Roundup

How Deep Is America’s Reckoning with Racism? (Review Essay)

by Kerri Greenidge

"Juneteenth has gained recent popular attention after white Americans responded to last summer’s mass protest movement in the most American way possible—through token gestures of “historical reckoning” rather than actual atonement through, say, restoration of Section 4b of the 1965 Voting Rights Act."

Professor: Why I Teach the Much-Debated 1619 Project — Despite its Flaws

by John Duffy

"Some critiques are intended to undermine if not cancel the 1619 Project. Yet the questions these criticisms raise about history, ideology and the legacies of slavery provide compelling reasons for teaching the project in schools and universities."

North Carolina Plantation's Juneteenth Event Underscores South's Historical Whitewashing

by Keisha N. Blain

"The plan to center a Juneteenth event around so-called “displaced white refugees” is deeply racist. But it’s also part of a much larger public effort to distort historical narratives and, in this case, miseducate the public about slavery in the United States."

Sorry, Liberals. But You Really Shouldn’t Love NATO

by Stephen Wertheim

It's time to rethink America's commitments to NATO, an organization that puts military partnership ahead of international cooperation. 

To Find the History of African American Women, Look to Their Handiwork

by Tiya Miles

"To discover the past lives of those for whom the historical record is abysmally thin, I’ve found that we must expand the materials we use as sources of information."

History as End: 1619, 1776, and the Politics of the Past

by Matthew Karp

"Current American inequalities, many liberals insist, must be addressed through encounters with the past. Programs of reform or redistribution, no matter how ambitious, can hope to succeed only after the country undergoes a profound “reckoning”—to use the key word of the day—with centuries of racial oppression."

Secrets That Were No Secret, Lessons That Were Not Learned

by Andrew Bacevich

The Pentagon Papers are a document of the hubris and ignorance of American military leaders in the Vietnam era, but Andrew Bacevich warns that the idea that global problems are amenable to being solved by American arms remains dangerously popular. 

The 1836 Project Is an Opportunity

by Brian Franklin

Texas history teachers should take Governor Greg Abbott at his word, and teach the state's history from its founding documents. The governor and conservative supporters of a new law on teaching history might not like the results, though. 

We've Been Telling the Alamo Story Wrong for Nearly 200 Years. Now It's Time to Correct the Record

by Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford

"Imagine if the U.S. were to open interior Alaska for colonization and, for whatever reason, thousands of Canadian settlers poured in, establishing their own towns, hockey rinks and Tim Hortons stores."

The Roundup Top Ten for June 11, 2021

by HNN Staff

The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.

The Bright Side of a Bad Texas History Bill? It’s Too Late to Whitewash the Past

by John Morán González and Benjamin H. Johnson

"The authors of HB 3979 assume that teachers left to their own devices will present their students with the dark and vexing chapters of Texas history. Perhaps on some level they realize that control over the narrative of Texas history has escaped their grasp."

Protesters Marching in Elizabeth City, N.C., over Andrew Brown’s Killing are Walking in the Footsteps of Centuries of Fighters for Black Rights

by Melissa N. Stuckey

A historian living and working at the site of Andrew Brown Jr.'s killing by police explains that local protesters are following generations of freedom seekers. 

Emily Wilder and Journalism's Longstanding Achilles’ Heel – Partisans Who Cry Bias

by Matthew Jordan

Outrage campaigns against the news media like the one that pushed the AP to fire a young journalist recently are nothing new; they are a longstanding tactic to push the press to alter its coverage. 

The Last Time There Was a Craze About UFOs and Aliens

by Daniel N. Gullotta

A recent resurgence of interest in UFOs in respectable public discourse recalls the 1990s, when the X Files reflected a similar moment of distrust in authority and conspiratorial thinking. 

The Problem with a U.S.-Centric Understanding of Pride and LGBTQ Rights

by Samuel Huneke

The histories of gay liberation politics in divided Germany offer surprising insight into what it means for LGBTQ people to live freely in a society. 

The Fissure Between Republicans and Business is Less Surprising than it Seems

by Jennifer Delton

Friction between the Trump-led Republican Party and big business organizations like the Chamber of Commerce over supposed "woke capitalism" isn't a new story. Big business's partisan allegiances have shifted according to capital's interests for decades. 

The U.S. War On Drugs Helped Unleash The Violence In Colombia Today

by Kyle Longley

Counternarcotics operations have been a pretext for funding a buildup of the Colombian security forces, allowing a US-friendly rightist government to avoid dealing with the economic and social causes of unrest. 

The Push For LGBTQ Equality Began Long Before Stonewall

by Aaron S. Lecklider

Pride month is based on an origin story of the LGBTQ liberation movement that starts with Stonewall. There is a longer history of queer political activism that has been erased because of its origins in the left.

‘Lady of Guadalupe’ Avoids Tough Truths About the Catholic Church and Indigenous Genocide

by Rebecca Janzen

"Although it portrays the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe for a broad audience, ultimately this film sanitizes the real-life brutality of the Church toward Indigenous peoples in the 16th century."

Too Many are Still Underestimating the Trump Threat

by Max Boot

"What has made dictators and demagogues so dangerous is their ability to pull vast numbers of people into their personal delusions — to turn their paranoid fantasies and megalomaniacal dreams into a harsh reality for millions."