Roundup

Preserving Postal Service and Mail Voting is Essential

by Andrew W. Kahrl

If you are shocked that Republicans would use this crisis to end the postal service as we know it, then you haven’t been paying attention.

How to Run for President in the Middle of a Pandemic

by Jon Grinspan

In the 19th century, ordinary citizens did incredible amounts of work for their parties, while nominees sat idle.

COVID-19 and the Color Line

by Colin Gordon, Walter Johnson, Jason Q. Purnell, and Jamala Rogers

The disproportionate toll COVID-19 has taken on black Americans is a product of conscious choices by actors at every level of government and private industries like banking, insurance and real estate. 

Meatpacking Work has Become Less Safe. Now it Threatens Our Meat Supply

by Chris Deutsch

The modern food system rests on a thin reed of worker abuse and poor sanitation that covid-19 has finally broken.

Roundup Top Ten for May 1, 2020

The top ten op-eds by historians or about history from around the web this week.  

The Coronavirus Could Rewrite the Rules for Silicon Valley

by Margaret O'Mara

The blue-collar workers who power the digital economy — including fulfillment center workers and app-based couriers — are pushing for higher pay and better protection, just as Detroit autoworkers did 90 years ago.

The Country has been Through a Draining, News-Packed April Before

by Christopher B. Daly

By the end of April 1945, the institutions of American journalism generally met the challenges of an overwhelming torrent of news and helped other American institutions manage military, political and economic transition.

A History of Inconvenient Allies and Convenient Enemies

by Alexander Aviña

The history of American alliances abroad doesn't make sense as a drug control strategy, but is consistent with a strategy of invoking the war on drugs to punish governments that resist U.S. domination.

Time to Reflect on 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of WWII Concentration Camps

by Rick Halperin

A human rights scholar uges us to honor the anniversaries of allied liberation of Nazi concentration camps by seeing our current individual travails through the perspective of our common humanity.

My Native American Father Drew the Land O’Lakes Maiden. She was Never a Stereotype.

by Robert DesJarlait

The son of the Red Lake Ojibwe artist who redesigned "Mia" contends that taking her image off the butter package destroys a symbolic connection between indigenous people and place. 

States Are in Crisis. Why Won’t Trump Help?

by Lizabeth Cohen

The abandonment of a federalist system where states are accountable to Washington and residents everywhere can expect equitable treatment is recasting the United States of America to favor States over United. 

The Beginning of the End for Oil?

by Michael T. Klare

If there is a silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that it creates the conditions necessary to do what we have known was necessessary for decades: drastically curtail fossil fuel consumption.

When Will Universities Reward Teaching?

by Jonathan Zimmerman

In 1990, Stanford president Donald Kennedy boldly admitted that his university had neglected teaching in favor of research. Universities have not heeded that warning.

During Epidemics, Media (and now Social Media) have Always Helped People to Connect

by David Paul Nord

For several hundred years, people have used media — reading, writing and print — to maintain human contact and community in times of epidemic disease.

If the Great Depression Is Any Indication, Things Won’t Just Go Back to ‘Normal’ After the Coronavirus Pandemic Ends

by James C. Cobb

New Deal programs had difficulty returning the United States to "normal" life because FDR had difficulty persuading many Americans that the federal government was supporting their economic security. This failure makes a comprehensive response to COVID-19 less politically feasible.

The Founders Never Intended the U.S. Postal Service to be Managed like a Business

by Richard R. John

The mail delivery agency is supposed to serve the public good — not worry about profit.

Why History is Hard — and Dangerous — to Teach and how to Get Kids to Stop Thinking it is ‘Boring and Useless’

by Edward Ayers

Young people love history, just not history as it is forced upon them.

Fifty Years Ago This Spring: Millions of Students Struck To End a War in Vietnam

by Steve Early

1970 Student Strike participant Steve Early reflects on the massive college student walkouts and their relevance to today's political climate.

Trump's Outrageous Suggestion Comes with a Dark History

by Jennifer Le Zotte and Jacob Steere-Williams

This is not the first time that disinfectants appeared at the center of a health crisis or as part of a politicized resistance to sound medical advice.

The (Yelling) Mothers of Us All

by Rachel Shteir

A review of Leandra Zarnow's biography of Bella Abzug, "Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug."