Roundup

I'll Retire if My University Pledges to Replace Me

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Can senior professors contribute to solving the academic jobs crisis by tying their retirement to pledges by universities to replace them with tenure-track faculty? 

The Changing Same of U.S. History

by David Waldstreicher

Historians have returned to the question of whether the Constitution is the problem or the solution with renewed vigor and high stakes. Those accusing ideological rivals of "doing politics, not history" are not innocent of the same charge. 

UC Churns Through a Quarter of its Lecturers a Year. Like Me.

by Diane Mendoza Nevárez

"When UC treats lecturers as gig workers, they deny students access to the mentorship crucial for student retention and success."

Framing Political Violence as Patriotism is Even More Dangerous Than it Sounds

by Jeremy Best

The Republican Party has agreed to label the Capitol rioters of January 6 as patriots resisting a dubious (if not stolen) election result. This is a step toward endorsing more political violence and endangering democratic government.

White Supremacists Attacked Democracy and Have Thus Far Faced No Consequences

by Carol Anderson

Threatening to demolish the structure of government to preserve white supremacy is a time-honored American tradition, as is escaping consequences for doing so.

Have the University of Austin Founders Been in a Classroom Lately?

by Aaron R. Hanlon

Proposing a new college to fight campus illiberalism is a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist. Really. 

The People vs. the Hip Hop Industry

by Jessica A. Rucker

A high school teacher examines how students' critical sense is engaged by looking at hip hop music as a product alienated by an industry from the people who have historically created it. 

The Great White(washing) Way: Business History on Broadway Without Slavery

by Imani Perry

The new show "The Lehman Trilogy" tells a heroic story of German Jewish immigrant brothers who rose to the top of American finance, but it tells it without reference to the labor of enslaved people that made it possible. 

The Academy Museum Ignores Hollywood Labor History

by Andy Lewis

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was originally established to help studios negotiate contracts with the studio unions. Today, the on-set tragedy in New Mexico reminds that film production is an industry and workers make it run. The Academy Museum misses that part of the story.

When Politicians Like JD Vance Call Professors Like Me the Enemy, What's Really Going On?

by Benjamin Carter Hett

It's no longer politically expedient to attack minorities or immigrants; professors make a great substitute because their work is often a mystery to the public and they don't have the power to fight back. 

White Backlash is America's Most Destructive Habit

by John S. Huntington and Lawrence Glickman

The authors endorse the term "counterrevolution" for a repeated pattern of political mobilization among White Americans combining distrust of democracy, apocalyptic rhetoric about the effects of racial equality, and the endorsement of antidemocratic and violent means to halt change.

Extremism Didn't Begin with Trump, and Won't End with Him Either

by Joseph Lowndes

Pat Buchanan never succeeded in winning the Republican nomination, but he did as much as anyone to shape the politics of grievance and the image of beseiged white America that drives the party's base today. 

I'm Helping to Start a New College Because Higher Ed Is Broken

by Niall Ferguson

The Hoover Institution fellow explains the impetus for the launch of the propsed University of Austin, of which he is a board member. 

If the Dems Turn to the Center, They Will Lose to Trump

by Samuel Moyn

In the wake of the Virginia gubernatorial election, centrist Democrats have revived calls for austerity as the only safe electoral strategy. They will find out how wrong that analysis is if they are successful in pulling the Biden administration away from a broad agenda. 

A Met Exhibition on Women in Photography Shows All Achievements by Women Don't Need to be Celebrated

by Kelly Midori McCormick

Why did the Metropolitan Museum use a photo of the imperialist Japanese photographer Sasamoto Tsuneko as an exemplar of women's achievements in the medium? 

Colin Powell's Funeral: A Missed Opportunity for Unity

by Sarah J. Purcell

Since George Washington's death in 1799, Americans have used the funerals of prominent leaders as occasions to temporarily escape growing factional and partisan division. 

Xi Understands the Crises Facing China Better than His Propagandists Do

by Walter Russell Mead

Creating a heroic role for Xi in the sweep of Chinese history is an important propaganda aim, but it shows that China faces urgent problems in the here-and-now that the leader may not be able to manage.

The Roundup Top Ten for November 5, 2021

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

Right-Wing Ideologues Turn Aggressors Into Victims

by Waitman Wade Beorn

"Allowing the right to weave pernicious counternarratives and to create saints from sinners will only embolden future Ashli Babbitts and spawn more violence. "

Why are Medieval Weapons at the Center of a Supreme Court Case?

by Jennifer Tucker

The history and traditions of English law inform American judicial interpetation today, including efforts to discern the functional meaning of the Second Amendment. A group of historians has briefed the Court that restricting dangerous weapons in public is long-established.