With Good Reason

Women journalists who covered the Vietnam War are often not given their proper due when the history of the conflict is told.  Joyce Hoffman (Old Dominion University) is the author of On Their Own:  Women Journalists in Vietnam. She shares stories of women who won esteemed prizes for their reporting and several who broke new [...]

Many historians say the United States government of the nineteenth century did little to improve the lives of its citizens. But Brian Balogh (University of Virginia) argues the federal government was quite active even before the era of big government, and laid the groundwork for America to become a superpower in the twentieth century.   Also: Chris [...]

Think you could pick out a serial killer in a crowd? Mike Aamodt (Radford University) says you couldn’t if your life depended on it.  Aamodt has compiled a database profiling information on more than 1,700 serial killers around the world.  The data were collected, in part, to determine whether the commonly used profile of a [...]

Women journalists who covered the Vietnam War are often not given their proper due when the history of the conflict is told.   Joyce Hoffmann (Old Dominion University) is the author of On Their Own:  Women Journalists in Vietnam. She shares stories of women who won esteemed prizes for their reporting and several who broke [...]

The last ten years has seen tremendous growth of Latino populations throughout the country.   Silvia Tandeciarz and Jennifer Bickham Mendez (The College of William and Mary) discuss the challenges Latinos face as they integrate into new communities, and the ways in which they are influencing our culture. Also: Richard J. Kilroy (Virginia Military Institute) says [...]

Before becoming president, James Madison had already co-authored the “Federalist Papers,” designed the Constitution, and framed the “Bill of Rights.” Garrett Sheldon (UVa-Wise) shares the political philosophy of the man who shaped so many of America’s founding documents. Garrett is the author of The Political Philosophy of James Madison.  Also featured: David Kiracofe (Tidewater Community [...]

Nowadays we’ve become more afraid of a terrorist attack with nuclear weapons than a first strike by Russia.  That’s quite a transformation, considering that for more than four decades the entire world lived in mortal terror of the two superpowers triggering nuclear annihilation.  Military historian Malcolm Muir (Virginia Military Institute) says the possibility of mutual [...]

Between his words to Muslims in his inauguration address and granting his first television interview as president to an Arab language network, President Obama is clearly signaling a new approach to easing tensions with Muslims nations.  To help build relationships, the president is seeking advice from experts on the region, such as Abdulaziz Sachedina (University [...]

More than one million people are expected to descend on Washington, DC for Barack Obama’s inauguration on January 20th.  Political Scientists Carol Pretlow and Rudolph Wilson (Norfolk State University) say that, of all the groups watching to see what the president elect will do once he takes office, the African American community has a unique [...]

While the media may cover mega-celebrity Angelina Jolie’s pregnancy with loving attention to every detail, mere mortal women still face prejudice and even outright hostility in our society during pregnancy. Eden King (George Mason University) says this is not only counter-productive; it’s illegal. Also, Nicole Karjane (Virginia Commonwealth University) offers insights into pregnancy and labor [...]