Roundup

Tearing Down Black America

by Brent Cebul

Ensuring that Black Lives Matter doesn't just require police reform. The history of urban renewal shows that governments have worked to dismantle and destabilize Black communities in the name of progress.

‘In a Perfectly Just Republic,’ Bella Abzug – Born a Century Ago – Would Have Been President

by Pamela S. Nadell

A warrior for every social justice movement of her day, Bella Savitzky Abzug stood on the front lines protesting injustices that still roil this nation.

Zounds! What the Fork are Minced Oaths? And Why are We Still Fecking Using them Today?

by Kirk Hazen

Minced oaths have historically performed a very specific role: providing a weakened but socially acceptable form of an actual religious oath, swear or curse.

Back to School

by François Furstenberg

It’s not that university leaders necessarily want to open their campuses with new outbreaks looming in the fall. It’s that their business model leaves them no alternative.

Patience Is a Dirty Word

by Ibram X. Kendi

On August 28, 1963, many Americans were not ready to hear John Lewis speak about completing the revolution of 1776. Are Americans ready for the message the 23-year-old Lewis offered now?

J.F.K.’s “Profiles in Courage” Has a Racism Problem. What Should We Do About It?

by Nicholas Lemann

The Senators chosen by John F. Kennedy as "Profiles in Courage" would not fare well if their actions were evaluated today. 

The Children’s Nutrition and Dental Clinics of Mobile: Public Health, Volunteerism, and the Color Line during the Great Depression

by Daryn Glassbrook

The Depression did not create a hunger and malnutrition crisis in the United States. It brought to the fore deep-seated structural weaknesses in our economic, political, and health systems that enabled this crisis to boil over.

The Notorious ‘Yellow House’ That Made Washington, D.C. a Slavery Capital

by Jeff Forret

Located right off the National Mall, the jail lent institutional support to slavery throughout the South.

Senate GOP Votes to Put U.S. Back on Gold Standard, One of the Worst Ideas Ever

by Michael Hiltzik

Trump's Federal Reserve Board nominee Judy Shelton's advocacy for returning to the gold standard reflects her hostility to government spending at a time when the COVID-19 outbreak demands resources for public health and economic security. 

Historic Levels, but Not the Good Kind

by Heather Cox Richardson

Warren G. Harding created an atmosphere in which the point of government was not to help ordinary Americans, but to see how much leaders could get out of it.

Sexism Pushed Rosalind Franklin Toward The Scientific Sidelines During Her Short Life, But Her Work Still Shines On Her 100th Birthday

by Richard Gunderman

Rosalind Franklin overcame skepticism and discouragement from family and peers to make vital contributions to understanding molecular structures (including for DNA) in her short life. 

When Conservatives Called To Freeze Police Budgets

by David Helps

Activists calling for defunding the police and increasing social services can ironically learn lessons from conservative Southern Californians who demanded "law and order secured on someone else’s dime."

How To Interpret Historical Analogies

by Moshik Temkin

Historical analogies, done in good faith, can make crucial points about the present and help to clarify where we stand on moral and political issues. The problem begins when we begin to substitute historical analogies for historical analysis – or, even more problematically, when we come to believe that history ‘repeats itself’.

The Fed Has a ‘Responsibility’ to Help Reduce High Unemployment in the Black Community

by Ayanna Pressley and David Stein

A historian of the relationship between economic policy and racial inequality and a member of the House of Representatives argue that the Federal Reserve needs to end its historic neglect of its mandate to promote full employment.

Replace the Alexander Hamilton Stephens Statue With One of John Lewis

by Isaac J. Bailey

Stephens's "Cornerstone" speech declared the Confederacy's dedication to slavery and white supremacy. His statue in the U.S. Capitol should be replaced with a statue of a champion of democracy.

The Strange Defeat of the United States

by Robert Zaretsky

Eighty years later, Bloch’s investigation casts useful light for those historians who, gripped by the white heat of their own moment, may seek to understand the once unthinkable defeat of the United States in its “war” against the new coronavirus.

Trump Has Brought America’s Dirty Wars Home

by Stuart Schrader

The history of the Office of Public Safety, created to support counterinsurgency around the globe during the Cold War, demonstrates that Trump’s ardor for authoritarian force has long-standing, homegrown roots.

John Lewis’ Fight for Equality Was Never Limited to Just the United States

by Keisha N. Blain

By linking national concerns to global ones, John Lewis compelled others to see that the problems of racism and white supremacy were not contained within U.S. borders.

History Shows That We Can Solve The Child-Care Crisis — If We Want To

by Lisa Levenstein

Today, in nearly two-thirds of households with children, the parents are employed. In 3 out of 5 states, the cost of day care for one infant is more than tuition and fees at four-year public universities.

Remembering John Lewis

by Nicolaus Mills

How long Lewis expected America to take before it woke up he did not say, but as he showed both in the 1960s and in a political career as a Georgia Congressman that began in 1987 and lasted until his death, Lewis did not tire when change did not go as he wanted.