Roundup

Video of the Week: The TED talk that helped put Big History on the map

by David Christian

It features David Christian. It is from 2011.

The Half-Millennium When Rome excluded Jews from Jerusalem and how Iran and Muslims Saved Them

by Juan Cole

The move of the Trump administration of the US embassy to Jerusalem is intended, according to the president, to signal a recognition of the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

The Long, Tortured History of the Job Guarantee

by Peter-Christian Aigner and Michael Brenes

How liberals, over decades, worked to undermine a proposal that has long enjoyed public support.

“Our Biggest Mistake Is That We Trusted You Too Much”

by Jeffrey A. Engel

Geopolitics, Donald Trump, and Vladimir Putin’s historical memory.

In the Trump era, one of Richard Nixon’s worst moments as president looks a lot better

by Jesse Berrett

Instead of insulting the opposition, a president should try to engage.

1968: Year of Counter-Revolution

by Todd Gitlin

Counter-revolutions, like their revolutionary bêtes noires, suffer reversals and take time to cohere. The post-1968 counter-revolution held the fort against a trinity of bogeymen: unruly dark-skinned people, uppity women, and an arrogant knowledge class.

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editors of HNN.

The Presidency Is Too Big to Succeed

by Jeremi Suri

The problems of presidential gigantism can’t be solved by finding the right giant—the office is dying from its own undisciplined growth.

Why Trump seems impervious to scandal — for now

by Thomas Glasbergen

Lessons from an 18th-century English rogue.

Americans have been through worse. Here's how to survive the Donald Trump era.

by Jon Meacham

Americans have always survived even the most divisive presidents and eras. Here's how to enlist on the side of the angels in the time of Donald Trump.

I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Kanye West wants freedom—white freedom.

If Trump’s foreign policy gambles fail, history suggests his reaction could be dangerous

by Charles Hermann

What matters more to U.S. national security is how presidents responded when their foreign policy shifts failed.

How African-Americans disappeared from the Kentucky Derby

by Katherine Mooney

The history of the Kentucky Derby, then, is also the history of men who were at the forefront of black life in the decades after emancipation – only to pay a terrible price for it.

Anti-war protests 50 years ago helped mold the modern Christian right

by David Mislin

Many alienated Protestants abandoned mainline churches in favor of the evangelical congregations that formed the core of the new conservative Christianity.

How Real History Shaped The Fountainhead and Kept Ayn Rand's Fans Coming Back

by Olivia B. Waxman

Though Rand died in 1982 at 77, her ideas get new life whenever fears of expansion of government hit a new level.

Why Trump Is More Father Coughlin Than Franklin Roosevelt

by Jon Meacham

In the 1930s and early ’40s, President Roosevelt used radio to unify the country rather than simply speak to his base.

Bill Cosby wasn't 'lynched'

by Jonathan Zimmerman

This is what a real lynching was like.

How the new monument to lynching unravels a historical lie

by Nina Silber

The lie? That Reconstruction was a dark period of American history. 

Marx’s Apologists Should Be Red in the Face

by Paul Kengor

The bicentennial of the man whose ideas killed untold millions.

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editors of HNN.