Новости за 03.07.2018

A standard story in show business is that of the scrappy composer/writer/actor who struggles for years and then makes good. We all know that man or woman is one out of a million, but the story always works. Sometimes, though, it has a tragic edge. That’s the tale of Jonathan Larson, the creator of the epic Broadway musical hit Rent.

The heart-rending images of migrant families being separated at the border generated a political maelstrom for Republicans that resulted in the capitulation of President Trump on June 20th. Trump signed an executive order that, he said, would keep migrant families together at the border. At the time of writing, 2000 migrant children continue to be in detention centers, separated from their families, as the Republican-dominated Congress struggles to consider an immigration reform bill. (The House... Читать дальше...

The series of tweets below was posted by Angus Johnston, historian of American student culture, at the Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

Related Links

●   Supreme Court Nominations:  HNN's General Coverage

●   HNN Hot Topic:  Filibusters

How many people have been appointed to the Supreme Court?

125 people have been appointed to the Court. According to the US Senate website seven declined to serve.

Why was President Obama denied a chance to make a third appointment to the Court?

President Barack Obama is a Democrat.  The US Senate was controlled by the Republicans when Antonin Scalia died and a seat opened up on the Court. Читать дальше...

The presidency of Donald J. Trump has stressed many institutions of American government and democracy, and the vice presidency is no exception. Prior to Trump’s presidency, six consecutive administrations, three from each party, had embraced the White House vice presidency, the new model for the nation’s second office that Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale created more than 40 years ago. Vice President Mike Pence has benefitted from these precedents during his first 17 months in office but Trump’s... Читать дальше...

The Servant of Two Masters - Truffaldino: "Ho volontà de veder come me riesce sti do servizi." English (I'd like to see how I'll manage to serve two [masters].)

Murray Polner, formerly HNN's senior book review editor, blogs at There's No There There. He is the author of No Victory Parades: The Return of the Vietnam Veteran, Branch Rickey: A Biography, and co-editor of We Who Dared Say No To War.

1987 photo of Mark 149 Mod 2 20mm depleted uranium ammunition for the Phalanx CIWS aboard USS Missouri.

Although historians don’t typically play the game of What If, it's hard to know if the United States could have won independence from the British without the aid of the French. At critical times during the Revolutionary War, the French provided munitions, ships, money and men, and some Frenchmen, including the Marquis de Lafayette, became high-ranking officers in the Continental Army. It was, as one historian proclaimed, “an alliance of respect and friendship that the French would not forget.”... Читать дальше...

Another accident gave us Harry Blackmun. What does that tell you?

Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan both had the opportunity to appoint four Supreme Court Justices, with three appointments each being accomplished without much fanfare. But both Presidents had one situation where not one, but two, Supreme Court selections became controversial, and forced both Nixon and Reagan to go to a “third choice” to accomplish the goal of completing an appointment to the highest court in the land. Читать дальше...

It was reading, said his master. That’s worth remembering as we debate the importance of a liberal education.

A rapidly deployed critical data & visualization intervention in the USA’s 2018 “Zero Tolerance Policy” for asylum seekers at the US Ports of Entry and the humanitarian crisis that has followed.

There’s a constitutional crisis brewing in the United States. At the center of the maelstrom are a group of lawyers. Their names are familiar to everybody who follows the news: special prosecutor Robert Mueller; presidential legal advisor Rudy Giuliani, attorney general Jeff Sessions; and legal fixer Michael Cohen. They carry on combat in courts, in Congress, and in the media. But no one draws a sword. No one threatens secession. No blood is let, and none is likely to be shed. We expect nothing less from lawyers. Читать дальше...

Wood engraving of the pro-slavery mob setting fire to Gilman & Godfrey's warehouse, where publisher Elijah Lovejoy was killed and his printing press thrown into the Mississippi River.

Click inside the image below and scroll down to see tweets.

Commentators in the print and video media often complain about President Donald Trump’s aggressive actions regarding immigration, tariffs, health care, climate change, guns, the Iran nuclear agreement, and other controversial topics, but they recognize that he won the election. Reluctantly, they acknowledge that Trump has a mandate to take strong positions on the issues. But they are wrong. Donald Trump does not possess impressive authority to move the nation dramatically in new directions. Pundits... Читать дальше...

Related Link HNN Hot Topic:  July 4th

1. On July 4, 1776, the United States declared itself an independent nation. This is almost true, but the timing is a tad off. According to the historical record, we should be celebrating Independence Day on July 2, the day Congress finally approved the motion made by Richard Henry Lee on June 7: “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and... Читать дальше...

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Background

News Stories

On March 21, 1865, the recently emancipated black residents of Charleston South Carolina, staged a parade to celebrate their new freedom. The city had been taken a month earlier by Union Army troops led by a thousand soldiers from the 21st United States Colored troops. When the parade got underway, it was led by the black soldiers, marching in formation, followed by more than five thousand people. 

On the eve of the 155th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, does anyone remember why it took place there? Or why it began on July 1st? Most recent scholarship would answer that Robert E. Lee designed an offensive operation into Pennsylvania to offset recent Rebel setbacks and to gain greater access to the rich harvests of the Shenandoah Valley. But that doesn’t really answer the questions of why there and why then.        

He was accused of treason. Only the hunger for reconciliation saved him.

The collapse of any society brings forth monsters, to adapt Goya.

In this sense, there was nothing uniquely German about the Nazis. Hitler and the National Socialist party he created could have happened anywhere.

It is fair to say that had America, Britain, France or any nation for that matter, been left in the brutalized state of Germany in 1918-19, they may have found their own Führer, preying on their humiliation and social chaos, and blaming it all on a defenseless minority.

In this light... Читать дальше...

“Does The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Have a Hidden Meaning?” That’s the title of a TED-Ed video from last year. Since I had written, years ago, a couple essays on Oz and American culture, the TED folks asked me to write a script for the video. I started with Henry Littlefield, a high school history teacher who, in 1963, used L. Frank Baum’s story to teach some of the difficult (and, for many students, boring) issues of the Gilded Age. Littlefield suggested that the Tin Woodman (no heart) represented... Читать дальше...