Roundup

China and the United States Could Avoid an Unnecessary War

by Lawrence Wittner

Both the Chinese and U.S. governments are engaging in reckless behavior that could lead to disaster.

America's Coronavirus Endurance Test

by Howard Markel

To defeat the virus, we will have to start thinking in years, not months. We must refuse to give up on flattening the curve. It’s up to us to hold the line until our government catches up.

Setting the Lost Cause on Fire

by Karen L. Cox

Once revered by their communities, the United Daughters of the Confederacy today are simply out of step with change sweeping the South and the nation.

When Politics Hits Home: Pandemic Moms are Descendants of Soccer and Votes-for-Women Moms

by Laura Kumin

Over 100 years ago, legions of women found ways to convey to non-activist women that the vote was crucial to them and the well-being of their families.

Psychiatry and Homosexuality Draft Exemptions During the Vietnam War

by Natalie Shibley

Although many gay rights organizations argued that the exclusion of homosexuals from the armed forces was unconstitutional and discriminatory, several of the same groups also offered advice to gay men who wanted to be disqualified from military service.

How Understanding the History of Hurricanes Can Help Us Prepare for the Next Big One

by Eric Jay Dolin

We, as a society, can decide how best to respond to the continued barrage that is sure to come from the greatest storms on earth, thereby lessening their impact.

She Played a Key Role in the Police Response to the Watts Riots. The Memory Still Haunts Her—But Black History Is Full of Haunting Memories

by Morgan Jerkins

Regina was a Black woman working as an LAPD dispatcher in the 77th Street Division of South Los Angeles. She sent officers to respond to another's call for aid on August 11, 1965, warning them not to escalate any situation. Today she still asks “why didn’t they listen to me?”

Don’t Believe the Lie That Voting Is All You Can Do

by Daniel Hunter

Stop minimizing the work of movements.

Somebody Died, Babe: A Musical Coverup of Racism, Violence & Greed

by Kevin Kehrberg & Jeffrey A. Keith

The song "Swannanoa Tunnel" has been changed through generations of recordings by white musicians, concealing its origins as a song sung by Black convict-lease laborers who were forced to work in deadly conditions, often as punishment for minor crimes (or no crimes at all). 

History, Civil Rights and the Original Cancel Culture

by Keri Leigh Merritt and Chris Richardson

Confederate monuments valorize a political movement that violently "cancelled" interracial movements to improve the lives of poor southerners. 

Police Sexual Violence Is Hidden in Plain Sight

by Anne Gray Fischer

How did we get to the point where sexual assault is considered valid, necessary police work? The answer lies in the origin story of modern police, and specifically in the history of the discretionary enforcement of public order laws.

Named For The Enemy

by Ty Seidule

"The military has perhaps the most diverse workforce in the country. That is something to be proud of. Yet we must ensure that no one who volunteers to protect America works in a place named for someone who committed treason to protect slavery."

The Undemocratic History of School ‘Pandemic Pods’

by Mark Boonshoft

The Coronavirus pandemic threatens to entrench the undemocratic practice of exclusive education for children of the rich. 

The Next Lost Cause?

by Caroline E. Janney

The South’s mythology glamorized a noble defeat. Trump backers may do the same.

The Violence at the Root of the Silent Majority

by Brian Tochterman

As a vigilante film, “Joe” inaugurated a genre that exploded onto screens in the 1970s.

Trump’s Mail Ballot Claims are Part of a Long History of Voter Suppression

by Griffin Black

Over the years since 1965, voter suppression tactics have returned in forms like voter ID qualifications and voter roll purges that force citizens through administrative hoops to reach the ballot box. 

In the 1990s, Feminism Found a New Ally: Computers (excerpt)

by Lisa Levenstein

Few observers recognized that Edie Farwell’s group was part of a wide-ranging network of female technology specialists who were using the 1995 Beijing NGO conference to build the infrastructure for what would become online feminism.

Unnatural Disasters: On the Pandemics We Make For Ourselves

by Ann Neumann

Like cholera and poverty, Covid-19 is not the crisis; it’s a disease that feeds on our racialized inequalities.

How Women’s Suffrage Changed America Far Beyond the Ballot BoxA Century of Change For American Women

by Ellen Carol DuBois

Looking back at this history, it’s clear that the 19th Amendment wasn’t the end of a movement but an extraordinary milestone in the ongoing fight to extend and protect American democracy. 

Economic Reforms Might Be The Best Health-Care Reforms

by Evelynn M. Hammonds and Susan M. Reverby

Only by understanding and confronting this entangled web of racism and public health can we actually solve a problem that has been centuries in the making.