Time to Revisit the History of School Integration in the North
By Zoë Burkholder
The Latest 
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Charlottesville's Lee Statue Belongs in a Museum
John Troast
"Charlottesville’s recently removed statue of Robert E. Lee is not a statue of a man, it is a statue of a myth," and the history of that dangerous myth needs to be preserved.
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"Forget the Alamo" Synthesizes Revisionist Scholarship for Today's History Wars
James Thornton Harris
Academics have long understood Texas's heroic founding myths centered on the Alamo to be cover stories for the cause of slavery and white supremacy, but they've been tenacious parts of the state's culture. A new book joins the battle as state leaders dig in to defend those myths.
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"Without Pressure from Germany": Hungary's Revisionist History of the Deportation of 18,000 Jews
Karl Pfeifer
The Hungarian government has sought to deny and obscure its responsibility for the deportation of Jews beginning in 1941.
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The Media's Failure on Agent Orange
Ron Steinman
The media seldom covers the ongoing harm caused by Agent Orange because little of the story is "news." This is a failure of duty to inform the public about the callous use of the defoliant that may allow similar wartime ecological catastrophes in the future.
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Lessons on Love from Sullivan Ballou's Civil War Letters
Fred Zilian
Historians dispute the authorship of love letters sent by Rhode Island lawyer and Union Major Sullivan Ballou to his beloved, but risk missing the larger point about love, sacrifice and duty.
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Ike Would Like the New Private Space Race
Yanek Mieczkowski
Wary of government spending and the entanglement of public money with private contractors, Dwight Eisenhower would find much to like in today's billionaire space race.
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The Roundup Top Ten for July 30, 2021
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The Difference a Day Makes: Robespierre's 9 Thermidor
Colin Jones
The eventful 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) is seen as a pivotal day for French Revolution. Colin Jones digs deep into the archival documentation of the day and argues that the day's significance is real but misunderstood.
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The Legacies of Un-critical Race Theory at Berkeley
Tony Platt
For most of its history, the University of California has been a bastion of un-critical race theory from Manifest Destiny to The Bell Curve.
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Amateurism, Sneaker Money, and the Forgotten Protest of the 1968 Games
Harry Blutstein
Tommie Smith and John Carlos are remembered for their gloved-fist protest of American racism at the 1968 Mexico City Games. But they also demonstrated against the hypocritical and exploitative rules of amateurism and opened the door to endorsement payments for Olympians.
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How Makeup and Rumor Affect Women in Power
Rae Nudson
Appearance has been a double-edged sword for powerful women in history, enabling their achievements but also empowering their critics.
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America's Leaders Haven't Learned from Past International Rivalries
Danielle Taana Smith
American leaders have failed to learn from the past and are staking the nation's health to competition with foreign adversaries instead of improvement of American lives.
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Explaining the Different Post-Colonial Trajectories of Ireland and Haiti
Alan J. Singer
"The divergent paths of Haiti and Ireland are rooted in the history of 19th century European colonialism, European and American racism, and the very different alternatives offered to the people of the former colonies for the last two hundred plus years."
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The Roundup Top Ten for July 23, 2021
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The History of Systemic Racism that CRT Opponents Prefer to Hide
Clyde W. Ford
The importation of African people to Virginia in 1619 spurred the process of establishing racial hierarchy through law, a historical reality the right seeks to deny.
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The 1906 Decision in Hodges v. United States Shows the Error of Leaving Fundamental Rights to the States
William H. Pruden III
The Court ruled that the 13th Amendment did not create a federal right to fairly contracted labor, and called for Black workers to "take their chances with other citizens in the states where they should make their homes," despite the plain determination of those citizens to oppress and expolit them.
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1920s "Tutmania" and its Enduring Echoes
Gill Paul
A remarkable confluence of events and circumstances launched a cultural mania for ancient Egypt in Britain and the US with the 1922 discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.
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As Americans Hit the Road Again, It's Time to Revisit the Ideals of Liberty
Heidi M. Ravven
Americans are contemplating travel as COVID gives way to greater freedom to move. There's no more apt place for a visit than the Statue of Liberty.
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Trump Cheated on His Taxes. What Happens Now?
James D. Zirin
"When I was a federal prosecutor going after white collar criminals, I always looked for the accountant. He was the most likely witness for the government."
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The Government's Report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Doesn't Answer Many Questions
David Marks
The minimal and inconclusive US Government report on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena has not enlightened us about the nature of UFOs.
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Can Sports Realize Frederick Douglass's Ideal of the Composite Nation?
Walter G. Moss
From Jackie Robinson to Simone Biles and Shohei Otani, sports have been like the point of a knife piercing myths of white supremacy.
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The Roundup Top Ten for July 16, 2021
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
