Roundup

Oil and Spills Have Always Gone Hand in Hand

by Nolan Varee

Transporting a toxic substances quickly over long distances to market will inevitably produce spills. Though the technology of oil transport has changed, this essential fact remains unchanged, and will as long as regulation treats the risk as an acceptable part of the business.

What Can We Learn from the 1923 Speaker Fight?

by Christopher McKnight Nichols and Maxine Wagenhoffer

Intraparty factionalism was prevalent then as now, but the most recent speaker battle shows that the forces of party discipline that could moderate factional strife have fallen away, making bomb-throwing and grandstanding politically rewarding. 

China's Rising Surveillance Capacity Ill Omen for Other Modern States, Too

by Kathleen Keller

The inherent desire of states to protect their power and interests means that the aggressive implementation of electronic surveillance measures in China is likely to be repeated, with dire consequences for social solidarity. 

John Fetterman and the Politics of Disability

by Anya Jabour

The personal became political for a historian who experienced disability similar to that affecting the new Pennsylvania senator on the campaign trail. The media must significantly readjust its framing of how disability impacts the ability to perform work. 

The Roundup Top Ten for January 6, 2023

The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week. 

Assessing the UC Grad Strike

by Laura J. Mitchell

Despite winning increases in wages and benefits, University of California graduate student workers still face the problem of working amid the rubble of a social contract uniting universities, students, and the public around the idea of the university as a public good. 

The Complex Legacy of Benedict XVI

by Massimo Faggioli

As Pope, Benedict led a movement to limit the reformist impulses from Vatican II and encouraged Catholic traditionalism, but took the first steps away from John Paul II's denial of sexual abuse by priests and introduced the concept of a papacy ending before a Pope's death. 

Mistakes Historians Make on TV

by Julian Zelizer

Presenting the complexity of history in a quick and accessible way is tough. But some tropes hurt more than they help. 

How is the Biden Doctrine Working after Two Years?

by Matt Duss and Stephen Wertheim

After pledging to reorient foreign policy around the global issues affecting Americans – climate, disease, and ending "forever wars" – progress toward a Biden Doctrine has been incremental. 

Most of All, Hamline's Decision Offends Me as a Muslim

by Amna Khalid

Hamline University, in firing an art history instructor for showing an image of the Prophet Muhammad (with a content warning, in an optional exercise), has not only exemplified how risk-averse bureaucracies use inclusive language to dismiss faculty expertise, it also insulted Muslims by associating a vast and diverse set of cultures with fundamentalist theology. 

"Receptiogate" and the Bad Incentives in Academic Research

by Charlotte Gauthier

A case of academic theft that might otherwise be of interest to a handful of medievalists stands out because of the immense, bungling, cloak-and-dagger internet chicanery involved, but more importantly because it reveals the misbehavior incentivized by European research funding. 

Can Religious Zionists Reject the Religious Zionist Party?

by Gil Troy

Can religious Zionism survive being hijacked by a party of anti-democratic and anti-humanist zealots? One historian of Zionism says he's not on board with the Israeli far right.  

Why the Fringe is in Charge of the GOP

by Richard H. Pildes

The ability of a couple dozen hardliners to derail the Speaker election reflects deep transformations in the power of congressional leaders to wield power through commitee assignments and campaign funds. Will this make governing impossible? 

No Socialism in America?

by Michael Kazin

Utopian socialist Robert Owen's heralded visit to Congress in 1825 shows that doubts about the relationship of liberty and economic inequality, and the proposal of socialism as an alternative, have been part of the American political scene from the beginning. 

Immigration Policies like Title 42 Have Long Encouraged Abuse and Exploitation

by Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez

The militarization of the border increases the likelihood that undocumented migrants will be exploited and abused by smugglers, traffickers, and employers. 

Edifice Complex: "Burnout" Used to Refer to the Problems of the Urban Poor

by Bench Ansfield

The psychologization of stress and fatigue under the term "burnout" has blunted consideration of how and why modern society makes people stressed and fatigued. The term's history shows the critical turns not taken. 

Zelensky's Attire in Congress Wasn't Slovenly, it was Strategic

by Einav Rabinovitch-Fox

Zelensky, without military experience, has thread the needle between evoking patriotic fighting spirit and appropriating unearned military credibility with his much-discussed attire in Congress. His outfit is part of a long tradition of dress choices by world leaders. 

Cheers... to Drinking Songs

by R. Eric Tippin

Drinking songs have been pervasive in human history, but profoundly divided between those framing drink as a divine gift ordered by ritual and those concerned with a party. 

Conflicting Values Explain Political Differences

by Walter G. Moss

From climate to war, differences in basic values are expressed in political conflict. 

NY Mayor's Proposal to Lock Up Mentally Ill Has Long History

by Elliott Young

The impulse to heal the mentally ill has long battled the impulse to lock them up as a threat to the society. Eric Adams is trying to do the latter while claiming to do the former.