Roundup

When Christmas Started to Creep

by Bill Black

The story of "Christmas Creep" is not a linear encroachment of Yuletide on the rest of the calendar, and hinged on political decisions made during the Great Depression and World War II. 

Monuments to the Unthinkable

by Clint Smith

German and European memorials to the Holocaust contrast starkly with an American memorial culture where the Confederate dead are revered, former slave plantations are tourist attractions, and state legislatures are seeking to ban the teaching of the nation's history in full. 

Tenured Faculty are the 18% – What Will They Do for the 82?

by Claire Potter

"Go to any faculty meeting, and you will hear what the 18% really believes: that if contract and contingent faculty deserved tenure-stream positions, they would have them."

Crypto Collapse Shows No Lessons Learned From Enron Episode

by Gavin Benke

The mythos embraced by both Jeff Skilling and Sam Bankman-Fried – that opaque and incomprehensible business practices signalled entrepreneurial genius – has only become more entrenched in the social media era. 

The Specter of Foreign Forces in Haiti

by Ambroise Jean-Léon (trans. by Awori Othieno)

The situation in Haiti now echoes a long history of coercion by foreign governments who have leveraged the threat of invasion to steer domestic politics. 

Mormon Support for Same-Sex Marriage isn't a Total Surprise

by Benjamin E. Park

A historian of the Latter Day Saints explains that the church has become more willing to tolerate general expansions of rights for LGBTQ Americans at the same time as it reserves the right to dictate sexual mores within its own ranks. 

Mike Davis Forced Readers to Embrace Specificity

by Gabriel Winant

The recently deceased radical scholar never allowed the particularity of historical moments to disappear under theoretical abstraction, which made his work powerful and compelling. 

Immigrant Merchants and Law-and-Order Politics in Detroit

by Kenneth Alyass

The Chaldean community of Detroit became a significant middleman-minority through the operation of small stores in working-class and majority-Black neighborhoods. As white flight and disinvestment created increasingly dire conditions, they also became a constituency for aggressive policing. 

A New AP Course Advances the Teaching of Race in American History (While the Right Seeks to Restrict It)

by Michelle A. Purdy

"The nation’s public schools have long been caught in a tug of war over whether they should be used to conserve or disrupt existing social arrangements."

Why Direct Democracy is The Best Protection for Abortion Rights

by Rachel Rebouché and Mary Ziegler

Given the chance to vote directly on abortion rights, voters have been swayed by personal experience and shared stories to protect reproductive freedom and leave the choice in the hands of women, not politicians. 

Trump is Back In, Officially

by Tom Nichols

"Donald Trump wants to return to the White House. His candidacy should be the final test of whether the United States has truly overcome the lure of authoritarianism."

The Roundup Top Ten for November 11, 2022

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

Some Asian American Activists Helped Build Affirmative Action; Today Some are Working to Dismantle It

by Ellen Wu

The midcentury rise of fascism and struggles for Black civil rights gave some Japanese American activists an opening to argue for principles of proportionality in ethnic representation in politics, education, employment, and other areas, key support for the group of policies that became affirmative action. 

Why King Oil Rules American Politics

by Meg Jacobs

Politicians have repeatedly faced imperiled election prospects because of high gas prices, yet remain unwilling to take serious steps to unwind the oil dependency built into the American environment. 

No, Liberal Historians Can't Tame Nationalism

by Eran Zelnik

Liberal historians confronted with both right-wing nationalism and renewed "history wars" have tried to thread a needle by telling a positive story of nationalism. The author contends the exclusionary and belligerent aspects of nationalism can't be domesticated by surrounding them with the right narrative.

William Still: Forgotten Father of the Underground Railroad

by Andrew Diemer

William Still died in 1902 as one of the most famous and well-respected Black men in America. But since, the quiet nature of his work and his preference to preserve the stories of the individuals he helped to find freedom have diminished his standing among abolitionist heroes. 

Miami Was Once a Model for Diversity Training—But it was Always Controversial

by Catherine Mas

Beginning in the 1970s, Miami-Dade County led the way in exploring ways to train health and human services professionals to interact with the area's diverse populations with respect and effective communication. The conflicts exploited by the "Stop WOKE" Act date back to this period. 

Progressives Can't Be Satisfied with "Better than Expected"

by Austin McCoy

Even if the Democrats manage to hold control of the House or Senate (or both), the reactionary politics on display in the campaign mean that there can be no rest for progressive organizers. 

In "God Forbid" the Falwells Epitomize Christian Hypocrisy

by Anthea Butler

The story of the Falwells and the scandal that undid their empire isn't about sexuality, but about the Evangelical compulsion to push back social change and the elevation of power over morality. 

Putin's Nuclear Threats are Warping the West's Ukraine Strategy

by Anne Applebaum

Nuclear bluster is a purposeful strategy to leverage fear to make NATO nations less willing to defend Ukraine and other nations neighboring Russia. How can they have a better response?