The Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, arguably the most hotly debated in recent decades, has produced an impressive body of historical scholarship.[1] The leading histories have focused on the evolution of the arguments and alliances that shape abortion debate today, rights-based pro-life and pro-choice arguments, alliances between women’s rights leaders and public health …
“THEY SAY THERE IS NO DISCRIMINATION, but we have only to look around us to know the truth. We look at the schools … the houses we live in … the few opportunities … the dirt in the streets … and we know.” [2] José Angel Gutiérrez spoke these words on 1 April 1963, to …
Read moreChicano Movement: Young Mexican Americans Seeking Change
IN THE SUMMER OF 1950, first Julius and then Ethel Rosenberg were arrested on charges of conspiring to commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. Morton Sobell, a former classmate of Julius’, was also arrested and charged with being part of the Rosenberg spy network. Played out during a time in U.S history where …
The nineteenth century is full of forgotten heroes. Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885)—once the most famous Jew in the world—is merely one among many. For a major public figure, he has been astonishingly neglected. There is as yet no scholarly biography, and there have been no attempts to locate his activities in a wider, non-Jewish environment.[1] …
Read moreSir Moses Montefiore: The Forgotten Legend of the 19th Century
I FINISHED THE ORIGINAL VERSION of this essay in late August 2001.[1] In the aftermath of September 11th it became clear to me that something else had to be added. Although I do not believe, as many do, that everything changed or that there are many parallels with December 7, 1941, there are some obvious …
In a chapter of his just-published book, Author Unknown, Don Foster tries to prove an old claim that had never before been taken seriously: that Clement Clarke Moore did not write the poem commonly known as “The Night before Christmas” but that it was written instead by a man named Henry Livingston Jr. (1748-1828) never …
Read moreWho REALLY wrote The Night Before Christmas? A linguistic analysis