opinion
‘ECONOMIC WOUNDS’
Three crucial differences between what’s happening now and what happened then: The sort of work that Americans do, where they live, and what they believe that government can do.
Tom Shachtman is the author of many books on American and world history, as well as novels, documentary films, and children’s books. These include The Day America Crashed; Edith and Woodrow; The Phony War 1939-1940; Decade of Shocks 1963-1974, and three books on the American Revolutionary era, including The Founding Fortunes: How The Wealthy Paid For And Profited From America's Revolution, due out in January 2020. His newest novel, The Memoir of the Minotaur, will be published in September 2020. He has written documentaries for ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, most recently the two-hour Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold, for Nova and BBC, based on his book of the same name. He has lectured at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the New York Public Library, Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech, and the Newberry Library.
Many of our Founders were patriotic One Percenters. Today’s heirs to them, not so much.
MOLOTOV COCKTAIL
First they had to get rid of the Jew. Then the dictators could make their devils’ pact allowing Hitler’s blitzkrieg to begin. A lesson in the danger of tyrants and their mania.
‘PARTY FEELING’
Here’s how things can go wrong when your party controls the government, and the target is an ill-tempered, democracy-loathing rascal.
ALIEN & SEDITION ACTS
John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and George Washington hated on immigrants and the media, too.
Naval Superiority
The Revolutionary War’s most important strategic decision wasn’t made by an American.
opinion
Men Aren’t Angels
They knew that if the checks and balances proved to be not strong enough to restrain the executive, that way lay tyranny.
Hatred Trumps Hope
The uncanny insights (and incredible life) of the American longshoreman and political prophet.
Airlift
The president’s upcoming trip to Kenya will take him at last, as president, to the country of his father. But his heritage is not what his critics have claimed.
At Risk
The commander of the Continental Army realized that if he did not inoculate his army against smallpox, he might not have an army. Saving his men, he probably saved his country.