Jeff Jacoby
Jeff Jacoby
Home  |  Bio  |  Mobile Site  |  Follow @FacebookTwitter
Pundicity: Informed Opinion and Review
 

Writings by Topic: History
in

Articles, Reviews

Grouped   |   Not Grouped

Articles

Title Publication Date
The critics were right about 'Old Tippecanoe' The Boston Globe February 18, 2024
Would Zora Neale Hurston celebrate Black History Month? Arguable February 6, 2024
(No) fear of flying Arguable January 16, 2024
Beware any candidate who values loyalty above all else The Boston Globe January 10, 2024
The Boston Tea Party was a crime The Boston Globe December 14, 2023
What Hamas can learn from Hanukkah The Boston Globe December 10, 2023
The inescapable conundrum of anonymous speech The Boston Globe November 29, 2023
I used to defend Columbus as 'magnificent.' I don't anymore. The Boston Globe October 8, 2023
Are the abortion extremists Republican or Democratic? Yes. Arguable August 29, 2023
Victory, not détente, is the right American strategy toward Beijing The Boston Globe August 27, 2023
'Our least abhorrent choice' The Boston Globe July 26, 2023
From the flood of 1927 to the flood of 2023 Arguable July 18, 2023
Th Celtics, the Mavericks, and the "millionaire's tax" Arguable July 11, 2023
What Frederick Douglass really said in his great Independence Day speech The Boston Globe July 2, 2023
Hypocrisy at Middlebury College The Boston Globe June 18, 2023
Does Generation Z love Big Brother? Arguable June 13, 2023
Middlebury College flunks a history test The Boston Globe June 4, 2023
A brutal attack in the Senate chamber Arguable May 16, 2023
The real origin of the Palestinians' catastrophe The Boston Globe May 14, 2023
Cleopatra wasn't black. So what? The Boston Globe May 3, 2023
No less than a miracle: Israel turns 75 Arguable April 25, 2023
Which former governor should Healey hang? The Boston Globe April 23, 2023
What's so special about matzah? Arguable April 4, 2023
Is this how a new Great Awakening begins? The Boston Globe April 2, 2023
How the most qualified presidential candidate became America's worst president The Boston Globe February 19, 2023
The State of the Union should be a memo, not a speech The Boston Globe / Arguable February 7, 2023
The deeply flawed campaign for racial reparations The Boston Globe February 5, 2023
The man in the olive green sweatshirt The Boston Globe / Arguable December 29, 2022
Patton's prayer Arguable December 6, 2022
The Pilgrims' rabbi Arguable November 22, 2022
The penitential presidents Arguable October 3, 2022
Putin's phony vote The Boston Globe October 2, 2022
'We did nothing to prevent it' The Boston Globe September 18, 2022
Elizabeth the good Arguable September 12, 2022
Gorbachev failed. That's why he was showered with honors. The Boston Globe September 4, 2022
The Munich massacre, 50 years on The Boston Globe / Arguable August 29, 2022
What Lincoln's secretary of state saw in Jerusalem Arguable August 1, 2022
The Revolution was America's first civil war The Boston Globe July 3, 2022
Overturning Roe does not make the Supreme Court 'illegitimate' The Boston Globe June 29, 2022
'Like hearing Lincoln at Gettysburg' The Boston Globe May 29, 2022
For Putin, a self-own for the history books The Boston Globe May 22, 2022
Is George Washington fit only for contempt? The Boston Globe May 18, 2022
When Stalin and Hitler were allies Arguable May 9, 2022
The Passover story is an American story The Boston Globe April 13, 2022
Sorry, Tom Cotton: Trump is no Reagan The Boston Globe March 13, 2022
The 'Little Magician' who transformed American politics The Boston Globe February 20, 2022
Arguable: Thomas Jefferson, honored and dishonored Arguable October 25, 2021
Will Bobby Kennedy's killer go free? Washington Examiner September 25, 2021
Sirhan should die behind bars The Boston Globe September 1, 2021
The eviction moratorium and the rule of lawlessness The Boston Globe August 8, 2021
The very racist history of gun control The Boston Globe August 1, 2021
Harry Truman conned us all The Boston Globe July 28, 2021
No ministry of culture, please, we're American The Boston Globe July 25, 2021
The history of pandemics is a history of denial The Boston Globe July 18, 2021
Lincoln was the best. Buchanan was the worst. What about the others? The Boston Globe July 4, 2021
A Democrat in the White House? Cue the FDR analogies The Boston Globe May 12, 2021
Thirty seconds over Mars The Boston Globe April 25, 2021
Jim Crow was a horror. Don't trivialize it Arguable April 12, 2021
Frederick Douglass takes on cancel culture Arguable March 15, 2021
The racial decency — and irony — of Rutherford Hayes The Boston Globe February 14, 2021
My JD doesn't make me a doctor. Jill Biden's EdD doesn't make her one, either Arguable December 14, 2020
Why Beethoven still endures The Boston Globe December 14, 2020
Biden promised not to pardon Trump. Maybe he should do so anyway The Boston Globe December 9, 2020
The coronavirus curfews make no sense Arguable November 25, 2020
If you love this country, Mr. President, concede defeat The Boston Globe November 15, 2020
Job 1 for the next president: Bind the wounds of a polarized nation The Boston Globe November 1, 2020
The Israeli actress and the Egyptian queen The Boston Globe October 18, 2020
A plea for humility from America's first superstar The Boston Globe September 13, 2020
Like the nation's founders, Americans say: 'More immigrants, please' The Boston Globe July 5, 2020
'Cancel culture' grows increasingly cruel Arguable June 29, 2020
Statue-toppling, right and wrong The Boston Globe June 14, 2020
The 'Great Pope' who changed the world Arguable May 18, 2020
The pernicious Logan Act should have been scrapped long ago The Boston Globe May 13, 2020
This too shall pass (over) The Boston Globe April 5, 2020
The Equal Rights Amendment died in 1979. Let it rest in peace. The Boston Globe March 22, 2020
A self-quarantine that changed the world Arguable March 16, 2020
I'm skeptical about climate alarmism, but I take coronavirus fears seriously The Boston Globe March 15, 2020
The president who was not a politician The Boston Globe February 16, 2020
When Massachusetts was the battlefield in the war on Christmas The Boston Globe December 25, 2019
The slaves of Nubia Arguable December 23, 2019
America stood down as the Berlin Wall went up Arguable November 12, 2019
A century ago, the science was settled: Immigrants had to be kept out The Boston Globe November 10, 2019
Amid rising anti-Semitism, the People of the Book rejoice with the Law The Boston Globe October 20, 2019
To Hell with Robert Mugabe Arguable September 9, 2019
Abolishing birthright citizenship would be 'frankly ridiculous' — and profoundly un-American The Boston Globe August 28, 2019
Statehood for DC? That's a nonstarter The Boston Globe August 11, 2019
What to Frederick Douglass is the "Douglass Plan"? Arguable July 15, 2019
George Washington was right about 'baneful' two-party politics The Boston Globe July 14, 2019
'Proclaim Liberty': How the Hebrew Bible molded revolutionary America The Boston Globe July 7, 2019
A grievous sinner, and a great American The Boston Globe June 9, 2019
Presidents always leave when their time is up The Boston Globe May 8, 2019
The banishing of Kate Smith isn't 'sensitive' — it's ridiculous The Boston Globe April 24, 2019
Don't dump the filibuster — restore it to its former glory The Boston Globe April 14, 2019
Reparations for slavery are unworkable — and unjust The Boston Globe March 31, 2019
The Republican president who alienated Republicans The Boston Globe February 17, 2019
As MLK foresaw, racism in America has been largely overcome The Boston Globe January 20, 2019
Apollo 8's perfect Christmas message The Boston Globe December 23, 2018
Columbus sailed the ocean blue Arguable October 8, 2018
The White House handshake that made everything worse The Boston Globe September 5, 2018
Why is a great Senate office building named for a modern racist? The Boston Globe August 29, 2018
No, 60 million abortions didn't make America richer The Boston Globe August 22, 2018
From child refugee to Green Beret — to Congress? The Boston Globe August 19, 2018
70 years ago, Mayor Humphrey changed the Democratic Party The Boston Globe July 8, 2018
Amnesty for 'Dreamers' is in the GOP's finest tradition The Boston Globe May 27, 2018
The undeferred dreams of Elias Howe and Madame C. J. Walker The Boston Globe March 25, 2018
The hack who repented The Boston Globe February 18, 2018
Poland and Israel need friendship, not a bitter fight over history The Boston Globe February 7, 2018
Oprah for president — or for queen? The Boston Globe January 14, 2018
The Mayflower Compact and the seeds of American democracy The Boston Globe November 21, 2017
Let's stop taking the national anthem out to the ballgame The Boston Globe September 27, 2017
Above the Arctic Circle, a Cold War Rosh Hashana The Boston Globe September 17, 2017
Why do presidents have unfettered power to pardon? The Boston Globe August 30, 2017
From normalizing Bill Clinton to normalizing Donald Trump The Boston Globe July 9, 2017
When good things come from bad people The Boston Globe June 18, 2017
The victory that astonished the world The Boston Globe June 7, 2017
One of the best ideas in human history The Boston Globe May 28, 2017
Drag away the statues The Boston Globe May 17, 2017
Thirty years of 'varsity academics' The Boston Globe April 2, 2017
When presidents break big promises The Boston Globe March 29, 2017
If Trump goes to war against freedom of the press, who wins? The Boston Globe March 5, 2017
An echo of Trump in the last of the Whigs The Boston Globe February 19, 2017
Pearl Harbor's uplifting lesson The Boston Globe December 18, 2016
Is Thanksgiving constitutional? The Boston Globe November 23, 2016
A long way from the Chinese Exclusion Act The Boston Globe September 18, 2016
Parties change. Not always for the better The Boston Globe July 27, 2016
The Leave campaign of 1776 reverberates to this day The Boston Globe July 3, 2016
A civil rights hero? Muhammad Ali was anything but The Boston Globe June 8, 2016
A terrible weapon that achieved much good The Boston Globe May 15, 2016
The end of Holocaust remembrance The Boston Globe May 1, 2016
The president without a party The Boston Globe February 14, 2016
Does Hillary's résumé make her the 'best-qualified' candidate? The Boston Globe February 3, 2016
State of the Union spectacle would appall Thomas Jefferson The Boston Globe January 10, 2016
2015 was an awful year? Look again. The Boston Globe December 30, 2015
The right way to apologize for slavery The Boston Globe December 13, 2015
Many presidents have known the grief of burying a child The Boston Globe October 11, 2015
A Nobel prize for an ignoble deal? The Boston Globe July 19, 2015
The Confederate flag is anti-American The Boston Globe July 12, 2015
'Declaration of Independence' preserves the patriots' faces The Boston Globe July 5, 2015
The case for Israel is rooted in more than security The Boston Globe June 7, 2015
Iraq and the White House time machine The Boston Globe May 21, 2015
When US troops left too soon The Boston Globe May 10, 2015
The Armenian genocide was also a jihad The Boston Globe April 15, 2015
The House of Tudor didn't get the last word The Boston Globe March 26, 2015
Could 'Grover the Good' win the White House today? The Boston Globe February 15, 2015
'I see parchment burning, but the letters are soaring free' The Boston Globe February 8, 2015
American to the core The Boston Globe January 19, 2015
The antisemitic derangement The Boston Globe January 14, 2015
Be less romantic about the past The Boston Globe December 28, 2014
Your strategy was wrong, Mr. President The Boston Globe August 27, 2014
Nixon: Painfully shy, but craving great purpose The Boston Globe July 27, 2014
Marriage and the 'wrong side of history' The Boston Globe June 18, 2014
Goldwater lost in a landslide – and won the GOP future The Boston Globe April 20, 2014
The man who didn't want to be president The Boston Globe February 16, 2014
When there was no going home The Boston Globe November 27, 2013
When the joke was on JFK The Boston Globe November 20, 2013
Would Democrats embrace a JFK today? The Boston Globe October 20, 2013
When 'never again' turns into 'yet again' The Boston Globe August 28, 2013
Words to transform the world The Boston Globe July 3, 2013
Voting rights and the chains of memory The Boston Globe June 30, 2013
King's 'Letter' and the law The Boston Globe April 14, 2013
Abolition, word by word The Boston Globe February 13, 2013
Those endless, onerous presidential campaigns The Boston Globe December 26, 2012
Grant's greatest regret The Boston Globe December 5, 2012
Celebrating, royal-free The Boston Globe July 4, 2012
For Elizabeth Warren, a story from 1984 The Boston Globe September 18, 2011
Philosophy, faith, and the Fourth of July The Boston Globe July 3, 2011
Who cares about US history? The Boston Globe June 19, 2011
The myth of 'Herbert Hoover economics' The Boston Globe April 13, 2011
This time, don't betray the rebels The Boston Globe March 20, 2011
Union 'rights' that aren't The Boston Globe March 2, 2011
Commemorating secession, with sorrow and honesty The Boston Globe January 5, 2011
Born in the U.S.A. The Boston Globe August 15, 2010
Were the Founders hypocrites? The Boston Globe July 4, 2010
The year the dominoes fell The Boston Globe October 21, 2009
'The most difficult first 100 days'? Not quite The Boston Globe March 22, 2009
The enemies of Jim Crow The Boston Globe February 15, 2009
'God bless all of you . . . on the good Earth' The Boston Globe December 21, 2008
Missing from that Berlin speech The Boston Globe July 27, 2008
Pastor Hagee was, and wasn't, wrong The Boston Globe June 1, 2008
A triumph of life and hope The Boston Globe May 11, 2008
When Zola wrote 'J'accuse!' The Boston Globe March 30, 2008
A city voted, and history turned on its hinge The Boston Globe November 7, 2007
Truth and the Armenian genocide The Boston Globe August 22, 2007
Why are we rewarding Iran? The Boston Globe July 25, 2007
Man of science, man of faith The Boston Globe July 22, 2007
Six days to remember -- accurately The Boston Globe June 10, 2007
Look in the mirror, Jimmy Carter The Boston Globe May 23, 2007
Ex-presidents' big payday The Boston Globe February 28, 2007
Castro's true legacy is a bloody trail The Boston Globe January 1, 2007
If we had known then . . . The Boston Globe October 22, 2006
Has Israel lost the spirit of '76? The Boston Globe July 2, 2006
Truman bounced back – and so will Bush The Boston Globe November 16, 2005
A factory for death The Boston Globe January 27, 2005
Iraq's Independence Day The Boston Globe July 4, 2004
The triumph of Chanukah The Boston Globe December 25, 2003
The death of American racism The Boston Globe July 13, 2003
The blessing of private property The Boston Globe November 28, 2002
Diplomats of uncommon courage The Boston Globe October 20, 2002
'Under God' The Boston Globe July 4, 2002
Buchanan's blind spot on immigration The Boston Globe February 24, 2002
The wit and wisdom of Bastiat The Boston Globe December 9, 2001
Shrugging at genocide The Boston Globe August 30, 2001
Remembering the 'wall of shame' The Boston Globe August 20, 2001
Kennedy vs. Kennedy The Boston Globe March 15, 2001
When Jerusalem Was Divided The Boston Globe January 8, 2001
Why were the Pilgrims thankful? The Boston Globe November 23, 2000
Why we fought in Vietnam The Boston Globe May 4, 2000
The Holocaust deniers' real goal The Boston Globe April 17, 2000
Man of the millennium The Boston Globe December 20, 1999
Thankful for our immigrants The Boston Globe November 25, 1999
The wall came tumbling down The Boston Globe November 8, 1999
Return these exiles to Greece The Boston Globe April 1, 1999
Kazan's lifetime achievement The Boston Globe March 8, 1999
Why we need a bigger House The Boston Globe February 15, 1999
The US suffered through turmoil in '98. That is, 1798. The Boston Globe December 28, 1998
What real hate speech sounds like The Boston Globe November 2, 1998
Still we sing: 'S wonderful! 'S marvelous! The Boston Globe September 24, 1998
75 years of underestimating Calvin Coolidge The Boston Globe August 6, 1998
American leftists were Pol Pot's cheerleaders The Boston Globe April 30, 1998
Not another honor for W.E.B. DuBois The Boston Globe January 2, 1998
A revolutionary Christmas tale The Boston Globe December 25, 1997
Christopher Columbus, hero The Boston Globe October 9, 1997
Visiting Luhyna, revisiting a horror The Boston Globe September 23, 1997
At the right time, he did the right thing The Boston Globe September 2, 1997
PLO propagandists rewrite Jewish history The Boston Globe July 10, 1997
Webster's diplomacy — and ours The Boston Globe April 22, 1997
A lesson from Birmingham Jail The Boston Globe February 25, 1997
The deceiving of Madeleine Albright The Boston Globe February 11, 1997
Lower the flag, South Carolina The Boston Globe December 3, 1996
The faith that links Thanksgiving and Chanukah The Boston Globe November 28, 1996
The founders' formula: faith and liberty The Boston Globe July 4, 1996
A day of hope and courage The Boston Globe May 30, 1996
The vandals of history The Boston Globe December 19, 1995
To the victims of Communism: lest we forget The Boston Globe December 7, 1995
Who is Bush to fault Clinton? The Boston Globe September 14, 1995
Enola Gay: Plane and simple The Boston Globe July 6, 1995
Religion and the American idea The Boston Globe July 4, 1995
Profiles in arrogance and failure, not courage The Boston Globe May 18, 1995
All the wrong moves in Moscow The Boston Globe May 4, 1995
The Smithsonian still doesn't get it The Boston Globe February 7, 1995
Light's victory over darkness The Boston Globe November 24, 1994
The wrong target The Boston Globe November 8, 1994
Seeking justice for crimes of the past The Boston Globe September 27, 1994
Smithsonian drops a bomb in WW2 exhibit The Boston Globe August 16, 1994
The day the Nazis came for my father's family The Boston Globe April 7, 1994

Book Reviews

Book Title Publication Date
Providence and Power: Ten Portraits in Jewish Statesmanship
by Meir Y. Soloveichik
Commentary October 2023
When General Grant Expelled the Jews
by Jonathan D. Sarna
Commentary magazine May 2012
When They Come For Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry
by Gal Beckerman
Commentary March 2011
Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity
by Lila Corwin Berman
Commentary October 2009
Why Are Jews Liberals?
by Norman Podhoretz
The Boston Globe September 20, 2009

home   |   biography   |   articles   |   media coverage   |   spoken   |   audio/video   |   announcements   |   mailing list   |   mobile site