In one of the ironies of history, while Russian President Vladimir Putin keeps calling the Ukrainian leadership “Nazis,” it is his own flawed military strategy that closely matches that of Hitler in the disastrous invasion of Russia in 1941. Here are five mistakes in military strategy that both Putin and Hitler made . [...]
In his latest book Dangerous Rhythms, author T. J. English details the “symbiotic” relationship between leading Black jazz musicians and local crime bosses including Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Mickey Cohen . . . READ More
Few museum directors find the time to write books and even fewer write history books – yet Stephen Aron, President and CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, has managed this feat with a provocative new history of the American frontier . . . READ More
"My specific interest is the social impact of technology, and how people react to it, so this is a form of social history, with a focus on how the adoption of technology can cause bottom-up change. In that sense it’s an antidote of sorts to the top-down, “great man” view of history. But [...]
In February 1968, with the publication of the landmark Kerner Commission Report, white America had a chance to acknowledge the fact of four centuries of systemic racism. It turned away . . . READ More
In recent years an intense struggle has been waged between Democratic officials in San Antonio and the state’s hard-right conservative leadership, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick [R], an avid Trump supporter. The Republicans insist on maintaining the traditional myth surrounding Alamo, a story that contemporary historians call “the Heroic Anglo Narrative.” The [...]
Could World War I have been ended in December 1916 with a negotiated peace, thus sparing millions of lives on both sides? READ More
He was dubbed the “velvet hammer,” the “handler,” and the “ultimate fixer” by the national news media. Canadian trade negotiators, disconcerted by his hardline tactics and frequent use of profanity, had a less flattering nickname: “Texas crude.” READ More
In August 1942, SS Major Otto Wachter was feeling frustrated. He was working long hours, setting up a concentration camps in German-occupied Ukraine, but he couldn’t find anyone to perform maintenance work at his headquarters in Lemburg. In a letter to his wife, Charlotte, he complained “the Jews are being deported in increasing [...]
During the past 12 years, the U.S. Senate under Mitch McConnell has served as a black hole for progressive legislation, so it is hard to imagine that the upper house was once an engine of major social reform. But in the “liberal hour” of 1964-68, the Senate passed a historic series of bills [...]
