Roundup

Does Zelensky's Image Upend Stereotypes about Jewish Masculinity?

by Miriam Eve Mora

The emergence of Ukraine's Jewish president as an exemplar of wartime valor challenges longstanding stereotypes about Jewish men. 

The Right Isn't Just Rejecting the 2020 Election – It's Worse than That

by Thomas Zimmer

For a growing number of Republicans, the illegitimacy of an election reflects not the process but the results – Democrats winning. 

The University in Ruins: Against Farcical "Innovations"

by Johann N. Neem

"It’s not clear what role universities should play in society, and to what or to whom they are accountable, other than their corporate interests."

The Thrill of Teaching Mill

by Samuel Goldman

Mill was prescient in focusing attention not only on the restriction of speech by the state, but on the cultural and social obstacles to dissenting opinion.

Who Gets to Be American?

by Jonna Perrillo

Johann Tschinkel, a Nazi scientist, was recruited by the United States after the war. His reflections on his educational experiences in Germany and those of his children in segregated American schools, offer a warning about the efforts to control the social studies curriculum today. 

The Black Freedom Struggle of the 19th Century North

by Holly A. Pinheiro, Jr.

The efforts of freeborn Black Americans in the north highlights the long roots of many contemporary racial justice issues outside of the frame of slavery and emancipation. 

Get Ready Now for the Storm of Takes Coming at America's 250th Birthday

by John Garrison Marks

Major anniversaries tend to crystallize debates about how Americans learn and remember history. America's 250th will follow a presidential election and years of political argument about the teaching of history and make all parties eager to win the symbolic war.

Why Greg Gutfeld is Mad at Me about Ukraine and the Holocaust

by Rafael Medoff

The Ukraine crisis is engendering conspiratorial thinking from defenders of Russia's actions. 

Does Academic Freedom Really Require Tolerance for Prejudice or Falsehood by Faculty?

by Michael Bérubé and Jennifer Ruth

Academic freedom and free speech aren't the same thing, and it's time for professional standards in academia to recognize the necessity of drawing boundaries around bigotry and falsehood as potentially disqualifying for faculty members. 

Revenge of the Patriarchs: Why Autocrats Fear Women

by Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks

"Fully free, politically active women are a threat to authoritarian and authoritarian-leaning leaders—and so those leaders have a strategic reason to be sexist."

Nuclear Power Plants Aren't Made to Survive War

by Kate Brown and Susan Solomon

"It is difficult to believe, but in all the decades of imagining nuclear-emergency scenarios, engineers did not design for an event so human and inevitable as war."

The Roundup Top Ten for March 18, 2022

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

Is Putin a New Constantine?

by Daniel Gullotta

"In short, Putin seems to strike some conservatives as a new Constantine for a new Christendom standing against progressive totalitarianism."

Now is the Time to Revisit Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism

by Anne Applebaum

The political and economic supports for stability and prosperity in the developed world are more precarious than ever; the revival of authoritarianism that Arendt predicted may be at hand, making her work more vital than ever. 

Kyiv Has Faced Adversity Before, and Emerged with Stronger Ukrainian Identity

by Matthew Pauly

Ukrainian nationalists were ultimately unable to defy Bolshevik control, but their movement established a more powerful national political identity. 

St. Patrick's Story Should Make Us Consider How Ireland Treats Refugees

by Elizabeth Boyle

Both the legacy of St. Patrick and attention to a new wave of Ukrainian refugees should make the Republic of Ireland reconsider how it welcomes refugees from around the world. 

Don't Use Anti-Asian Violence to Throw More Money at Police

by Crystal Jing Luo

Business interests in Oakland have hijacked the safety concerns of Asian Americans to support arming police in service of real estate development that threatens low-income housing. 

“Not being a man, I wanted to do the next best thing”: Female Gentlemen and the First World War

by Anna Elisabeth Gehl

Volunteering as nurses at the front of the Great War was occasion for many privileged British women to craft a new gendered identity incorporating the virtues of duty and self-control previously associated with "gentlemanliness." 

Putin: Can' Win, Can't Afford to Lose

by Max Boot

As long as residents of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have access to food and weaponry continues to come into the country, it's unlikely that Russia can prevail in an occupation. But Putin may not be politically able to avoid trying anyway. 

Biden's Push for Infrastructure Can't Leave Black Communities Behind

by N.D.B. Connolly

When infrastructure programs drive growth politics, entrenched interests in banking, real estate and planning can profit from preserving and expanding racial inequality.