Roundup

The Spirit That Brought Down the Berlin Wall Lives On

by Robert Cohen

Bloodless revolutions from Armenia to Lebanon are about ending the fatalism corrupt rule engenders.

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editor of HNN.

5 New York Buildings That Changed American History

by Sam Roberts

The inconspicuous landmarks where the Depression exploded, modern art bloomed, and the United Nations first assembled.

Why the lies my teacher told me about race in America after the Civil War matter in 2019

by Will Bunch

The lies of omission that our teachers committed mattered then — and now it’s just as critical that today’s Americans finally learn the real history.

Impeachment Wasn’t Always This Fair

by Buckner F. Melton, Jr.

For more than half of the country’s history, potential impeachment defendants had wildly different rights from the ones they have today.

Recalling Purple Hands protests of 1969 on Halloween

by Marc Stein

Halloween has long been one of the queerest of holidays, but on October 31, 1969, San Francisco LGBT activists found new ways to confront their terrifying fears of media misrepresentations and police violence.

The United States Overthrew Iran’s Last Democratic Leader

by Roham Alvandi and Mark J. Gasiorowski

Despite a campaign of historical revisionism in Washington, the archival record makes clear that the U.S. government was the key actor in the 1953 coup that ousted Mohammad Mosaddeq—not the Iranian clergy.

A Belated Recognition of Genocide by the House

by Samantha Power

For too long, Turkey bullied America into silence. Not anymore.

What we get wrong about Ben Franklin’s ‘a republic, if you can keep it’

by Zara Anishanslin

Erasing the women of the founding era makes it harder to see women as leaders today.

What Tenured Faculty Could Do, if They Cared About Adjuncts

by Herb Childress

Here are 11 things they can do right now that would make a difference.

The Return of the ‘Witch Hunt’ Analogy

by Tony Fels

Clearly, whatever deficiencies exist in the Democrats’ handling of the impeachment inquiry, they pale next to the legal inadequacies of the witch hunting era.

What the Dismantling of the Berlin Wall Means 30 Years Later

by James Carroll

As the 30th anniversary of the end of the Cold War approaches, it should be obvious that there’s been a refusal in the United States to reckon with a decades-long set of conflagrations in the Greater Middle East as the inevitable consequence of that first American invasion in 1990.

A Racist Attack Shows How Whiteness Evolves

by Nell Irvin Painter

An assault at a New Jersey high school football game had an unexpected cast of characters.

The ‘Deep State’ Exists to Battle People Like Trump

by Margaret O’Mara

A merit-based system for hiring federal employees was created in reaction to the rampant corruption of the Gilded Age.

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editor of HNN.

The Constitution isn’t the cure for President Trump. It is the cause.

by Shira Lurie

Democrats point to President Trump’s violations of the Constitution, but the document’s undemocratic foundations enable him.

Trump’s Increasingly Weird Attempts to Compare Himself to Lincoln

by Sidney Blumenthal

Time and again, Trump has compared himself favorably to the sixteenth President, boasting, for example, that his poll numbers are higher—although, of course, there were no polls in the nineteenth century.

Killing Me Softly with Militarism

by William J. Astore

Besides TV shows, movies, and commercials, there are many signs of the increasing embrace of militarized values and attitudes in this country. The result: the acceptance of a military in places where it shouldn’t be, one that’s over-celebrated, over-hyped, and given far too much money and cultural authority, while becoming virtually immune to serious criticism.

Climate Change Will Cost Us Even More Than We Think

by Naomi Oreskes and Nicholas Stern

Economists greatly underestimate the price tag on harsher weather and higher seas. Why is that?

Why China should recognize that dissent can be patriotic

by Charlotte Brooks

History suggests that narrowly defining Chinese identity will backfire.