Roundup

Government Regulation is Necessary, but it has to be Smart

by Paul Sabin

Two legislative initiatives championed by the Carter administration show the challenge of balancing strong environmental regulation with administrative efficiency and accountability. The balance has, of course, been difficult to strike. 

The Government Pen

by Nick Delehanty

"The Skilcraft pen is indeed more than a pen. It’s the physical embodiment of New Deal social policies; it’s the product of disabled people’s labor, labor which has long been a site of contestation."

The Roundup Top Ten for December 10, 2021

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

Historians are Soft Targets in the Culture War. They Need to Fight Back

by David Olusoga

"Historians should repeatedly point out that the 'rewriting of history' is not some act of professional misconduct but literally the job of professional historians."

Has the Age of Trump Ruined Sports Fandom?

by Robert Lipsyte

Sports offer no refuge from the politicized cultural battles over cheating, racism, vaccination, and mental health. It may be time to bury forever the idea that sports represent a moral high ground.

Eighty Years Ago, Japan Assaulted More Than Pearl Harbor

by Mindy L. Kotler

Memorializing the attacks on the American military base at Pearl Harbor often obscures the attacks against the wider Pacific launched by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, attacks with consequences that endure today. 

Today's Culture Wars are Playing Out on Plantation Tours

by Kelley Fanto Deetz

"Museum professionals at plantations hear it all and must balance viewpoints that are diametrically opposed to one another, such as the romanticized notion of antebellum gentility and the constant fear of terror and violence of the enslaved."

The US Must Not Repeat the Error of Allowing at Totalitarian Regime to Use the Olympics for PR

by Rafael Medoff

Despite the famed victories of sprinter Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympics were a victory for Hitler, polishing his regime's image as concerns rose about the persecution of Jews. Amid Chinese persecution of Uyghurs, the US should reconsider participation.

History Helps Discern Putin's Ukraine Agenda

by Kathryn David

Russia today uses the ideological work of Soviet-era historians that claims a fundamental unity between Russian and Ukrainian people to justify its expansionist aims. 

Racism in the Curriculum Isn't Limited to History – It Affects Math, Too

by Theodore Kim

Math is not a neutral space, beyond the reach of history and entrenched racism. At a time of anti-Asian prejudice, American mathematicians obscured the importance of Chinese scholars in developing core concepts that are still significant today, preserving the fiction of math as a western intellectual tradition.

Texas is Making Critical Race Theory a Monster Under the Bed

by Jennifer Hobson Gormer

It's clear that the motive for Texas's law restricting how the subject of American racism is taught is to cast doubt on the legitimacy of present-day protests against inequality. 

Are We Forever Captives of the Forever Wars?

by Karen J. Greenberg

The Authorization for the Use of Military Force passed by Congress after 9/11 has been expanded from fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan to justify action in at least 19 countries. Repealing it is the first step to freeing Americans from the Pentagon's Forever Wars. 

The Second Skeleton

by Mabel Rosenheck

"Museums construct knowledge. As a historian of museums this is what I study. But museums don’t just construct knowledge through architecture, collecting, arrangement, or labeling. They construct knowledge by constructing objects—literally."

Why does Biden's Term Register as a Disappointment? We've Misread the Political Regime Cycle

by Corey Robin

The author was among those who thought Joe Biden might seize a "reconstructive moment" to push aside the social austerity politics of the Reagan Revolution. The problem hasn't been Biden's will, but the disproportionate obstructive power conservatives still hold. 

Forget "Ghost Guns" and other Media Panics. Gun Capitalism is the Underlying Problem of a Violent Society

by Andrew C. McKevitt

A long series of moral panics over the dangers of specific guns (and their imagined users) has hidden the real danger to Americans: the profitability (and legality) of selling deadly weapons.

The Supreme Court's Decisions This Term Will Decide its Fate More Powerfully than Biden's Commission

by Ray Brescia

In 1937, the Supreme Court faced a crisis of legitimacy, and responded by clearing the way for broadly popular minimum wage and other employment laws that had previously been struck down. Faced with ideologically loaded cases where strong majorities of the public oppose them, the court's conservative bloc faces a similar choice this term. 

For Black Americans, Spaces of Sanctuary have been a Matter of Survival

by Alicia K. Jackson

"In reality, much of African American history is the story of Americans creating their own sense of sanctuary in a land that often seems antithetical to their presence and their needs."

How the Black Country Star Charley Pride Became an Unlikely Hero in Northern Ireland's Troubles

by Walker Mimms

Pride's "Crystal Chandeliers" didn't chart when he released in in the US in 1967; a decade later it was a unity anthem for Northern Ireland residents hoping for peace. 

The Historian's Approach to Understanding Terrorism (and Why it's Needed)

by Richard English

Historians have the long-term focus, the attention to particularity and contingency, and the willingness to engage with sources from multiple origins that are missing from policy approaches to terrorism. 

Josephine Baker's Induction to the Pantheon Shouldn't Obscure how Other Black Women Served Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

by Rachel Anne Gillett

"Even as White European audiences fell in love with her, Black women in France criticized her and the system that lifted her up."