Roundup

Kelsy Burke's "Pornography Wars" Examines America's Conflicted Relationship to Smut

by Laura Kipnis

The sociologist is less concerned with the substance of pornography than with the multiple roles it holds in Americans' discussions of sex, labor, gender, and morality. 

The French Fascination with the Cadavers of the Bastille

by Nicole Bauer

The prison held a symbolic place in the minds of antiroyalists that exceeded its actual significance; the themes of gothic horror were reflected in political tracts that denounced the horrors of imprisonment there. 

Claiming a Latino Place in Chicago

by Mike Amezcua

Like their African American contemporaries, ethnic Mexicans in Chicago have a long history of organizing to overturn residential segregation. 

After Texas Ruling on Abortion Medication, Get Ready to Hear More About the Comstock Act

by Mary Ziegler

The ruling of Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk invoked a reading of the 150 year-old anti-obscenity law to claim that the distribution of mifepristone by mail is illegal. 

The Roundup Top Ten for April 7, 2023

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

Laws Like Florida Will Put Burden of Purposeful Ignorance on University Teachers

by Donald Earl Collins

University faculty who don't feel affected by the fight to take issues of race, gender and sexuality out of the K-12 curriculum need to be prepared for students who have been trained to think of ignorance as praiseworthy, part of a campaign to make it too exhausting for teachers to bother fighting that ignorance. 

Libraries Need More Freedom to Distribute E-Books; Publishers' Profit Stands in the Way

by Dan Cohen

A ruling against the Internet Archive will prevent a library from lending a digital scan of a book it owns, making access to them contingent on a publisher's willingness to create a separate digital version. The implications for libraries as holders of knowledge are dire. 

A Faculty Union Can Fight for More than Money

by J. Faith Almiron

"What exactly does the university offer to students who take on enormous, as-yet unforgivable debts—without reliable teachers?"

Legal Historian: Trump Indictment is an Embarrassment

by Jed Handelsman Shugerman

The appropriate response to Trump's disregard of the rule of law isn't to replicate it in "34 half indictments," a filing that fails in terms of law and politics. 

Lizzo's Duet With History (and Madison's Crystal Flute)

by Grace B. McGowan and Ravynn K. Stringfield

Performing with the treasured national relic of a slaveholding President forced Americans to ask who owns antiquities, and has the right to tell their story. The controversy over the event shows that these are still contested questions. 

Gender-Affirming Care Has a Long History, and Has Affected Non-Trans People Too

by G. Samantha Rosenthal

Medical intervention to make people's bodies conform to their assigned place in the gender binary has a long history; it has been controversial principally when the same treatments have been used by transgender people.

Violence and the Unmaking of Asian-American Exceptionalism

by Gaiutra Bahadur

A series of violent anti-Asian attacks in the author's community during the 1990s underscores the debt Asian Americans owe to the African American movements for emancipation and civil rights, and the need for cross-racial solidarity in the face of racist oppression. 

What Disney's Orange Bird Logo Says about Corporate Support and the LGBTQ Movement

by Julio Capó, Jr.

In the 1970s, Disney was much more willing to tolerate the anti-gay tirades of singer Anita Bryant, which previewed today's "groomer" accusations, because of a lucrative and politically expedient partnership with Florida's orange growers, suggesting movement power, not corporate benevolence, is driving change. 

Blaming Atlanta "Cop City" Protests on "Outside Agitators" is Familiar and Shameful

by Benjamin Stumpf

Blaming outsiders for grassroots objections to turning valuable parkland over to the police to create an urban warfare training center is an effort to shift blame for violence from police to protesters and to assert that local communities accept the plan. Opponents of civil rights did the same thing. 

We Can't Accept a Vocational Training Model of College

by Bret Devereaux

Neither politicians nor students have any factual knowledge of which majors prepare students for the work force, but that hasn't stopped the institutional dismantling of the humanities and the elevation of the needs of corporations over those of the polity. 

That Sad Viral Story of a Goat Shows Ethical Void of the Meat Industry

by Gabriel Rosenberg and Jan Dutkiewicz

Cedar the goat has a name. Millions of other farm animals don't, and industry spends a lot of money to keep it that way, while obscuring the ideological work that goes into convincing Americans that animals are only meat. 

DC Crime Bill Flap Repeats Congress's Refusal of Home Rule 55 Years Ago

by Kyla Sommers

In the period after the rebellions provoked by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Congress pushed "tough on crime" measures on the district even as the local government sought to reduce racial inequality in criminal justice. "Tough on Crime" won, with results that are still present today. 

The Beneficiary of Hosting the Olympics is the Police State

by Jules Boykoff

The extreme circumstances surrounding the international spectacle of the games justifies "states of exception" that remain part of law enforcement practices after the games end, stifling civil liberties and democratic dissent. 

Historians Should Follow C. Vann Woodward: Write for a Broad Public and Show Why the Discipline Matters

by James C. Cobb

One historian suggests that the unheeded advice of C. Vann Woodward is the reason for the discipline's decline and risk of extinction. 

Gladys Bentley: Gender Outlaw

by Cookie Woolner

Gladys Bentley was one of the most popular speakeasy performers in prohibition-era New York, and used the performance category of "drag king" – women playing on stereotypes of masculinity – to be herself.