Roundup: Historians' Take

Tim Furnish: We Don’t Need Another Student Loan Repayment Program

Tim Furnish has a PhD in Islamic, World and African History and works as an author and consultant. His website is www.mahdiwatch.org and he can be reached at jinnandtonic@yahoo.comFor the past several weeks the massive and ubiquitous student loan debt of American college graduates has been a major news story, along with the attempts by President Obama, Mitt Romney, and the GOP-controlled House of Representatives to make political hay of the issue while ostensibly advancing plans for resolving it. Of the ideas floated, President Obama’s appears the least serious and most political, particularly because his approach would expand the scope of federally subsidized loans — in effect pouring good money after bad.

Neve Gordon: Zionist History: A Short Quiz

Neve Gordon is the author of Israel's Occupation. Be'er-Sheva, Israel - Not long after Israel celebrated its 64th Independence Day on April 26, a friend prepared a quiz of sorts. She read out loud political quotes to about ten guests who were having dinner at my house, and asked us to identify the politician who had uttered each statement.Truth be told, none of my guests did very well on the quiz, but I thought that readers acquainted with Zionist history might do better and would be able to identify the source of each of the following statements. There is only one rule to this game: all search engines, including Google, are off limits.

Kirsten Swinth: Ann Romney-Hilary Rosen Dust-up Can't Be Reduced to a Question of "Choice"

Kirsten Swinth is an associate professor of history at Fordham University. Her work focuses on women, work, and culture. She is working on a book about care and competition in postindustrial America and the making of the working family. This op-ed was written in association with The Op-Ed Project.Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen’s declaration a few weeks ago that Republican first lady hopeful Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life” has played out in the media as another politically charged spat in the perpetual mommy wars about women’s choice between paid labor or at-home family care.

Peter Dreier: Milwaukee's Berger One of the Greatest Americans

Peter Dreier is the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His new book, "The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame," will be published by Nation Books in June.I recently spent several days in Milwaukee to give a talk at the University of Wisconsin about urban history and politics. My new book, "The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame," includes a profile of Victor Berger, the leader of Milwaukee's vibrant Socialist movement, which ran local government for most of the years from 1910 to 1960. So I was curious to learn how he is remembered in his city.

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom: Motives and Motifs in the Curious Case of Bo Xilai

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom's most recent books are China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know, available in paperback and Kindle editions from Oxford University Press, and the forthcoming University of California Press anthology Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land, which he co-edited with Angilee Shah. Wasserstrom is Chair of the History Department at the University of California, Irvine.

Gil Troy: Culture Warriors Don’t Win

Gil Troy, a professor of history at McGill University, is the editor, with Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Fred Israel, of “History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-2008,” fourth edition.Mitt Romney’s apparent nomination proves that Republican voters are more pragmatic and centrist than their reputation suggests. The Republican candidates this year fought a classic political battle. Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul campaigned as purists, echoing Henry Clay’s famous expression from 1844, “I’d rather be right than president.” The realist Romney updated the belief of nineteenth-century partisans that a candidate’s most important ability is what they called his “availability,” as in “his ability to avail” – and prevail.

Victor Davis Hanson: Sitting Out Obama

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author most recently of The End of SpartaWe recently saw lots of sit-down strikes and demonstrations — the various efforts in Wisconsin, the Occupy movements, and student efforts to oppose tuition hikes. None of them mattered much or changed anything. There is a sit-down strike, however, that has paralyzed the country and has been largely ignored by the media.

Michael Auslin: Lessons from Byzantium

Michael Auslin is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.The Byzantine Empire’s long run — 1,100 years — may seem remote from the 21st century, but a reading of its history offers at least three timeless lessons. Understanding some of the fatal weaknesses in the Eastern Roman Empire may help clarify the political and economic problems that America faces today and the choices we have in responding to them.

Todd Gitlin: How Occupy's Year of Transformation Compares to the Revolutions of 1848 and 1968

Todd Gitlin teaches at Columbia University and is the author, most recently, of "The Chosen Peoples: America, Israel, and the Ordeals of Divine Election" (co-authored with Liel Leibovitz), and a novel, "Undying." This article is an excerpt of an excerpt from "Occupy Nation," available on May 1 from all e-book retailers.Vast changes do not neatly follow the calendar, but it is already possible to say that the year 2011 was, as Anthony Barnett writes, “original.”Not completely so, of course. As in 1848, 1968, and 1989, the insurgencies were many and they absorbed multitudes. As in all three, the protagonists were chiefly young. As in all three, the holders of power felt various degrees of panic. As in 1848 and 1968, they took place on more than one continent. As in 1968 and 1989, the insurgents were largely nonviolent, until the uprising in Libya. As in 1968, the targets were multiple, the identities of the movements alternately seductive and repellent in the eyes of outsiders, and often confusing.

Jonathan Zimmerman: America's Original Missing Child

Jonathan Zimmerman teaches history at New York University and lives in Narberth. He is the author of “Small Wonder: The Little Red Schoolhouse in History and Memory” (Yale University Press). He can be reached at jlzimm@aol.com.In 1979, 6-year-old Etan Patz disappeared on his way to school in New York. Last month, a fruitless search for Patz’s remains in a SoHo basement prompted a national wave of nostalgia for the innocent days of yore. For most of our history, we told ourselves, kids were safe. Then we lost Etan.But we lost our innocence long before, with the 1874 kidnapping of 4-year-old Charley Ross right here in Philadelphia. That was when Americans discovered they could never keep their children completely safe. And we’ve been living with the consequences ever since....Fifty years later, when Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold were arrested for abducting and murdering 14-year-old Bobby Franks in Chicago, a member of their defense team reported that Loeb had been inspired by “a crime that nobody could ever detect” — the kidnapping of Charley Ross. Eight years after that, when the aviator Charles Lindbergh’s infant son was abducted and killed, one newspaper ran reward posters for Charles Lindbergh Jr. and Charley Ross side by side.

Jon Wiener: May Day Warning From the University of California President: 'Avoid All Protests'

Jon Wiener teaches US history at UC Irvine.A May Day warning has been issued to the ten-campus University of California system by office of the president, Mark G. Yudoff: “Avoid all protests.”This warning came in an e-mail, sent to all campuses, issued by Connexxus, the university’s travel management program, headed “Travel Alert—Protests across US Tuesday May 1st.”“Various activist groups will stage protests, rallies, and marches across the US on May 1,” the president’s office reported. “The Occupy Wall Street movement has called for a general strike, asking participants to abstain from work and economic activity on the same date.”The message, apparently sent to all students, faculty and staff, was addressed to “anyone” traveling to cities where demonstrations had been planned. Under “Impact,” the message declared, “Transport, business disruptions; possible scuffles with police.” The advice for May 1: “Allow additional time for ground transportation near protest sites.  Avoid all demonstrations as a precaution.”...

Niall Ferguson: How Africa Is Primed for Economic Take Off

Niall Ferguson is a professor of history at Harvard University. He is also a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His Latest book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, has just been published by Penguin Press. When Scottish missionary David Livingstone first glimpsed Victoria Falls in 1855, he was awestruck: "Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." Amen. Forget Niagara. When you stand on the banks of the mighty Zambezi just before it thunders over the cliffs and into the ravine below, you tremble at the vast and pitiless power of nature. I first came to this place 10 years ago, retracing my boyhood hero Livingstone’s footsteps. On this visit, however, I was more concerned with Africa’s future than with its past. In the years that lie before us, a great struggle will play out south of the Sahara: a struggle between man and Malthus. According to the Rev. Thomas Malthus’s famous principle—sometimes called the Malthusian trap—population grows geometrically, but the supply of food increases arithmetically. Viewed in those terms, many African countries today seem doomed to misery and vice.

Donald Sassoon: To Understand This Crisis We Can Look to the Long Depression Too

Donald Sassoon is Professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary College, University of London. 'Growth, growth, my kingdom for some growth!" But the kingdom is in double-dip recession and the painful slog out of it may be longer than the government expected. Elsewhere, it's not fun either. Spain is in serious recession with unemployment at almost 25%. Its borrowing costs are increasing, as are those of Italy – two major markets for British exports. In France, whose economy is faltering, François Hollande is poised to win the presidential election. The "markets" are running scared. Crises have always been with us. They are part of the history of capitalism. This crisis is not like any of the previous big capitalist crises except in this: "we are not all in it together". There will be winners and losers and, as usual, the outcome is uncertain. The crisis of 1929, or the Great Depression, has become the ur-crisis, the proto-crisis, the one crisis all other crises are compared to. Is the present downturn as bad as that of 1929?

Victor Davis Hanson: Obama's Undiplomacy

NRO contributor Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the author most recently of The End of Sparta, a novel about ancient freedom.Most of the criticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy concerns the failure of “reset diplomacy,” the inability to deal with Iran or North Korea, or the sense that we are ignoring allies and appeasing enemies.All true. But under the radar, there are several developments that are far more disturbing than we seem to realize.

Geraldo L. Cadava: Arizona Shows What Not to Do

Geraldo L. Cadava, an assistant professor of history and Latina and Latino studies at Northwestern University, is the author of the forthcoming "The Heat of Exchange: Latinos and Migration in the Making of a Sunbelt Borderland."Much more is at stake this week than Arizona’s controversial law. The justices’ decision will also determine the future of Latinos, and, therefore, of the country.Upholding the statute, S.B. 1070, would send a clear message to Americans like my grandfathers, eroding the ideals of racial equality, opportunity and inclusion that they have maintained since my parents’ families settled in Tucson almost 50 years ago.My grandfathers — one Latino and one white, both tech sergeants in the U.S. Air Force — retired while stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and then stayed in Tucson. They lived right across the street from one another. My parents met there, graduated from high school and had me soon after.

Julian Zelizer: Campaign Rhetoric May Tie Next President's Hands

Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" (Times Books) and of the new book "Governing America" (Princeton University Press).Princeton, New Jersey (CNN) -- If Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are staying up late worrying about whether they can win the election, they should ponder another, ultimately more important, question: Will their campaign rhetoric make it impossible for them to be effective if elected president?The decisions that each man makes in his effort to defeat the other will shape the political environment in January 2013. Although we often consider the campaign phase of a presidency to be entirely separate from governing, the truth is that the two are intimately connected.

Gary Leupp: Is Iran Getting a “Freebie”?

Gary Leupp is a Professor of History at Tufts University, and author of numerous works on Japanese history. He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu.There are some indications of a widening split between top officials over the way to engage Iran within the framework of the 5+1 talks. On the one hand, there are those, echoed by Obama himself, who argue that a deal over the Iranian nuclear program is possible. On the other are those who argue that the talks are doomed to fail, and even desperately hope for their collapse.The “Bomb Iran” crowd has had input into the demands presented to the Iranians by the U.S.: they must suspend higher uranium enrichment, close down the Fordow  enrichment facility, and “surrender” their stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 per cent purity. Iran is unlikely to agree to all of these, but this mix of demands allows for negotiations that might lead to a peaceful resolution to the stand-off. David Ignatius has intimated in a Washington Post column that a deal has already been negotiated behind the scenes.

Harold James: France and Frankfurt

Harold James is professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University and professor of History at the European University Institute, Florence. He is the author of The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle.PRINCETON -- Over the past two years, financial markets have turned the spotlight on a succession of countries -- Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, and Italy -- turning each into the epicenter of a seemingly perpetual European financial earthquake. But politicians always recognized that the heart of the European project was the relationship between France and Germany. Is that relationship now in jeopardy?There is a falling-domino argument that suggests that the crises on Europe’s periphery will have a knock-on effect on the Franco-German core. France, in the aftermath of a property and asset price bubble, is vulnerable to some of the same combination of banking and public finance problems. Indeed, now France’s presidential election has politicized the link between peripheral dominos and Europe’s French heart.

Michael Kazin: Obama, a European Socialist? I Wish!

Michael Kazin’s latest book is American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation. He teaches history at Georgetown University and is co-editor of Dissent.Last fall, Mitt Romney alleged that Obama “takes his political inspiration from Europe, and from the socialist Democrats in Europe.” I wish that were true, although socialism has American roots as well. But in point of fact, Romney could summon no evidence at all for his claim. In the richer European countries, citizens have the benefit of a cradle-to-grave welfare system—or did, until the current wave of austerity rolled in. Meanwhile, our president’s main achievement is a health care bill closely modeled on the one designed by his GOP challenger, Romney himself.

Victor Davis Hanson: Decline or Decadence?

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War."Almost daily we read of America’s “waning power” and “inevitable decline,” as observers argue over the consequences of defense cuts and budget crises.Yet much of the new American “leading from behind” strategy is more a matter of choice than of necessity. Apparently, both left-wing critics of U.S. foreign policy and right-wing Jacksonians are tiring of spending blood and treasure on seemingly ungrateful Middle Easterners — after two Gulf wars, the decade in Afghanistan, and various interventions in Lebanon and Libya....