By Jacob Hamblin, Oregon State University When we agree to send our young men and women to war, we expect the reasons why to be made clear. At least some of us will want to subject that explanation to scrutiny at the time, and often even more so with hindsight. That’s why having access to…
Nostradamus could have been a policy wonk. My favorite not-so-witty quip during my public talks is “historians are always asked to predict the future.” It usually gets a chuckle. I say it as a cop-out when someone asks me about anything controversial: the future of nuclear power, the future face of warfare, or whether Iran…
Back in November, I wasn’t sure if anyone would mind that I used Wikileaks for historical research. Some might have called it unpatriotic. But I should have expected that no one seemed to mind (or care?). I did it because I was about to give a lecture on the promotion of nuclear technology, and found…
How do we tell the story of Fukushima? The finger-pointing frenzy that occurred in the wake of the crisis is extremely useful for historians. As people tried to blame each other, they enlisted a range of understandings–and misunderstandings–about the history of nuclear issues. As historians, we need to be conscious of the power of the…
