Roundup

On Going Back Off the Tenure Track

by Sarah Handley-Cousins

"I had watched my historian friends pack up their families, leave the towns where they’d earned their PhDs, and move to take jobs, but it became slowly and devastatingly clear my situation was different."

GOP Response to Paul Pelosi Attack is a Sadistic New Low

by Tom Nichols

"January 6 was not an outlier. Laughing over a hammer attack on an old man, the GOP has completed its transition from a political party to a brutal mob."

Musk Just Latest in Right's Push To Acquire Media Platforms

by A.J. Bauer

The history of conservative media acquisitions reflects the anxiety on the right that their ideas are broadly unpopular. 

Arizona Court: Armed Poll Watchers are Engaged in Free Speech, Not Voter Intimidation

by Rick Hasen

Standing around a ballot drop box wearing tactical gear and carrying a semiautomatic weapon is clearly an act of voter intimidation, says a leading scholar of voting rights. 

Musk: A Vapid Mind Boosted by Wealth and Ego

by Siva Vaidhyanathan

What happens when an unserious person has serious power over public discourse? We must take Musk more seriously than he seems to take anything himself. 

Law's Force, Law's Farce

by Julie Stone Peters

A new collection of essays applies the traditions of speculative and satirical fiction to respond to the radical attacks on rights reflected in the recent Supreme Court term. 

Michigan Gubernatorial Candidate Steeped in Disinformation About Parties' Roles

by Heather Cox Richardson

Focusing on the tension between hierarchy and equality rather than party affiliation helps to clarify why a candidate of the "Party of Lincoln" can make white power rants on public media. 

Broken Faith: What Must Christians Do About the White Nationalists Among Them?

by Anthea Butler

"Three major forces have combined to lead us perilously close to disaster: conspiracy theories, racial and historical panics, and the increasing language of spiritual warfare."

Lula's Defeat of Bolsonaro is a Victory for Brazil and the Planet

by Juan Cole

A second Bolsonaro term would have promised more of the dangerous combination of resource extraction and anti-indigenous racism that have guided accelerated deforestation of the Amazon. 

The Roundup Top Ten for October 28, 2022

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

A Near-Catastrophic Ferry Trip Recalls Past Naval Disasters

by Gary B. Ostrower

The Navy lost nearly 800 sailors to a Pacific typhoon in 1944. An admittedly less-serious incident on a study abroad trip makes the author mindful of the potential hazards of naval service. 

The Freedman's Bank Forum Obscures the Institution's Real History

by Justene Hill Edwards

Vice President Kamala Harris's recent remarks at the forum enlisted the Freedman's Bank to celebrate public-private partnerships between banks and minority communities. The real history of the Freedman's Bank shows why public-private partnerships and moral uplift are inadequate to promote financial equity. 

Screaming Past Each Other at Christmas: Debating the End of the Vietnam War

by Ryan Reft

In December 1972 the United States launched a massive bombing campaign, notionally to force the North back to the bargaining table and secure an "honorable" peace. The fierce debate between Anthony Lewis and Robert Conquest over the merits of that reasoning would resonate for years. 

Once Again, Republicans Will Choose Radicalization to Turn The Base Out

by Thomas Zimmer

The problem with the Republican Party isn't Trump, it's the fact that the party knows it can't win without riling up the far-right elements that compose a growing part of its base. 

Against Queer Presentism—How Literary Studies Neglects the Archive

by Colton Valentine

LGBTQ writers in today's literary world too often operate on the presumption that they are the first to experience queerness openly, making their own experiences of repression seem universal and transhistorical, and effacing older fictional and critical voices. 

Returning Trump's Stolen Records Won't Make America's Archives Complete

by Karin Wulf

While government archives, libraries and other repositories preserve a wealth of the records of the nation's past, the preservation of records is also a record of prejudice and exclusion. Historians must still work against the current to research the stories of women, the poor, and racial minorities. 

Partisan Politics on a State Standards Revision

by Stephen Jackson

The South Dakota Department of Education discarded the recommendations of a work group of scholars, educators and elected officials in favor of a second group appointed by the governor, including political allies and an emeritus professor from Hillsdale College, seriously undermining rigor in the state social studies curriculum. 

Disrupt the March of "Disruptive Innovation"

by Kevin Gannon

The economy of innovation and publicity in higher education often rewards people who claim credit for ideas over the people who work to develop, test, and implement them. Academia needs a collaborative model of innovation. 

What Does It Mean to Be Baptized for Trump?

by John Fea

100 Trump supporters were baptized last week in Pennsylvania, at a rally featuring a who's who of MAGA world. A Christian historian wonders: what do we make of a spiritual commitment to Trumpism, and of the political appropriation of the conversion experience? 

Campaign Signs Blight the Landscape this Month: Do They Work?

by Karen Adams

Political signs don't do much to sway voters, but in close races they're a low-cost way to make a small and potentially decisive difference.