Roundup

Two Years After George Floyd: What Next?

by Austin McCoy

Despite the massive insurgency of 2020, activists struggle as news media amplify reactionary moral panics about history curricula and crime to justify increasing the funding and power of police departments that have seen superficial reforms at best. 

What Will Nobel Recognition Mean for Ancient Human DNA Studies?

by Mary Prendergast

An archaeologist sees the recogntion of paleogenomics as a vital tool to reinvigorate the field's access to knowledge about early humans, but warns that the science needs to be accompanied by ethical self-reflection to respect the remains of indigenous people and avoid giving credence to pseudoscientific racism. 

"For We Were Strangers": Trans Refugees and Moral Panics

by Gillian Frank

Trans Americans will be increasingly compelled to flee states where laws repress them. What does this refugee crisis share with the past experiences of queer people migrating in search of safety and sexual freedom or women crossing state lines to access abortion? 

What Should Historians Know about Indigenous Land Acknowledgments?

by Elizabeth Ellis and Rose Stremlau

"Treating the practice of land acknowledgment seriously requires more than just getting the names, phrasing, and pronunciation right; rarely are there simple answers."

Fascists' PR Plan? Distance from Associations with Jewish Genocide

by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Despite the efforts of denialists, the Holocaust remains a significant obstable to public acceptance of fascism. Contemporary far-right politicians have adopted the position that genocide was a step too far beyond an otherwise good ideology. 

The Decline of Intellectual History is a Problem

by Steven Mintz

Ideas matter, and the eclipse of the field of intellectual history puts an understanding of important ones in jeopardy. Even as intellectual history broadens and diversifies, it is still associated with the thoughts of elites. 

The Freedom to Teach About Racism Has Always Been Threatened

by Eddie R. Cole

Academic freedom isn't a color-blind value, because the principle has historically been needed to defend those who advocated for racial equality. 

Why the Iranian Revolution Turned So Repressive

by Shadi Hamid

The Iranian revolution consolidated its power, and committed itself to a path of repression, through a fusion of clerical and state power that was unprecedented in the Islamic world. 

The Far Right's Embrace of Knights Templar is About Bigotry

by Thomas Lecaque

The Knights Templar's veneration by the right is like the adulation of neoconfederates or neonazis: the hate is the point. 

James Sweet Shouldn't Have Apologized for the Truth

by Jeffrey Herf

"Those who repress inconvenient facts or produce fictitious evidence to nourish a politically convenient story are simply not historians—they are activists or propagandists."

The Roundup Top Ten for September 30, 2022

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

The Forgotten Violence of the US-Philippines Relationship

by Adrian De Leon

By declaring a relationship of "friends, partners, and allies" between the United States and the Philippines, and embracing the regime of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., the United States concealed its violent conquest of the islands and its ongoing support for authoritarian rule there. 

The Risks of Declaring the Pandemic Over

by Molly Nebiolo

As long as America has had pandemics, it has had leaders who sought political benefit by declaring them over, so Joe Biden is in good company. But moving on needs to include planning ahead. 

"As if I Wasn't There": Writing from a Child's Memory

by Martha Hodes

Writing her own memory of being held hostage by terrorists forced the author to put herself at the center of the story. 

Just Wear Your Smile: The Gender Politics of Positive Psychology

by Micki McElya

Positive Psychology, a supposed science of producing happiness, is part of a multibillion-dollar publishing market. Unfortunately, it's helped enshrine patriarchal values into the popular practice of psychology. 

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is a Model for Global Progressive Leadership

by Walter G. Moss

As many American Catholic leaders and officials tend toward conservatism and even authoritarianism, it's crucial to look to other examples of the faith informing public action. 

Black Women's Activism Ties Reproductive Rights to Broader Goals of Freedom

by Kim Gallon

Black women's reproductive lives have always been complicated by institutional racism, sexism, and the balance of personal autonomy and racial solidarity. Black feminists have struggled to use the African American press as a space to force discussion of the issues. 

Does History Show a Remedy for Dark Money?

by Bo Blew

Until 1969's Tax Reform Act, private foundations allowed the rich to influence policy and avoid taxation with haphazard oversight by the states. The new generation of independent political action groups needs similar federal oversight.

"Misogynoir" Exemplified in the Degradation of Black Women Athletes

by Donald Earl Collins

The treatment of basketball star Brittney Griner by Russian authorities (and the indifference to her case by many Americans) shows that Black women athletes still have to navigate a world of racism and sexism that diminishes their achievements and their security. 

Far Right Presence in Law Enforcement is Scary, but Not New

by Anna Duensing

Edwin Walker oversaw the National Guard's enforcement of integration in Little Rock out of duty. He held a personal repugnance of integration and soon traded his military career for the far right. Today's Oath Keepers are his political descendants.