World War II 
-
SOURCE: New York Times
5/12/2023
A Servicemember in My Family was Never the Same after WWII—My Mother
As part of the Clubmobile service of the Red Cross, Phyllis McLaughlin was an indirect witness to the traumas of the soldiers she served with hospitality, even before the jeep accident that ended her own service after nearly killing her.
-
11/7/2021
Writing a Classic: Richard Tregaskis and "Guadalcanal Diary"
by Ray E. Boomhower
Combat reporter Richard Tregaskis's account of the August 1942 Marine invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands passed military censors and became a popular sensation while offering the public an account of the difficulty and brutality of the Pacific war.
-
3/7/2021
Review: Does "The Princess Spy" Pierce the Veil of its Subject's Fictions?
by Robert Huddleston
A new biography of Aline Griffiths, Countess of Romanones, takes on the self-fashioned myths of the American-born woman who married a Spanish aristocrat after serving the OSS in Madrid during World War II. Does it succeed in finding the facts of her career as a spy?
-
SOURCE: Salon
1/18/2021
My Grandfather was a Nazi. Our Family's Story of Complicity Shows Where the Road to Extremism Leads
by Mary Louise Wells
Republicans who continued to contest the legitimacy of the election after the Capitol riots should consider the German example, which shows the potential for disaster if people accept authoritarianism out of expediency.
-
9/6/2020
The "Triple Nickles": Jim Crow Was an Elite Black Airborne Battalion's Toughest Foe
by Robert F. Williams
The lesson of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion for African Americans is a sadly familiar one: proving oneself is not enough; becoming members of a select fraternity was not enough to earn the respect and equality that comes with full citizenship.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
8/20/2020
For Japanese Americans, Housing Injustices Outlived Internment
After enduring internment, Japanese Americans were forced to resettle in a changed society with a dire housing shortage. The government's response was grossly inadequate.
-
SOURCE: Telegraph
7/23/2020
Wearing A Face Mask Is Not New - But The Backlash Against Them Is, Say Historians
"The striking thing about 1941 is that there was no debate or controversy between the scientists and the government, there was just rapid agreement that this made sense and it wasn't costly," said Dr Jesse Olszynko-Gryn.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
4/26/2020
How Past Crises Changed America’s Public Schools — ‘And so too Will COVID-19’
by Ann Marie Ryan and Charles Tocci
While this certainly feels unprecedented, the history of American public schooling shows us it's not.
-
SOURCE: The New York Times
4/27/2020
He Found One of Stalin’s Mass Graves. Now He’s in Jail.
Yuri Dmitriev's family believes he has been jailed on false pedophelia charges because his findings challenge a sanitized version of history favored by Russian nationalists.
-
SOURCE: Time
4/21/2020
The Holocaust Was an Attempt to Erase Millions of People. Today, the World Must Honor the Evidence That They Existed
"Naming the great European void, recognizing its existence by remembering, is thus not only a moral duty but also the only way for us, as survivors, to maintain our own humanity," writes author Elisabeth Åsbrink.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
4/17/2020
Americans Must Embrace Hope, Not Fear
by Kevin M. Schultz
Amid covid-19, it’s time to come together and recognize that diversity is an asset.
-
SOURCE: The New York Times
4/7/2020
What Were the Origins of the Holocaust?
A review of German historian Gotz Aly's new book "Europe Against the Jews: 1880-1945."
-
SOURCE: The New York Times
4/10/2020
When Asian-Americans Have to Prove We Belong
by Jia Lynn Yang
"This isn’t the first time we’ve been treated as a threat," writes Jia Lynn Yang.
-
SOURCE: Fox News
4/9/2020
Princeton Historian: America Can Beat Coronavirus if We Don't 'Defeat Ourselves'
Stephen Kotkin, renowned for his work studying authoritarian regimes, said history teaches that the United States can triumph over the coronavirus pandemic if America doesn't "defeat ourselves."
-
SOURCE: National Interest
3/31/2020
America Has a History of Pandemic Denial
by Joseph Loconte
Donald Trump wasn't the first president to misunderestimate a national threat. Franklin Roosevelt played his part in the collective denial and dishonesty of the age—until the "ideology of fascism" contagion came knocking.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
3/30/2020
In Fighting Covid-19, Remember That America’s WWII Mobilization Was Hardly Flawless
by Richard B. Frank
Mobilizing all Americans is a lofty challenge. Some will resist, just as they did 80 years ago.
-
SOURCE: Detroit Free Press
3/29/2020
Coronavirus Comparisons to World War II Are Rampant. Are We Ready to Be the Greatest Generation?
How similar is coronavirus mobilization to World War II mobilization?
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
3/29/2020
How to Survive the Blitz
Five lessons from 1940s Britain about national resilience and social solidarity during a crisis.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
3/27/2020
Democrats Have the Right Idea of what COVID-19 Relief Should Look Like
by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer
The failure to create a better social safety net has left us unprepared to deal with covid-19.
-
SOURCE: Dissent
3/20/2020
It Doesn’t Have to Be a War
by Tim Barker
The Trump administration appears ready to invoke the Defense Production Act to speed manufacture of essential goods like face masks. What if we didn’t have to resort to the analog of war?
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"