Roundup

Empathy in the Archive: Care and Disdain for Wet Nursing Mothers

by Anna K. Danziger Halperin

"Just like today, women’s decisions in the past about how to feed their babies were shaped by personal preference, to be sure, but the possibilities available are bounded by technological innovations, shifting medical advice, and social, cultural, and economic pressures and practices."

Don't Forget about the Nuclear Danger over Taiwan

by Michael Klare

Ukraine isn't the only potential nuclear flashpoint. The United States and China need to begin negotiations to limit the risk around the conflict over Taiwan's status. 

We Need to Rethink the "Weed-Out" Course

by Jonathan Zimmerman

The presumption that a large percentage of students should flunk an introductory-level science course as a necessary safeguard of "rigor" is outdated gatekeeping. 

Does Justice Jackson Offer a Path to Defend Rights Through Originalism?

by Evan Turiano

Abolitionists and the drafters of the Reconstruction Amendments understood that the legitimacy of broader claims to rights and citizenship depended on making a claim on the purposes set forth for the Constitution. Ketanji Brown Jackson's recent voting rights dissent suggests she hopes to revive that tradition. 

Journalist Dorothy Thompson's Warnings About Fascism – Abroad and at Home

by Ben Railton

After being expelled as a journalist from Germany for criticizing Hitler, Dorothy Thompson worked to make clear to Americans what fascist movements stood for and how they could take root in the soil of racism and nativism here. 

The Moral Panic over Activist Teachers Wildly Overstates' Teachers' Power

by Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz

Public school teachers have never enjoyed robust academic freedom protections, and have been subject to scrutiny and punishment for "subversive" views, leading to teacher burnout and diminished educational quality. 

The Attack on Public Higher Ed is Part of Right's War on Independent Expertise

by Brendan Cantwell and Barrett J. Taylor

While culture war flareups get media attention, two education professors argue that the right is going further, attacking the idea that public universities should operate outside of partisan political control. 

Putin Could Fall, but it Might Not Help the West Much

by Jim Sleeper

Those speculating on the possible precarity of Putin's regime should be wary of the illiberal and authoritarian tendencies rising in the West. 

How America Short-Changed Black WWII Vets, and Why it Still Matters

by Matthew Delmont

Black servicemembers immediately understood the insulting dismissal of their contributions to the war against fascism. But their exclusion, by legislative design and administrative discrimination, from the postwar benefits white veterans enjoyed was the longer-lasting harm. 

The Nazi use of Legalism to Consolidate Power and Eliminate Democracy

by Christopher R. Browning

Hitler's lesson after a token prison sentence for organizing a coup attempt was to work to seize power through legal means with the support of ideologically sympathetic courts. Non-MAGA conservatives appear to be missing important lessons. 

Hilary Mantel, Historian

by Samuel Clowes Huneke

The celebrated novelist legacy to scholars is a model for examining psychological complexity and political motivation in the past. 

Obama's Lost Manuscript is Also a Lost Path to a Left Populism

by Timothy Shenk

Substantive politics? Broad-based material benefits for the mass of Americans? Rejecting the rule of credentialed technocrats? Mobilizing voters and legislating instead of relying on the courts to protect basic rights? An unpublished 1990s manuscript co-authored by Barack Obama may leave readers wondering what happened to those ideas. 

Look to Russia's Civil War to Explain Current Carnage in Ukraine

by Adam Hochshild

The brutality of the Russian war against Ukraine shows few of the linguistic, ethnic, or religious markers that have often accompanied human rights abuses by armies. Thinking of the conflict as a war to maintain empire explains the scope and nature of violence.

The Troubling History of Arlington Cemetery's Confederate Monument

by Samantha Baskind

The monument misrepresents the history of the Confederacy, and is itself a document of the way that white supremacy enabled a national "reconciliation" after the Civil War. 

Fannie Lou Hamer and the Meaning of Freedom in Contemporary America

by Keisha N. Blain

Keisha Blain responds to a round table forum on her new biography of the Mississippi freedom activist, whose thinking and leadership in the movement can inform struggles for justice today. 

The Roundup Top Ten for October 7, 2022

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

"For We Were Strangers": Trans Refugees and Moral Panics

by Gillian Frank

Trans Americans will be increasingly compelled to flee states where laws repress them. What does this refugee crisis share with the past experiences of queer people migrating in search of safety and sexual freedom or women crossing state lines to access abortion? 

The Limits of Nonprofit Urban Development in Boston

by Claire Dunning

In Boston, nonprofit agencies became the principal vehicle for redevelopment. While they could empower residents of poor communities to compete for grants and negotiate with city authorities, they couldn't make a deep impact on inequality in the city and let city agencies off the hook for discriminatory policies. 

Two Years After George Floyd: What Next?

by Austin McCoy

Despite the massive insurgency of 2020, activists struggle as news media amplify reactionary moral panics about history curricula and crime to justify increasing the funding and power of police departments that have seen superficial reforms at best. 

What Should Historians Know about Indigenous Land Acknowledgments?

by Elizabeth Ellis and Rose Stremlau

"Treating the practice of land acknowledgment seriously requires more than just getting the names, phrasing, and pronunciation right; rarely are there simple answers."