Roundup

Over a River Strangely Rosy: Reading Poetry in Wartime

by Joan Neuberger

"It’s my job to explain things about Russia and its various incarnations of empire. I know how to do that — I’ve been doing it for a long time. But, in this moment, analysis seems to me to be somehow incomprehensible and profoundly unsatisfying."

Lies We Teach to Kids about the Reconstruction Era

by Ursula Wolfe-Rocca

"The narrative of Reconstruction perpetuated by many state social studies standards is part of a longer and larger struggle over the past, the latest episode of which can be seen in a rash of new restrictions on what teachers can tell young people about our nation’s history.

Historic Preservation and the Erasure of Women's History in Pittsburgh

by David S. Rotenstein

"Preservation is a fraught, power-laden process that reinforces racial, class, and gender biases. As old places become “historic,” they frequently get new names that are then inscribed upon space."

The Roundup Top Ten for April 1, 2022

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

You Can't Teach "Pros and Cons" When it Comes to Empire

by Priya Satia

Far from encouraging critical thinking, the "balance sheet" approach to teaching historical atrocities like slavery or imperialism flatters the mythologies created by the powerful to excuse violence against others, says a historian of empire and parent of a high school student. 

Putin's Threat to Confiscate Foreign Companies' Assets is Dangerous – To Russia

by Benjamin Sawyer

The Bolshevik seizure of foreign property and repudiation of foreign debt initially made the Soviet Union a pariah in the world economy, and slowed economic development thereafter. Will Putin's invasion of Ukraine have the same consequences for Russians? 

Stanford's New First-Year Curriculum Wants to Leave the Culture War Behind, if Culture Warriors Will Let It

by Dan Edelstein

A Stanford professor explains how the university is seeking to leave the culture wars behind and offer a first-year course series offering a campuswide shared intellectual experience, respects diversity, and gives STEM-oriented students permission to think deeply about subjects that aren't instrumental to a career.

The Delicate Balancing Act of Black College Presidents in the Civil Rights Era

by Eddie R. Cole

Although Black college presidents were often reluctant to publicly endorse sit-ins for fear of antagonizing segregationist state officials, they often were able to increase opportunity for individual students by lobbying for increases to public scholarship funds that sent Black students out of state to pursue degrees.

"Bridgerton" Keeps Perpetuating the Hollywood Corset Myth

by Hilary Davidson

Hollywood tends to portray women's historical fashions through a lens formed by today's ways of dressing, and ignore the more complex material and social history of clothing. 

Can the Past be Repaired?

by Sophie Gonick

Menachem Kaiser's memoir of attempts to reclaim a Polish building lost by his Jewish grandfather during World War II raises questions about the right to property as parts of historical memory, and the problematic aspects of seeking reparation through restoration of ownership.

Antiabortion Movement Gunning for Contraceptive Rights, Too

by Anya Jabour

A century ago, sex researcher Katharine Bement Davis was silenced because she fought to redefine women's sexuality and contraceptive use as normal and fight for its decriminalization. The right today wants to undo her legacy through the courts.

A Pledge to Recuse by KBJ Likely Means the End of Affirmative Action

by Keisha N. Blain

With a challenge to Harvard's affirmative action looming, Judge Jackson's pledge to recuse herself means that the Supreme Court is more likely to rule that affirmative action in private university admissions is unconstitutional, with the likely consequence of increasing racial inequality. 

The Religious History of Caesarean Surgery and the Abortion Debate

by Elizabeth O'Brien

In the 18th century, priests in Spanish colonies in the Americas were required to perform Caesaran operations on pregnant women whose own lives were beyond saving in order to baptize their fetuses, helping to develop the Catholic doctrine that the unborn already had souls. 

Baseball's Labor War

by Peter Dreier

Organizing the Brotherhood of Professional Base-ball Players in 1885, John Montgomery Ward asked whether team owners could treat their players as chattel through the "reserve clause." Today's players seem to be learning some similarly radical lessons from the recent owner's lockout.

Using "The Children" as an Excuse for Anti-LGBTQ Laws is Nothing New for Florida

by Julio Capó Jr. and Shevrin Jones

The 1950s Johns Committee was formed by the state legislature to root out communist subversion in Florida. Not finding any red influence in the NAACP, they turned to scapegoating LGBTQ Floridians. 

KBJ Confirmation Questions Show Republicans Willing to Throw Out Vast Swaths of Civil Rights Law

by Heather Cox Richardson

"Madison was on to something when he warned that there was a connection between establishing a religion and destroying American democracy."

The Roundup Top Ten for March 25, 2022

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

America *IS* Exceptional. It's Not a Good Thing

by Aviva Chomsky

The climate emergency requires Americans to reject the nation's exceptional consumption of resources and hoarding of wealth in favor of a political economy that enables a global good life for all within the limits of the planet. 

Revenge of the Patriarchs: Why Autocrats Fear Women

by Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks

"Fully free, politically active women are a threat to authoritarian and authoritarian-leaning leaders—and so those leaders have a strategic reason to be sexist."

The Right Isn't Just Rejecting the 2020 Election – It's Worse than That

by Thomas Zimmer

For a growing number of Republicans, the illegitimacy of an election reflects not the process but the results – Democrats winning.