Roundup

Teaching Asian American History is Needed to Understand Complexity of Racism

by Kathryn Gin Lum

Asian American history shows members of Asian ethnic groups have been ranked in a hierarchy of races at some moments, and grouped together with other "heathen" groups as disqualified for inclusion in American society. Understanding this history helps to understand racism as a political order, not a response to innate difference. 

An Attack on Voting Rights is an Attack on the Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer

by Keisha N. Blain

No one who learns the life story of Fannie Lou Hamer and the sacrifices she made for the right to vote can accept the current attacks on the Voting Rights Act. 

Sampling the Epic in Kendrick Lamar's "Mortal Man"

by Justine McConnell

Remembering the essential orality of classical epics can help to understand them as works that have been sampled and remixed, and to place contemporary popular culture in dialogue with that tradition. 

National History Unites a Community

by Mary Manning

"According to the National History Day office, more than half a million students in grades 6–12 now present their research in exhibits, papers, performances, digital documentaries, and websites annually."

Why Do Leaders Start Wars Assuming Victory?

by Gregory A. Daddis

For millenia, leaders have been seduced by the promise that war unifies fractious politics, elevates leaders, and offers a final solution to conflict, despite the historical wrongness of these lessons. 

Putin's Anti-Gay War on Ukraine

by Emil Edenborg

The Kremlin's political campaign of traditionalism has made homophobia into politics, and nationalism has made homophobia into geopolitics. 

Holocaust Echoes in Ukraine Conspiracy Theories

by Rafael Medoff

Some reactions to the news coverage of horrors visited on civilians echo excuses and minimization of Nazi violence against Jews, including claims that the stories are part of a campaign of emotional manipulation. 

Russia's Invasion is Targeting Ukraine's History Too

by Alexandra Sukalo

The destruction of historical archives in Ukraine is part and parcel of a long tradition of attempted cultural eradication in service of empire. 

Could Ukraine be the Far Right's Afghanistan?

by Benjamin R. Young

As international volunteers arrive in Ukraine, the West needs to make sure that it's not providing training and weapons for far-right extremists. 

History's Guidance to the January 6 Committee

by Stephen A. West

The 1872 report of the Congressional Ku Klux Klan Committee offers lessons for the January 6 Commission: expect partisans to weaponize the report, and don't trust "the judgment of history" to clear up doubts about culpability. 

Texas's Anti-Transgender Policies Erase the State's Indigenous Transgender History

by Gregory D. Smithers

The prominent role of what would now be called transgender individuals in indigenous societies in Texas was part of the justification Europeans claimed to colonize the land; students compelled to learn Texas history in school could learn a much more inclusive set of stories. 

Targeting the Marginalized for Political Gain is Nothing New in Texas Politics

by Nancy Beck Young

Minority groups have often had a perilous existence in Texas, but that hasn't stopped politicians from attacking them as dire threats to the state's moral fabric. 

Why Does St. Brigid Get So Much Less Attention than Patrick?

by Lisa Bitel

"This year on March 17, when you’re wearing the green and singing “Dirty Ol’ Town,” take a moment to whisper thanks to St. Brigid, the compassionate, sensible, native-born patron saint of Ireland, and ask if Ireland’s premier patron saint should be a woman."

The Winter War Ghost Haunts Putin's War Today

by David P. Barash

Stalin's ill-conceived invasion of Finland gave Russia a small part of Finnish territory as a ransom for a face-saving end to stalemate and gave the world the term "Molotov Cocktail" – a sarcastic rebuke to the USSR's claims to be dropping food relief instead of bombs.

We're Talking about Climate Change with Outdated Colonial Language

by Priya Satia

The dominant climate activist theme of sacrificing in the present to protect the future is rooted in the intellectual history of economics which has driven the profligate consumption and gross inequality that threatens the planet. 

The Roundup Top Ten for March 11, 2022

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

The Long History of American Isolationism

by Lindsay Chervinsky

Since the days of George Washington, the imperatives of American economic development and hegemony over the western hemisphere, and the desire to avoid European wars, have been in tension. 

Trump's "Sh*thole Countries" Remark is Nothing American Churches Haven't Said for Generations

by Kathryn Gin Lum

American missionaries in the nineteenth century prefigured the former president's comments by forming a worldview of a "blessed us" and a "backward them." 

East Berlin Stories: Gay Espionage in Cold War Berlin

by Samuel Huneke

The East German Stasi recruited gay Beriners as informants both because they believed they posed a security threat and because the secret police had difficulty penetrating the secrecy of gay social networks in the city. 

The Geopolitics of the Russia-Ukraine War

by Alfred McCoy

Since the Versailles conference in 1919, geopolitical theorists have discussed the potential of anl alliance connecting eastern Europe and central Asia as a potential seat of world domination. Are recent developments in Russian-Chinese relations moving in that direction?