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History News Network

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Week of June 24, 2013


Up Front

Don't Just Laugh Off Scalia as a Bigot
Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica
The essence of his objection to the DOMA ruling is to conserve the old so we can avoid the uncertainty of the new. He's still wrong, though.
Tags: Antonin Scalia, same-sex marriage, Samuel Alito, Supreme Court
Committee on LGBT History: We Are Proud Historians Helped Make DOMA/Prop. 8 Decisions Possible
Tags: Committee on LGBT History, DOMA, Don Romesburg, Proposition 8, same-sex marriage
Historians Played Important Role in DOMA Decision
David Austin Walsh
The majority opinion in Windsor v. United States validates historical arguments made in amicus brief.
Tags: DOMA, historians, same-sex marriage, Supreme Court
Eric Foner: VRA Decision "Green Light" to Disenfranchise Voters
David Austin Walsh
Clayborne Carson, Eric Foner, and H.W. Brands weigh in on the Supreme Court's landmark ruling.
Tags: Clayborne Carson, Eric Foner, H.W. Brands, Voting Rights Act
HNN Hot Topics: Same-Sex Marriage
Tags: same-sex marriage, Hot Topics, DOMA, gay history

News at Home

Yes, Paula Deen is a Racist. But It's Not Like She Repealed the Voting Rights Act.
Carole Emberton
Thank SCOTUS for that.
Tags: Paula Deen, racism, South, the N word
San Francisco™, Brought to You By Google
Rebecca Solnit
Silicon Valley is pushing the middle class out of the Bay Area.
Tags: Google, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, technology
Guns and the NSA Make Strange Bedfellows
Ira Chernus's MythicAmerica
On the right, the resistance to NSA spying stems from the same place as resistance to gun control.
Tags: guns, gun control, NSA, PRISM scandal

News Abroad

If The Guy on the Left is Guilty of Espionage ... When Will We Prosecute The Guy On the Right?
Josh Brown: Life During Wartime
Tags: Dick Cheney, Edward Snowden, Valerie Plame, espionage
What Turkey's Riots Mean
Daniel Pipes
Keep a close eye on foreign investment.
Tags: Arab Spring, Ottoman Empire, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey

Historians & History

LBJ Was a Great President
Vaughn Davis Bornet
Don't believe the naysayers -- LBJ unleashed the Great Society and kept the peace with the Soviets and Mao.
Tags: 1960s, LBJ, Lyndon B. Johnson, presidents
Wabash Cannonball
Jim Loewen
The origins of the elusive "folk" song.
Tags: folklore, origins, songs, trains,

Education

SCOTUS Ruling on Affirmative Action Could Give Private Universities Advantage
John Willingham
Private schools will have leg up on the publics if not held to same strict standards to "exhaust" all other non-racial admissions factors.
Tags: affirmative action, SCOTUS, University of Texas, race
Gilder Lehrman and Dickinson College Partner for Lincoln Online Course
David Austin Walsh
No, it's not a MOOC. Well, it's kind of a MOOC. But it's mainly a graduate seminar for K-12 educators.
Tags: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Gilder Lehrman Institute, MOOCs

Culture Watch

The Man of Steel Rusts
Bruce Chadwick
And we're not talking about Stalin.
Tags: Superman, Man of Steel, movies, Hollywood
 
King Kong Takes Manhattan... Yet Again.
Bruce Chadwick
Doesn't the world's greatest city deserve a new nemesis?
Tags: King Kong, plays, coming attractions, Manhattan

Books

Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman's FDR and the Jews
Murray Polner
The dynamic duo of Breitman and Lichtman successfully defend Franklin Roosevelt's reputation.
Tags: Allan Lichtman, book reviews, FDR and the Jews, Richard Breitman