Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World
By Elvin Lim
For after endorsing the idea of the mosque near Ground Zero and resisting the path of least resistance, a day later, the President back-tracked, saying, “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding.” (As Kerry was for the Iraq war before he was against it.) Well done, Polonius.
Welcome to the final installment the Politics & Paine series. Harvey Kaye and Elvin Lim are corresponding about Thomas Paine, American politics, and beyond. Read the first post here, and the second post here, and the third post here. Kaye is the author of the award-winning book, Thomas Paine: Firebrand of Revolution, as well as […]
Donald Stoker is Professor of Strategy and Policy for the U.S. Naval War College‘s program at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. His most recent book is The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War, and in the original post below, he dismantles a common myth about the Battle of Bull Run–the first major land battle of the Civil War–which was fought 149 years ago, today.
The NAACP was doing its job when it accused the Tea Party movement of harboring “racist elements,” but it didn’t necessarily go about it in the most productive way. All it took was for supporters of the Tea Party movement like Sarah Palin to write, “All decent Americans abhor racism,” and that with the election of Barack Obama we became a “post-racial” society, and the NAACP’s charge was soundly “refudiated.” Or, as Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell put it to Candy Crowley on CNN on Sunday, he’s “got better things to do” than weigh in on the debate. He was elected to deal with real problems, not problems made up in people’s heads. Case closed.
Noralee Frankel shares her favorite books.
How could you use the HTOED to rewrite the Gettysburg Address?
An email conversation.
What do you do when your work is distorted to make or support political claims you don’t accept in the service of an agenda that you don’t share?
What Rebecca has been reading.
Craig Symonds recounts his day with Lincoln.
Craig L. Symonds winner of the 2009 Lincoln Prize pens a bicentennial post for the blog.
Lim reflects Obama’s invitation to Pator Rick Warren.
Donald Ritchie looks at the gap between the Presidential election an inauguration day.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. on the long path that led to Sen. Barack Obama being declared President-elect.
An examination of the historic candidacy of Barack Obama within the context of the civil rights movement and the changing nature of black politics.
Glen LaFantasie wonders why we don’t have leaders like Lincoln anymore.