This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: Slate
3/13/2022
by Peter Manseau
The author of a new novel of the Black Plague and the co-author of a revisionist book on the medieval period discuss the tendency to make "rainbow connections" between past and present that oversimplify events to give moral guidance.
Source: Oregon Public Broadcasting
3/14/2022
Both racist and anti-Catholic bigotry fed the rise of the Klan as a power in Oregon's politics in the early 20th century, with an estimated 50 chapters and 58,000 members.
Source: War on the Rocks
3/11/2022
If economic sanctions become a replacement for military force in international conflict, they also risk becoming a normal part of nationalist economic policy that escalates international rivalry as a feature of the global economy.
Source: Philadelphia Gay News
3/15/2022
"Queer Public History" examines the connections between academic historians and the shared narratives maintained by LGBTQ communities.
Source: Fast Company
3/13/2022
Is Elon Musk's worldview based in a singularly weird interpretation of the sci-fi books he devoured as a kid? Jill Lepore discusses the rise of the self-styled comic book hero CEO as a matter of confusing dystopia for a how-to guide.
Source: Los Angeles Review of Books
3/12/2022
How does taking down a statue relate to the more complicated work of eliminating the racist ideas and structures that put it up?
Source: Mississippi Free Press
3/14/2022
Shannon Bowden of Mississippi Valley State University is leading a public history project for the nearby Delta town of Itta Bena, preserving the sites and stories of voting rights activism.
Source: Washington Post
3/13/2022
by Noah Feldman
James Madison feared from the beginning that the design of the US Senate was contrary to the core principles of a democratic republic. A Harvard Law professor says that if the nation can survive with a fundamentally undemocratic institution at the heart of the government, partisan gerrymandering might not be too bad.
Source: The Atlantic
3/11/2022
Including history, memoir, political theory and fiction, the Yale historian of Ukraine recommends 9 books to those looking to get up to speed on the history of the crisis.
Source: Washington Post
3/12/2022
In the arts, politics, and civil rights activism, here are five friendships among prominent women that helped drive change.
Source: Smithsonian
3/14/2022
by Karin Wulf
Deborah Cohen's new book looks to the stories of four American journalists to understand what the world saw clearly about the rise of Hitler and Stalin and what they missed.
Source: Governing
3/13/2022
Historian Joanne Freeman explains that the threat of violence has been a useful tool for minority factions in the government to thwart opposition, both in the pre-Civil War era and today.
Source: Wash
3/13/2022
by Gillian Brockell
Wages and economic security, citizenship rights and family unification were core concerns addressed in letters from free Black people to their former enslavers.
Source: The Atlantic
3/10/2022
The economic historian argues that broad sanctions, like suspending Russian access to PayPal and other internet banking, may alienate the civilians necessary to put political pressure on the Kremlin, while also disrupting energy and food markets in ways that will be difficult to predict.
Source: Dame
3/14/2022
Right wing misinformation has linked the nation's borders with race war discourse that encourages vigilantism, according to historian Carly Goodman.
Source: The Nation
3/14/2022
Historian Daniel Bessner says that Dave Grohl's memoir is heavy on affable storytelling but doesn't offer Grohl's views on the huge shakeups in the music industry that he's witnessed over his career.
Source: National Geographic
3/4/2022
Medical historians Nancy Bristow and Thomas Ewing reflect on how public discontent with public health measures has limited the society's capacity to control pandemics.
Source: The Atlantic
3/10/2022
Dropping the historically unsupported contrast between the uptake of the polio and COVID vaccines by parents of young children should prompt us to stop moralizing and start considering the social, political, and economic factors, including poor healthcare access, that always hinder vaccine campaigns in the US.
Source: New York Review of Books
3/10/2022
by Christopher R. Browning
What does a new book add to our understanding of the Nazi decision to pursue genocide against Europe's Jews?
Source: Boston Review
3/9/2022
by Simon Torracinta
A historian of science reviews three books on the history of economic thought, which support the conclusion that the ideas animating the mainstream of the discipline and enabling it to dominate discussions of policy are badly in need of reexamination.
