Historical and Legal Commentary
The Wages of Mendacity
Fed up with bestselling authors who plagiarizes and just make up facts? Me, too. I let it rip on Huffington Post today. After a day spent struggling with the microfilm readers…
Read MoreReconstruction, Andrew Johnson and the South
In the last several weeks, I have talked about my book, Impeached, before several groups in the South: Altanta, Lexington (KY), Nashville, Memphis. I was somewhat anxious about these appearances. …
Read MoreBook TV, Saturday, July 11
On Saturday, July 11, at 1 p.m., C-SPAN’s Book TV will air a panel discussion on the Civil War that I participated in last month at the Printers Row Book…
Read MoreStranger than Fiction
I caught a remarkable movie last night on Turner Classic Movies: “The Baron of Arizona.” It tells the tale of James Addison Reavis, a swindler in the class of Bernie…
Read MoreForgetting History, California Style
Sure, he was scrawny and not real good-looking, but Thomas Starr King was a giant in California in the turbulent 1860s. And he’s about to be thrown out of the…
Read MoreRiding Two Horses at Once
It’s fairly sweet to have my book mentioned in a review of someone else’s book — even if I’m not entirely sure what to think of the description of The…
Read MoreWhat to do with the judges?
Just put a piece on Huffington Post on this question, which was prompted (for me), by having two potential impeachments against federal trial judges: Judge Thomas Porteous of New Orleans,…
Read MoreMonster Mao
Mao: The Untold Story, by Jung Chang and Jon Holliday, has a spectacular first sentence: Mao Tse-tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one quarter of…
Read MoreGovernor Scoundrels, Part II
One impeached-and-removed state governor stands out from the pack for sheer vitality and no-holds-barred assaults on his political adversaries. Governor John Walton of Oklahoma lasted only ten months in office…
Read MoreThe President Game
The historians participating in C-Span’s survey for ranking the presidents revealed one thing: even the pros are a little shaky about what to make of some of our nation’s leaders.…
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