Roundup

Right-Wing Ideologues Turn Aggressors Into Victims

by Waitman Wade Beorn

"Allowing the right to weave pernicious counternarratives and to create saints from sinners will only embolden future Ashli Babbitts and spawn more violence. "

Laugh at Parodies of School Board Meetings, but Take Local Politics Seriously

by Lily Geismer and Eitan D. Hersh

Local politics – if it involves a wide spectrum of community opinion – can help override partisan polarization, create new coalitions, and empower citizens to make meaningful change.

How Academia Laid the Groundwork for Redlining

by Todd Michney and LaDale Winling

Richard T. Ely and his student Ernest McKinley Fisher pushed the National Association of Real Estate Boards to adopt "the unsupported hypothesis that Black people's very presence inexorably lowered property values," tying the private real estate industry to racial segregation. 

The Attack on University of Florida Professors is Totalitarian

by Silke-Maria Weineck

Even beyond academic freedom, events in Florida signal the effort to tie the interests of the state's universities to the agenda of the state's ruling party. 

Boris Johnson’s Roman Fantasies

by Mateusz Fafinsky

Boris Johnson's recent statements that the collapse of Rome was caused by open borders are well out of step with historical understanding of the fragmenting of the Roman empire, but in line with a long legacy of political misappropriation of Rome as an allegory for the danger of immigrants.

It's not Just the Missionaries: Haiti had 782 Kidnappings This Year

by Cécile Accilien

"The kidnapping business is in fact supported by the convergence of interests of the political and business elite and the international community, while the interests of the vast majority of Haitians are obviously not taken into account."

The Untold Story of the World's Biggest Nuclear Bomb

by Alex Wellerstein

Read a detailed account of the moment in the Cold War when the United States and Soviet Union contemplated, then developed and tested, nuclear weapons of horrifying power. 

Another Buffalo Was Possible

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

India Walton seemed on track to become the first Black woman mayor in Buffalo, and the first socialist to lead a major city in decades. The sitting mayor rallied to defeat her, but we should still consider the possibility of more liberatory politics. 

Work Requirements Would Undo A Signature Biden Accomplishment

by Molly Michelmore

An expanded Child Tax Credit would potentially reduce child poverty by 40%. Placing work requirements on the credit would harm children for the sake of the historic pattern of policing the line between the deserving and undeserving poor. 

Banning "Beloved" Won't Help Protect Kids, But it Will Help Sanitize Racism

by Farah Jasmine Griffin

It's worthwhile to consider Morrison's characterization of censoring Huck Finn as a “purist and yet elementary kind of censorship designed to appease adults rather than educate children.”

Inaction By Design: Blame the Founders for Stalled Legislation

by Calvin Schermerhorn

Although two Senators have been singled out by many liberals as villains, "today’s legislative sausage factory evokes the Founders’ recipe for federal inaction — and their suspicion of democracy."

Fannie Lou Hamer's Leadership Shows We Can't Separate Civil Rights and Economic Justice

by Keisha N. Blain

The author of a new biography of the Mississippi Freedom Democrat argues that Hamer's legacy shows that inequality erodes both civil rights and democracy. 

There's Little Doubt: The Second Amendment Threatens the First

by Diana Palmer and Timothy Zick

"In short, the visible presence of firearms increases the risk of violence and death when exercising one’s First Amendment rights."

Why Dragons were the Dominant Medieval Monstrosities

by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

Scott Bruce and Michael Psellos are among the historians shedding light on how medieval people talked about monsters and what cultural roles they played. 

Right-Wing Trolling Didn't Start with Trump

by Rick Perlstein

"Owning the libs" through stunts and irony didn't start with Trump. Since World War II, getting under liberals' skin has mattered as much as policy and ideology, argues the historian of the conservative movement. 

Gun Culture is Priming Americans for Authoritarianism

by Ruth Ben-Ghiat

American gun culture devalues human life, desensitizes us to the presence of deadly force in our daily lives, and underlines the message that our fellow citizens are dangerous enemies.

Do Liberal Activists Need to Reconnect with the Religious Left?

by Julian Zelizer

The rise of conservatism in Christian political engagement and the increasing importance of Israel to many American Jewish organizations should not discourage liberal activists from reviving the legacy of Rabbi Abraham Heschel and interfaith social justice organizing. 

150 Years Ago, a Mob Attacked Los Angeles's Chinese Community

by Reece Jones

It's essential to understand white supremacy as a national phenomenon that defended the color line against multiple groups and linked white identity to the nation's borders. 

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

by Ben Austen and Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Tough-on-crime laws that forbid discretionary parole emerged in the 1970s. A historical perspective suggests they've failed, keeping people in prison long after doing so protects society. 

The Roundup Top Ten for October 22, 2021

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