Civil War

The Importance of Place in the American Story

Kate Kelly | Posted 11.10.2009 | Politics


Kate Kelly

Being on the Gettysburg Battlefield, I understood service and sacrifice to one's country in a way that I have never understood it before.

In Search of Men of Principle

Louise Mirrer | Posted 11.09.2009 | New York


Louise Mirrer

Had Eugene and Stanley of Brighton Beach Memoirs been living in New York during the Civil War years, they might not have thought so highly of Abraham Lincoln's principles.

John Brown's Body Lies A-Moldering in Upstate New York

Alfred Gingold | Posted 10.19.2009 | New York


Alfred Gingold

150 years after his raid on Harpers Ferry, John Brown looms ever larger in the national psyche, either a great martyr to a just and necessary cause, or our first domestic terrorist.

The Hanged Census Worker: Why Appalachia Hates Feds

Gail McGowan Mellor | Posted 09.28.2009 | Politics


Gail McGowan Mellor

The U.S. government began its life back in 1791 by shafting the Appalachian area. People have not forgotten it, perhaps because it has yet to stop happening.

A Case for Republican Secession (From Itself)

Michael B. Laskoff | Posted 09.20.2009 | Politics


Michael B. Laskoff

Sometimes the body from which a political party springs is so filled with bile and corruption that its healthiest components should seek to go their own way. A case in point is today's Republican Party.

Emerging GOP Theme: Nullification

Chris Weigant | Posted 09.15.2009 | Politics


Chris Weigant

The code words change over time (from "nullification" to "states' rights" to Pawlenty's "state sovereignty"), but the idea is the same -- we retain the right to ignore any laws we don't feel like following.

Why Refugees Need to Make a Living

Dale Buscher | Posted 09.11.2009 | World


Dale Buscher

It is time to implement interventions that are tailored to the local context, that build on the refugees' existing skills, and that match local market demand.

We'll Always Have Tara

Gerald Sindell | Posted 09.10.2009 | Politics


Gerald Sindell

When we finally do achieve health care restructuring, I hope that some of us will take a moment to look at that powerful human preference for the status quo over anything else.

A Tamil Tragedy

James Ross | Posted 08.29.2009 | World


James Ross

Holding several hundred thousand civilians under lock and key, the government is keeping the survivors of the fighting from telling their stories to the media and human rights groups.

In Defense of Charles Taylor: Perspectives from Liberia

Robert Blair | Posted 11.05.2009 | World


Robert Blair

While we in the international peanut gallery gape at the spectacle of the Charles Taylor trial -- a murderer defending indefensible acts -- many Liberians continue to endorse Taylor and his charismatic brutality.

Beer Metaphor Becomes Frosty-Cold Reality

Chris Weigant | Posted 08.27.2009 | Politics


Chris Weigant

Barack Obama is the first president to not just accept the premise of the "having a beer" test, but to embrace it and turn it into reality.

An American History Lesson for Pat Buchanan

Kenneth C. Davis | Posted 08.18.2009 | Politics


Kenneth C. Davis

Yes, no black men signed the Declaration. They were consigned to the plantations of many of the men who did the signing, putting food on their tables and money in their purses.

How Abraham Lincoln's "Hot Letters" Can Keep You From Going All Alice Hoffman

David Quigg | Posted 08.02.2009 | Media


David Quigg

We all have our limits. Abraham Lincoln's limit is that he left behind no wise counsel for the man who finds himself garmentless at 30,000 feet. But he did leave something for the Twitterers.

On the Occasion of President Obama's Wreath for the Confederate Memorial

Ronald Maxwell | Posted 07.09.2009 | Politics


Ronald Maxwell

Obama, to his everlasting honor, and in keeping with the tradition of his predecessors, on Memorial Day just two weeks ago sent a wreath to Moses Ezekiel's monument to the Confederate dead.

Abraham Lincoln's Vegetarian Address

Dave Astor | Posted 07.05.2009 | Comedy


Dave Astor

"Four score and seven meals ago my conscience brought forth to the anti-rebel north a new diet conceived in kindness and dedicated to the proposition that all animals are created equal.

Palme d'Or Winner of Cannes 2009: Michael Haneke's "White Ribbon"

Karin Badt | Posted 06.25.2009 | Entertainment


Karin Badt

The intent of the movie is to show how the imminent war -- or any imminent war -- results from the sickness of a culture as well as from inherent human malice.

Memorial Day: A History

Kenneth C. Davis | Posted 06.19.2009 | Politics


Kenneth C. Davis

'Why don't the mothers of mankind interfere in these matters, to prevent the waste of that human life of which they alone bear and know the cost?'

Security Central to Tackling Poverty in the 21st Century

Douglas Alexander | Posted 05.28.2009 | World


Douglas Alexander

In countries afflicted by conflict we must now add to that core mission a commitment to build peace and to build functioning states.

Sri Lanka: Thousands Of Civilians Continue To Flee War Zone

The Guardian | Gethin Chamberlain, David Pallister and agencies in Colombo | Posted 05.23.2009 | World


Thousands more Tamil civilians were fleeing the rapidly diminishing sliver of rebel-held land in north-east Sri Lanka today as government troops conti...

Threats of Secession and Other Recent Republican Rhetoric

Lincoln Mitchell | Posted 05.17.2009 | Politics


Lincoln Mitchell

Those on the far right can't have it both ways, calling for revolution and secession on the one hand, while protesting a report raising concerns about right wing extremist violence on the other.

Immigration Control Starts with Drug Control

Mike Papantonio | Posted 05.15.2009 | World


Mike Papantonio

What is most frustrating about the Mexican drug war chaos is figuring out the truth about whether all that drug violence is moving across the borders.

Lincoln's Watch: Hidden Civil War Message Inside, Museum Reveals

AP | BRETT ZONGKER | Posted 04.11.2009 | Home


WASHINGTON — For nearly 150 years, a story has circulated about a hidden Civil War message engraved inside Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch. On Tu...

It's Not Cricket -- It's War

Roger I. Abrams | Posted 04.05.2009 | Entertainment


Roger I. Abrams

Sport can bring out the best, but also the worst in mankind.

Sri Lanka Rebels Lose Killinochci

Benjamin Bronfman | Posted 04.03.2009 | World


Benjamin Bronfman

Even as the Sri Lankan conflict seems to be drawing to a close, the government, which has a long history of abducting Tamil civilians and suppressing information, has increased its security forces in the capitol.

Sri Lanka Rejects Tamil Tigers Ceasefire Offer

Al Jazeera | Posted 03.26.2009 | World


Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger fighters have announced that they are ready to comply with international calls for a ceasefire, but they would not lay down t...