Roundup: Historians' Take

Daniel Pipes: Was Obama a Muslim?

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his blog.] "If I were a Muslim I would let you know," Barack Obama has said, and I believe him. In fact, he is a practicing Christian, a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ.

John Steele Gordon: The Elizabethans partied hard. The Puritans banned it. Now comes the ACLU.

[Mr. Gordon is the author of "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power" (HarperCollins, 2004).] Christmas famously "comes but once a year." In fact, however, it comes twice. The Christmas of the Nativity, the manger and Christ child, the wise men and the star of Bethlehem, "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" is one holiday. The Christmas of parties, Santa Claus, evergreens, presents, "Rudolph the Red-N

Frederick Kagan: Can't Mrs. Clinton move beyond Bush-bashing on America's interests in the Middle East?

[Mr. Kagan is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author, most recently, of "No Middle Way: The Challenge of Exit Strategies from Iraq" (AEI Press, 2007).] Will the United States remain committed to supporting its friends and opposing its enemies in the Muslim world? This question has been asked for decades by people from Indonesia to Morocco and throughout the Middle East. And there is no clear answer. American engagement in the Muslim w

Stanley Kutler: The Real Romney

Several stories recently have appeared describing Mitt Romney's efforts to study his father's campaign in 1968 and learn from his mistakes. George Romney, a successful Michigan Governor, and noted for his battles against the Big Three automakers to produce smaller, more gas-efficient automobiles, sought the Republican presidential nomination in that year. Widely regarded as the candidate from the more moderate, "Rockefeller" wing of the party, Romney appeared as a winning alternative t

Julian Zelizer: Three Traditions on Display in Iowa and New Hampshire

[Julian E. Zelizer is Professor of History and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is writing a history of the politics of national security which will be published by Yale University Press. Next year Harvard University Press will publish a book that he co-edited, Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s. He is also the author of On Capitol Hill and the editor of The American Congress.] This year's primaries showcase three distinct political traditions within

Sean Wilentz: The Delusional Style in American Punditry

[Mr. Wilentz is professor of history at Princeton.] Every now and then in American politics, normally balanced people get swept up by delusions of greatness about a presidential candidate, based on an emotional attachment to the candidate's oratory or image. The youthful William Jennings Bryan brought down the house and swept up the nomination with his famous "Cross of Gold" speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1896--only to be crushed by the dreary William McKi

Andreas Umland: The Two Towers of Future Russia

[Mr. Umland, formerly a visiting fellow at Stanford, Harvard and Oxford, is editor of the book series “Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society” published by ibidem-Verlag at Stuttgart and Hannover, and compiler of the biweekly “Russian Nationalism Bulletin.” /). He contributed this comment to “Russia Profile” (

Tracy Dove: South Africa and the Growing Pains of Post-Apartheid Politics

[Tracy Dove, editor of The Russia News Service, is a Professor of History and the Department Chair of International Relations at the University of New York in Prague.] It is an unfortunate trend in media reporting on Africa that unless the news is unmistakably bad there isn't much of a chance that a positive story will make any headlines. There is, however, an important political event going on in South Africa, where only 14 years ago the simplicity and ugliness of Apartheid kept th

Susan Dunn: How Virginia fell from first among the states ... lessons for our times

[Susan Dunn, a professor at Williams College, is the author of the recently released "Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the Decline of Virginia." (Basic Books) This piece originally appeared in The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Va.]

Neil J. Young: Southern Baptists vs. the Mormons ... an old story

[Neil J. Young is writing a dissertation in U.S. history at Columbia University on the theological tensions among Catholics, Mormons, and Southern Baptists working on shared political causes during the 1970s and '80s.] [Re: Huckabee versus Romney.] ... This is the first time a Southern Baptist and a Mormon have battled for the White House, but their faiths have struggled with each other for years. Most Americans know little about Mormonism, aside from rumors about the sacred undergarments some Mormons wear. But for the millions who attend Southern Baptist churches, this is hardly a new discussion. For nearly the past 40 years, the Southern Baptist Convention has devoted considerable effort to teaching its members about the dangers of Mormonism. In fact, probably no other organization in the nation has played a bigger role in perpetuating the idea that Mormonism is a cult than the Southern Baptist Convention.

Daniel Pipes: Fund the Palestinians? Bad Idea

[Mr. Pipes is the director of the Middle East Forum. His website address is http://www.danielpipes.org. Click here for his blog.] Lavishing funds on Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority to achieve peace has been a mainstay of Western, including Israeli, policy since Hamas seized Gaza in June. But this open spigot has counterproductive results and urgently must be stopped.Some background:

Juan Cole: Was Rice's trip to Iraqi Kurdistan Deliberately Sabotaged?

[Mr. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. His website is http://www.juancole.com.] So when we left off the story yesterday, US Secretary of State Condi Rice had just made a surprise visit to the northern oil city of Kirkuk, apparently to congratulate the provincial council for a move toward Kurdish-Arab reconciliation. But while Condi was doing that, the Turkish army invaded Iraq! And

Jonathan Zimmerman: Steroid scandal challenges American sports myths

[Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history and education at New York University. He is the author of "Innocents Abroad: American Teachers in the American Century" (Harvard University Press, 2006).] Major League Baseball players are taking steroids! It's an outrage! Nobody should be surprised by Thursday's report from former Sen. George Mitchell linking 89 baseball players to performance-enhancing drugs. There were several local players named in the report, of course,

James E. Campbell: Democrats could still lose in 2008

[James E. Campbell is a professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at the University at Buffalo, SUNY.] For all political junkies, and I am assuming that you are one if you are reading this, we are now well into the presidential nomination entertainment season. After a slow start of uneventful debate events, the play has begun. Democrats are smuggling questions into the Republican YouTube debates. Even Oprah has jumped into the fray. Still, despite wide

Philip Jenkins: How global warming will increase religious strife

[Philip Jenkins is the author of God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis.] ... The connection between climate change and religious violence is not that tenuous--in fact, there's a historical indicator of how it could unfold, the Little Ice Age. Between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, the Northern Hemisphere actually went through a modest warming phase: With a longer growing season, harvests were bountiful, Europe's population boomed, and the relative p

Gil Troy: The Mudslingers

[Gil Troy is a professor of history at McGill University. His next book, “Leading From the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents,” will be published in the spring.] "Politics are such a torment that I would advise every one I love not to mix with them.” That’s what Thomas Jefferson wrote to his daughter Martha during the 1800 presidential campaign. Jefferson’s warning captures the delicious anguish of both professional politicians and the American electorate with regar

Mark Naison: Barry Bonds, The Mitchell Report and the Spectre of Big Brother

[Dr. Naison is Professor of History and African American Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of Communists in Harlem During the Great Depression, White Boy: A Memoir, co-editor of The Tenant Movement in New York City, and over 100 articles on African American politics, social movements and American culture and sports. Dr. Naison is the Principal Investigator of the Bronx African American History Project.] Several years ago, when Barry Bonds was made a public symbol o

Juan Cole: Bush and Obama on drugs: The difference between them.

Hillary Clinton fired the co-chair of her New Hampshire campaign, Bill Shaheen, because he speculated that Barack Obama would be attacked by Republicans for admitting youthful drug use,if he were the nominee. She then apologized to Obama. But in this controversy, what is forgotten is that our current incumbent also admitted to youthful drug use: "Bush has said that he did not use illegal drugs at any time since 1974, but he has declined to discuss whether he used d

Jan Shipps: What made Romney's speech so Mormon

[Jan Shipps is a professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and the author of "Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition."] When Mitt Romney gave his "Faith in America" address last Thursday, observers wondered how "Mormon" it would be. "Not very," is the understandable consensus. Mormonism 101 it was not, and he said very little about his personal religious beliefs, sticking to his announced topic. Still, in the way he talked about religious diversity, the nation's symphony of faiths, the way religious liberty stands at the heart of the American constitutional system, and how religion belongs in the public square, this was a consummate Mormon speech. Moreover, despite its political agenda, it is possible to read what Mr. Romney said as being in harmony with a major effort his church has been making since the 1970s: to be included in the American religious mainstream.

Rick Perlstein: Thirty-five years later, what the 1972 campaign can—and can’t—teach liberals today

[Rick Perlstein is the author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. A senior fellow at Campaign for America's Future, his book Nixonland will be published in June.] If you happen to find yourself listening to Conversation 62 of Tape 33 of the new Nixon documents released this summer, this is what you will hear: On Election Night 1972, Richard M. Nixon, having served George McGovern the biggest electoral college defeat in history, took a con