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The Roundup Top Ten for July 9, 2021

You Can't Tell the Story of 1776 Without Talking About Race and Slavery

by Robert G. Parkinson

John Adams worked diligently in the years after the Declaration to craft an origin story of common purpose that obscured the importance of issues of race and slavery to the pursuit of independence. 

Critical Race Theory is Just the New Buzzword in Conservatives’ War on Campuses

by Lauren Lassabe

"When understood in this historical context, it becomes clear that complaints about critical race theory are not genuine objections to one type of idea or teaching. Instead, this grievance is part of a far longer and larger campaign to reshape campuses by elevating conservative views and quashing liberal ones."

A New Deal for Writers in America

by Scott Borchert

"The best reason to support a new F.W.P. is also the most obvious. Like its predecessor, the project would be an economic rescue plan for writers, broadly defined: workers who have been grappling with a slowly unfolding crisis in their industry for at least a decade."

Redlining, Race, and the Color of Money

by Garrett Dash Nelson

"Redlining maps reveal how the federal government managed risk for capital—a role that has perpetuated inequality long after the end of explicit discrimination in the housing market."

The Root Cause of Central American Migration? The United States

by Aviva Chomsky

Joe Biden's pledge to pay attention to the conditions in Central America that are driving migration is a good start, but policy needs to be based in a recognition that those conditions have been created by the economic and military influence of the United States. 

America’s History Wars, Race, and the Flag

by Simon Schama

"The jarring discrepancy between the “self-evident” truth of human equality asserted in the Declaration of Independence and the brutal reality of America’s founding being built on the backs of the enslaved is not, then, some contemporary piety of the 'woke'."

Who has Been Left Out of the History of the Equal Rights Amendment Battle? Men

by Rebecca DeWolf

Putting men back into the story of the ERA – both as opponents and advocates – helps to show that the Amendment was a struggle over whether sex should define opportunity and citizenship, not just a screen for projecting differing ideas of womanhood. 

Black Health Care, Black Art: A Texas Perspective

by Celeste Henery

Oral histories from Black health care practitioners shed important light on how they and the communities they served understood health and treatment, and speak to the ongoing problems Black Americans report in accessing good and compassionate care. 

The Paradox of Trumpist Patriotism: You Love America, but Hate Most Americans

by Joshua Tait

"The paradox of the most ardent patriots being angriest at the state of their own country is a version of the conservative dilemma."

Texas Republicans Rush to Guard the Alamo from the Facts

by Jason Stanford

"The Alamo myth leaves much out, most notably that Texians opposed Mexican laws that would free the enslaved workers they needed to farm cotton."