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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell [and Don't Tell Harry Truman]

by Rawn James, Jr.

By deciding against a lawsuit filed by Republican activists who otherwise would decry judicial activism, U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips accomplished wh

History Lesson 101: The Grand Old Myth of Fiscal Conservatism

by Todd Holmes

Few myths have proven as pervasive in post-World War II politics than that of fiscal conservatism and the GOP.  As the Tea Party has heightened the myth this election cycle, pundits and proponents such as Peggy Noonan and Stanford University’s Peter Berkowitz have bestowed the falsehood with renewed credibility.  Just last week, for instance, Berkowitz argued in the Wall Street Journal that the lack of political history in U.S. universities underpinned the misrepresentation of t

In Defense of Public School Teachers

by Mark Naison

There are few jobs in this country more challenging than that of a public school teacher.  In a country with one of the highest rates of poverty in the industrialized world, with almost no social safety net to help struggling families, our teachers have to create a positive learning atmosphere in classrooms filled with young people under stress.  The teacher not only has to be someone who can transmit knowledge and skills, he or she has to be a diplomat, a counselor, a surrogate parent

The Emotional Power of the "Culture of Poverty"

by Patricia Cohen

I am a longtime admirer of Mr. Patterson’s work, so I am particularly distressed that he found my Oct. 17 article off base. In this case, however, I think he misread or misinterpreted what I wrote about the Moynihan report and poverty studies.I was very careful to write that Moynihan’s report popularized the idea of the culture of poverty—not that he made up the term or specifically used

Misrepresenting the Moynihan Report—Will It Ever Stop?

by James T. Patterson

When Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report, “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” reached the White House in March 1965, it sparked great enthusiasm among

Does the First Amendment Separate Church and State?

by Jon Butler

Delaware Senatorial candidate Christine O'Donnell's recent comment—wondering whether "separation of church and state" is "in the First Amendment"—raises a serious point that has escaped both O'Donnell and her many critics:  that Thomas Jefferson's use of the phrase "separation between Church & State" in an 1802 letter was actually a narrowly focused explanation of the Amendment, whose full breadth probably would displease O'Donnell even

Mr. President, Tear Down This Wall

by Lisa Szefel

With the public outcry surrounding the suicides of six young gay Americans in the span of one month, we are in the midst of a Richard Wright moment.  In 1940 Wright published Native Son, which traced the story of twenty-year-old Bigger Thomas, a good black man who embarks on a crime spree, playing into stereotypes that connect race to violence.  The novel suggests the invisible yet debilitating effects of growing up black in a society fringed with racial hatred during Jim C

The New Dark Financial Ages

by James Livingston

It’s been two months since Timothy Geithner welcomed us to what he called economic recovery in a New York Times op-ed. It’s been about that long since I argued here that the so-called recov

On Elena Kagan’s Senior Thesis: Sound Anti-Communist Labor History

by Ron Radosh

Some conservatives have been criticizing Supreme Court Justice nominee Elena Kagan for her 1981 Princeton senior thesis in history, “To The Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933.”  Not me. As a historian who has read widely in socialist and communist history, and written about the topic myself, I found her thesis to be academically first-rate, based on a wide-ranging use of primary

Who Started the Tea Party?

by Jill Lepore

In 1975, the New York Times Magazine published a cover story called “Who Owns 1776?” written by J. Anthony Lukas and illustrated with haunting photographs o

Is Malcom Gladwell Right That Social Media is Useless for Change?

by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

An article called “Small Change:  Why the revolution will not be tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell in the October 4, 2010 New Yorker poses an important question:  What, if anything, is the potential contribution of web-based "social networking" to social movements and social change?  The article’s answer, drawing primarily on an account of the civil rights movement, is that social movements t

The Tea Party and Himmler's Black Legion

by Omer Bartov

The revelation that Rich Iott, the Republican candidate for the 9th Congressional District seat in Ohio and a Tea Party favorite, has been in the habit of dressing up a

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party

by Richard Striner

The Tea Party movement—our latest anti-government fad—uses imagery and slogans derived from our own revolution.  But the party goers’ knowledge of history is slight, and their government-bashing oversimplifies America’s past.The problem is simple:  the libertarian zeal that energized people like Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry brought disaster to the young nation.  So other founders took action.  Our first constitution (1781), the Articles of Confederation, was weak, and it was hard to get anything done.  Accordingly, founders such as George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison came to a decision:  the Articles had to be scrapped.  And many people supported this decision.

A Question of Power, Not Sex

by Thomas A. Foster

Four young men have accused the leader of one of the largest churches in the country of sexual abuse.  The accusations have sent shock waves through the media and the twenty-five thousand souls who belong to New Birth Baptist Church near Atlanta.  Some commentators have condemned Bishop Eddie Long’s virulently anti-gay theology and political activism and have called for a black church that is more welcoming and inclusive of gays and lesbians.  Others have urged ministers to lead more

Science-Challenged America Must Reclaim Its Hellenic Roots

by N.J. Slabbert

An oddity of American culture is what the nation's higher education system calls "Greek life." These are student organizations with Greek-letter names. Going back to the birth of the Phi B

The Real Lessons of the Gulf Oil Spill

by Frank Uekoetter

This spring it was easy to be an environmentalist.  Or so it seemed.It is not unusual to see people protesting after an oil spill.  The amaz

Rochdale Village: Blueprint for a New Housing Option?

by Peter Eisenstadt

Few areas of  New York City have had as many housing foreclosures in recent years as the neighborhoods in southeastern Queens, such as Jamaica, South Jamaica, St. Albans, and Laurelton—all with large tracts

The Tale of Progressivism's Death Has Been Exaggerated

by Martin Halpern

Five days before Richard Nixon’s inauguration in 1969, Laura Nyro sang “Save the Country” in her only network television appearance.  She ended, biographer Michelle Kort says, “with an almost screaming ‘NOW!!!!!’”  Nyro had composed the song in the wake of the June 1968 assassination of Bobby Kennedy and refers in the song to the loss of Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as Kennedy.  She sang:We could build the drea

Bob Woodward and All the President’s Men

by Andrew J. Bacevich

Once a serious journalist, the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward now makes a very fine living as chief gossip-monger of the governing class.

Smile, You’re a Liberal After All!

by Steven Conn

The story line for the upcoming November elections has been that conservatives are angry, motivated and poised for a major electoral triumph.  Fuming, they promise to return America to its traditional values, which they say have been hijacked by liberals and progressives.But here’s the dark secret conservatives don’t want you to know:  America is a progressive nation.  Americans have always embraced progress and liberal change, rather than stasis.  Chances are, you are a lib