Roundup

Conservative Colleges are Winning the Culture Wars

by Adam Laats

While battles over abortion information and teaching racism get headlines, Hillsdale College and other conservative institutions are quietly following the model created by Bob Jones University in the 1970s to push conservative Christian curricula into schools across the country.

Sam Adams: The Sock-Puppet Propagandist of Revolution

by Stacy Schiff`

The journalistic standards of the day meant that the patriotic agitator saw no ethical reason not to publish inflammatory essays under multiple aliases. 

Doctors Who? The Radical History of DIY Transition

by Jules Gill-Peterson

As trans people's access to the medical system is under attack by law and political rhetoric, it may be necessary to revisit the history of trans women taking their gender transitions into their own hands. 

When Abortion is Criminalized, Can Juries Nullify the Law?

by Sonali Chakravarti

Inevitably, a health care provider will be prosecuted under one of the post-Dobbs abortion laws passed by the states. When this happens, will juries be informed by their predecessors who refused to convict defendants charged under the Fugitive Slave Act? 

The Insidious Two-Step University Administrations Use to Squelch Faculty Speech

by Joshua Clover

Carnegie Mellon's treatment of a professor who made a controversial tweet about Queen Elizabeth and colonialism shows the willingness of universities to capitulate to outrage at the expense of free speech, as well as their lack of support for their faculty. 

We Discovered the Archive of a Sex Education Academy; Is its Value for Auction or Research?

by Allison Miller

What happened when a historian and an archivist-in-training tracked down the much-rumored but long unseen archives of a defunct institute for the study of sexuality? 

A Lesson in Humility and Justice

by Imani Pery

Margaret Burnham's study of lynching and of the legal sanction given to racist violence stands in a long tradition of African American intellectuals who have recognized the need to study society in order to change it. 

Problems with Legal Marijuana will Demand Coherent Policy Response

by Peter Thilly

The state-by-state variation in marijuana laws means that legalization has the potential to create inequalities and subject some users to state violence. The history of opium in China shows the need for coherent overarching policies. 

The Roundup Top Ten for October 21, 2022

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

German Debate About Arming Ukraine is an Argument About Germany

by Anne Applebaum

Do Germany's lessons from the Nazi era mean that Germans should help other natins resist aggressive war, or that Germany shouldn't be involved? Germans still aren't sure. 

What American Dream did Asian Immigrants Find in the Southern California Suburbs?

by James Zarsadiaz

Asian-American suburbs grew east of Los Angeles in part because developers catered to a growing market and in part because Asian Americans embraced some of the anti-urban tropes common in postwar America. Today conflict still surrounds how much diversity the suburban ideal can accommodate.

Black Mountain: The People Who Fed Me

by Cynthia Greenlee

Food and place intersect in the author's efforts to preserve the history of Black Appalachia as tourism-driven gentrification changes western North Carolina. 

Racism and Sweden's Right Turn

by Tobias Hübinette

The Sweden Democrats have a long lineage on the far-right fringes of Swedish politics beginning with postwar Nazi sympathizers, but have recently begun to capitalize on economic disaffection by invoking immigration restriction as the solution to perceived national decline.

Why Liz Truss Couldn't Channel Margaret Thatcher

by Robert Ralston

Truss couldn't claim to present a solution to British decline because she took over as Prime Minister as an insider to a party seen as the agents of that decline. 

Remarks by LA City Council Members Struck at Local Oaxacan Community

by A.S. Dillingham

Remarks stigmatizing Mexican immigrants with indigenous ancestry point to the fallacy of a unitary Latino identity and highlight the persistence of racial hierarchies in Latin America. 

Will the Fetterman Campaign Teach Necessary Lessons About Disability Accommodations?

by David M. Perry

"There’s a long history of disabled Americans serving in high political office, but also an equally long history of both actual stigma and politicians hiding their disabilities over fear of stigma."

The Democrats Haven't Learned the Lessons of the Nation's First Voting Rights Act

by Ed Burmila

Beginning with the failure of the Lodge Act in 1890, parties have treated voting rights as just one of many policy priorities competing for space on the agenda and scarce political capital, instead of a basic precondition of functioning democracy. Democrats today are repeating this mistake. 

The GOP Agenda Probably Won't Influence Midterms – the "Contract with America" Didn't

by Robert Fleegler

Long-simmering trends and anti-incumbent sentiment gave Republican House candidates a strong tailwind in 1994; the Contract with America policy agenda became an explanation after the fact, but was seldom referenced in the campaign. 

Confronting Slavery in the Archives at Georgetown

by Cassandra Berman

Jesuit records pertaining to slavery have been housed at Georgetown since 1977. Their unremarked presence highlights the important difference between presence and accessibility in the archives and the work required to document historical responsibility. 

Will Court's Abortion Overreach Galvanize Religious Americans Who Prefer Secular Society?

by Jacques Berlinerblau

Not all religious Americans loathe a secular society; many see it as the best protection of their own personal freedom of worship and conscience. Challenges to Florida's new abortion restrictions show they could be a powerful political force.