Roundup

The Truth Is That Most Voters Are Anything but Indecisive! Period!

by Elwood Watson

The stark difference in tone and message between the Democratic and Republican conventions suggests that the parties know a basic fact: most voters have made up their minds. 

Even After Their Fearmongering Proves Wrong, Republicans Keep At It. Here’s Why.

by Lawrence B. Glickman

Trump's politics of fear are an extension of reactionary political rhetoric that dates back to the effort by right-wing leaders to argue that New Deal programs would lead to totalitarianism. 

While Auburn Hides Behind Law, Troy University Takes Racist Name Off Building

by Jennifer Brooks

A history professor urges her university to defy an Alabama law that prohibits renaming a historic public building; the legacy of civil disobedience from the Civil Rights movement demands nothing less. 

Whose Anger Counts?

by Whitney Phillips

Many complaints about "cancel culture" depend on a false equivalency between left and right forms of internet argument that ignores the nature of far-right online harassment as a tool of power. 

Roundup Top Ten for August 28, 2020

The top op eds by historians and/or about history from around the web this week. 

Trump’s Convention May Be The Culmination Of Decades Of Republicans’ Dirty Politics

by Julian Zelizer

The low-road tactics have proved to be effective. They play to the worst fears of voters, and they have succeeded in negatively shaping how parts of the electorate view Democratic candidates. 

Stars and Stripes and Blasphemy

by L.D. Burnett

What we heard from Mike Pence was a white evangelical Christian swapping out the Savior for the United States flag.  

Abolishing Child Labor Took the Specter of ‘White Slavery’ and the Job Market’s Near Collapse During the Great Depression

by Betsy Wood

Reformers who sought to ban child labor had to make significant compromises with agricultural interests and white supremacists, explaining why significant loopholes in the ban exist.   

Presidents Have a Long History of Condescension, Indifference and Outright Racism Towards Black Americans

by Stephen A. Jones and Eric Freedman

Political calculation has always been at work in presidential dealings with African Americans, from George Washington to Donald Trump. But often, those dealings also reflected condescension, indifference, racial bias and outright racism in chief executives who took a solemn oath to serve all American citizens equally.

The Banality of Evocation: How to Remember a Feminist Movement That Hasn’t Ended

by Erin L. Thompson

The success of the organization Monumental Women in placing statues of Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Central Park in fact illustrates that the struggle for women's power is very much ongoing. 

For Black Women, The 19th Amendment Marked Not The End, But The Beginning Of The Movement For Voting Rights

by Martha S. Jones

Black women sought ways to exercise political power without the vote at the same time as they labored in a long campaign to win access the ballot. 

How a Political Dispute Over the Early American Postal System Could Have Jeopardized the Whole U.S. Constitution

by Robert W.T. Martin

The nation has always depended on systems for sharing information and ideas. Disruptions to those systems can be devastating. Ask the Anti-Federalists. 

The Guardians: Does "The Resistance" Actually Want More Democracy, or Less?

by Samuel Moyn

Samuel Moyn warns that a leading Never Trump legal scholar is less concerned with how Trump might harm minorities than with how Trump might harm the image of rule by elites. 

Overt Racism in the Street and Quieter Racism in the Curriculum

by Alan J. Singer

I don’t want to drop James Hammond’s speech to the United States Senate proclaiming “Cotton is King” from United States history textbooks and websites. But when the speech is cited, it should include an explanation who this man was, what he believed, and what he did.

The Last Fundamentalist Empire Died Yesterday in Lynchburg, Virginia

by John Fea

Although he oversaw tremendous growth at Liberty University and tried to lead in the culture wars, Jerry Falwell Jr. was unable to maintain credibility as a faith leader necessary to hold his empire. It's unclear whether any evangelical organization can succeed as a business and a theological enterprise. 

Nepotism Is Bad For Government. Trump’s Convention Reminds Us Why

by Christine Adams

The pervasive influence of Trump's family members on government compares to the courts of the Bourbon kings of France. Republicans might consider how that worked out. 

Qanon Misdirects Our Attention Away From The Real Threats To Children

by Paul M. Renfro

"Moral panics like QAnon work to distract from less outrageous, far more insidious sources of harm. Even worse, they contribute to punitive policies that separate and hurt families, perpetuate mass incarceration and keep people in a state of fear."

“Safety and Security” in Boston Schools: A History of Police and Repression

by Matt Kautz

Opponents of school desegregation in Boston used the police to frame Black community leaders and student protesters as criminals and disrupt community-led efforts protests.

GOP Convention: Night 3

by John Fea

Historian of American Religion John Fea dissects how the Republicans used and misused history in the third day of their national convention on Wednesday. 

The Evangelical Left once Had a Home in the GOP. What Happened?

by John W. Compton

Evangelical Christians in the political arena today support conservative Republicans. It's not just because the Democratic party moved too far left; the leaders of the New Right purged moderate Evangelicals from the ranks in the 1970s and left the religious left without a clear partisan home.