Roundup

Joe Biden Can Inspire Young People — If He Listens to Them

by Erica Moretti

Despite apparent progress, children and young adults remain politicized but unable to be political. Mostly this is because politics remains an old person’s game, seldom open to direct representation of young people and adolescents even in issues that directly concern them.

Why We Started the #ScholarStrike

by Anthea Butler and Kevin Gannon

As American history shows, there are times where the most powerful way that workers can force an issue or work for change is to withhold what others see as their most important feature: their labor.

The Terrible Cost of Presidential Racism

by Gary Bass

The emotional displays of prejudice revealed by newly uncensored White House tapes involving Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger help to explain a foreign policy debacle. 

The Roundup Top Ten for September 4, 2020

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

2020 is a Year for the History Books, But not Without Digital Archives

by Ian Milligan

A Canadian historian suggests that the national government commit to a massive effort to archive the entire .ca domain on a daily basis to enable future researchers to access the full volume of digital artifacts produced by Canadians. 

What Liberals Get Wrong About Work

by Michael J. Sandel

Michael Young, who coined the term meritocracy in the late 1950s—and who used it as a pejorative—observed four decades later: “It is hard indeed in a society that makes so much of merit to be judged as having none. No underclass has ever been left as morally naked as that.”

The Pope, the Jews, and the Secrets in the Archives

by David I. Kerzer

Newly available Vatican documents, reported here for the first time, offer fresh insights into larger questions of how the Vatican thought about and reacted to the mass murder of Europe’s Jews, and into the Vatican’s mindset immediately after the war about the Holocaust, the Jewish people, and the Roman Catholic Church’s role and prerogatives as an institution.

Opening Up New Avenues to Understanding the Path to War in Iraq

by Joseph Stieb

National security historian Joseph Stieb reviews journalist Robert Draper's account of the drive to war against Iraq in 2003, concluding that Draper explains how the principals built a case for war out of selectively embroidered intelligence, but not why war appeared as a positive option or much of the American political establishment got on board. 

Competing Visions of the American Dream are Driving Democrats and Republicans Apart

by Steven M. Gillon

Biden has declared this election as a battle for the “soul of America.” It is also a struggle to determine what the American Dream will mean for the future.

The Summer Sun Didn’t Stop Covid-19. Here’s Why.

by Janet Golden and Christian Warren

The misguided hope that the summer sun would stop COVID-19 in its tracks is one of a long series of claims made about the health benefits of the sun. They all reflect how magical thinking can leap into the gaps of scientific certainty. 

The Return of American Fascism

by Sarah Churchwell

Trump may lack the discipline and ­grandeur to which the original fascist spectacles aspired, but he doesn’t lack the grandiosity. What makes Trump so clownish is the delusional gap between the claims he makes and the figure he presents. 

The Harvard Mimeograph

by Dan Bouk

The story of the 1920 census shows how difficult it can be to disentangle the methodology of the Census from the political impact of the results. 

Gerald Ford Rushed Out a Vaccine. It Was a Fiasco

by Rick Perlstein

If steady, mature Gerald Ford succumbed to haste when his presidency was on the line, imagine what Donald Trump will do.

Looking Out For Each Other

by Leah Valtin-Erwin

The wrenching transitions that East Germans faced in adapting to western commercial culture after reunification offer lessons for the COVID crisis, and a warning that the burdens of managing social change and stress often fall on retail workers. 

Disdain for the Less Educated Is the Last Acceptable Prejudice

by Michael J. Sandel

Joe Biden has a secret weapon in his bid for the presidency: He is the first Democratic nominee in 36 years without a degree from an Ivy League university. His campaign may test the pervasive belief that elite academic credentials are a necessity to govern.

The Real Suburbs: Unpacking Distortions and Truths about America’s Suburbs

by Becky Nicolaides

A leading historian of American suburbs points to the fine-grained changes in the L.A. metro area that confound Donald Trump's 1950s version of the suburban dream. Do the suburbs he's pandering to even exist today? (Photo by author)

No, America Is Not Succumbing To Fascism

by Helmut Walser Smith

A historian of 20th century Germany says the stark political divisions on display in America today are cause for optimism; four years into Hitler's rule, German society had been molded into conformity with Nazi ideals without room for dissent. 

Surveillance, State Power, and the Activism of Shirley Graham Du Bois

by Denise Lynn

The Black organizer Shirley Graham DuBois, along with her husband W.E.B. DuBois, faced intrusive and punitive action by the U.S. government for her antiracist activism. The government used anticommunism to justify its surveillance. 

The History Of Racist Colonial Violence Can Help Us Understand Police Violence

by Sarah Olutola

Racial ideologies and practices of social control honed by colonial powers are present today in American police tactics and defenses of police abuse against communities of color. 

What's Next for Abortion Law?

by Mary Ziegler

Thinking historically about the abortion debate shows a shift in the ground of conflict from questions of rights to questions of restriction. The debate has always been about how the costs and benefits of childbearing are shared in society.