The Latest 
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The Real Patriots Invaded the Nation’s Capital Fifty Years Ago
Elise Lemire
On this Patriots’ Day, fifty years after a battalion of Vietnam veterans brought their anguish and their outrage to the Capitol Building, we are reminded of the idealistic threads connecting the militiamen of Lexington and Concord and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
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History Found Dixie Kiefer, one of the Greatest Heroes of World War II in the Pacific
Don Keith with David Rocco
Dixie Kiefer, dubbed "The Indestructible Man" by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, was at the center of crucial events in the Pacific in World War II.
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Blog
Law, Politics, Public Health and Deadly Epidemics: A Conversation with John Fabian Witt on “American Contagions”
Robin Lindley
Legal historian John Fabian Witt studies the evolution of public health regulation in the US, and says recent Supreme Court decisions to empower religious exceptions to COVID precautions are an unp...
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What Do John Dewey's Century-Old Thoughts on Anti-Asian Bigotry Teach Us?
Charles F. Howlett
A century ago, the American philosopher and educator took a sabattical to China and concluded that, if encouraged to learn about other cultures, White Americans could be brought to acceptance of Asian Americans and other immigrants as equal participants in democracy. COVID-inspired bigotry shows this dream remains unrealized.
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Who Won the American Revolution?
Guy Chet
Almost since the smoke cleared after the Battle of Lexington, Americans have debated the relative merits of the militias and the Continental Army in fighting the British. The relative esteem of each group has followed changes in the politics of the nation.
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Sadly, Hatred is Very Much American
Ralph E. Shaffer
"Lieutenant Cable, and Oscar Hammerstein, had it wrong in "South Pacific." Americans don't have to be "carefully taught " to hate. Historically, it's been inherent, one generation after another. The only change has been the target."
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Review: "The Third Man: Churchill, Roosevelt, Mackenzie King, and the Untold Friendships that Won WWII"
Walter G. Moss
Canadian Prime Minister William Mackenzie King kept a voluminous diary that is an incredible source of insight into his role as a witness (and often an influencer) to the wartime and post-World War II leadership of Roosevelt and Churchill. A new book distills the 30,000 pages of the diary.
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Blog
More Senators Who Made an Impact, Despite First Being Appointed (Not Elected)
Ronald L. Feinman
The second part of a discussion of 20th century senators who were first appointed to their seats, but did not become historical afterthoughts.
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The Roundup Top Ten for April 16, 2021
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Prosecuting Sedition in a Divided Nation is a Challenge as Old as America
William H. Pruden III
America's cultural value on free expression makes conviction of far-right radicals on sedition charges unlikely. The Ft. Smith, Arkansas trial in 1988 was a PR victory for the far right when 14 defendants accused of plotting against the government were acquitted.
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Can Space Exploration Restore American Faith in Science?
John Baick
The 60th anniversary of the first manned space flight is time to reflect on the devolution of space exploration from an expression of science as a public and collective enterprise to a vanity project of fame-seeking billionaires.
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Making Religious Peace in Afghanistan
Wayne Te Brake
American policymakers must recognize the distinctly religious components of the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and learn from European wars of religion: the key to ending war is brokering a political agreement that protects religious diversity.
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Gordon Liddy and the Greek Connection to Watergate
James H. Barron
The recent death of Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy has sparked renewed interest in the intricacies of the affair. The author argues that the material the "Plumbers" sought in the burglary related to a Greek journalist's efforts to expose illegal contributions by the Greek dictatorship to the 1968 election campaign of Richard Nixon.
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A Reason Republicans May Not Wish to Proclaim Themselves the Party of Lincoln
Tim Lynch
The fledgling Republican Party needed to expand its appeal beyond its antislavery position, which remained its greatest asset and liability through the end of the Civil War. The party risks national ruin if it becomes the party of Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election results.
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Blog
The Seductions and Confusions of Genealogical Research
Ann Banks' Confederates in My Closet
For a long time, I thought that researching family history was a dubious pastime. Also one fraught with peril, when undertaken for the purposes of ancestor-glorification and ego-gratification. ...
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What Will be the Terms of Racial Forgiveness in America?
J. Chester Johnson
Much of today's antiracist discourse among white Americans resembles what anti-Nazi theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called "cheap grace" – self-forgivness without cost or atonement for crimes that, while past, nevertheless are deeply present today.
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60 Years Later: The Enduring Legacy of the Bay of Pigs Fiasco
Stephen F. Knott
The failed invasion of Cuba by CIA-trained operatives at the Bay of Pigs set the Kennedy administration on a path of increasingly abusive covert operations against the communist regime, with consequences for US-Cuban relations and American foreign policy that still reverberate.
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Holocaust Remembrance 80 Years After the Beginning of Hitler's Campaign of Genocide
Rick Halperin
We must see our lives as inextricably linked to both the past and future, so that all peoples, individually or collectively, do not have to know of a world with genocide.
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Blog
Senators who Made an Impact, Despite First being Appointed (not Elected)
Ronald L. Feinman
Being appointed to a Senate seat doesn't always make a Senator an afterthought. Here are six 20th century figures who parlayed their initial appointment into influential careers in the Capitol....
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Political Precedent for the Trump Cult of Personality
Donne Levy
Their differences in character and personality should not obscure similarities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Both men's ability to flout the truth and survive serious scandals, plus their dalliances with white racism, make their political careers resemble cults of personality.
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Roundup Top Ten for April 9, 2021
The best opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Hidden Stories of Jewish Resistance in Poland
Judy Batalion
I was fascinated by the widespread resistance efforts of Polish Jews, but equally by their absence from current understandings of the war. Of all the legions of Holocaust tales, what had happened to this one?
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What Comes Next?
Stephanie Hinnershitz
In 1979, Asian American leaders testified to Congress about problems of discrimination, opportunity and hostility facing their communities. The official response largely enshrined a "model minority" myth that obscured ongoing problems behind a celebratory narrative of inclusion. Waves of anti-Asian violence in the 1980s belied that story, and warn us not to minimize the climate of hostility Asian Americans face today.
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Pamela, Randolph and Winston: The Wartime Discord of the Churchills
Josh Ireland
The recent Royal Family drama had nothing on the relationship of Winston Churchill and his son Randolph, which was thrown into tumult by the younger Churchill's marital problems at the onset of World War II.
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Economic Justice and Political Stability Require More Progressive Taxation
Joseph Preston Baratta
As populist anger at economic unfairness surges on both the left and right, the time has come to return the United States to the progressive taxation of the mid-20th century to ensure both economic balance and political stability.
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Richard Minear Reflects on Teaching History, Including Teaching Vietnamese History during the Vietnam War
Erik Moshe
"We should teach a habit of mind, not a list of facts. This may have changed since my student days, but I'm not sure. Students can take our courses without really getting a sense of what it means to think historically."
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A Personal and Family History of Encountering Prejudice and Intolerance
Ron Steinman
The author experienced antisemitic prejudice as a college student, but learned more about the pervasiveness of prejudice living in Asia as the husband of a Vietnamese woman during a time of anti-American sentiment, and then when living in suburban America as part of a mixed-race family. While it's necessary to understand the historical roots of racial bigotry, it's also always personal.
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Paying the Price: Our Veterans and the Burden of Parkinson's Disease
Ray Dorsey
Parkinson's Disease is the fastest-growing brain disease. It affects people worldwide, but American veterans are particularly affected. The nation must recognize the harm caused by chemical exposure and head injury, and commit the resources necessary to help veterans and all those affected.
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Teachers, Keep Hope about the Minds You Influence
Leslie Kitchen
For teachers of history, success can be uncertain and hard to measure. One writer calls for hope and faith in the impact teachers make on their students.
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The Roundup Top Ten for April 1, 2021
The best opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
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- 2021 Wolfson Prize Shortlist Announced
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