Opinion
How Memphis helped win the Battle of Vicksburg, and the Civil War
Historian Donald L. Miller’s spellbinding book about the campaign is titled “Vicksburg,” but it could just as easily have been called “Memphis.”
Michael Nelson
Columnist
Michael Nelson is contributing editor and columnist for The Daily Memphian, the political analyst for WMC-TV, and the Fulmer professor of political science at Rhodes College. His latest books are “Clinton's Elections: 1992, 1996, and the Birth of a New Era of Governance" and “The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2018.”
There are 110 articles by Michael Nelson :
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July 2020
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Nelson
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OpinionOpinion: How is the Aug. 6 election screwy? Let me count the ways, Part 1
Local elections ought to be straightforward affairs for voters. Here are six ways our leaders always deny us this right – three today and three tomorrow.
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OpinionNelson: How is the Aug. 6 election screwy? Let me count the ways, part 2
Local elections are always a mess. Here are ways they’re especially messy this year.
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Nelson
OpinionOpinion: Conservatives should wear masks, but liberals make it unnecessarily hard
One of John Stuart Mill's arguments in “On Liberty” is often reduced to this sentence: Your freedom ends where my nose begins. Never has that way of putting it seemed more literal, noses being the coronavirus’s main point of entry into our bodies.
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August 2020
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Nelson
OpinionOpinion: Are historians trying to cancel Andrew Jackson?
Eighteen cities bear his name as do counties in 22 states. Fourteen presidents have gone to his home to pay homage. But stock in Jackson's historical reputation, which has been declining for several years, just took another major hit.
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OpinionNelson: Can the Democrats win November Senate elections in Tennessee and Mississippi?
Stranger things have happened. Heck, Ronald Reagan carried New York – twice.
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Nelson
Opinion‘He was Memphis’ Indiana Jones, Marco Polo, P.T Barnum and James Bond’
Richard Halliburton spent his short life “living poetry instead of writing it.”
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OpinionNelson: ‘Are you really the Republican or Democrat you think you are?’
Two online quizzes want to help you find out which party is truly aligned with your beliefs. One questionnaire is better than the other, but both might surprise you.
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OpinionTen weeks from Election Day, does Biden have a chance in Mid-South?
One convention down, one to go, and one question on many people’s minds: Who’s going to win the presidential election?
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March 2023
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Nelson: For Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, it all started in Memphis
Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were young, politically ambitious, and determined to advance their careers by coming to Memphis for the Young Republican National Convention in 1977.
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