Roundup

Babe Ruth’s Record was a Mythical Monument of White Superiority. Hank Aaron Tore it Down

by Kevin B. Blackistone

Sports have long served as a projection screen for white angst over challenges to racial supremacy. Hank Aaron's 715th home run was one of a line of Black athletic challenges to white racism and was met with similar hostility.

Bad Religion in the Ivory Tower

by Jacques Berlinerblau

Have scholars of religion and politics missed the rise of militant Christian nationalism because they follow an unspoken rule to "always posit religion at its best, secularism at its worst"? 

Trump is Not a Fascist. But that Didn't Make Him any Less Dangerous to Our Democracy

by Thomas Weber

Hitler and Trump, along with fascism and Trumpism, are all destructive to liberal democracy but in fundamentally different ways. 

What Hank Aaron Told Me

by Sandy Tolan

The author received a touching reply to a fan letter he wrote Hank Aaron in 1972. Writing a book about Aaron years later, he realized he didn't know the half of the burdens Aaron carried in pursuit of baseball immortality. 

Delusions of Dominance: Biden Can’t Restore American Primacy—and Shouldn’t Try

by Stephen Wertheim

To lead a successful foreign policy, Joe Biden must deeply reconsider the American commitment to foreign military intervention. 

White Americans have Weaponized the Idea of Girlhood

by Crystal Webster

The concept of childhood has elastic boundaries; in a racist society, those boundaries stretch to portray whites as innocents deserving protection and Black youth as dangerous and susceptible to punishment. 

The Roundup Top Ten for January 22, 2021

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

The Sheer Absurdity of Trump’s “1776 Commission” Report Is Hard to Overstate

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

"If American education was organized according to its blueprint it would look strikingly like the schoolrooms common in 1776, complete with rulers used primarily to rap the knuckles of students who answered their questions the wrong way."

Making Revisionism Great Again: The Trouble with Trump’s Rewriting of American History

by James Loewen

"We already have the education that the commission recommends. Our textbooks are nationalist and ethnocentric, rather than critical. That’s why we’re in trouble."

Why the Mob Thought Attacking the Capitol was their ‘1776 Moment’

by Franita Tolson

"The pro-Trump insurrectionists seeking to replicate 1776 ignore that America has consistently recommitted itself to democracy in the two centuries since the Revolution — choosing voting over violence and ballots over bullets."

The Last Action Hero and the First President

by Craig Bruce Smith

If an Austrian-born bodybuilder, a Hollywood actor, can learn the value of the Founders’ ideals, maybe we can too.

The Challenges of Teaching the Constitution in the Age of Trump

by Nikolas Bowie

The Constitution has long been used for antidemocratic purposes; the vigorous enforcement of the Reconstruction amendments' guarantees of multiracial democracy was the historical aberration. 

Trump Is a Threat to Democracy. But That Doesn’t Mean He’s Winning

by Daniel Bessner and Ben Burgis

Overreaction to the horror of January 6 risks giving license to a host of new internal security measures that will likely threaten democracy more than the misguided and futile efforts of Donald Trump and his followers to overturn the election. 

Immigrants, Trump, Pope Francis, and Two Films

by Walter G. Moss

Two recent films evoke Pope Francis's message opposing insular nationalism, a stance which echoes the inclusionary nationalism of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass. 

Impeach Trump, But Not for What He Said on January 6th

by Jonathan Zimmerman

There's ample justification for Trump's second impeachment in his pattern of disregard for democracy and efforts to subvert the vote count. But reviving the charge of incitment of insurrection opens the door to ideological prosecution and the suppression of free speech. 

That Time Private US Media Companies Stepped in to Silence the Falsehoods and Incitements of a Major Public Figure … In 1938

by William Kovarik

"There’s not much that separates, on the one hand, the mad fanaticism that held Jews supposedly responsible for their own persecution in 1938 and, on the other, the fevered delusion of 2020."

When Black Humanity is Denied

by Edna Bonhomme

Enlightenment institutions – the prison, science, and asylums – are organized through binaries that draw boundaries between people who are and are not able to exercise freedom. Black artistic work supports Black freedom by challenging those boundaries. 

No, the Constitution Does not Allow President Trump to Pardon Himself

by Dale Carpenter

The history of debate over the pardon power in the Constitiution strongly supports the claim that a president's pardon of themselves would be unconstitutional. 

In a Civil War, Accountability Must Precede Healing

by Melody Barnes and Caroline E. Janney

"With no consequences for their acts of rebellion, the months after Appomattox saw former Confederates regain local and state control and bend it to their purposes."

Warnock’s Election Reminds Us that Black Churches are Vital to Democratic Success

by Robert Greene II

Democratic politicians must recognize the historical role of Black churches not just as gathering places where visiting politicians may speak to voters, but as organizing spaces where political agendas are formed. Dems who wish to emulate Rev. Warnock's victory need to embrace Black churches in a deep way.