Новости за 03.10.2018

In 1838, when he was a twenty-nine-year-old Illinois state legislator, Abraham Lincoln foresaw the coming of Donald Trump.

Laura Robson is a scholar of modern Middle Eastern and international history. Her areas of interest encompass local, regional, and global iterations of internationalism and international governance, modern histories of mass violence, and the politics of ethnicity and religion in the twentieth century Arab world. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University and is currently Associate Professor of History at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Visit her website at www.lauracrobson.com.

In The War Years Lincoln biographer and poet Carl Sandburg wrote,“Lincoln was the first true humorist to occupy the White House. No other President of the United States had come to be identified, for good or bad, with a relish for the comic.” More recently Richard Carwardine has devoted a whole book toLincoln's humor. In contrast, former FBI director James Comey has stated that he never personally witnessed President Trump laugh, and conservative columnist Max Boot has written, “Has there ever been a president as humorless as Donald Trump? Читать дальше...

Jefferson was a uncompromising liberal when it came to religion. He expresses that sentiment in a letter to Patrick Henry (11 Oct. 1776): “The care of every man’s soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or estate, which more nearly relate to the state? Will the magistrates make a law that he shall not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their... Читать дальше...

America has seen about one third of its Presidents who were “retreads,” those who lost earlier bids for the White House. They span from Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump, and this reality of later success is what emboldens others to continue attempting to be elected President. There will be a number of such “retreads” likely to seek the Presidency in 2020.

In the context of the press’s struggle to cover the world of Trump and beyond, it’s important to recall that Murrow, in his memorable 1954 See It Now broadcast about Senator McCarthy, helped bring an end to a political crusade that was frightening the American people and undermining American democracy. He exposed McCarthy as a lying charlatan who deserved the Senate censure he was to suffer a few months later. Though many other reporters covered the same story, only Murrow will likely be remembered... Читать дальше...

I can’t say I’ve courted controversy as an author.

A historian’s daily schedule is, after all, hardly the same as a Fox or MSNBC commentator.

But sometimes controversy finds you.

As I wrapped up my latest book, TR’s Last War: Theodore Roosevelt, The Great War, and a Journey of Triumph and Tragedy, I re-visited a rather minor footnote detailing the suicides of two of Roosevelt’s more prominent business supporters.Then, I recalled TR’s son Kermit had to talk TR out of ending his... Читать дальше...

Congress approved five of twelve appropriations bills by the time the 2019 fiscal year began on October 1. While that might not seem like a major accomplishment, it had not been accomplished in 22 years. These bills include funding for the Department of Education, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Library of Congress. more >

The 2018 omnibus appropriations bill that was passed by Congress and signed by the President in May included a provision mandating that all non-confidential CRS reports be made publicly available online through a free website within 90 to 270 days of their publication. Before now, CRS reports were not easily accessible to the public. The more >

On September 28, the “Museum and Library Services Act” (S. 3530) was re-introduced by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) to accommodate a minor change in the state library grant formula. This bill will reauthorize the IMLS. This change to the library state grant funding formula doesn’t affect museum provisions included in the previous version that was introduced more >

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sept. 27, 2018. AP/pool image, Michael Reynolds

Far from being unusual, the hurried and partisan Supreme Court confirmation process for Brett Kavanaugh mirrors several notable examples of similarly politicized confirmations in U.S. history.

George Washington "may have had a bad past... didn't he have a couple of things in his past?" - Donald Trump questions record of America's first president and says Democrats would not vote for founding fatherhttps://t.co/Ho7fsxxD6i pic.twitter.com/U2eWmXahVN

You know the poem:

“Lizzie Borden took an axe

and gave her mother forty whacks.

When she saw what she had done,

she gave her father forty-one.”

The story of history’s most famous (alleged) axe murderer has been turned into a movie, Lizzie, starring Chloe Sevigny, that just opened, and it attempts to show exactly how Lizzie pulled off the ax murders of her wealthy father and step mother on August 4, 1892.

The astonishment at the horror of the slayings was matched... Читать дальше...

On Thursday I was honored to speak to 23 new American citizens, at a naturalization ceremony aboard "Old Ironsides" in Boston Harbor, as they swore allegiance to the United States of America.  As the son and grandson of immigrants, you would have appreciated the drive, determination and ambition of these new Americans.  Like you and your family, they will be an engine of growth and prosperity and within a generation their families will be indistinguishable from those that have been here for 300 years. Читать дальше...

Related Link What historians are saying about the Kavanaugh nomination 

Buried Child by Sam Shepard. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2018. Directed by Paul Mullins. Pictured (left to right): Roger Clark as Bradley and Sherman Howard as Dodge. Photo credit: Jerry Dalia.

The Army of the Potomac suffered devastating and demoralizing losses during the Overland Campaign in 1864. From the crossing of the Rapidan River in Virginia on May 4 until the closing days at Cold Harbor in June, the army experienced roughly 55,000 casualties. In just one hour on the morning of June 3, the Union lost 3,500 men. Shortly after that debacle, the Fifth Corps commander, Major General Gouverneur Warren, wrote to his wife, “If there were no limit to the number of men we could continually waste in battle I might be more hopeful. Читать дальше...

When the subject of history arises in a conversation, rarely does one think of the present. Rather, what may come to mind is a boring textbook or some funny dressed individual, whose style would remind our contemporaries of a Halloween costume. Contrary to misconceptions that suggest history is irrelevant, it truly is a part of our everyday experience. One could even dare to say that we experience a part of history while browsing social media sites on our phones, as one of the most significant influences throughout history has been words. Читать дальше...

As a young man, William James studied a range of fields, from chemistry to literature. He focused especially on physiology, psychology, and philosophy. In the 1860s and 1870s, the future psychologist and philosopher was sorting out his own philosophy of life and sampling career paths. Each offered plausible insights, but none was decisive or beyond some criticism, especially as amplified by his temperamental indecisiveness. The swirl of choices, and the dramatically different ways of understanding the world... Читать дальше...

In their book How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt write that “the norms sustaining our political system [have] rested, to a considerable degree, on racial exclusion,” pointing to the Compromise of 1877 that led the North to end Reconstruction and leave the South. In the aftermath, the South implemented a whole series of Jim Crow laws that stripped African-Americans of their rights. The political rapprochement Levitsky and Ziblatt describe between Democrats... Читать дальше...

The release of Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary “Death of a Nation” is the latest iteration of an alt.right mission to reinforce its recent rise to power by popularizing particular and deeply politicized visions of the American past. The most obvious evidence of political bias is D’Souza’s counter-factual insistence that the Democratic Party hasn’t changed since its proslavery antebellum days, and, in a contradiction that only the most contorted imaginings can conjure, that Donald Trump will save... Читать дальше...

National security. The term has become integral to a constant refrain from the Trump White House over the past six months in justifying a number of political, military and economic decisions. The United States is being threatened on multiple fronts, we are told, and only aggressive responses can maintain our safety.

Football season has arrived again. And returning too are the protestsby players which have caused such debate since Colin Kaepernickfirst chose to kneel rather than stand for the national anthem in 2016. Despite the threats and criticism that have been thrown their way, players continue to protest injustice by remaining in the tunnel, sitting, kneeling, or raising a fist during the playing of the national anthem. And as the protests continue, no doubt too will the criticism. So it might be worth... Читать дальше...

Related Link Nixon, Trump and the Strange Career of the Madman Theory By Jeff Kimball