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Blog
Racist Violence, Lynching Culture, and the Tulsa Massacre: An Interview with Prof. Karlos K. Hill
Robin Lindley
"It wasn't difficult to find photographs of the massacre in 2016 and 2017 when the book started to come to life. What was difficult was looking at them every day trying to understand what...
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The Border and the Contingent Status of Mexican Workers
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
In this excerpt from her new book "Not 'A Nation of Immigrants'," Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues that the politics of the border and the racialization of Mexican laborers has been a longstanding and glaring exception to the American myth of welcoming immigrants.
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Group of Historians Recognized for Best SCOTUS Brief of the Year
Ronald A. Smith
A group of six historians has been recognized by the Education Law Association for the best Supreme Court brief of the year. Their historical deconstruction of the myth of amateurism in college athletics influenced a unanimous decision that the NCAA cannot bar college athletes from profiting from the commercial use of their names, images, or likenesses.
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The Roots of the Politicization of the National Parks Service
Nick DeLuca
The National Park Service has never been totally independent of politics. But a 1996 law requiring Senate approval of the NPS Director, combined with the Trump administration's use of acting directors, has created uncertainty. Approving Biden's nominee Chuck Sams is a key step to putting the National Parks on solid footing.
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The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood
Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace
American diplomats and military leadership in 1945 believed Japan was close to a negotiated surrender without the use of the atomic bomb, a history that has since been replaced by the myth that the bomb saved lives.
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A House Still Divided (Part 1)
Walter G. Moss
The core of our polarization is a disagreement about what kind of country we will be – one dominated by Christian white men or one, in Frederick Douglass's words, "of perfect civil equality to the people of all races and of all creeds, and to men of no creeds."
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Blog
How NY Covered Up a Massacre—and Helped Spark Mass Incarceration
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
The Attica Prison Uprising, Part 2
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The Roundup Top Ten for September 24, 2021
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Richmond's Lee Statue Has Come Down. What About Confederate Memorials in Cemeteries?
Jeffrey Smith
The statue of Robert E. Lee on Richmond’s Monument Avenue finally came down, to both fanfare and controversy. But some Confederate monuments are even more politically loaded—the ones where we bury the dead.
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Teaching "All Men are Created Equal" (Part II)
Jeff Schneider
In the second part of this essay, a longtime teacher of American history maintains that a close reading of the Declaration of Independence makes it possible to discuss revolution and racism in a thoughtful way without intimidating either white students or students of color.
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Psychologically Speaking, Who Were the Heads of the Chinese Communist Party?
David Shambaugh
Sinologist David Shambaugh's new book examines the evolution of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic's role in the world through a psychological history of the CCP's leaders. Excerpted here, he offers a schematic overview of the work.
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For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention
Richard Hall
"On Constitution Day, I say drink a toast to the losers. Let us study their criticisms of our imperfect system."
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We are All Becoming Cassandras: Leaders Must Heed the People on Climate, Disarmament, and Pandemic
Lawrence Wittner
In classical myth, Cassandra was a lone prophet whose accurate predictions were ignored. Today, a growing share of humanity are playing the Cassandra role against a political and economic elite standing in the way of solutions to the threats of climate change, pandemic disease and nuclear annihilation.
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Inequality Tends to Reach Political Tipping Points – Is That Happening Today?
Richard Vague
"Proposals for a $15 minimum wage, more support for childcare and education, and even an alternative minimum income did not emerge out of nowhere as radical notions imported from Western Europe."
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The Roundup Top Ten for September 17, 2021
The best opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Memo From Irish History: Welcome to Your Future, American Women
Laura Weinstein
After sustained public outcry, the Republic of Ireland looked to its history of horrific treatment and preventable death of girls and women under its draconian abortion laws and said "enough." Will this example change the course American states like Texas are poised to follow?
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Untold Stories from the Largest Boat Lift in History
Jessica DuLong
On September 11, 2001, nearly half a million civilians in Lower Manhattan escaped by water when mariners conducted a spontaneous rescue. This was the largest waterborne evacuation in history, but has gone largely untold.
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9/11's Memorials and the Politics of Historical Memory
Marita Sturken
Major 9/11 memorials try to fix the public memory on a moment of national unity that, 20 years later, seems illusory. Other memorials point the way to using the force of memory to encourage critical reflection on nationalism.
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Scammed From the Beginning: Rejecting Expertise as an American Value
Guy Lancaster
When Americans demand and take unauthorized medications to treat COVID-19, they aren't indulging a new conspiratorialism but are tapping into currents of American cultural and religious history that have always rejected established authority.
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The Specter of Emancipation and the Road to Revolution: A Rejoinder to Richard Brown et. al.
Woody Holton
Woody Holton responds to a recent open letter of criticism by six Revolutionary-era historians of his interpretation of the significance of slavery as a motivation for colonial independence.
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Blog
The Attica Prison Uprising, 50 Years Ago Today
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
Season 3, Episode 1 of Skipped History
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Teaching "All Men are Created Equal" (Part I)
Jeff Schneider
A longtime teacher of American history maintains that a close reading of the Declaration of Independence makes it possible to discuss revolution and racism in a thoughtful way without intimidating either white students or students of color.
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See a Piece of History: Retired FDNY Fireboat John D. McKean
The Fireboat McKean Preservation Project and the Hudson River Parks Friends offer those in New York the opportunity to visit the McKean at Pier 25 in lower Manhattan. The McKean's half-century of service most notably included evacuation and firefighting support on 9/11.
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The Missed Lesson of Vietnam: Plan for Unconditional Victory or Don't Intervene at All
James D. Robenalt
Comparisons between American withdrawal from Vietnam and Afghanistan miss a key point: failure was overwhelmingly likely from the beginning because, if the United States was unwilling or unable to secure unconditional surrender, time was on the side of its foes.
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The Roundup Top Ten for September 10, 2021
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
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- George Holliday Dies at 61, Taped LAPD Beating of Rodney King
- Charles Sellers, 98, Historian Who Upset the Postwar Consensus, Dies
- The Curious Task of Preserving Darwin's Beans and Butterflies
- Local Professor Building History of San Diego's Japanese Americans
- Art History Prof. Recognizes Lost Masterpiece in Local Church
- Rebel is Right: Reassessing the Cultural Revolution
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