COVID-19

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  1/14/2020
  

  The Great Polio Vaccine Mess and the Lessons it Holds about Federal Coordination for Today’s COVID-19 Vaccination Effort

  by Bert Spector

  The introduction of the Salk polio vaccination offers lessons for governments trying to roll out a coronavirus vaccine in a climate of mistrust and poor distribution infrastructure. 

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• 1/13/2021
  

  Trump's Nero Decree

  by Frank Domurad

  Adolf Hitler coped with the realization of incipient defeat by ordering the destruction of vital infrastructure in Germany as vengeance against a people who had, he believed, failed him. Donald Trump has been taking a similar approach to the nation's infrastructure and the COVID response (except for the border wall). 

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  1/5/2021
  

  Remote Reflections: On Being Present as a Parent and Teacher

  by Quincy T. Mills

  "Midmorning, I take my research files to my son’s oversized desk and work alongside him, which prevents our screens from being barriers. My presence is useful for both of us." Reflections on the interconnections of parenting and research work under COVID.

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/3/2021
  

  The Holocaust Stole My Youth. COVID-19 Is Stealing My Last Years

  "I am trying not to give up. But what is getting me down is that I am losing a year. And this bothers me terribly. I’m 87 years old, and I lost almost a full year."

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• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  12/31/2020
  

  How U.S. Pandemic Restrictions Became a Constitutional Battlefield

  by John Fabian Witt and Kiki Manzur

  Conservative attacks on COVID-related restrictions on social gatherings are rooted in a selective and false interpretation of the history of the application of the police power to support public health. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/15/2020
  

  The Year We Lost

  Historians consider whether the disruptions and cancellations of 2020 are a singular conjuncture of bad news or if the year has just highlighted normal patterns of life – deferral of dreams, economic privation, and uncertainty – that the less-privileged have always lived with. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/15/2020
  

  Years of Medical Abuse Make Black Americans Less Likely to Trust the Coronavirus Vaccine

  by Dan Royles

  There is a long and continuous history of mistreatment of African Americans by the American medical establishment. This legacy is responsible for many Black Americans' mistrust of a coronavirus vaccine. Good public health practice in vulnerable communities requires addressing this history.

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• SOURCE: The Metropole
  12/17/2020
  

  Best Coping And Self Care Tips from Urban Historians

  Chances are you've figured out your self-care rituals after months of COVID restrictions, but it's never too late to pick up something new from the staffers of the Urban History Association's Metropole blog.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/17/2020
  

  The Pandemic is Traumatic for Kids Like Mine. I Have No Idea How to Help Them

  by David Perry

  Adults' failure to handle the COVID pandemic will have profound effects on a generation of children, even those who seem do be doing OK with virtual schools and social isolation. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/13/2020
  

  Vaccinated? Show Us Your App

  Medical historian Michael Willrich says that the prospect of smartphone-based credentialing to demonstrate an individual has been vaccinated is potentially invasive of privacy and the control of health data by private interests. 

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• SOURCE: National Council on Public History
  12/15/2020
  

  Making Public History More Accessible During Times of Uncertainty

  by Nick Sacco

  The curtailment of in-person programming at national parks due to COVID is a great occasion for the parks system to undertake deep consideration of the issue of accessibility in its programs and facilities. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/9/2020
  

  Lockdown Gardening in Britain Leads to Archaeological Discoveries

  Locked-down Britons have unearthed many potentially valuable objects both modern and ancient, prompting consideration of expanding a law that would enable museums to claim such objects after compensating the finder.

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• SOURCE: Deadline
  12/12/2020
  

  Charley Pride Dies: Pioneering Black Country Music Star Was 86

  Charlie Pride was the first Black performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and is one of three Black members of the Grand Ole Opry. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/8/2020
  

  America’s Most Hated Garment

  Atlantic writer Amanda Mull turns to fashion historians Marley Healy and Valerie Steele to place the growing social acceptance of sweatpants in a pattern of clothing standards changing in response to cultural influences and social conditions. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/7/2020
  

  Americans Used to Sacrifice for the Public Good. What Happened?

  by Brandon T. Jett and Christopher McKnight Nichols

  The United States has lost the language and practice of collective sacrifice for the common good.

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  12/6/2020
  

  Hit by COVID-19, Colleges Do the Unthinkable and Cut Tenure

  College administrators have invoked financial exigency to make radical revisions to the tenure protections enjoyed by faculty and diminish the faculty role in campus governance. The American Association of University Professors calls it a crisis.

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  12/8/2020
  

  How Americans Came to Distrust Science

  by Andrew Jewett

  Scientists and their supporters cannot overcome the current moment of hostility toward their profession and rejection of their expertise unless they confront the cultural history of skepticism toward science, in both conservative and liberal forms. 

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• SOURCE: Lexington Courier-Journal
  12/2/2020
  

  Beloved University of Kentucky History Professor Dies from COVID-19 Months into Retirement

  Professor Bruce Holle of the University of Kentucky was a "student magnet" during his 45-year career. He passed away due to complications of COVID-19 on November 30. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/2/2020
  

  David Hackett, Historian and Holocaust Expert, Dies at 80

  Professor Hackett was noted for translating "The Buchenwald Report," made by German-speaking US military officers who described in detail their findings at the liberated concentration camp, preserving a key document for the fight against Holocaust denialism. He died of complications of the coronavirus. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  12/1/2020
  

  From Cholera To Seat Belts: History Of Americans Reacting To Public Health Messages

  Public Health historian David Rosner argues that strains of religiosity and individualism in American culture have made it difficult to win acceptance for many public health and safety measures in the past.