Roundup

The Roundup Top Ten for September 16, 2022

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

DeSantis's Stunt Echoes a Cruel Chapter of American History

by Nicole Hemmer

The latest immigration stunt shows a Republican party committed to trolling its enemies and disinterested in actual immigration policy.

Once More, Railroad Workers are Taking the Lead for American Labor

by Nelson Lichtenstein

Railroad companies' profits hinge on inhumane scheduling practices—cutting the workforce to the bone and squeezing everything possible out of those who remain—that will soon be part of every industry if workers aren't able to fight back. 

"I'm Not Racist, I'm Just Mad Amazon is Destroying Tolkien's Middle Earth with Black Hobbits"

by Mary Rambaran-Olm

Viewer complaints that Amazon Prime has defiled the author's fantasy vision with "wokeness" ignore the historical diversity of the medieval society on which Tolkien based his works. 

What "Parental Rights" Debates are Getting Wrong

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

The success of the right-wing Moms For Liberty organization in raising fears of critical race theory and gender ideology obscure other historical models of parental activism; a cartoonish image of parents as reactionaries prevents dialogue that can get parents productively involved. 

Barbara Ehrenreich's Legacy is More than "Nickel and Dimed"

by Lynne Segal

The late writer's contributions to keeping a current of socialist radicalism in the feminist movement deserve recognition, too. 

The Promise and Peril of the "Third Reconstruction"

by Peniel E. Joseph

At a time when the nation is balanced precariously between advocates for multiracial democracy and white nationalists, it is important to understand the history and the incompleteness of the expansion of freedom and democracy during Reconstruction. 

Disinformation Groups are Taking Dark Money to Influence Schools – and Elections

by Alyssa Bowen

National conservative groups are using "dark money" organizations to fund a national campaign of complaint about gender and race in schools to try to create a wedge issue for the 2022 midterms and beyond, says a progressive watchdog organization. 

Centuries-Old Union Busting Playbook is Alive and Well

by Henry Snow

Since the days of labor agitation in the Royal Dockyards in the 18th century, employers have fought collective action by workers by keeping them separate and isolated. Modern unionization drives need to recognize and overcome this tactic. 

The Historical Roots of "Florida Man"

by Julio Capó, Jr. and Tyler Gillespie

The internet meme "Florida Man" signals a caricature of the presumed recklessness and ignorance of the state's population. But these stories have a long history of justifying colonialism and profiteering in the Sunshine State, and stand in the way of progress today. 

How a Major Christian News Organization Lost its Way

by Marvin Olasky

The Christian news magazine "World" once combined a religious perspective with editorial independence and investigative reporting. Today's Christian nationalist climate has no room for that, says the former editor. 

James Sweet Shouldn't Have Apologized for the Truth

by Jeffrey Herf

"Those who repress inconvenient facts or produce fictitious evidence to nourish a politically convenient story are simply not historians—they are activists or propagandists."

Ken Burns's Holocaust History Has a Palestine Problem

by Rafael Medoff and Monty Noam Penkower

Although there was no sovereign government in Palestine between 1933 and 1945, British authorities there admitted a quarter million Jewish refugees. The filmmaker's focus on "sovereign" countries' record admitting refugees burnishes the Roosevelt administration's record. 

Economism as a Red Scare Legacy

by Landon Storrs

An economic historian traces the rise of neoliberal political economy to the post-WWII Red Scare, when Keynesians were driven out of government service under suspicion of disloyalty. 

The Half-Century Road to the Student Debt Crisis

by John Thelin

A fatal mistake made by Congress in 1972 was to expand aid to students, imagined as consumers, through the Guaranteed Student Loan program, instead of subsidizing institutions to control costs. 

Black Mississippians Have Been Fighting a Water Crisis for Decades

by Thomas J. Ward Jr.

Black residents of the Mississippi Delta began organizing in 1970 for access to water and sewage services; their struggle continues today. 

Historicizing the Legitimacy of LGBTQ History

by Marc Stein

The AHA's newsletters reveal a protracted and frequently bitter debate about the boundaries of the discipline as scholars in the early 1970s worked to establish gay and lesbian people and communities as subjects of study. 

Today's Book Bans Might be Most Dangerous Yet

by Jonna Perrillo

Today's book banners have broadened their attention from communist themes in textbooks and are attacking young adult literature titles that students are choosing to read, a much more significant intrusion on freedom of thought. 

Celebs Using TR's Quote are Missing the Point

by Michael Patrick Cullinane

Like so much of the past, Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech has been hijacked by the cult of individualism. Its real message, about our collective obligations to work for democracy, need to be brought back to light. 

What's in Store for American Religion When Faith in God is Waning?

by J.L. Tomlin and Thomas Lecaque

Two historians address the recurrent American preoccupation with gauging the nation's religiosity and issuing dire warnings about the disastrous results of a decline in piety.