Roundup

The Forgotten Third Amendment Could Give Pandemic-Struck America a Way Forward

by Alexander Zhang

Could the Third Amendment's ban on quartering of troops in private homes be expanded to establish a right to protection against pandemics? The history of troop quartering shows objections to it were closely connected with fear of disease.

There’s a Word for Why We Wear Masks, and Liberals Should Say It

by Michael Tomasky

"Say this: Freedom means the freedom not to get infected by the idiot who refuses to mask up. Even John Stuart Mill would have agreed."

Reframing America’s Role in the World: The Specter of Isolationism

by Andrew Bacevich

The release of Stephen Wertheim's book shoud prompt a reconsideration of American intervention abroad. 

Religious Identity And Supreme Court Justices – A Brief History

by Nomi Stolzenberg

In recent decades, religious influence on the Court has been shaped by conservatives of different faiths, construed as part of a mythical Judeo-Christian tradition, coalescing around a common agenda defined less by affiliation with a religious denomination than with opposition to liberalism and secularism.

The Framers of the Constitution Didn’t Worry about ‘Originalism’

by Jack Rakove

"Some of the key words and terms in our constitutional vocabulary were subject to pounding controversy and reconsideration. One has to engage these debates to understand how Americans were thinking about these issues at the time."

Sending Trump to Hell

by Ariel Dorfman

How would the earthly transgressions of Donald Trump fit into the schema of eternal punishment Dante described? 

Labor Pulse: Is This Election Labor's Last Chance?

by Jim Castagnera

The election presents organized labor with a choice between a death sentence and a reprieve that will prove temporary unless unions can put their needs at the center of a Biden presidency's priorities. 

Conservative Activists in Texas Have Shaped the History All American Children Learn

by Rob Alex Fitt

"Liberal groups such as People for the American Way were aghast at what was happening in Texas. They launched counter campaigns in the early 1970s to try to break conservative activists’ stranglehold on the textbook selection process, to no avail."

We All Think History Will Be on Our Side. Here's Why We Shouldn't

by Priya Satia

We would do better to listen to today’s historians in order to understand how we got here and recover other guides to conscience, not just look to future historians for consolation.

What Fans of "Herd Immunity" Don't Tell You

by John M. Barry

Prolonged isolation measures to fight COVID-19 do cause harm--social, emotional, and economic. But advocates of "herd immunity" are not offering a practical or safe plan to protect the vulnerable if the virus spreads on a mass scale. 

“If Anybody Says Election to Me, I Want to Fight”: The Messy Election of 1876

by Jon Grinspan

The election of 1876 was a disaster for American democracy. 

Where’s Louisiana Tech’s Loyalty to Professors whose Opinions Provoke Death Threats?

by Andrew C. McKevitt

"University leaders: Stand up for the people who stand up for you. If the outrage mob had its way, it would slash your budget to zero tomorrow, and it wouldn’t need a reason."

Republicans: The New Confederacy

by David W. Blight

"There is no Republican majority in America, except on election days. It all depends on who votes and who is allowed to vote."

“Nothing Stirred in the Air”

by Stephen Dillon

The architecture of the "supermax" prison targets the senses and emotions of the incarcerated as a means of control in the wake of political organizing inside and outside of prisons in the 1960s and 1970s. 

1619, Revisited

by Nicholas Guyatt

Argument isn’t an obstacle to the work of historians; it is the work of historians. Public interest in 1619 has suggested something truly profound: that Americans have the capacity to think differently about their history. 

Why America Must Not Reelect this Demagogue: That’s What Trump is, and it Matters

by Eli Merritt

Trump is a demagogue –– and therefore a poison to democracy. Joe Biden is not. Voters must understand that clearly. The health, and possibly survival, of our democracy depends upon it.

Let History, Not Partisans, Prosecute Trump

by Jill Lepore

Historian Jill Lepore argues that the conditions that have required Truth and Reconciliation ccommissions don't apply to the Trump administration; historians should be fighting to safeguard the preservation of records so that future researchers can tell the story of the Trump years. 

US Fraternities Must be Required to Disavow Racist Roots

by Taulby Edmonson

Until university administrations launch an honest national conversation about the damaging ideals that rest behind the foundational figures and principles of many fraternities, students will continue to be uneasy about the role of Greek life on campus.

A Campaign of Voter Subtraction: Trump’s Republican Party Must Subtract Votes in Order to Survive

by Ibram X. Kendi

The greatest myth of the 2016 election is that the polls got the election wrong. What if the polls did not get it wrong? What if the Republican game of voter subtraction got it right?

American Exceptionalism Gives Voters a False Sense of Security about the Election

by Melissa J. Gismondi and Shira Lurie

American democracy won’t endure just because it always has. In this moment, American exceptionalism could prove fatal.