight hunger.
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America, One and Inseparable
Vaughn Davis Bornet
A reflection this 4th of July on the challenges the United States face and how history can guide us.
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Gerrymandering presented a ‘political question doctrine’ deemed outside Supreme Court jurisdiction
Lackland H. Bloom, Jr.
“After five decades of searching for a standard, Chief Justice Roberts was finally able to assemble a majority that concluded ‘enough is enough.’ There is no judicially manageable standard here. This is a non-justiciable political question.”
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12 History Podcasts You Should Be Listening To
Andrew Fletcher
No matter what your historical interests, there's a podcast for you.
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The 2020 Election and Presidential Age
Ronald L. Feinman
We could have the oldest President in American history at inauguration with Sanders, Biden or Warren, or the youngest President in American history with Buttigieg, Gabbard, Swalwell or Moulton.
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When the Future is the Past: A ‘Star Wars’ Summer at Tanglewood
Bruce Chadwick
This Sunday afternoon, the star fleet from the evil Empire, the storm troopers of Darth Vader and the nasty masters of the Death Star will once again battle the good guys at, of all places, the renown Tanglewood music center in Lenox, Massachusetts, as part of a three-concert film tribute to music composer John Williams.
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Adding a Citizenship Question to the Census Will Return It to Its Racist Origins
Derek Litvak
The Trump administration is now attempting to do exactly what slaveholders did in the eighteenth-century: use the Constitution to inflate the political power of a vocal minority.
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What to the Refugee Child is the Fourth of July?
Ed Simon
We should revisit Frederick Douglas' famous speech, "What to the Slave Is the 4th of July?" Analyze the rhetoric, the grammar, the syntax, the diction of Douglas’ address, and ask yourself if one iota should be changed in 2019?
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Independence Day and the Importance of Public Service in the Face of Regnant Tyranny
Gregory D. Foster
It isn’t hard to recognize something of the challenge before all public servants – certainly those who accept the proposition that we have enduring civic obligations, grounded in the Oath we have taken, that demand to be met – now, perhaps as never before.
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Colin Powell’s Recent “Lincoln Medal” Disregards A Checkered Past
Jeffrey J. Matthews
Powell’s outstanding service as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff notwithstanding, the perpetual lionizing of the general has had the effect of misbalancing the historical record. Despite of—or because of—his popularity and patriotic achievements, Powell has not been held to account for some of his major failings as a public servant.
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What We Can Learn About Tough Times and Problem-Solving from the 1970s
Tracy Dahlby
If 70s sage E.F. Schumacher has anything to teach us today, it may lie in his chronically appealing idea that optimism about the human spirit, and faith in our potential for problem-solving, can flourish even in the toughest of times.
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The Overlooked Story of “the Greater United States”: Historian Daniel Immerwahr Shares His Unique Perspective on American Empire
Robin Lindley
From the Guano Islands to America’s widespread empire now, Professor Immerwahr shares neglected stories from the past showing how inhabitants of America’s possessions have been relegated "to the shadows," and, at various times, have been "shot, shelled, starved, interned, dispossessed, tortured, and experimented on."
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The Declassified History of Hitler's British Traitors
Tim Tate
For all the genuine unity and determination of the vast majority of the British population to defeat Hitler, there was also a small – but dangerous – sub-stratum which yearned for the day when his troops could goose-step down Whitehall amid an orgy of swastika flags.
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How the Specter of Andrew Johnson Haunts Donald Trump
Mike Purdy
When the history books are written, impeachment may define Trump’s presidency in a similar way that “impeachment” and “Andrew Johnson” are solidly and forever linked together.
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Hawaii’s Cowboy Heroes
David Wolman and Julian Smith
At the turn of the 20th century, three Hawaiian cowboys arrived in Wyoming to compete in a rodeo extravaganza. What happened next overturned much of what people thought they knew, and still think they know, about Hawaii, the American West, and the relationship between the two.
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The Case for Religious Progressivism
Walter G. Moss
Those who argue, “We should keep religion out of politics,” are being simplistic. One can more properly cite individuals like Frederick Douglass, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, and Pope Francis who counter that the spiritual and moral values commonly advocated by major religions should inspire our politics.
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Presidential War Powers and Bill Clinton's Battles
Paul W. Lovinger
Reviewing the 1999 attack on Yugoslavia and other belligerent acts: a study of arbitrary power and its supremacy over the Constitution in modern times.
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What Historians Are Saying: 2020 Election Democratic Primary Debates
Tweets, retweets, and likes by historians discussing the Democratic Primary Debates.
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Stonewall's Legacy and Kwame Anthony Appiah's Misuse of History
Alan Singer
What Appiah misses in his dismissal of the Stonewall Rebellion’s historical importance is that symbols like Rosa Parks sitting down and Stonewall are crucial to social movements as they mobilize and move from the political margins to the center of civic discourse.
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Roundup Top 10!
This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editor of HNN.
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Blog
Racism, Reparations, and the Growing Political Divide
Steve Hochstadt
The clean partisan split over whether to consider reparations to African Americans demonstrates how Republicans and Democrats are moving away from each other.
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How the Debate Over the Use of the Term ‘Concentration Camp’ was Amicably Resolved in 1998
Ralph Seliger
How the Japanese-American organizers of a museum exhibit at Ellis Island entitled “America’s Concentration Camps: Remembering the Japanese American Experience” came to an amicable agreement with the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
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10 Things To Check Out At the Library of Congress’s New Exhibit on Women’s Suffrage
Andrew Fletcher
Highlights from the exhibit on women's suffrage at the Library of Congress.
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The Stonewall Exhibit in New York Needs Sturdier Walls
Bruce Chadwick
Stonewall was a momentous event and its 50th anniversary is being celebrated in many ways across the country, including the exhibit Stonewall 50 exhibit at the New York Historical Society.
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Tangled Lives, Tangled Culture, Tangled History
Bruce Chadwick
Today, Falsettos is more than a good play; it is an historic look backwards at the suddenly open lives of gay men and women and the troubles they were besieged by--legal, cultural and medical--in the early 1980s.
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