Roundup

The Second Skeleton

by Mabel Rosenheck

"Museums construct knowledge. As a historian of museums this is what I study. But museums don’t just construct knowledge through architecture, collecting, arrangement, or labeling. They construct knowledge by constructing objects—literally."

How the Black Country Star Charley Pride Became an Unlikely Hero in Northern Ireland's Troubles

by Walker Mimms

Pride's "Crystal Chandeliers" didn't chart when he released in in the US in 1967; a decade later it was a unity anthem for Northern Ireland residents hoping for peace. 

Has the Age of Trump Ruined Sports Fandom?

by Robert Lipsyte

Sports offer no refuge from the politicized cultural battles over cheating, racism, vaccination, and mental health. It may be time to bury forever the idea that sports represent a moral high ground.

Eighty Years Ago, Japan Assaulted More Than Pearl Harbor

by Mindy L. Kotler

Memorializing the attacks on the American military base at Pearl Harbor often obscures the attacks against the wider Pacific launched by the Japanese on December 7, 1941, attacks with consequences that endure today. 

History Helps Discern Putin's Ukraine Agenda

by Kathryn David

Russia today uses the ideological work of Soviet-era historians that claims a fundamental unity between Russian and Ukrainian people to justify its expansionist aims. 

Passing for Racial Democracy

by Stephanie Reist

"Color and race are not always synonymous in the Brazilian context. Features like hair texture, education, place of origin and address, and social class all factor into how people conceive of color, resulting in what researcher Elizabeth Hordge-Freeman calls a traitocracy that is more complex than a pigmentocracy or simple colorism."

Today's Culture Wars are Playing Out on Plantation Tours

by Kelley Fanto Deetz

"Museum professionals at plantations hear it all and must balance viewpoints that are diametrically opposed to one another, such as the romanticized notion of antebellum gentility and the constant fear of terror and violence of the enslaved."

For Black Americans, Spaces of Sanctuary have been a Matter of Survival

by Alicia K. Jackson

"In reality, much of African American history is the story of Americans creating their own sense of sanctuary in a land that often seems antithetical to their presence and their needs."

Was the Legendary Viking "Blood Eagle" Torture Real?

by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

"The blood eagle’s prominence within Viking society—both during the medieval era and as ascribed in the centuries since—stems from its emphasis on ritual and revenge."

Forget "Ghost Guns" and other Media Panics. Gun Capitalism is the Underlying Problem of a Violent Society

by Andrew C. McKevitt

A long series of moral panics over the dangers of specific guns (and their imagined users) has hidden the real danger to Americans: the profitability (and legality) of selling deadly weapons.

The Historian's Approach to Understanding Terrorism (and Why it's Needed)

by Richard English

Historians have the long-term focus, the attention to particularity and contingency, and the willingness to engage with sources from multiple origins that are missing from policy approaches to terrorism. 

The US Must Not Repeat the Error of Allowing at Totalitarian Regime to Use the Olympics for PR

by Rafael Medoff

Despite the famed victories of sprinter Jesse Owens, the 1936 Olympics were a victory for Hitler, polishing his regime's image as concerns rose about the persecution of Jews. Amid Chinese persecution of Uyghurs, the US should reconsider participation.

The Supreme Court's Decisions This Term Will Decide its Fate More Powerfully than Biden's Commission

by Ray Brescia

In 1937, the Supreme Court faced a crisis of legitimacy, and responded by clearing the way for broadly popular minimum wage and other employment laws that had previously been struck down. Faced with ideologically loaded cases where strong majorities of the public oppose them, the court's conservative bloc faces a similar choice this term. 

Josephine Baker's Induction to the Pantheon Shouldn't Obscure how Other Black Women Served Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité

by Rachel Anne Gillett

"Even as White European audiences fell in love with her, Black women in France criticized her and the system that lifted her up."

American Orthodoxy Has a Lost Cause Problem

by Aram G. Sarkisian

"Scholars and other observers are noting the growing links between Orthodox Christianity and the American alt-right."

A Descent into Textual Paranoia

by Christopher S. Celenza

"Doing one's own research" in an environment of proliferating information and few gatekeepers isn't new to the internet age. 

Every Woman Needs Access to Abortion

by Claire Potter

"If SCOTUS overturns Roe, every civil right that Americans have gained since the 1940s is up for grabs. That’s not partisan propaganda: that’s the truth."

The Roundup Top Ten for December 3, 2021

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

After 20 Years, Enron Still Haunts Us

by Gavin Benke

Despite Enron's bankruptcy and the resulting economic fallout, American business media is still dangerously credulous toward promises of "innovation" and "disruption" without asking whether the latest hot entrepreneur is using smoke and mirrors. 

In Zemmour, France's Old Bigotry Finds New Voice

by Mitchell Abidor and Miguel Lago

Presidential candidate Éric Zemmour's Jewishness should not be a shield for his manipulation of France's historical bigotries for political gain.