The Roundup Top Ten for October 7, 2022
"For We Were Strangers": Trans Refugees and Moral Panicsby Gillian FrankTrans Americans will be increasingly compelled to flee states where laws repress them. What does this refugee crisis share with the past experiences of queer people migrating in search of safety and sexual freedom or women crossing state lines to access abortion? |
The First Global Deflation is On—How Bad Will it Get?by Adam ToozeWorldwide, central banks are following the lead of the Federal Reserve and tightening their monetary policy. `It's unclear if policymakers have thought through the effects on employment, debt, and political stability. |
What Will Nobel Recognition Mean for Ancient Human DNA Studies?by Mary PrendergastAn archaeologist sees the recogntion of paleogenomics as a vital tool to reinvigorate the field's access to knowledge about early humans, but warns that the science needs to be accompanied by ethical self-reflection to respect the remains of indigenous people and avoid giving credence to pseudoscientific racism. |
Two Years After George Floyd: What Next?by Austin McCoyDespite the massive insurgency of 2020, activists struggle as news media amplify reactionary moral panics about history curricula and crime to justify increasing the funding and power of police departments that have seen superficial reforms at best. |
What Should Historians Know about Indigenous Land Acknowledgments?by Elizabeth Ellis and Rose Stremlau"Treating the practice of land acknowledgment seriously requires more than just getting the names, phrasing, and pronunciation right; rarely are there simple answers." |
Why the Iranian Revolution Turned So Repressiveby Shadi HamidThe Iranian revolution consolidated its power, and committed itself to a path of repression, through a fusion of clerical and state power that was unprecedented in the Islamic world. |
The Far Right's Embrace of Knights Templar is About Bigotryby Thomas LecaqueThe Knights Templar's veneration by the right is like the adulation of neoconfederates or neonazis: the hate is the point. |
The Freedom to Teach About Racism Has Always Been Threatenedby Eddie R. ColeAcademic freedom isn't a color-blind value, because the principle has historically been needed to defend those who advocated for racial equality. |
Southwest Florida's Overdevelopment Made Ian Worseby Zeke BakerMassive hydrological projects undertaken to make Southwest Florida's wetlands into developable agricultural land and then high-priced real estate removed the key buffers for coastal floods. Storms like Ian are a rebuke to the idea that humanity and commerce can bend nature to their will. |
Fascists' PR Plan? Distance from Associations with Jewish Genocideby Ruth Ben-GhiatDespite the efforts of denialists, the Holocaust remains a significant obstable to public acceptance of fascism. Contemporary far-right politicians have adopted the position that genocide was a step too far beyond an otherwise good ideology. |