Roundup Top 10!

How photography – and phrenology – helped make Abraham Lincoln president by Joanna Cohen A virtual unknown on the national stage in 1860, Lincoln needed a public image in the run up to his first presidential campaign. Artists and print-makers all rushed in – but Lincoln was fascinated by the process of photography.

The Powerlessness of Positive Thinking by Rick Perlstein The battles over American history and censorship in Colorado are part of the longstanding cult of optimism on the Right.

America’s conspiracy mania: Why Ebola and 9/11 truthers reflect a tortured history by Jonathan Zimmerman From 9/11 to McCarthyism, we have a long history of conspiracy theories -- and government acts have encouraged them.

Behind the Wall by Amy Davidson "It’s often said that the Berlin Wall finally fell by mistake."

US Dilemma in Syria: Moderate Stronghold Falls to al-Qaeda, Fighters desert to Extremists by Juan Cole Not only did Syria Revolutionaries Front leader Jamal Marouf have to flee his hometown, but some of his fighters actually turned on him and joined the Succor Front.

Is Barack Obama the Worst President in American History? by Ivan Eland With America’s ahistorical orientation and restrictive two-party political system, people on the right of the American political spectrum reflexively and viscerally believe that the current left-of-center president is the worst in history; left-leaning people had the same opinion of George W. Bush.

How One Soviet Submarine Commander Averted World War III by Jennifer Ginsburg For the torpedo to be launched, the submarine’s top three commanders had to agree, and one refused.

Fifteen Ways Nelson Rockefeller Still Matters by Jonathan A. Knee The sheer magnitude of Rockefeller’s ambition across the domains of business, government and philanthropy and the unselfconscious ease with which he moved among these worlds stand in stark contrast with what would be even conceivable today.

Yitzhak Rabin’s legacy reconsidered by Moshe Dann Rabin’s legacy was the “Oslo process” which shifted national momentum from Zionism and Jewish sovereignty to Palestinianism and the “two state” delusion.

Didn’t Everybody Love Reagan? by Lloyd Green "Reagan led America along a path it was willing to try and to take."