Roundup

Roundup Top 10!

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

Parental Advisory Forever: An Oral History of the PMRC's War on Dirty Lyrics

by Zach Schonfeld

Thirty years ago, the music industry changed forever in the midst of the Parents Music Resource Center's fight to identify and label explicit lyrics.

Germany's history explains why it's so accepting of refugees — and why it wants austerity for Greece

by Mike Bird

How can Germany be so seemingly cruel to southern Europe and so positive about bringing in people fleeing a war-torn country?

I love the Victorian era. So I decided to live in it.

by Sarah A. Chrisman

Everything in our daily life is connected to our period of study, from the technologies we use to the ways we interact with the world.

A Tiny Silver Lining in the Otherwise Bad Iran Deal

by Daniel Pipes

Expectations are high inside Iran that the deal will unleash prosperity. If it doesn't the regime may be undermined.

Donald Trump is brilliant revenge: The GOP’s demise looks a lot like this

by Heather Cox Richardson

The right used angry blue-collar voters and just made the rich richer. Supporting Trump settles the score

Donald Trump is our creepy new face of demagoguery

by Andrew Burstein and Nancy Isenberg

Our history is filled with demagogues. But factor in a pliant media and a reality TV culture, and we have a problem

Mantra for 9/11

by Tom Engelhardt

Fourteen Years Later, Improbable World

Inside the Salem Witch Trials

by Stacy Schiff

Diabolical doings in a Puritan village.

After Dylann Roof, Ken Burns's Civil War documentary seems flawed

by Christopher Dickey

As Eric Foner noted at the time it was released, it largely overlooks the cause of the Civil War:  slavery.

Whether Jewish Refugees in ’30s or Syrians today, USA Falls Short of own Ideals

by Juan Cole

All the same arguments against letting in the Jews are now being deployed to keep out the Syrians.

Make Father Junípero Serra a Saint?

by Tony Platt

A conversation with myself.

Top 4 Issues Saudi King Salman will discuss in first visit to Obama’s White House

by Juan Cole

Obama and Salman will both come away with something. But on many pressing issues, they won’t get even close to agreement.

Want to Annoy ISIS? Learn About This Awesome Ancient Queen.

by Zach Carter and Shahid Ahmed

This third-century warrior puts ISIS to shame.

The Bourne Identity

by Andrew J. Bacevich

A hundred years ago, Randolph Bourne was a hot property—an intellectual wunderkind who was taking the American intellectual scene by storm.

Ronald Reagan, Heretic

by Timothy Egan

There’s a gaping disconnect among Republicans in 2015 between their worship of the 40th president and the reality of his long public career.

The politics of public memory, from Watergate to Iraq

by Nick Enfield

Michael Schudson’s book, Watergate in American Memory, is a masterly study of how versions of events can become facts. The Watergate case study shows brilliantly that while facts are important, so are our interpretations and portrayals of those facts.

How Gregory Peck Fought Hollywood Bigotry

by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall

Unpublished documents in the Margaret Herrick Library (the Oscars archive) reveal Peck’s personal opposition to racism, long before Harper Lee even wrote “Mockingbird.” The young actor attacked bigotry against both blacks and Jews.

Roundup Top 10!

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

Six Myths about the Coup against Iran's Mossadegh

by Morgan Carlston

The CIA is often blamed for the August 1953 coup removing Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh from power. But a careful examination of older studies reveal that common conceptions of the events and chronology are flawed.