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Week of September 24, 2012


HNN Teacher's Edition: For Grade School

HNN’s Teacher’s Edition is designed to help busy teachers build classes around topics in the news. With just a few minutes preparation, teachers will be able to teach a class on current events, even if they haven't been in a position to follow the news closely.

Electing the President: What Makes for a Great President?

Lesson Plan
Backgrounder
The U.S. Constitution

Lesson Plan

Backgrounder

Blogs

GOP vs. Dems: The Failure to Communicate
Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica

Neither side is articulating what they really believe.

Partisan Wars over Foreign Policy
Steve Hochstadt

And a Romney victory would bring back the neocons.

Spirit of 2012
Josh Brown's Life During Wartime

The ghosts of a very ugly past of voter suppression.

Roderick T. Long: Big FMAC Attack at Libertopia
Liberty & Power

We're San Diego bound!

America's Surprisingly Substantive Campaign
Gil Troy

Don't believe the pundits -- the candidates are actually have a real debate about the proper role of government.


News at Home

Watch the Polls -- Where People Vote
Leo P. Ribuffo

Whether or not a vote counts is ultimately up to election workers ... and the poll watchers keeping an eye on them.

The Last Time America Had So Many Two-Term Presidents was the 1820s
Robert Schmuhl

Jefferson, Madison, Monroe -- Clinton, Bush, Obama?

The Bad Things Presidents Have Said About Each Other
Thomas Fleming

"[A] Samson who had allowed himself to be shorn by the harlot, England." -- Jefferson on Washington.

Why Voting for the GOP is Bad for Your Health: Interview with Dr. James F. Gilligan
Kristopher Wood

Violent deaths spike under Republican presidents.

Feast of Fools
Lewis H. Lapham

How American democracy became the property of a commercial oligarchy.

Republicans or Democrats
Vaughn Davis Bornet

Which side are you on?

The "Bought Vote" of the 47 Percent
Robert Mason

The idea that government aid buys votes for the Democrats has been around since the New Deal.

What is Society’s Obligation to Those in Distress?
Beth Tompkins Bates

Detroit mayor Frank Murphy's New Deal before the New Deal.


News Abroad

Obama Against the World
Tom Engelhardt

This election will be determined by how the president handles the whirlwind of world events.

Who is the Client State?
Stanley Kutler

"Who the !@$% does he think he is? Who's the !@$%ing superpower here?" -- Bill Clinton on Benjamin Netayahu.

The Siren Song of American Imperialism
William Astore

Comparing the U.S. "civilizing mission" in the Philippines to "nation-building" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bundling Up to Save Syrian War Victims
William Lambers

The UN should look back at the 1922 campaign to cloth Armenians for ideas.

How Hawkish Are Americans?
Lawrence S. Wittner

A new polls shows that Americans are surprisingly skeptical about weapons, wars, and defense spending.


Historians & History

Georgia State Archives Closure Sparks Outcry, Backtracking
Kelsey McKernie

The state of Georgia got more than it bargained for when it tried to close its archives to the public.

Losing Our National Historic Parks -- And Our Memory
Scot Faulkner

Thirty acres of America's historic battlefields are lost every day.

Mitt Romney is Not the First Mormon to Run for President
Thomas B. Allen

Joseph Smith ran for president in 1844 ... and was also the first presidential candidate to be assassinated.

MPAC Calls Me an "Expert on Islam"
Daniel Pipes

Why thank you, Muslim Public Affairs Council, for this endorsement.

Dupont Circle's Most Famous Progressive Residents: Interview with James Srodes
David Austin Walsh

Bed-hopping with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

Books

Review of James H. Capshew's Herman B Wells: The Promise of the American University
Luther Spoehr

A solid bio, but it doesn't capture Wells's personality.

Review of Lois Banner's Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox
Ron Briley

A thorough, exhaustively-researched account of the icon.