Featured Historian Gil Troy: Still Smoldering Ten Years after 9/11 — Yet Still Hopeful

FEATURED HISTORIANS By Gil Troy, Jerusalem Post, 9-6-11 Ten years ago, 19 Islamist terrorists hijacked four airplanes, murdered nearly three thousand people, destroyed the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, and damaged one side of the Pentagon. Our therapeutic culture encourages us to “move on,” rather than wallowing in anger. And we are supposed to seek [...]

Featured Historians Gil Troy: Wanted: A President Who is Tougher Than Terrycloth

FEATURED HISTORIANS By Gil Troy, 8-8-11 The downgrading of America’s credit rating just days after the debt ceiling fight ended risk branding Barack Obama’s presidency as an historic failure. The S and P analysts made it clear that they were passing political judgment on the United States, not just making an economic assessment. While Republicans [...]

Featured Historians Gil Troy: Obama at 50 Should Have More Faith in America

FEATURED HISTORIANS By Gil Troy, 8-4-11 Barack Obama turns fifty today, August 4th.  Both he and his country appear battered these days, as Obama’s White House recuperates from the bruising debt ceiling showdown and the United States remains stuck combating two wars along with one long-lasting recession.  But the progress Obama and America have made [...]

Gil Troy: Our Moral Conversation With Students

Featured Historian: Gil Troy By Gil Troy, Chronicle for Higher Education, 7-17-11 Enlarge Image Dave Plunkert for The Chronicle Most Americans have not noticed, but Canadians are still reeling from the June 15 riots in Vancouver following the Canucks’ loss to the Boston Bruins for the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup. Thousands of drunken fans [...]

Gil Troy: Political Implications of Obama-Congress Debt Talks

Featured Historian: Gil Troy All economic eyes are fixed on the US debt standoff Source: CBC Radionoon Montreal, 7-15-11 The US debt talks will have an impact on all the world’s economies, including ours. We get a background primer from the chief economist of the Laurentian Bank, Carlos Leitao. And we hear about the political [...]

Gil Troy: The Meaning of Compromise — Obama & Congressional Leaders Debt Negotiations

Featured Historian: Gil Troy Source: Minnesota Public Radio News, 7-14-11 President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, are on the first green as they play golf at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Saturday, June 18, 2011. (Charles Dharapak/ASSOCIATED PRESS) Audio http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/syndicate.php?name=minnesota/news/programs/2011/07/14/midmorning/midmorning_hour_1_20110714_64 MPR News Radio Listen Now http://minnesota.publicradio.org/www_publicradio/tools/media_player/syndicate.php?name=minnesota/news/programs/2011/07/14/midmorning/midmorning_hour_1_20110714_64 On Air All Things Considered® LISTEN [...]

Gil Troy: Betty Ford’s Candor Hurt Gerald Ford’s Presidency – but Enhanced his Historical Reputation

Featured Historian: Gil Troy By Gil Troy, 7-10-11 Betty Ford, who died on Friday at the age of 93, in the 1970s was the most controversial First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.  During Gerald Ford’s brief presidency, from August 1974 through January, 1977, his wife Betty retrofitted the odd role she inherited to suit the modern [...]

Gil Troy: Obama Should Own His Continuities with the Bush White House

Featured Historian: Gil Troy By Gil Troy, 7-10-11 Mr. Troy is Professor of History at McGill University, and the author, most recently, of The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction, (OUP) and Leading from the Center: Why Moderates Make the Best Presidents. His other books include: Hillary Rodham Clinton: Polarizing First Lady and Morning in [...]

Gil Troy: Obama Offered Two Speeches in One — Neither Worked

Featured Historian: Gil Troy By Gil Troy Despite the talk about “Obama’s Mideast speech” Thursday, I actually heard two separate addresses. In the first, President Barack Obama offered vague nostrums about the “Arab spring,” best summarized in three words: Democracy is good. Obama transitioned awkwardly to the second speech, about Israelis and Palestinians, saying: “Let [...]