Roundup

President Biden is a Very Different Pandemic President than Woodrow Wilson

by E. Thomas Ewing

A century ago, there was little expectation that a US President would have much to say about a public health emergency, even one of national scope. 

The Midwest has Always Been a Site of Black Political Activism

by Ashley Howard

Many Americans imagine the Midwest as a white space. But in both cities and towns, and even before the Great Migration, Black Midwesterners have organized and fought for political power, civil rights, and social respect. Contemporary protests are inheritors of this legacy. 

Amid Widespread Disease, Death, and Poverty, the Major Powers Increased Their Military Spending in 2020

by Lawrence Wittner

You might assume that the COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged the world's leading military powers, starting with the US, to reconsider their priorities and direct fewer resources to weapons. You would be wrong. 

Police Reform Doesn’t Work

by Michael Brenes

Liberal calls for police reform operate within an ideological context where preserving order and enforcing private responsibility for social problems suppresses considering inequality. Minneapolis, the site of Derek Chauvin's trial and the killing of Daunte Wright, is an illustrative example. 

I'm a Black Woman Who's Met All the Standards for Promotion. I'm Not Waiting to Reward Myself

by Koritha Mitchell

A professor approaching promotion says that racism and sexism in the academy presents psychological burdens that women faculty of color must overcome by practicing purposeful self-care and not waiting for external validation. 

Break Up the Ivy League Cartel

by Sam Haselby

The incredible wealth of Ivy League and other elite universities, combined with their ever-dwindling acceptance rates, suggests that contemporary meritocracy is working to reproduce a tiny economic and political elite at the expense of democracy. 

The Perils Of Participation

by Amanda Phillips de Lucas

The construction of US Highway 40 in West Baltimore blighted a Black community with far-reaching results. But it's important to understand that road planners used a selective idea of participatory planning to manufacture community consent for the project. 

The Crushing Contradictions of the American University

by Chad Wellmon

The proliferation of student loan debt reflects the acceptance by banks, borrowers, and the federal government of the idea that higher education is transformative and beneficial. Is this ideology bordering on magical thinking? 

Elegy for Op-Ed

by Michael J. Socolow

The decision by the Times to rebrand its outside commentaries reflects its failure to fight consistently over the years for the open exchange of ideas and to differentiate the views it published from its own official positions. 

Princeton Owes the Families of the MOVE Bombing Victims Answers

by Judith Weisenfeld, Ruha Benjamin et al.

Members of the Princeton faculty argue that "the victims of the MOVE bombing, their families, and those of us at Princeton invested in Black history and communities deserve more" than the university's statements to date about the use of remains of the victims. 

Women Dominate One Academy Award Category. Here’s Why

by David Resha

Women have dominated the Documentary Feature category at the Academy Awards, and have indeed shaped the genre from the beginning. But this reflects the fact that the film industry has been more willing to entrust leadership to women in the low-cost, low-stakes environment of documentaries than in feature film. 

Waiting for the Cyber-Apocalypse

by John Feffer

The latest iteration of imperial blowback is coming in the form of cyberwarfare techniques pioneered by US intelligence agencies being turned against the country's patchwork internet security. 

Necessary but Not Sufficient

by Daniel Bessner

The 2001 AUMF in effect has become yet another tool to enable the United States to prosecute a series of endless wars in the Global South.

The MOVE Bombing and the Callous Handling of Black Remains

by Jessica Parr

The remains of the victims of the Philadelphia Police Department's bombing of the MOVE organization in 1985, including two children, were acquired by the University of Pennsylvania, stored outside of climate control, passed on to Princeton, and eventually lost, a final indignity to the victims. 

The Roundup Top Ten for April 23, 2021

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

Howard University’s Removal of Classics is a Spiritual Catastrophe

by Cornel West and Jeremy Tate

Despite some contemporary multicultural critiques, the literary and intellectual traditions of the West can and must be separated from "the crimes of the West." If Frederick Douglass and MLK drew on these traditions in struggles for freedom, then Howard University must continue to teach them. 

The Great Forgetting: Why We Forget Epidemics and Why This One Must Be Remembered

by Nina Burleigh

"For most Americans, the history of the 1918 flu shares space in that ever-larger tomb of oblivion with the history of other diseases of our great-grandparents’ time that vaccines have now eradicated."

Biden Just Made a Historic Break With the Logic of Forever War

by Stephen Wertheim

A historian of American interventionism says that Joe Biden's apparent determination to withdraw from Afghanistan is a significant break from recent precedents, and possibly signals a shift away from perpetual war. 

Lessons Learned – and Forgotten — From the Horrific Epidemics of the Civil War

by Jonathan S. Jones

"The Civil War’s health crisis also taught Americans in the 1860s and 1870s that the rigid enforcement of public health measures saves lives."

Vaccine Hesitancy is a 21st-Century Phenomenon

by Gareth Millward

The progress of public health practice means that today's policymakers seek to make vaccination widespread enough to eradicate, rather than suppress, disease. Looking at success as a continuum could lead to more constructive approaches to work toward eradication.