Roundup

Mitch McConnell is Wrong. The Filibuster is, in Fact, Racist

by Keisha N. Blain

"Try as he might, McConnell cannot erase the historical record. To use his own words, 'There's no dispute among historians about that'."

Bill Brock was the Forgotten Father of the Modern GOP

by Seth Blumenthal

Bill Brock lost two related battles: to keep the Republican Party establishment in charge of conservative policy priorities and to marry fiscal conservatism with some more moderate positions on social issues. A biographer argues that conservatism and the country are worse off for not following Brock. 

Teaching Controversial History: Four Moves

by Jonathan Wilson

A reflection on the work of teaching controversial subjects argues that it's essential to respect students' autonomy and provide them with the tools with which to change their own minds. 

The Problem with Confederate Monuments

by Karen L. Cox

"I also believe it’s important that I, a Southern white woman, write and speak about this topic with blunt honesty. Monument defenders cannot dismiss me as a Northern liberal who has invaded the region to tell them what to do. I’ve grown up here, too."

The Lack of Federal Voting Rights Protections Returns Us to the Pre-Civil War Era

by Kate Masur

New vote suppression bills in multiple states threaten to return the United States not to the Jim Crow era but to the period before the Civil War and Reconstruction when civil and political rights were protected or denied according to state politics. 

What Jim Crow looks like in 2021

by Nicole Hemmer

The most relevant aspect of Jim Crow today isn't the Klan, but the "color blind" legislation that Southern conservatives used to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment. 

The Roundup Top Ten for March 26, 2021

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

I Don’t Want My Role Models Erased

by Elizabeth Becker

The work of women journalists covering the war in Vietnam has been obscured in remembrance of the war and its place in American history and culture. The author seeks to recover the stories of Frances FitzGerald, Kate Webb and Catherine Leroy.

Can a Grand Bargain Empower Amazon’s Workers and Limit Corporate Power?

by Nelson Lichtenstein

"Unions are weaker today than they were in the 1930s, but the idea that wages have to rise and democracy has to be revitalized, in the workplace and beyond, is returning in an echo of that era."

Letters From an American: March 23, 2021

by Heather Cox Richardson

Beginning in the 1970s, the National Rifle Assocaition evolved into a political lobbying organization increasingly enmeshed with the conservative movement. Two recent mass shootings are a tribute to the organization's success. Congratulations. 

The Greater the Disaster, the Greater the Profits

by Todd Miller

Believe me, the forces that shaped our southern border over the decades have been far more powerful than Donald Trump or any individual politician.

The Immovable AMLO

by Humberto Beck, Carlos Bravo Regidor and Patrick Iber

"AMLO continues to decry the faults of neoliberalism, but his government is, for the most part, failing to build an effective alternative to it."

Settlement Houses: Sites of Service, Access, and Connection for Women

by Tamar Rabinowitz

"Progressive Era settlement houses fostered the activism and intellectual creativity, as well as the conflicts, that would profoundly shape American modernity in the 20th century."

Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion

by Alfred McCoy

"While Washington had been pouring blood and treasure into desert sands, Beijing was making itself into the world’s workshop."

The Dehumanizing Logic of All the ‘Happy Ending’ Jokes

by Anne Anlin Cheng

"The figure of the eroticized-yet-degraded Asian woman can be readily found in movies and onstage. One of the most visibly racist, sexist, and inhuman tropes to emerge out of Western imperial history, this woman nonetheless hardly registers in the public consciousness as someone who has suffered discrimination.

Pay Attention When They Tell You To Forget

by Christina Proenza-Coles

Writing across genres and time periods, the books of poet and memorist (and former Poet Laureate of the United States) Natasha Trethewey, historian Martha S. Jones, and poet-playwright-essayist Claudia Rankine constitute a conversation about Black women's work to remember history that is subjected to public suppression. 

The Mythical War Scare of 1983

by Simon Miles

"Nuclear weapons are not without danger, to be sure. An overinflation of the risk of Able Archer should not be necessary to remind policymakers of that point."

How the U.S. Tax Code Privileges White Families

by Dorothy A. Brown

The history of the married-filing-jointly tax return is one of affluent white families securing advantages through the tax code that working class families, including most Black taxpayers, were unable to realize. After the expansion of income taxation during World War II, this disparity became a significant source of inequality. 

Is the Two-Century Battle for D.C. Statehood Finally Near an End?

by Robinson Woodward-Burns

"D.C. residents have gained rights in fits and starts, often running into both constitutional and congressional hurdles. In recent decades, members of Congress have raised new impediments, driven by partisanship tinged with racism."

We Need Social Science, Not Just Medical Science, to Beat the Pandemic

by Nicholas Dirks

"In order to ensure that scientific advances work not just to create new medicines but to help lead to a healthier and more just world, we need to ensure that science and social science work hand in hand as well."