Roundup

Human Beings Make Elections Work – Were You Kind to Poll Workers Today?

by Amel Ahmed

Overworked, underpaid, and now harassed and even threatened: election workers are the backbone of democracy and the nation can't afford to have them pushed out of their jobs. 

The 1968 Tuskegee Student Uprising and the Moral Force of the Black University

by Brian Jones

"In a moment when Black studies and Black history are widely under attack, it can be useful to remember that Black student activists have historically been at the center of fights to democratize higher education and expand the curriculum."

Critical Minerals and Geopolitical Competition

by Gregory Brew and Morgan Bazilian

Can developed nations decarbonize without exacerbating the geopolitics of resource extraction as demands for critical minerals conflicts with local labor, environmental, and human rights protection? 

Whatever the Result on Tuesday, Don't Expect the GOP to Go "Back to Normal"

by Cas Mudde

It's become clear that, win or lose, the hard right and conspiracy theorists are too prominent in the Republican base for the party to stop catering to them. 

Who Still Needs the Carnivalesque?

by Ed Simon

Despite its repeated theorization, the political meaning of carnivals and the social inversions they temporarily enable remains hotly debated. 

From Persecution to Pride: The Pink Triangle Symbol

by Jake Newsome

2022 is the worst year on record for anti-LGBTQ legislation in America, making the historical persecution of sexual minorities even more important to remember. 

The Fascism Debate is Over; Fascism Won

by Jonathan M. Katz

Academic hair-splitting about the applicability of the F-word to the MAGA phenomenon has not served the cause of democracy well. 

"Bolsonarismo" After Bolsonaro: Lula's Return and Antifascist Organizing in Brazil

by Sean Purdy

Entrenched support for Bolsonaro in Brazil's police, military, and institutions mean that the left will need to sustain grassroots mobilization to prevent the right from sweeping back into power. 

The Roundup Top Ten for November 4, 2022

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

"A League of Their Own" Update Engages Lives of Queer Women in the 1940s

by Lauren Gutterman

"The series’ portrait of queer life amid World War II might seem unrealistic to some, but history reveals that queer women and trans men — from butch to femme and married to unmarried — often found opportunities to act on their desires and build queer communities."

Witches are Having a Moment in 2022

by Anna K. Danziger Halperin

Women have long understood accusations of witchcraft as attacks on their efforts to exert power in their societies. This may explain why women today are embracing the symbol. 

Small Nations, Big Feelings: America's Favored European Nations Before Ukraine

by Madelyn Lugli

"Feeling patriotism for a foreign country is, when you think about it, odd."

Can Americans Understand the Divisions in Latino Politics?

by Geraldo Cadava

Despite the lip service both parties pay to welcoming (and deserving) the growing Latino vote, do their non-Latino leaders actually understand the complexities of this large demographic category? Do they want to? 

The Tyranny of the Maps: Rethinking Redlining

by Robert Gioielli

The four-color mortgage security maps created by New Deal-era bureaucrats and bankers have become a widely-known symbol of housing discrimination and the racial wealth gap. But does the public familiarity with the maps obscure the history of housing discrimination? And what can historians do about that?

The Past and Present of Christian Nationalism in America

by Eric McDaniel

"Christian nationalism is a religious and political belief system that argues the United States was founded by God to be a Christian nation and to complete God’s vision of the world. In this view, America can be governed only by Christians, and the country’s mission is directed by a divine hand."

History Makes the Best Argument to Keep Affirmative Action

by Glenn C. Altschuler and David Wippman

"The Supreme Court’s continued focus on educational benefits as the legal justification for affirmative action has led the policy’s supporters to play down what may well be a more compelling argument: the need to overcome past and continuing discrimination."

The Robber Barons Had Nothing on Musk

by David Nasaw

Like the Gilded Age robber barons, Elon Musk's self-made mythos hides the government subsidies supporting his businesses. Unlike them, he has the werewhithal to move financial markets to his advantage through Twitter. 

A Warning from Weimar: The Danger of Courts Hostile to Democracy

by Samuel Huneke

Far from being guardrails for democracy, Weimar courts were implacably hostile to it, and paved the way for its overthrow by leniency toward right-wing political violence. 

The Line Between Rhetoric and Political Violence is Fading Fast

by Matthew Dallek

By rhetorically signalling contempt for the government, public institutions, and their opponents, the leaders of the Republican Party are failing to maintain the separation of politics and violence.

Putin, Contending Ukraine Doesn't Exist, Seeks its Destruction

by Olesya Khromeychuk

Unfortunately for the Russian leader, despite widespread global ignorance of the substance of Ukrainian nationhood, repeated attempts to destroy it testify to its reality.