Roundup

Dropping ‘Pettus’ Is a Bridge Too Far

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Advocates of renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for John Lewis are disregarding Lewis's published thoughts on the subject. 

On Sex with Demons

by Eleanor Janega

"The idea of having sex with demons or the devil... has a long and proud history. A concern about sleep sex demons traces at least as far back as Mesopotamian myth where we see the hero Gilgamesh’s father recorded on the Sumerian King List as Lilu, a demon who targets sleeping women, in 2400 BC."

J.K. Rowling and the White Supremacist History of “Biological Sex”

by Kevin Henderson

Undeniably, the present coherence of “biological sex” is an effect of 19th century scientific racism and discourses of white supremacy.

Congresswomen Of Color Have Always Fought Back Against Sexism

by Dana Frank

When he called Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “crazy” and “out of her mind” because he didn’t like her politics, Ted Yoho was harking back to Edgar Berman’s narrative that a political woman who dares to speak up is constitutionally insane.

The Death of Hannah Fizer

by Adam Rothman and Barbara J. Fields

Those seeking genuine democracy must fight like hell to convince white Americans that what is good for black people is also good for them: Reining in murderous police, investing in schools rather than prisons, and providing universal healthcare.

Os Guinness, Eric Metaxas, and Their Dangerous Myths of American History

by Abram Van Engen

"Only when we begin to see the multiplicity and complexity of history can we begin to understand how God moves in it and through it, and how we, in the present, can and should respond—righting wrongs and attempting to shine a light in dark places," writes Abram Van Engen.

Wanted: A Civilian Coronavirus Corps

by Jonathan Zimmerman

We already have a template for it: the original CCC.

Killing Democracy in America: The Military-Industrial Complex as a Cytokine Storm

by William Astore

Sadly, it’s a reasonable bet that in the long run, even with Donald Trump as president, America has a better chance of defeating COVID-19 than the virus of forever war. 

The New York Times Covers the “Clash of the Historians” at SHEAR

by John Fea

An early Americanist reflects on the controversy stirred up by the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic's virtual plenary and its coverage in the mainstream media, and asks whether these are the battles historians should be fighting right now. 

Why "White" Should be Capitalized, Too

by Nell Irvin Painter

A capitalized “White” challenges that freedom, by unmasking “Whiteness” as an American racial identity as historically important as “Blackness” — which it certainly is.

Good News: The Economy Usually Recovers Quickly Once Pandemics End

by Laird M. Easton

Since the Black Death of the mid-14th century, no major pandemic appears to have had a long-lasting, negative economic impact, at least in Europe and North America.

A Brief History of Dangerous Others

by Richard Kreitner and Rick Perlstein

Wielding the outside agitator trope has always, at bottom, been a way of putting dissidents in their place. The allegation is not even necessarily meant to be believed. It is simply a cover story, intended to shield from responsibility not only the authorities implicated in crimes or abuses of power, but also society as a whole. 

Colonialism Made the Modern World. Let’s Remake It.

by Adom Getachew

What is “decolonization?” What the word means and what it requires have been contested for a century.

Will Universities Listen to Students About how to End Systemic Racism?

by Matthew Johnson

The real story is one of powerful resistance to protest. Universities have shown a deft ability to make reforms that still preserve inequality and exploitation in the face of well-organized student movements.

The Border Patrol’s Brute Power in Portland is the Norm at the Border

by Karl Jacoby

What’s happening in Oregon reflects the long history of unprecedented police powers granted to federal border agents over what has become a far more expansive border zone than most Americans realize. 

Black Women are the Victims of Police Violence, Too

by Mary-Elizabeth Murphy

One lesson of black Washingtonians in the 1930s is that change can come if activists call attention and politicize the over-policing and violence against black women, recognizing how gendered violence upholds white supremacy. 

Remote Reflections: One Class, 55 Classrooms

by John Hopper

I was pleased that the transition to entirely remote learning went well. However, there are definite drawbacks to this kind of teaching, even for someone who is used to teaching students in multiple locations. 

Roundup Top Ten for July 24, 2020

HNN's weekly roundup of the best op-eds by historians and about history from around the web.

Federal Agents in Portland Set a Dangerous Precedent

by Tom Mockaitis

The sight of armed men in combat fatigues without name tags driving around in unmarked vehicles to detain protestors might have been expected in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, or the Latin American dictatorships of the 1970s. Such tactics have no place on the streets of an American city in 2020.

Trump’s Push To Skew The Census Builds On A Long History Of Politicizing The Count

by Paul Schor

The Trump administration’s effort not to count undocumented immigrants is nothing less than an effort to redistribute political power, one that calls to mind a particularly fierce battle over the 1920 census that highlights the role of these broader fights.