Archive of Harvey Asher
After receiving his doctorate from Indiana University, Harvey Asher taught a variety of courses in history and interdisciplinary studies for thirty-five years at Drury University, a liberal arts school in Springfield, Missouri. His articles on themes in Russian history, American history, and the Holocaust have appeared in the Russian Review, Kritika, the Journal of Genocide Research, the Russian Dictionary, the SHARF Newsletter, Federalism in America: An Encyclopedia, and Lessons and Legacies of the Holocaust. He is also the author of The Drury Story Continues, an informal but thorough history of the school.
Harvey has contributed 14 brilliant piece(s).
Democracy in Crisis?
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. on July 4, 2014
in IDEAS, POLITICS
Today’s political scene finds democracies everywhere in serious trouble. Are we looking at a permanent deterioration of democracy as a workable form of government? Is the great experiment over? Hardly. Keep your lab coats buttoned and read on.
Here’s the short view:
According to a recent report by the non-partisan research organization Freedom House, 2013 was the eighth consecutive year in which global freedom declined. (“What’s Gone Wrong with Democracy,” The Economist, March 1, 2014.) A similar group, the Bertelsmann Foundation, also reported a significant rise in the number of defective democracies (rigged elections and so forth) (David Brooks, “Democracy in long-run decline?” New York Times, May 19, 2014.) Read More…
Feckless or Reckless
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. March 18, 2014Predictably, neo-conservatives are blaming President Obama’s vacillation and weakness in dealing with Benghazi, Iran, and Syria for Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. The portrayal of Obama as indecisive dates from the September 11, 2012, attack on Benghazi, a tragic, isolated event carried out by terrorists against a poorly protected embassy. And yet, Obama’s conduct of foreign […]
Round and Round the Mulberry Bush: Keeping an Eye on the Weasels
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. February 3, 2014image via The latest economic data show workers’ wages and salaries growing at the lowest rate relative to corporate profits in U.S. history. Yet in “America’s Inequality Problem,” a January 20, 2014, column for The New York Times, David Brooks says, “. . . raising the minimum wage may not be an effective way to […]
We’re Off to See the Wizard – Charles Krauthammer Revealed
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. January 13, 2014Things That Matter, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Charles Krauthammer’s latest series of essays, for the most part previously published in the Washington Post, soared to the top of best seller lists in 2013. The collection’s popularity rides on his record of being stylistically engaging, sometimes humorous, and seemingly compassionate, logical, and objective. For admirers like […]
Congress Holds Its Breath Until We All Turn Blue
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. October 16, 2013Government shutdowns, contrary to popular perception, are not rare occurrences. Between 1976 and 1996, the United States government partially shut down 16 times. The 1996 shutdown lasted 27 days. It followed President Clinton’s vetoing of a Republican budget that called for substantial cuts to social programs, including Medicare and food stamps. Confrontations among politicians at […]
Of Terrorism and Terrorists
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. June 14, 2013In his recent address on foreign policy, published in the New York Times on May 23, President Obama announced that fundamental changes were called for in the assumptions that have kept the United States at war for more than a decade, during which time 7,000 soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice and we have “spent […]
Reflections on Black History Month
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D. March 26, 2013In a February syndicated column, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cynthia Tucker called for an end to Black History Month. Separating black history from America history, she said, minimizes “the myriad ways in which black Americans’ accomplishments are part of the national mosaic [by making] the contributions of a few well-known black men and women seem like […]
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