Roundup

Higher Education's Racial Reckoning Reaches Far Beyond Slavery

by Davarian L. Baldwin

American universities have grown in harmony with American racism throughout their history, from building on land appropriated from Native Americans to accommodating Jim Crow to promoting social science theories that justified segregation and directly encouraging gentrification through real estate purchasing. 

The Roundup Top Ten for April 1, 2021

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

The Painful History of the Georgia Voting Law

by Jason Morgan Ward

The new wave of vote suppression bills, like the one in Georgia, reflect a less obvious but important aspect of Jim Crow law: the use of superficially race-neutral language to keep specific groups from voting. The danger is that courts today will similarly fail to see these bills for what they are. 

Working with Histories that Haunt Us

by Marius Kothor

The author responds to a recent essay on the traumatic aspects of archival research. As a political exile from Togo, her identity and experience converged with subject matter she couldn't study at a remove. 

As the Country Reckons with Race, Will Tribal Nations Lead the Way?

by Alaina E. Roberts

The decision of the Cherokee Nation to accept obligations conferred by treaty to honor the citizenship claims of descendants of Black people enslaved by the Cherokee accepts reckoning with past injustices as a tribal strength instead of a liability. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Progressive Catholicism

by Walter G. Moss

Although her religious upbringing is not the most prominent part of her public persona, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez follows a tradition of Catholic advocates for justice. 

Will Afghanistan make Biden's Presidency Turn Out like Truman's or LBJ's?

by Joe Cirincione

"Joe Biden can be a great president. But not if he is so afraid of attacks from the right that he repeats LBJ’s blunder and stumbles into a war we cannot win and never need fight."

Who's Afraid of Antiracism?

by Chelsea Stieber

Recent books in different genres shed light on the limits of the French governing ideal of republican universalism for a society where racism is real and historically significant. 

Government has Always Picked Winners and Losers

by David M.P. Freund

Government action has always been tied to economic growth, and always involved policy choosing winners and losers. Policies proposed by the Biden administration as part of the COVID recovery aren't inserting the government into the market, they're changing the parties favored by government policy. 

The Lack of Federal Voting Rights Protections Returns Us to the Pre-Civil War Era

by Kate Masur

New vote suppression bills in multiple states threaten to return the United States not to the Jim Crow era but to the period before the Civil War and Reconstruction when civil and political rights were protected or denied according to state politics. 

America’s Longest War Winds Down

by Andrew Bacevich

Public fatigue over the ongoing War on Terror must not allow political leaders to do what they seem to want most to do: avoid taking responsibility or learning lessons.

Mitch McConnell is Wrong. The Filibuster is, in Fact, Racist

by Keisha N. Blain

"Try as he might, McConnell cannot erase the historical record. To use his own words, 'There's no dispute among historians about that'."

Bill Brock was the Forgotten Father of the Modern GOP

by Seth Blumenthal

Bill Brock lost two related battles: to keep the Republican Party establishment in charge of conservative policy priorities and to marry fiscal conservatism with some more moderate positions on social issues. A biographer argues that conservatism and the country are worse off for not following Brock. 

Teaching Controversial History: Four Moves

by Jonathan Wilson

A reflection on the work of teaching controversial subjects argues that it's essential to respect students' autonomy and provide them with the tools with which to change their own minds. 

The Problem with Confederate Monuments

by Karen L. Cox

"I also believe it’s important that I, a Southern white woman, write and speak about this topic with blunt honesty. Monument defenders cannot dismiss me as a Northern liberal who has invaded the region to tell them what to do. I’ve grown up here, too."

What Jim Crow looks like in 2021

by Nicole Hemmer

The most relevant aspect of Jim Crow today isn't the Klan, but the "color blind" legislation that Southern conservatives used to circumvent the Fifteenth Amendment. 

The Roundup Top Ten for March 26, 2021

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

Can a Grand Bargain Empower Amazon’s Workers and Limit Corporate Power?

by Nelson Lichtenstein

"Unions are weaker today than they were in the 1930s, but the idea that wages have to rise and democracy has to be revitalized, in the workplace and beyond, is returning in an echo of that era."

Paleo Con

by Daniel Immerwahr

Why do the lifestyles of paleolithic hunter-gatherers repeatedly pop up as foils for western capitalist modernity? 

Decades Before the Civil War, Black Activists Organized for Racial Equality

by Kate Masur

Despite being a "free" state, Ohio imposed special restrictions on free Black residents within its borders. In 1837 Black Ohioans began to organize a non-Southern civil rights movement that anticipated modern struggles for justice.