Roundup

The Push For LGBTQ Equality Began Long Before Stonewall

by Aaron S. Lecklider

Pride month is based on an origin story of the LGBTQ liberation movement that starts with Stonewall. There is a longer history of queer political activism that has been erased because of its origins in the left.

In Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers Are History Written by the Defeated

by Lien-Hang Nguyen

A Vietnamese historian explains how the Pentagon Papers have become a foundation of domestic histories of war (both before and during US involvement) even as the Vietnamese government has declined to release its own official histories of the conflict. 

We've Been Telling the Alamo Story Wrong for Nearly 200 Years. Now It's Time to Correct the Record

by Bryan Burrough and Jason Stanford

"Imagine if the U.S. were to open interior Alaska for colonization and, for whatever reason, thousands of Canadian settlers poured in, establishing their own towns, hockey rinks and Tim Hortons stores."

Protesters Marching in Elizabeth City, N.C., over Andrew Brown’s Killing are Walking in the Footsteps of Centuries of Fighters for Black Rights

by Melissa N. Stuckey

A historian living and working at the site of Andrew Brown Jr.'s killing by police explains that local protesters are following generations of freedom seekers. 

The Last Time There Was a Craze About UFOs and Aliens

by Daniel N. Gullotta

A recent resurgence of interest in UFOs in respectable public discourse recalls the 1990s, when the X Files reflected a similar moment of distrust in authority and conspiratorial thinking. 

It’s Time for an Overhaul of Academic Freedom

by Emily J. Levine

The idea of academic freedom doesn't account for the present precarity of most university teachers, and doesn't rest on a positive concept of what professors should do with students and the public. 

Give Kids the "Summer Slowdown" They Need

by David M. Perry

Many parents, teachers and academics included, may wonder what they can do to fix the damage of COVID on kids' emotional health. The author suggests considering doing little. 

The Fog of History Wars

by David W. Blight

Nations have histories, and someone must write and teach them, but the 1990s battle over the National Standards for History remains a warning to all those who try – setting a history curriculum is politics by other means, and the right has always been willing to fight over it.

To Find the History of African American Women, Look to Their Handiwork

by Tiya Miles

"To discover the past lives of those for whom the historical record is abysmally thin, I’ve found that we must expand the materials we use as sources of information."

Emily Wilder and Journalism's Longstanding Achilles’ Heel – Partisans Who Cry Bias

by Matthew Jordan

Outrage campaigns against the news media like the one that pushed the AP to fire a young journalist recently are nothing new; they are a longstanding tactic to push the press to alter its coverage. 

The U.S. War On Drugs Helped Unleash The Violence In Colombia Today

by Kyle Longley

Counternarcotics operations have been a pretext for funding a buildup of the Colombian security forces, allowing a US-friendly rightist government to avoid dealing with the economic and social causes of unrest. 

How To Be An Anti-Anti-Racist

by John Torpey

Right-wing objections to "wokeness" or racial sensitivity training are to be expected. But it's been politically damaging to people who want to reduce racial inequality to root antiracist politics in symbols, representation and language, a sociologist and historian argues. 

Social Fissures have Made Building a Broad Liberal Coalition Hard for 50 Years

by Steven M. Gillon

Hostility toward the welfare state, frequently driven by the idea that government programs unfairly benefit minorities at the expense of whites, has prevented the Democratic party from consolidating a political majority for decades. Worshipping fallen heroes like Robert Kennedy obscures the political work needed to build and keep a coalition.

The Fissure Between Republicans and Business is Less Surprising than it Seems

by Jennifer Delton

Friction between the Trump-led Republican Party and big business organizations like the Chamber of Commerce over supposed "woke capitalism" isn't a new story. Big business's partisan allegiances have shifted according to capital's interests for decades. 

‘Lady of Guadalupe’ Avoids Tough Truths About the Catholic Church and Indigenous Genocide

by Rebecca Janzen

"Although it portrays the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe for a broad audience, ultimately this film sanitizes the real-life brutality of the Church toward Indigenous peoples in the 16th century."

Too Many are Still Underestimating the Trump Threat

by Max Boot

"What has made dictators and demagogues so dangerous is their ability to pull vast numbers of people into their personal delusions — to turn their paranoid fantasies and megalomaniacal dreams into a harsh reality for millions."

A Supreme Court Case Poses a Threat to L.G.B.T.Q. Foster Kids

by Stephen Vider and David S. Byers

State and local social service agencies for decades have been actively working to protect the safety and dignity of queer youth in the foster care system. A Supreme Court case threatens that progress in the name of "religious freedom." 

The Bright Side of a Bad Texas History Bill? It’s Too Late to Whitewash the Past

by John Morán González and Benjamin H. Johnson

"The authors of HB 3979 assume that teachers left to their own devices will present their students with the dark and vexing chapters of Texas history. Perhaps on some level they realize that control over the narrative of Texas history has escaped their grasp."

The Problem with a U.S.-Centric Understanding of Pride and LGBTQ Rights

by Samuel Huneke

The histories of gay liberation politics in divided Germany offer surprising insight into what it means for LGBTQ people to live freely in a society. 

9/11 and 1/6: How an American Nightmare Becomes Real

by Timothy Snyder

A historian and analyst of democratic collapse describes a slow-moving nightmare unfolding to ensure minoritarian rule. Will Americans, and their elected representatives, wake up in time?