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 [...]
Books about World War II generally fall into two categories. The first is the hour-by-hour account of individual battles, often told via accounts of individual soldiers. One example is Eugene Sledge’s With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa, which was the basis for the HBO mini-series The Pacific. The second type is [...]
Is there anything new we can learn about Adolf Hitler? More than 128,000 books have been written about the dictator, including acclaimed biographies by historians Richard Evans, Alan Bullock and Hugh Trevor-Roper. However, pieces of new information continue to surface (e.g. diaries, archives) and each passing year provides authors with a different historical [...]
In the traditional view of the Pilgrims, one told in many 20th century textbooks, the Pilgrims came to Massachusetts on the Mayflower to make a break with old England and start a unique society. In her new book, The World of the Plymouth Plantation, Dr. Carla Gardina Pestana corrects the “false impression that [...]
The California ballot initiative process, created in 1911 by the progressive movement to control the influence of corporations, has instead been turned upside down by massive corporate spending. Corporate interests now use referenda to defeat popular legislation and grassroots reform efforts. The most glaring example is the current fight over Proposition 22 on [...]
