Roundup

Dorothea Lange’s Angel of History

by Rebecca Solnit

As is so often the case with Dorothea Lange’s photographs and maybe with nearly all photographs, the meaning of the image comes in part from beyond the frame.

Don’t Forget About Graduate Students

by Nadirah Farah Foley

Our labor sustains colleges’ educational mission. Now it’s time for universities to sustain us.

America Has a History of Pandemic Denial

by Joseph Loconte

Donald Trump wasn't the first president to misunderestimate a national threat. Franklin Roosevelt played his part in the collective denial and dishonesty of the age—until the "ideology of fascism" contagion came knocking.

An Authoritarian Power Structure Brought Coronavirus to Liberty University

by Adam Laats

How one-man rule emerged at fundamentalist colleges and universities.  

Reality Has Endorsed Bernie Sanders

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

American life has been suddenly and dramatically upended, and, when things are turned upside down, the bottom is brought to the surface and exposed to the light.

The Conservative Campaign Against Safety

by Lawrence Glickman

How did we get to the point where ministers, the president, many Republican politicians, and a variety of media outlets are calling for people to risk death to save the economy?

No, Mr. President, Healthcare Workers Aren’t Stealing Masks. You Failed Them.

by Deborah Levine

We needed mass production of basic gear, because our affinity for high-tech innovation has left us with shortages.

Conservative Critics of Trump’s Coronavirus Conduct

by Walter G. Moss

When it comes to criticizing the behavior of Donald Trump, many of the leading conservative critics have been spot on.

Writing an Intellectual History of the President’s Cabinet

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

Historian Lindsay M. Chervinsky discusses the methodology behind her latest book on George Washington's cabinet.

In Fighting Covid-19, Remember That America’s WWII Mobilization Was Hardly Flawless

by Richard B. Frank

Mobilizing all Americans is a lofty challenge. Some will resist, just as they did 80 years ago.

The History of Loneliness

by Jill Lepore

Until a century or so ago, almost no one lived alone; now many endure shutdowns and lockdowns on their own. How did modern life get so lonely?

Having It Easy in the Beginning, Tough in the End

by William J. Astore

Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian William Astore makes it so vividly clear, recalling a prophesy of his own dad, that if demobilization remains our position in the tough times to come, we're going to be in deep, deep trouble.

When Americans Fell in Love with The Ideal of ‘One World’

by Samuel Zipp

In 1943, failed presidential candidate Wendell Willkie advanced a strikingly anti-racist, anti-colonial plan to bring the planet together.

The Government Must Pay People to Stay Home

by Gabriel N. Rosenberg

The earliest effective government responses to epidemic illness in the United States came not in the context of human health, but in the context of livestock.

Coronavirus Is A Defining Test And American Government Is Failing It

by Zach Carter

Donald Trump and this virus are only the proximate causes of our coming misery. A society that has devoted itself to escalating inequality is becoming ungovernable.

The Religious Right’s Hostility to Science Is Crippling Our Coronavirus Response

by Katherine Stewart

Trump’s response to the pandemic has been haunted by the science denialism of his ultraconservative religious allies.

Coronavirus Shows the Perils and Promise of Globalization

by Samuel Zipp

During the first age of “America First” in the 1940s, Wendell Wilkie's campaign challenged Americans to confront a discomfiting idea: Our lives depend on the well-being of many millions across the world.

Why Politicians Can’t Stop Talking About “Folks”

by John Patrick Leary

Most politicians are playacting: a privileged cohort of other-than-real Americans desperately trying to convince a mass following that they are, indeed, just plain folks.

Democrats Have the Right Idea of what COVID-19 Relief Should Look Like

by Elizabeth Tandy Shermer

The failure to create a better social safety net has left us unprepared to deal with covid-19.

Roundup Top Ten for March 27, 2020

The top ten op eds by historians published around the web.