Roundup

Trump's 1776 Education Plan Part of a Decades-Long, Right-Wing Movement — But Scarier

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

Today's battle over patriotic education doesn't just threaten a particular curriculum or course of social studies teaching, but is part of a broad attack on critical inquiry and public education. 

The Long History of Chemical Weapons in Civilian Law Enforcement

by Thomas Faith

Chemical weapons developed for World War I found their way into civilian policing to repress labor movements despite the objections of military leaders like General John Pershing. 

Black Political Activism and the Fight for Voting Rights in Missouri

by Nick Sacco

Let us remember that throughout most of our country’s history, a majority of U.S. citizens never possessed a right to have their voices heard at the ballot box.

Republicans are Desperately Trying to Change the Subject

by Neil J. Young

Republicans will attempt to paint Democratic opposition to Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination as anti-Catholic. There's no evidence for this charge and it's really an attempt to distract from the norm-busting dash to seat a justice before an impending election. 

The Democrats Now Face A Historic Opportunity For Structural Change

by Gregory P. Downs

Democrats have seen the consequences of their caution in 2009. In 2021, they may have the opportunity to learn from the boldness of the 1880s.

Trump Venerates Teddy Roosevelt, But Roosevelt Would Have Hated Trump

by David Gessner

Although Theodore Roosevelt's tendencies toward racism is rightly criticized today, he also was a relentless critic of the power of predatory wealth as the biggest danger to society. 

When the Privileged Don’t Pay their Fair Share in Taxes, it Can Spark Revolution

by Christine Adams

The unfairness of the tax system, especially as the French government faced bankruptcy in the late 1780s, was one of the factors that triggered revolution in 1789. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Abraham Lincoln, and American Jewish History

by Rebecca Brenner Graham

Public mourning for Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a prominent Jewish American evokes Abraham Lincoln's role in supporting Jews in Civil War service, and the Jewish community's mourning after his assassination.

Contested Elections can Unleash Violent White Supremacy. We have Seen it Before

by Calvin Schermerhorn

The 1872 election in Louisiana saw the eruption of violence as a referendum between Reconstruction and restored white supremacy. 

Is Amy Coney Barrett Joining a Supreme Court Built for the Wealthy?

by Kim Phillips-Fein

Amy Coney Barrett's judicial record indicates she would help the court move back to the Lochner era by crippling regulation and ruling against labor unions. 

The Roundup Top Ten for September 25, 2020

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

The Militia Menace

by Tom Mockaitis

The time has come to stop mincing words about militias and other far-right extremist groups. They are at best-armed vigilantes and at worst domestic terrorists acting on behalf of a racist ideology 

How to Remember the 'Notorious RBG'

by Peniel Joseph

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's "Notorious RBG" persona unfortunately obscures the fact that the late justice had a few blind spots, especially with regard to racism. Considering her faults is essential to understand the empathy and solidarity people need to work together for change. 

The 1776 Unites Project Is an Exercise in Empty Capitalist Boosterism

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

A pilot curriculum proposed by Black conservatives as an alternative to "victimhood" allegedly promoted by the 1619 Project is mostly an assemblage of business jargon and individual uplift rhetoric. Whatever it is, it isn't history.

What Would Cicero See In American Governance Today?

by Edward Watts

"The United States now approaches the tipping point between a republic governed by law and the polity of violence, governed by mutual fear, that Cicero described over two millennia ago."

This Vanishing Moment and Our Vanishing Future: John Hersey, Hiroshima, and the End of World

by Nick Turse

Lesley Blume's new book Fallout describes how John Hersey and his editors punctured official myths about the Hiroshima attacks to write his influential book. 

What Trump Doesn’t Understand About U.S. History

by Sean Wilentz

The real choice isn’t between Trump’s rendition of our history and the 1619 Project’s. It’s between ideological distortion and respect for facts, skepticism about pat answers and, above all, refusal to shape the past to fit a fixed political agenda.

Even the Republican ‘Skinny’ Relief Bill Failed. How is Such Unnecessary Suffering Justified?

by Margaret Somers

How is it that extra money incentivizes the rich to become paragons of moral virtue and economic rainmakers, whereas for working people it incentivizes them to become social parasites and economic saboteurs? How can there be one human nature for the 1%, and another for the rest of us?

We Need Civics Education — Not The White Power Propaganda Trump Promotes

by Max Boot

While history education in American needs to be drastically improved, Donald Trump's proposed 1776 Commission isn't the way to go. 

Police Power and the Election of Newark’s First Black Mayor

by Andrew Grim

Newark’s experience cautions today’s activists to be wary of channeling the urgency, the radicalism, the moral authority of this current moment into electoral politics.