Roundup

The Supreme Court Isn't Supposed to be this Powerful

by Nikolas Bowie and Daphna Renan

"Judicial supremacy is an institutional arrangement brought to cultural ascendancy by white people who wanted to undo Reconstruction and the rise of organized labor that had followed."

Reading History for "Lessons" Misses the Point

by Daniel Immerwahr

"We read past authors as a sanity check. They reassure us that we’re not alone in what we see."

Dirtbag Historicism

by Leland Renato Grigioli

While historians have long been embattled to demonstrate that their discipline contributes to some external standard of usefulness, the profession now must also content with the political abuse of history through narratives of identity-based nostalgia. 

A Marker Recognizing Fannie Lou Hamer in Mississippi is a Step Toward Justice

by Keisha N. Blain

As conservatives restrict the teaching of the history of racism in America, the town of Winona, Mississippi has taken a necessary step to memorialize the state-sanctioned jailhouse beating of Fannie Lou Hamer and other activists in 1963. 

Previous Congressional Hearings Inform What to Expect from the Jan. 6 Committee

by Jennifer Selin

From KKK violence during Reconstruction to Watergate, high profile Congressional investigations have approached controversial issues. Partisanship is likely to be an obstacle to the goals of advancing transparency and public information. 

The Second Destruction of Tulsa's Black Community

by Karlos K. Hill

Photographer Donald Thompson has set out to capture a visual history of Tulsa's Greenwood district, an African American community decimated first by the 1921 race massacre and then by urban renewal in the 1970s. Historian Karlos Hill interviews him about his work. 

Considering the Full Life of Wilma Mankiller

by Alaina E. Roberts

Wilma Mankiller's career as an activist included a stint as the first female head of the Cherokee Nation, but she must also be remembered for the mass disenrollment of the descendants of Cherokee Freedmen from the tribe's rolls and their exclusion from a share of new income to the tribe. 

Why the Voices of the Enslaved's Descendants Matter at Montpelier and Other Historic Sites

by Stephen P. Hanna, Amy Potter and Derek H. Alderman

Descendant communities have put themselves front and center in discussions of how to discuss slavery at public monuments to the nation's founders, which is vital to ensuring that the significance of slavery is not minimized. 

Proud Boys Indictment Charges Attempt to Overthrow Government. Does it Matter?

by Heather Cox Richardson

The charge of seditious conspiracy by a paramilitary organization with close ties to the Trumpian Right is incredibly serious, but will it be met with a shrug?

What Alito Got Wrong about the History of Abortion

by Leslie J. Reagan

"The logic that Alito uses in the draft opinion leans heavily on history — history that he gets egregiously wrong."

Chalmers Johnson's "Blowback" for the 21st Century

by Tom Engelhardt

Are climate change and collapsing democracy the latest consequences of the machinations of American empire? 

Ongoing US Territorial Possessions Perpetuate Colonialism and Racism

by Anders Bo Rasmussen

While much has changed over a century, the basic question of equal treatment for citizens in American territories has essentially remained the same.

Could the US Win a Modern-Day Battle of Midway?

by Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor

With growing Chinese naval power in the Pacific, two historians consider how well the Navy could respond to a confrontation on the high seas. 

The Roundup Top Ten for June 3, 2022

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

The Asian-Canadian Gay Pioneer Theorist of Sexuality

by Laurie Marhoefer

Li Shiu Tong, the partner of better-known German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, was an important theorist and activist whose once-lost writings anticipated today's politics of gay rights and liberation. 

How History Came to Matter

by Steve Mintz

Academic historians' worthy insistence on cultivating expertise and methodological rigor can't come at the expense of working to alter public understanding of the past now that the stakes of that understanding are so high. 

In one Family's Photo Album: A Wedding, An Anniversary, and a Lynching in Texas

by Jeffrey J. Littlejohn

The author set out to identify the victim of a lynching pictured in a family photoalbum. This project – pointing out the normalcy and pervasiveness of violence as a tool of white supremacy – could be illegal for a K-12 teacher in Texas today.

Destroying the Town is Not Saving It

by William Astore

An imagined graduation speech to the Air Force Academy encourages listeners to refuse to become death dealers. 

The Monument Controversy We Aren't Discussing

by Cynthia C. Prescott

Outside of the former Confederacy, efforts to replace "Pioneer Mother" statues with depictions of Native American women have sparked a backlash including outright theft.

The Dunce Party

by Rachel Bryan

Tennessee's "Divisive Concepts" bill would make it virtually impossible to teach the history and culture of the state and the wider South.