Roundup

Trump is Running an Openly Racist Campaign

by Max Boot

Trump is running an openly racist campaign at odds with public opinion that has shifted against Confederate monuments and in favor of Black Lives Matter. So he prefers to pretend that he is battling against the unreasonable demands of “cancel culture” — and his supporters pretend to believe him. 

Productivity Moves With Our Bodies

by Ángela Vergara

Researching the professional and familial lives of women scientists brought the author face to face with the impact of domestic and family obligations on women's academic work during COVID-19. 

I’m a College Professor. Here is What I Think about College Preparations for the Coronavirus this Fall.

by Daniel W. Drezner

Without a viable vaccine in the next six months, higher education in the United States will face a severe reckoning.

The Roundup Top Ten for July 3, 2020

by HNN Staff

The week's top op-eds by historians from around the web.

Suspect Science: Today’s Anglo-American Eugenics

by Alexandra Fair

Time and time again, the Pioneer Fund subsidized research that advanced eugenic theories about racial difference and actively undermined racial equality.

Democrats May Beat Trump in November and Still not Learn the Most Important Lesson from his Presidency

by Daniel Bessner

Democrats must not just defeat Trump; they must commit to fighting a culture of elite impunity that has enabled the rise of Trump and an unaccountable Republican Party. 

A Monument to Our Shared Purpose

by Allen C. Guelzo and James Hankins

The Freedmen’s Memorial in Washington embodies not white supremacy, but African-American agency and cooperative struggle.

Confederate Monument in Mississippi City Pays Tribute to Past that Never Was

by William Sturkey

That monument does not deserve its place of reverence. It never did. And it’s never too late to tell the truth.

Celebrating 50 Years of Essence as a Black Women’s Archive

by Jacinta R. Saffold

"For the last 50 years, Essence Magazine has consistently found innovative approaches to archiving Black women’s lives by immortalizing our intellect, literature, and culture on glossy pages," writes Jacinta R. Saffold.

Why We Owe Gay Marriage to an Early Trans Activist

by Eric Cervini

Why isn't Sylvia Rivera a household name?

A True American Monument to Trumpian Times

by Lawrence Weschler

The author pleads for the Lakota Sioux to authorize another giant bas-relief, featuring four leaders of right-wing politics, media and the courts with their heads in a pillory. 

New York Opens Traffic-Clogged Streets to People During Pandemic, the City’s Latest Redesign in Times of Dramatic Change

by Amy D. Finstein

The COVID-19 pandemic presents large cities with an opportunity to remake public space around different priorities, putting people before automobiles. 

The 1898 Wilmington Massacre Is an Essential Lesson in How State Violence Has Targeted Black Americans

by David Zucchino

The coup was the natural outgrowth of North Carolina’s – and America’s – long history of relying on white police to perpetuate white supremacy amid fears of Black uprisings.

Fear of Falling: Can Making Black Lives Matter Rescue a Failing State?

by Rebecca Gordon

Recent American failures to control vigilante violence, provide public services, and reach common decisions are indicative of a failing state; addressing demands of the Black Lives Matter movement will push America to rebuild its capacity to work for the common good. 

Underwater: Global Warming to Flood the Former Ports of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

by Daniel B. Domingues da Silva

How will the inundation of historic seaports as climate change progresses affect historical memory of the Atlantic slave trade? 

Europe in 1989, America in 2020, and the Death of the Lost Cause

by David W. Blight

We should not celebrate too much as monuments topple and old slave-auction blocks are removed. History did not end when the Soviet Union dissolved, and it will not end now, even if a vibrant movement sweeps a new age of civil rights into America. Most of all, we must remember what the Lost Cause is and was before we try to call it past.

Confederates in the Capitol

by William Hogeland

Even as the United States declined to enforce the Constitution in the former Confederate states, demolishing black citizens’ lives and liberty, first Lee and then the ten other Confederate statues arrived in the hall, with others that have since been replaced, and were embraced by the collection. The whole federal government approved.

The True Story of the Freed Slave Kneeling at Lincoln’s Feet

by Laurie Maffly-Kipp

The silence of the fugitive slave, the stillness and nakedness of the figure of Archer Alexander on the Emancipation Memorial, may well reflect the fragments of African American life that whites were able to see, but they should not be mistaken for empty space or lack of a voice.

Yes, President Trump, Confederate Base Names Celebrate Heritage — A Shameful One

by Chad Williams

The military currently has problems with racial equality in its ranks, and removing the names of Confederate leaders from military facilities represents one step in the direction of reform. 

Joe Biden Wants to be the Next FDR — But that Won't be Enough to Solve our Crises

by Matthew Rozsa

The author argues that another New Deal will advance reform instead of the rejection of market-driven capitalism needed to address the deep problems facing America and the world.