Roundup

How to Radicalize a Peaceful Minority

by Benjamin W. Goossen

There is no better way to turn a religious minority against a nation than by maligning, detaining, and excluding them.

Frederick Douglass, Refugee

by David Blight

Throughout modern history, the millions forced to flee as refugees and beg for asylum have felt Douglass’s agony, and thought his thoughts.

When It’s Too Late to Stop Fascism, According to Stefan Zweig

by George Prochnik

Zweig did not excuse himself or his intellectual peers for failing early on to reckon with Hitler’s significance.

Trump bows to Russia again

by Max Boot

Republicans once scorned 'moral relativism,' but now they defend it.

The Washington Salon That Saved Liberalism

by Brad Snyder

How the House of Truth spurred a wave of progressive breakthroughs—and what today’s Democrats can learn from it.

Uncovering the roots of racist ideas in America

by Ibram X. Kendi

Lacking patriotism is not the root of racist ideas. But neither is ignorance and hate, as Americans are taught so often during Black History Month.

Who Will Ever Tell Trump No? And if Someone Does, Will He Listen?

by Jeff Greenfield

LBJ’s SecDef manned up and told him Vietnam wasn’t winnable. He actually changed course. Could we picture a) anyone telling Trump a grim truth, and b) him listening?

Video of the Week: Viral video addresses ‘alternative facts’ about black history

The “Because of Them We Can” campaign has put out a video for Black History Month, and it’s gone viral with its message showing just what kids think about “alternative facts.”

The History the Slaveholders Wanted Us to Forget

by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Knowledge of Africa can refute stereotypes about black people and show our shared humanity.

What History Can Tell Us About the Fallout From Restricting Immigration

by David C. Atkinson

When Congress instituted restrictive national origins quotas in 1921 and 1924 respectively, the diplomatic fallout reverberated around Europe and Asia.

Steve Bannon’s Shout-Out to a Left-Wing Terror Group

by Ronald Radosh

In a rip-roaring speech at a rally in New York, Trump’s top adviser channeled one of the 20th century’s most controversial leftist groups.

About That Kissinger Quote Neil Gorsuch Likes…

by Greg Grandin

A joke? Who was it that said the use of jokes “points the way to their future uses”? It’s Götterdämmerung time.

Don't listen to the complainers on the religious right. We need the Johnson Amendment.

by Randall Balmer

By complaining about the supposed limitations on their free speech, the religious right fails to acknowledge that tax exemption is a form of public subsidy.

Barack Obama Radically Expanded Our Appreciation of African-American History

by Robert Greene II

By preserving sites that have been central to the black experience, Obama helped revitalize our civic religion.

What Tames Inequality? Violence and Mayhem

by Walter Scheidel

Land reform, democracy, education, and technological change do not reliably lessen inequality. Only war does.

Roundup Top 10!

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

Scott Pruitt Will Make America Great Again — For Polluters

by Bill Moyers

In this exclusive web essay, Bill Moyers takes on President Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency: Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt.

Video of the Week: How Immigration Helped the United States Get Its First Subway System

by Lily Rothman

Thanks to the influx of new residents, it was time for cities to figure out a way for their growing populations to get around.

It’s dangerous to flatter Trump’s narcissism with too much attention

by Michail Theodosiadis

If we’re to break out of the narcissistic cycle and solve the problems of which Trump is a symptom, we need to talk and think about it in the right way.

German Ambassador 1933: “Hostility to Jews Aimed Mainly at ‘Immigrants' ”

by Juan Cole

On the similarities between the Trump / Bannon inaugural speech and Fascist ideology.