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The Roundup Top Ten for March 5, 2021

James Weldon Johnson’s Ode to the “Deep River” of American History

by David W. Blight

A biographer of the poet, novelist and activist James Weldon Johnson considers his “St. Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day” as a reflection on the necessity of persistence and hope even amid dire times. 

Moral Evil, Economic Good’: Whitewashing the Sins of Colonialism

by Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni

Recent efforts to reframe Europe's history of colonialism as a net contribution to human welfare are misguided, argues a scholar of African history. 

From Washington to Trump: What Is Dereliction of Duty?

by Lindsay Chervinsky

Public ideas of the presidential duty to defend the nation against foreign and domestic enemies have evolved over two centuries; if Donald Trump had been president in 1793, his response to a pandemic wouldn't have cost him reelection. 

Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women

by Jeannie Suk Gersen

A Harvard Law School professor tried to understand why her colleague made a provocative and contrarian argument that Korean "comfort women" engaged in voluntary sex work. She discovered that recourse to the facts was both straightforward and frustrating.

Toys are Ditching Genders for the Same Reason they First Took them On

by Paul Ringel

While social conservatives may bemoan the rise of gender-neutral toys as an attack on traditional values, the history of marketing to children suggests that the impetus for the change isn't coming from the "woke" but from the market. 

“Making a Living by the Sweat of Her Brow”: Hazel Dickens and a Life of Work

by Emily Hilliard

"Hazel’s song catalog is often divided into separate categories of personal songs, women’s songs, and labor songs. But in her view and experience, these issues all bled together; her songs address struggle against any form of domination and oppression, whether of women, workers, or herself."

A Rapidly Globalizing World Needs Strengthened Global Governance

by Lawrence Wittner

"The world is currently engulfed in crises—most prominently, a disease pandemic, a climate catastrophe, and the prevalence of war—while individual nations are encountering enormous difficulties in coping with them."

The Far Right’s Big Money Strategy Has Poisoned Our Politics

by Marc C. Johnson

The 1976 Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo ruled that spending money to influence a campaign is free speech, launching the era of big money in politics long before the much-maligned decision in Citizens United v. FEC. 

Originalism’s Original Sin

by Adam Shapiro

Liberal critics should understand the ways that Constitutional originalism's practices of reading and resolving conflicts in the text owes a great deal to biblical literalism. Historians of religion can help understand what's at stake. 

We Need a Second Season of ‘Mrs. America.’ Here’s Why

by Magdalene Zier

After the defeat of the ERA, Phyllis Schlafly's activist career entered a second act, pushing the federal judiciary in conservative directions.