Roundup

The Shocking MOVE Bombing was Part of a Broader Pattern of Anti-Black Racism

by J.T. Roane

The Philadelphia Police Department bears responsibility for the deadly bombing of the rowhouse occupied by MOVE members, but the carnage shows a long pattern of indifference by multiple municipal departments to the health, safety, and quality of life of Black residents in the 1970s and 1980s. 

It’s a Golden Age for Chinese Archaeology — And the West is Ignoring It

by Rowan K. Flad

Recent discoveries in Egypt have overshadowed more significant finds in China. This may reflect the romanticized popular culture image of colonial-era tomb-raiders, or the prevalent sense that Western civilization is derived from the Mediterranean world. It's time for a broader view of why the ancient world matters. 

Anti-Trans Legislation has Never been about Protecting Children

by Nikita Shepard

"Tracing the ugly history of conservative efforts to combat school desegregation, welfare, reproductive freedom and gay and lesbian rights by claiming threats to children helps us understand why politicians today think they can gain votes by brutalizing vulnerable children in the name of protecting them."

Solving Homelessness Requires Getting the Problem Right

by Ella Howard

American policy initiatives to reduce homelessness and aid homeless people have generally misunderstood the roots of homelessness and offered therapeutic or police solutions. Ironically, only recently have cities recognized providing housing as the vital central hub of homelessness programs. 

Decolonising Museums isn’t Part of a ‘Culture War’. It’s about Keeping them Relevant

by Dan Hicks

"Britain’s museums sorely need such cultural revitalisation right now, and the question of human remains and artefacts offers a position from which to see debates around museums in a clearer light."

Cliché and Caricature: Why January 6 Was Not Like a Banana Republic

by Dario A. Euraque

Describing the January 6 assault on the Capitol and Congress as fit for "banana republics" ignores the way that American businesses and politicians supported the same kind of antidemocratic violence in Latin America. 

The War on Critical Race Theory

by David Theo Goldberg

"The exact targets of CRT’s critics vary wildly, but it is obvious that most critics simply do not know what they are talking about. Instead, CRT functions for the right today primarily as an empty signifier for any talk of race and racism at all."

Sheikh Jarrah Highlights the Violent Brazenness of Israel's Colonialist Project

by Noura Erakat and Mariam Barghouti

Media attention to the recent actions of Zionist settlers displacing Palestinian occupants of East Jerusalem should not give the impression that this activity is new. The authors argue it is part of a process that has been continuous since 1948. 

The French Revolution Offers a Critical Lesson as the U.S. Returns to Normal

by Christine Adams

The aftermath of the French Reign of Terror shows that prematurely embracing a "new normal" after traumatic political violence leads to unsustainable peace, especially when that normalcy amounts to the upper classes reclaiming privilege and pleasure. 

House Republicans’ Leadership Fight Signals A New Direction

by Zack C. Smith

Intramural leadership fights in Congress are nothing new; a battle for Republican leadership that began with the Reagan Revolution led ove a decade to a party committed to confrontation. It remains to be seen what the fallout will be from today's purge of Liz Cheney from the Republican House leadership. 

The Filing Cabinet: A Material History

by Craig Robertson

The humble filing cabinet in fact tells the story of the rise of bureaucratic structures in capitalism and government, and the potential for information to be used efficiently – or weaponized. 

Black America’s Neglected Origin Stories

by Annette Gordon-Reed

History education helps create "origin stories" for individuals and groups that affect how people see themselves and their society. The narrowness and incompleteness of African American history as taught in schools supports limited understandings of Black identity. 

Endless War Is A Feature of Our National Programming

by William Astore

"I’ve come to learn that, in my country, war always seems to find a way, even when it goes badly — very badly, in fact, as it did in Vietnam and, in these years, in Afghanistan and Iraq, indeed across much of the Greater Middle East and significant parts of Africa."

The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Organizer Mariame Kaba is one of the leading public intellectuals behind the movement for the abolition of the institutions of policing and prisons and for a politics that imagines more humane alternatives. 

Happy Mother's Day to the Women who Turned their Grief into Political Action

by Keisha N. Blain

"Throughout history, and in the most difficult circumstances — especially after experiencing great personal loss — mothers have often turned their grief and despair into political action."

Black Resistance from Augusta to BLM

by John Hayes and Nefertiti Robinson

Even among Black residents of Augusta, Georgia, an "official" story about an episode of civil unrest has become the dominant narrative and overshadowed historical and contemporary issues with police brutality. 

The Bloody History of Anti-Asian Violence in the West

by Kevin Waite

An 1871 massacre of Chinese residents in Los Angeles was the pinnacle of anti-Asian violence in the late 19th century west. 

I Want My Mutually Assured Destruction – Teaching the Cold War with Classic Music Videos

by Tom Nichols

Rock videos from the early days of MTV are a surprisingly effective tool for explaining the nuclear fear of the Cold War era to students who never experienced it. 

What "Politics" Does to History: The Saga of Henry Kissinger and George Shultz's Right-Hand Man

by Jim Sleeper

A recent Yale memorial to the diplomat Morton Charles Hill largely glossed over Hill's and Yale's roles in crafting an imperialist American foreign policy and in educating generations of diplomats to subordinate honesty to "grand strategy." 

“Essentially an Evil Thing”

by Jonathan Wilson

Recent European controversies over the veneration of historical figures have considered war consequentially, as a means of achieving national ends. It's time to think of war, as the Nuremberg judges did, as an intrinsic evil.