No Golden Anniversary for the Paris Peace Accords
By Arnold R. Isaacs
The Latest 
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Blog
David Maraniss Follows Jim Thorpe's "Path Lit by Lighting"
Robin Lindley
The first comprehensive biography of the acclaimed Native athlete shifts the frame from "tragedy" to "persistence against the odds" in parallel to the changes and challenges fac...
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A Portrait of Carlos Franqui
Ken Weisbrode
The autodidact poet, journalist and propagandist Carlos Franqui was instrumental in making the Cuban revolution chic. He was also one of the first of the revolutionary generation to abandon it.
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50 Years After the Paris Accords: How the US Lost, then Won, in Vietnam
Robert Buzzanco
As Vietnam becomes increasingly integrated into global capitalism, the temptation to identify a long-term victory for American interests in southeast Asia should be tempered by awareness of the massive human cost paid by the Vietnamese.
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"Cut His Head Off if Necessary"—The Flimsy, Politically-Driven "Peace" Nixon Made in Vietnam
James D. Robenalt
Months after inflicting a brutal bombing campaign on North Vietnam to push them to the negotiating table in Paris, Richard Nixon pressed the South to accept a deal that doomed their survival, in order to claim the mantle of peacemaker for himself.
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On Ukraine, International Law is Against Russia—But to What Consequence?
Lawrence Wittner
If the United Nations can define the rules of international relations, but sufficiently powerful nations can flout them without consequence, it's time for a change in global governance.
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Latino Activists Changed San Antonio in the 1960s
Ricardo Romo
San Antonio in the 1960s faced many of the same challenges of cities throughout the South; its emerging Mexican American political leadership helped steer the city in a progressive direction.
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Blog
Lesley M.M. Blume on Hiroshima and Nuclear War
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
"What are we capable of when we’ve dehumanized another race or country on a big scale?"
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The "Critical Race Theory" Controversy Continues
The appointment of right-wing activist Christopher Rufo to the board of Florida's public New College is a significant escalation of the war on teaching and research on race, gender and sexuality.
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The Roundup Top Ten for January 27, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The US is a Procedural, Not a Substantive, Democracy
Van Gosse
"The United States is well on its way to becoming a strictly procedural democracy, wherein legal and constitutional norms are observed, but the core requirements for democratic decision-making—the rule of the majority, the right of all citizens to vote without hindrance—are ignored."
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Why CRT Belongs in the Classroom, and How to Do It Right
Stacie Brensilver Berman, Robert Cohen, and Ryan Mills
"If classroom realities matter at all to those governors and state legislators who imposed CRT bans on schools, they ought to be embarrassed at having barred students in their states from the kind of thought provoking teaching we witnessed in this project."
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What's Hiding in Putin's Family History?
Chris Monday
The details of Vladimir Putin's personal and family life are surprisingly (and by design) difficult to pin down. A historian suggests that his grandfather was more powerful, and more influential on the future Russian leader's fortunes, than Putin's common man mythology suggests.
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Do Sanctions on Russia Portend a Return to the Interwar Order of Trade Blocs?
Carl J. Strikwerda
The economic response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised the specter of a new Cold War. But a better—and scarier—analogy might be the drastic contraction of global trade and the rise of colonial and imperial trade blocs between the World Wars.
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The Pope at War: Pius XII and the Vatican's Secret Archives
James Thornton Harris
David Kertzer's book argues that defenders of Pope Pius XII's actions during the Holocaust mistake his defense of the prerogatives of the Catholic Church for a defense of the victims of Nazi persecution and genocide.
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"The Dawn of Everything" Stretches its Evidence, But Makes Bold Arguments about Human Social Life
Frank A. Palmeri
David Graeber and David Wengrow seek to pull less hierarchical and more egalitarian and sustainable forms of settlement and social organization out of the frame of utopia and into the narrative of human history. To the extent they succeed, they show humanity today has the choice to organize ourselves for survival.
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As the Progressive Era Ideal of Regulation Vanishes, What Will Stop the March of AI?
Walter G. Moss
If capital decides that artificial intelligence is sufficiently profitable to put in charge of driving our cars, writing our essays, or even teaching our history classes, what is left to stop it, even if the products are terrible or even dangerous?
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The Roundup Top Ten for January 20, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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50 Years Ago, "Anti-Woke" Crusaders Came for My Grandfather
Max Jacobs
In 1972, "Search for Freedom" was rejected for adoption in Texas classrooms after conservative activists launched a national media campaign to attack it as unamerican and corrupting. The author's grandfather wrote the book.
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Resisting Nationalism in Education
Jacob Goodwin
"Countering the pull toward nationalistic authoritarianism requires intellectual openness and curiosity. This is a challenge in the time of recovery from the global pandemic, environmental catastrophe and jagged economic turbulence."
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One Term, Two Presidencies: Biden's Prospects under Divided Government
Michael A. Genovese
If recent patterns prove out, the second half of Biden's term will be marked by executive orders with little prospect of significant legislation.
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With Academic History in Crisis, can Departments Pivot to Reach Interested Audiences?
Elizabeth Stice
Americans don't actually hate history; they often begin to appreciate it after their undergraduate years and outside of the classroom. Does this point in a possible direction for securing the future of the profession?
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Martin Sherwin's "Gambling with Armageddon" Strips away the Myths of Nuclear Deterrence
Lawrence Wittner
As Sherwin points out, “the real lesson of the Cuban missile crisis . . . is that nuclear armaments create the perils they are deployed to prevent, but are of little use in resolving them.”
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Teach the History Behind "Emancipation" with the Primary Sources
Alan J. Singer
Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith's "Emancipation" has rediscovered the life of an enslaved man variously called Peter or Gordon, who had been made famous through an 1863 photograph. Here's how history teachers can use the primary records of his life to accompany the film.
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Blog
Professor Marcia Chatelain on McDonald's and MLK
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
"When we abdicate the responsibility of the public good to corporations... then more McDonald’s is what we get."
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Revisiting Kropotkin 180 Years After His Birth
Sam Ben-Meir
The rise of automation and the concurrent squeeze of workers in the name of profit offer an opportunity to revisit the ideas of Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin as a forward-looking critique of power.
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The Roundup Top Ten for January 13, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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