Roundup

Cass Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule’s Technocratic Despotism

by Jason Blakely

"Far from being morally and rationally superior, technocracy may be a significant contributor to our inability to properly deliberate upon our political problems."

Museums as Monuments to White Supremacy

by Ana Lucia Araujo

Recent protest and scholarship have highlighted the knowledge of major cultural institutions that artifacts in their collections were looted from Africa and other colonized places, and support calls to repatriate the artifacts. 

Amanda Gorman's Success Stirred A Bleak Undercurrent

by Manisha Sinha

Some critical response to young poet Amanda Gorman's Inaugural reading echoes the racist dismissal and condescenscion contemporaries leveled at the founding-era work of Phillis Wheatley.

Bad Religion, or Bad Faith?

by Caleb Smith

A scholar of American religion takes issue with a recent call to see fundamentalist zeal as a danger to democracy and civil society; secularism, too, has underwritten massive campaigns of state violence. 

The Real Rosa Parks Story Is Better Than the Fairy Tale

by Jeanne Theoharis

“I don’t believe in gradualism,” she made clear, “or that whatever is to be done for the better should take forever to do.”

The Key to Combating Conspiracy Theories about Coronavirus Vaccines

by Cameron Givens

Historical knowledge of the roots of misinformation about viruses and vaccination will be essential to overcoming it. 

Minorities and Myths: Antisemitism in Europe after 1919

by Eileen Kane

New scholarship complicates the narrative that Jews in the Soviet Union between the wars enjoyed full citizenship rights. 

The 1776 Follies

by Michael Kazin

"At its core, the 1776 report reveals a profound ignorance about what professional historians of the United States actually think and do."

Do We Ask Too Much of Black Heroes?

by Imani Perry

The impulse to make heroes out of main figures in African American history is at odds with the need to learn how people and social movements have made change in American society. 

Change the Court, for Good: For Starters, the Oldest Justice Should Retire While There’s a Democratic President and Senate

by Samuel Moyn

"For four years liberals have argued that inherited norms are precious, in the face of a president who delighted in flouting them.... But the Supreme Court is in a situation where some of its norms are noxious, like justices overstaying their welcome."

Why Black Marxism, Why Now?

by Robin D.G. Kelley

Robin D.G. Kelley places the work of Cedric Robinson in the context of Black radical traditions that have challenged the use of Marxism as a critique of power and politics. 

When the Threat of Political Violence Is Real

by Joanne B. Freeman

Republican calls for unity refuse to claim responsibility and in some cases level the threat of further violence to bully colleagues out of holding Trump and his allies accountable for the Capitol riots of January 6. This is reminiscent of the climate of threat and violence in Congress in the 19th century ahead of the Civil War.

How Will the Pandemic Shape the Future of Work?

by Judy Stephenson

The pandemic is exposing the historical contingency of "jobs" as opposed to "tasks" – as capital returns to a piecework model in the gig economy, the concept of job security is in danger of vanishing. 

The Roundup Top Ten for January 29, 2021

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

What Americans Across the Political Spectrum Got Wrong About the Attempted Insurrection

by Corrie Decker and Elisabeth McMahon

American reactions to the Capitol insurrection made implicit and explicit comparisons to the developing world, reflecting the way that American exceptionalism has grown out of the Enlightenment's hierarchical and racist ranking of civilizations with Europe (and America) on top and Africa at the bottom. 

While America Was Sleeping

by Alfred McCoy

As journalist H.L. Mencken predicted back in 1920, America had finally come to the point where “the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

The American Revolution’s Most Inspiring Patriots Include Enslaved African Americans

by Ben Railton

Enslaved African Americans in Massachusetts petitioned the legislature in 1777 to demand the principles of the Declaration of Independence be applied to secure their freedom, beginning a tradition of critical patriotism, of exposing the gap between national ideals and reality to push for change.

Fixing the Economy Requires Giving Power to People Who Answer to the Public

by Jonathan Levy

The economy does not exist on a plane separate from politics; the power of the Federal Reserve for the past four decades has been directed at increasing inequality and the power of the financial sector. 

A Practical Path to Condemn and Disqualify Donald Trump

by Philip Zelikow

The standard of proof required for the Senate to bar Donald Trump from holding office under the 14th Amendment only demands that Trump gave aid and comfort to enemies of the Constitution, not that he participated in an insurrection. As his own words demonstrate that he did, this path should be followed. 

Strange Costumes of Capitol Rioters Echo the Early Days of the Ku Klux Klan - Before the White Sheets

by Kenneth Ladenburg

"Although costumes cannot tell us the entire story of a group or movement, they can provide a window into understanding how the groups and movements form and how their ideologies are spread."