The concept of watersheds in a history as short as that of the United States is an overblown one. Occasionally, events or processes do get a grip which are determinative, though not necessarily forever. For instance, historians once thought that the question of secession from the Union had been decisively solved (and ruled out) by the contingent events of 1861-5. In recent years, however, serious legal thought has been given to the idea that Texas, Vermont and Alaska, and possibly Hawaii, could be said to have a right of secession. Similarly, the aftermath of the Watergate crisis, which was meant to have put an end to the ‘Imperial Presidency’ did not, in fact, mark a decisive break with anything except Nixonian Republicanism (and indeed that itself may have been reinvented as the Obama style of governance). So it is with some trepidation that the serious historian turns to the events of 2000 and 2001 which led to the validation of George Walker Bush’s election to the Presidency b...
This is a collection of personal and largely unedited observations covering the years from 2006 to now; I assert my copyright but am fine with links and footnotes. Some posts are obviously much more researched than others, and any errors are wholly mine except where I have innocently disseminated or linked to other bloggers or commentators.