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).
by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
July 4, 2014
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 […]
IDEAS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
March 18, 2014
Predictably, 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 […]
POLITICS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
February 3, 2014
image 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 […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
January 13, 2014
Things 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 […]
BOOKS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
October 16, 2013
Government 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 […]
POLITICS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
June 14, 2013
In 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 […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
March 26, 2013
In 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 […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
February 26, 2013
Our resident political historian examines the factors surrounding the abortion issue in the United States. Please note that Shea Magazine expresses no opinion either for or against the practice of abortion. TS The American debate on abortion will not be decided by legal rights or moral wrongs. These kinds of arguments, strident though they may […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
February 6, 2013
The problem with many of the current attempts to interpret the Second Amendment is that nothing in it actually applies to the arguments we’re having today. Can individuals own guns? If so, which individuals, which guns, for what purpose, and how many? Can governments control the buying and selling of guns? If so, should that […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
January 15, 2013
I think Harvey Asher’s ongoing analysis of the political landscape is of a particularly important kind in an age vexed by political punditry, where various news organizations have been co-opted as paid spokesmen for the two parties. Harvey was a history professor for 35 years and he seeks to analyze events through the lens of […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
December 27, 2012
The current Congress cannot reach a broad, reasonable agreement – a combination of tax increases and entitlement cuts — to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff for reasons built into American political system, namely the ability of an intransigent minority or individual Senator to torpedo sensible or essential legislation.
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
December 3, 2012
Immediately after the 2012 elections, a deluge of newspaper columnists and talking head commentators confidently predicted what the outcome meant for the future of American politics. Unfortunately, as happened with their pre-election predictions, the pundits are misreading the evidence. From the Right, we’ve heard from Rush Limbaugh that “we’ve lost the country,” and from Stanley […]
COLUMNS
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by Harvey Asher, Ph.D.
November 19, 2012
FRESH FROM HIS WINNING PREDICTION IN THIS YEAR’S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, HARVEY ASHER ANALYZES THE FUTURE OF THE TEA PARTY. History suggests that the changing of the guard—Democrat to Republican and vice versa—takes place roughly in ten-to-twelve year cycles. A tally of the years the Republicans and Democrats have held the presidency over roughly the last […]
COLUMNS
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