Week of February 4, 2013

Up Front

Important State of the Union Addresses in History Tags: State of the Union, presidential speeches, presidents, Congress

HNN Book of the Month: The Story of America: Essays on Origins -- by Jill Lepore Tags: Book of the Month, February, Jill Lepore, The Story of America

Blogs

Ed Koch, Pat Moynihan, and the Politics of Patriotic Indignation Gil Troy Sometimes anger is the rational response to challenges -- and can certainly pay off politically. Tags: 1970s, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ed Koch, New York

The Imaginary World of the “War Against al-Qaeda” Ira Chernus Perhaps most Americans have forgotten that another story is possible. Tags: al-Qaeda, drone strikes, extrajudicial killings, Osama bin Laden

How Do This Year's Oscar Nominees Rate on the Bechdel Test? Steve Hochstadt Seven for nine among Best Picture nominees, but that's being generous. Tags: Bechdel test, feminism, movies, Oscars

Fighting Old Wars (And Contemplating New Ones) ... Josh Brown's Life During Wartime John McCain and Chuck Hagel. Tags: Chuck Hagel, John McCain, Senate hearings, Secretary of Defense

News at Home

What's Still Missing From the Gun Control Debate Jim Sleeper We're not talking about how we're sold violence. Tags: civics, Civil Rights Act, gun control, guns

Forget the Contrarians: Ed Koch Was A True Liberal Robert W. Snyder With a capital L, especially with his record on affordable housing. Tags: Ed Koch, liberalism, New York City, obituaries

The Income Tax Amendment Turns One Hundred and It’s Worth Celebrating Ray Raphael Forget Grover Norquist -- the Sixteenth Amendment closed a massive loophole in American tax law. Tags: Constitution, income taxes, Sixteenth Amendment, taxes

Actually, Scalia's Legal Logic Permits Gun Control Alan Singer Using Antonin Scalia's textualist legal school against him. Tags: Antonin Scalia, Constitution, gun control, textualism

Could We Actually Learn Something from '50s-Style Civics Education? Erik Christiansen Reinterpreting Cold War-era civic education. Tags: civic engagement, civics, education, Cold War, Freedom Train

Channelling George Washington: The Worthless Continental Thomas Fleming A warning for our current Congress on why not to print your way out of debt. Tags: Channelling George, economics, inflation, paper money

The Politics of Debt in America Steve Fraser From debtor's prison to debtor nation. Tags: debt, economic history, personal debt, TomDispatch

News Abroad

The American Lockdown State Tom Engelhardt Post-legal drones, the bin Laden tax, and other wonders of our American world. Tags: Barack Obama, drones, United States of Fear, war on terror

Women in Combat: Not New, but a Milestone Nonetheless Tanya L. Roth The next step is to rethink the hypermasculine culture of the military. Tags: combat, military history, U.S. Army, women's history

Is the Obama Administration Abandoning Its Commitment to a Nuclear-Free World? Lawrence S. Wittner Nuclear disarmament has been punted from "years" to "centuries." Tags: Barack Obama, nuclear disarmament, nuclear policy, nuclear weapons

Anti-Zionism is Anti-Semitism Andrew Seth Meyers Brooklyn College is hosting a B.D.S. event this week -- this is their fundamental mistake. Tags: anti-Zionism, BDS, Brooklyn College, Israeli/Palestinian conflict

The Hagel Hearings Nick Turse The last best chance for the truth about a lost war and America’s war-making future. Tags: Chuck Hagel, Vietnam, war crimes, atrocities

Historians & History

The Caribbean Origins of American Slavery Andrea Stuart The "white" and "black" races were invented on Barbados. Tags: Barbados, Caribbean, colonialism, slavery

The World's Train Station: Grand Central Kris Wood An interview with New York Times reporter Sam Roberts on the history of the seminal terminal. Tags: Grand Central Station, Manhattan, New York City, Sam Roberts

The Paris "Peace" Accords Were a Deadly Deception Ken Hughes Richard Nixon let thousands of Americans die to further his political career. Tags: Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Vietnam, Vietnam War

NASA's History of Organizational Problems Robert Huddleston On the tenth anniversary of the Columbia disaster, a look back at great NASA blunders from the 1960s. Tags: administration, business, NASA, organizations

Culture Watch

Why the Volkswagen Super Bowl Ad Isn't Racist Pearl Duncan Can we just celebrate a different culture already? Tags: racism, stereotypes, Super Bowl, Volkswagen

Books

Review of Aida D. Donald’s Citizen Soldier: A Life of Harry S. Truman Murray Polner Was he a near-great president or in over his head? Tags: biographies, book reviews, Harry S. Truman, Aida Donald

Review of David Shambaugh's China Goes Global: The Partial Power Jim Cullen Could China in 2013 be in the same global position as America in 1913? Tags: book reviews, China, David Shambaugh, geopolitics