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Steve Hochstadt

Steve Hochstadt is a writer and an emeritus professor of history at Illinois College.

  • Jul 25, 2015

    The Meaning of Donald Trump

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Trump is just riding a wave. Soon he'll go down. What matters is what other Republicans do with their most vocal and extreme voters.
  • Jul 16, 2015

    The Myth of Liberal Media

    by Steve Hochstadt

    One of the most significant political myths is about the “liberal media”, the supposed tilt of American public media to the left. This claim by Republicans is nearly as old as I am. It was false when it began, and it still is, although less so.
  • Jul 8, 2015

    Bad Wars and Their Consequences

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The political leaders who now demand that we commit more people and money to these mistaken incursions into other people’s lands are the same ones who say we don’t have enough resources to pay for schools or poverty programs or museums.
  • Jun 30, 2015

    That Was The Week That Was

    by Steve Hochstadt

    June 2015 will be remembered by us and by tomorrow’s historians as a moment of profound cultural and political change.
  • Jun 18, 2015

    Bernie Sanders for President?

    by Steve Hochstadt

    It’s too early to say who will win the Democratic nomination. But it’s never too early to think about how we can win back our country from the billionaires and their political buddies.
  • Apr 29, 2015

    Let's Kill the Unions

    by Steve Hochstadt

    It’s been a bit more than 100 days since Republican Bruce Rauner became Governor of Illinois. Despite the enormous financial problems facing our state, he has yet to propose specific methods of dealing with our deficit and our debt. He has yet to propose any tax reform. But he has been very active on one of his pet projects – killing unions.

  • Mar 31, 2015

    Hippies Were Happy

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Hippies have a bad reputation, especially among conservatives.
  • Mar 17, 2015

    Butting In and Screwing Up

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The GOP Senate let a freshman with no foreign policy experience mess up foreign policy with Iran? 
  • Feb 20, 2015

    Israeli Settler Violence

    by Steve Hochstadt

    In January, a man carrying an automatic rifle entered a market in Jerusalem’s Old City, cursed the local merchants, assaulted a young man, and began shooting. Israeli soldiers arrived and protected Jewish citizens, and arrested a Palestinian man. The soldiers then created roadblocks at the gates to the City and interrogated many young Palestinian men.

  • Feb 12, 2015

    A Rocky Separation

    by Steve Hochstadt

    Recently a new type of wall has appeared in the West Bank. Twenty feet high, sunk deep into the ground, topped with barbed wire, the Israeli walls of separation prevent movement, separate people and interrupt that very life.
  • Jul 30, 2013

    Why the Hell is Anthony Weiner Still Running for Mayor?

    by Steve Hochstadt

    The latest royal birth makes great news for tabloid journalism, but even better is the latest sex message sent by Anthony Weiner to a woman who is not his wife. Weiner was not yet a household name when he was a Congressional representative from New York, or even when he began talking a lot on MSNBC, but now he has become famous for the crotch shots he sends all over the country.

    Can he parlay his name recognition into a successful campaign for mayor of New York? Until recently Weiner was leading his main opponent, Christine Quinn, current Speaker of the NY City Council, despite the scandal that made him resign from Congress in 2011. But in the last week we have learned that long after his resignation Weiner continued to send sexual messages and explicit photos to women he had never met. He is now reported to have initiated three new online sexual relationships and maintained them more than a year after resigning. There may have been contacts even after Weiner began his campaign for mayor.

  • Jun 17, 2013

    Fathers are Forever

    by Steve Hochstadt


    Credit: Wiki Commons.

    I’m writing this on Father’s Day. Father’s Day is an afterthought. The second Sunday in May was officially designated Mother’s Day in 1914 by Congress and President Woodrow Wilson. The first presidential proclamation honoring fathers was issued by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966, over 50 years later.

    Until recently fatherhood itself was an afterthought. In men’s lives, fathering was not the top priority. Men were breadwinners. Men were considered the heads of the household and people gave lip service to “Father Knows Best”, but women cared for children.

  • May 28, 2013

    The Right to Privacy

    by Steve Hochstadt


    Image via Shutterstock.

    I am a very private person. I won’t tell the cashier at the sports equipment store my phone number. I am not interested in reading the details of people’s daily routines that make up so many blogs. I don’t understand the need to put revealing photographs on public websites. I don’t like to talk about myself, even to friends. So I am completely out of touch with the contemporary Facebook ethos.

  • May 15, 2013

    Pray Like I Do

    by Steve Hochstadt

    A few days ago, a group of Jewish women gathered to pray at the most sacred place in Jerusalem. The Wailing Wall surrounds the ancient Temple Mount, where Jewish tradition says God gathered the dust to make Adam, where Abraham bound his son Isaac, where two Jewish temples stood for hundreds of years, where the Divine Presence rests. The women were surrounded by other Jews, who tried to prevent them from reaching the Wall, who cursed them, and threw water and chairs and stones at them. Three of these ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters were arrested.

  • May 6, 2013

    Play Ball, Jackie

    by Steve Hochstadt


    Credit: LOOK Magazine, 1954.

    I grew up in a Brooklyn Dodgers family. I loved Duke Snider, Carl Furillo, and Pee Wee Reese. I rooted for the Dodgers when they were “Da Bums”, when they lost three World Series before I was five years old, all to the Yankees. So of course I loved Jackie Robinson.

  • Apr 1, 2013

    Tipping Points: Is the Culture War Over?

    by Steve Hochstadt


    Image via Shutterstock.

    This is an extraordinary moment in American politics. The possibility that the Supreme Court will declare some or all of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional is already sufficient reason for that label. But that is just one piece of a larger shift, a movement in the tectonic plates of national politics.

    In 1996, 27 percent of Americans said they favored gay marriage. By 2006, that proportion had risen to 35 percent. In 2010 it was 41 percent. The latest poll last month showed 49 percent. This shift applies to every possible grouping, from the most opposed (white conservative evangelical Protestants over 65) to the most in favor (liberals under 30).