Roundup

The Roundup Top Ten for November 19, 2021

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

Black Clergy's Presence at Trial of Arbery's Killers is Nothing Unusual

by Keisha N. Blain

Black clergy have always taken leadership in challenges to racist violence; the trial judge has no good reason to bar their attendance.

We're Still Living with the Consequences of Letting Iran-Contra Perpetrators Get Away with It

by Zeb Larson

An explainer on the Iran-Contra affair, and why the failure to hold wrongdoers accountable shapes our politics today. 

Are We Witnessing a General Strike Today?

by Nelson Lichtenstein

DuBois's insight that enslaved people abandoning plantations during the Civil War was a form of general strike helps us understand the seemingly unorganized trend of workers quitting their jobs today as a meaningful labor action that points in the direction of economic freedom.

Today's Educator Shortages are a Product of Decades of Bullying and Ignoring Teachers

by Diana D'Amico Pawlewicz

Again and again, politicians and administrators have implemented policies that make teaching unattractive work, then acted surprised when people chose other options. 

Can We Learn from Previous Collapses of Democracy?

by Katje Hoyer

The first German democracy, which was undone with the beginning of the first world war, is a cautionary tale of the potential of nationalism to undo democratic institutions.

Law Enforcement Has Long Practiced Double Standards for Activists

by Denise Lynn

Nobody should be shocked that the FBI has aggressively surveilled Black Lives Matter organizers while deciding that the online organizing of the January 6 attack on the Capitol was protected speech; this double standard has characterized law enforcement's approach to racial justice protest. 

SNCC's Unruly Internationalism

by Dan Berger

SNCC activists' global understanding of the problem of racism, expressed at the height of the Cold War, cost the organization external support, but left a vital legacy for international movements for justice. 

A Beautiful Mess: On “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

by Emily Suzanne Johnson

"The people who made this film seem to care about its subject, but the film does not know itself well enough to be itself and love itself. Tammy Faye’s heart and soul just aren’t in it."

The Pentagon as Penta-God

by William Astore

"Paraphrasing Joe Biden, show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you worship. In that context, there can’t be the slightest doubt: America worships its Pentagod and the weapons and wars that feed it."

The Elephant Who Could Be a Person

by Jill Lepore

A petition challenging the keeping of Happy, an Asian Elephant, by the Bronx Zoo raises questions about the legal status of personhood. If it applies to protect the property and civil rights of corporations, can it be extended for the protection of the natural world? 

Kyle Rittenhouse is an American

by Patrick Blanchfield

"The impulse to reconstruct that night’s chaos as though watching a 21st century Rashomon, is a trap."

“Critical Race Theory” Is White History

by Kali Holloway

"The history of Black folks in America—through slavery, Black codes, lynchings, redlining, voter disenfranchisement, Jim Crow, racial pogroms, illegal medical experimentation, extrajudicial and state-led theft of Black land, anti-Black policing, racist mass incarceration—is white American history, too."

How to Ensure a New Redlining Initiative Succeeds

by Robert Henderson and Rebecca Marchiel

Ensuring equity in mortgage lending requires understanding why the Community Reinvestment Act failed to achieve the same goal decades ago, through a better awareness of the ongoing problems in mortgage lending. 

Rittenhouse's Defense is Trying to Connect to a Long History of State Support for White Vigilantism

by Mia Brett

Police tolerance and even encouragement of the presence of Kyle Rittenhouse and other vigilantes on the streets of Kenosha in August 2020 was no anomaly. 

The Not-So-Hidden Purpose of the University of Austin

by Daniel Drezner

Anyone attracted to the promises of academic freedom and untrammeled inquiry at the University of Austin should be scared of the power it proposes to concentrate in its corporate governing board. 

The Bad Guys are Winning: The 21st Century Reversal of Liberalism

by Anne Applebaum

"Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services (military, police, paramilitary groups, surveillance), and professional propagandists."

The Littoral Combat Ship is a Lens on the Military-Industrial Complex

by Emma Salisbury

"The military-contract treadmill is still running."

Why I'm Tired of Hearing About "Wokeness"

by Regina Rini

"Perhaps the worst effect of the anti-Wokeist rhetoric invading academe is that it drowns out more careful critiques of so-called “Woke” policies."

Why Mislead Readers about Milton Friedman and Segregation?

by Nancy MacLean

"One would think that today the facts about the long struggle of southern white leaders to preserve segregation are so well known that simple fact-checking would suffice to rule out attempts to whitewash their efforts."