Roundup

Can Guantánamo Ever Be Shut Down?

by Karen J. Greenberg

Even if the US's "forever wars" are wound down, it's unclear if the national security state will release its remaining "forever prisoners" at Guantamo Bay. 

Visions against Politics

by Eileen Boris and Annelise Orleck

Historians Eileen Boris and Annelise Orleck are the guest editors of the spring edition of the AAUP's magazine focusing on the need for a New Deal for Higher Education. This is their introductory essay. 

Germany’s Anti-Vaccination History Is Riddled With Anti-Semitism

by Edna Bonhomme

Antisemitism has often flared during public health crises such as pandemics; it has also attached itself to suspicion of vaccination, a trend that has been disturbingly prominent among German anti-vaxxers. 

What History Can Teach Banks About Making Change

by Destin Jenkins

"Celebrating Juneteenth and recruiting more Black bankers is one thing. It is quite another for financial firms to use their unique power to actively undermine the systems that perpetuate racial inequality."

The Fermilab Muon Measurement May or May Not Point to New Physics, But ...

by Robert P. Crease

The measurement of the behavior of muons may or may not prove to be a groundbreaking discovery. But it is an achievement that demonstrates the collaboration across disciplines and national borders that represents the best of science. 

How The US Can Pass Civics 101

by Glenn C. Altschuler and David Wippman

American education in civics and history is not succeeding. How can it be improved in a polarized climate when content is a political football? 

What Kind of Fear Is Stopping Joe Biden?

by Samuel Moyn

The course of the Biden administration's policy agenda will be determined by what Democrats are afraid of. In particular, it will matter whether they are more afraid of foreign adversaries or of domestic poverty. 

The Roundup Top Ten for April 30, 2021

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

Our Divisions Are Worse Than You Think

by Jonathan Zimmerman

American cable news has reverted to the partisan heyday of the 19th century press, making it difficult to argue issues from a shared basis in facts. The author suggests reading more and watching less. 

Rick Santorum And His Critics Are Both Wrong About Native American History

by Michael Leroy Oberg

Rick Santorum's recent comments reflect a white nationalist viewpoint. But too many liberal critics responded to them with historical references to Native "contributions" to the American nation that erase the violence that nation carried out against indigenous people. 

Mary Seacole and the Politics of Writing Black History in 1980s Britain

by Margo Williams

The revival of British interest in the life of Jamaican-Scottish nurse Mary Seacole reflected the rise of a movement by Black British activists to see Black history as a story of struggle, rather than of a color-blind narrative of Britishness. 

Why a Black Captain America changes everything

by Peniel E. Joseph

"As both a scholar of Black history and a lover of superheroes, I see Sam Wilson as the perfect embodiment of a Captain America for our current age."

Vaccine Hesitancy Is as Old as Vaccines. I Take Comfort in That

by David Motadel

Resistance to vaccination is nothing new. But historical episodes of "vaccine hesitancy" have tended to dissolve. 

Fritz Mondale and Decency

by Kai Bird

Jimmy Carter thought the vice presidency was "a wasted national asset." He gave Walter Mondale the charge and the freedom to redefine the role. 

100 Days is a Ridiculous Way to Judge a Presidency

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

FDR's 100 Days was a historical aberration; not least because of the lack of partisan opposition that is delaying the seating of Joe Biden's cabinet and the staffing of his administration. 

In the U.S, Praise for Anglo-Saxon Heritage has Always Been about White Supremacy

by L.D. Burnett

Labeling American political institutions as "Anglo Saxon heritage" reveals the ugly strain of thought that holds only some ethnic groups are congenitally capable of participating in citizenship. 

Colony of Cobblestone

by Carlos Santiago

San Juan's cobblestones are an illusion, aesthetic flourishes of "old world charm" intended to boost the tourism economy and conceal the island's status as a U.S. territory.

Infrastructure Isn’t Really About Roads. It’s About the Society We Want.

by Erik Klinenberg

The word "infrastructure" has always been sufficiently capacious to include all kinds of systems necessary for the operation of society. If anything, Biden's plan needs to be bigger, and incorporate the civic infrastructure of elections and public knowledge and the social infrastructure of schools, parks and libraries. 

COVID Protesters Must Stop Exploiting Symbols of the Holocaust

by David M. Perry

"We all need to keep asserting basic truths: vaccinations are safe, public health measures are often complicated and require tradeoffs that we need to be transparent about, and these people cosplaying Holocaust victims are dangerously trivializing the history of the Holocaust."

Literary and Manual Labors: Pittsfield, Massachusetts

by Jeffrey Lawrence

Herman Melville's move to Pittsfield in western Massachusetts wasn't a withdrawal from society; he was active in building the cultural life of the Berkshire region.