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Felix Hall Remembered 80 Years After Ft. Benning Lynching

"This month — more than eight decades after Private Hall’s death — a plaque at Fort Benning was dedicated in his memory. But major details about his death remain unclear. Officials have been accused of failing to fully investigate what happened, and no one was ever charged."

History Suggests Biden Should Ditch His Yes-Men

"Part of the problem with the Afghanistan decision-making process was that the president didn’t appear to be hearing dissent from his political aides."

The Phony Feminism of War Cheerleaders

by Natalie Shure

"The fact that Afghan women really do face immense oppression makes their cynical use for war-stoking purposes almost unfathomably galling," argues Natalie Shure.

The Disasters in Afghanistan and Haiti Share the Same Twisted Root

by Jonathan M. Katz

"Both Haiti and Afghanistan owe their sorry conditions to decades of direct U.S. control. Looking closely at the links between the two is essential for understanding how to respond to each in ways that help, rather than do more harm."

Tom T. Hall, Writer of Numerous Nashville Hits, Dies at 85

"In all my writing, I've never made judgments," he said in 1986. "I think that's my secret. I'm a witness. I just watch everything and don't decide if it's good or bad."

Josephine Baker to Be Honored With a Panthéon Burial

"Along with other Black American artists — including the writers Richard Wright and James Baldwin — Ms. Baker said she found in France a freedom that she felt denied in the United States."

Chattanooga Struggles to Heal the Scars of a Lynching

by Peter Canellos

"In a time of mistrust along racial lines, the initiative in Chattanooga is a model for other communities. It demonstrates that agreed-upon facts can be a precursor to recovery."

Lucille Times, Who Inspired the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Dies at 100

“You’ve got to fight,” Mrs. Times said in 2017. “You don’t get nothing for free. I’ve been a fighter all of my days.”

Megachurches like John MacArthur's Led Evangelical Resistance to COVID Mandates

by John Fea

Historian John Fea rounds up recent writing on the role of star pastors in directing some evangelical churches toward resistance to pandemic measures while other churches engaged with meeting their members' health needs. 

America Has a Drinking Problem

The shifting social setting of American alcohol consumption, as much as its volume, is cause for concern. 

Comparing Images of Helicopters Leaving Saigon and Kabul is Too Simplistic

Post Art and Architecture columnist Philip Kennicott examines the history and politics of famous images from 1975 and this week that have been put in dialogue with each other.

Conservative Publishers See Gold Rush in "CRT" Controversy

"As the national conversation about racism has become a ferocious battle, conservative publishers see gold in titles catering to the backlash."

Deep Divisions in Americans’ Views of Nation’s Racial History – and How To Address It

A little more than a year after nationwide protests erupted after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the Minneapolis police, the public is deeply divided over how far the nation has progressed in addressing racial inequality – and how much further it needs to go.

Reassessing Gladys Knight's Talent and Impact

"The scholar Mark Anthony Neal has written that Knight was “the female voice of the Black working class in the 1970s”—more grounded than either the divine Aretha Franklin or the glamorous Diana Ross—and the group’s sensibilities were also working-class."

The Afghan Security Forces' Collapse Was Years in the Making

“Thinking we could build the military that fast and that well was insane,” an unnamed former U.S. official told government interviewers in 2016.

Who Owns Uncle Ben?

by Shane Mitchell

"Why would anyone preserve a crop, no matter how flavorful and aromatic, with such a disturbing heritage?" Shane Mitchell examines why.

Did Cartoonist Billy Ireland Really Push the KKK out of Columbus, Ohio?

by Eliya Smith

Local lore held that Columbus Dispatch cartoonist Billy Ireland's merciless taunting of the KKK forced it to leave town in the 1920s. Could newspaper cartoons really do that? 

Britain’s Idyllic Country Houses Reveal a Darker History

About a third of the historic homes managed by Britain's National Trust have been linked to fortunes made through slavery and colonialism. The agency's efforts to present this history has been controversial. 

The First Casualty in the War on Critical Race Theory

"I don’t ask the students to subscribe to any ideas. I don’t ask them to base their opinions on materials that we read. I just ask that they critically evaluate it and understand it. We evaluate claims. That’s all that we do." 

Frederick Kagan: Biden Could Have Stopped the Taliban. He Chose Not To.

The conservative defense scholar and Afghanistan policy advisor argues that Biden could have done more despite inheriting a bad situation.