Roundup

Mint the Coin: The Debt Ceiling is an Absurd Problem. It's Time for an Absurd Solution

by Zachary D. Carter

Silly as it sounds, minting a trillion dollar coin is the solution to the recurrent ordeal of the debt ceiling. It's legal, it's sensible, and it's not more ridiculous than using the prospect of default as a political club. 

The Disturbing Precedent for McConnell’s Debt-Ceiling Brinksmanship

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

Mitch McConnell's use of Senate rules and the body's disproportionate representation to ensure that Democrats who represent 41.5 million more people than Republicans are unable to govern. His tactics echo those of the antebellum Slavocracy. 

The Roundup Top Ten for October 1, 2021

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

Misappropriating MLK in the Critical Race Theory Debate

by Tyler D. Parry

Selective readings of Martin Luther King's writing and speeches swap his radical critiques of capitalism, militarism and inequality for bland colorblindness. The fact is that "CRT" is deeply rooted in King's work, which was unpopular among white Americans in his own time. 

The Real Foucault

by Michael C. Behrent

"Why does Foucault now feel like our contemporary, almost forty years after his death? Why are leftists turning against him? And why are some conservatives adopting him?"

"A Horrible Mistake": Time to Ditch CENTCOM

by Andrew Bacevich

Created by military reorganization undertaken by the Reagan administration, CENTCOM assumes control of potential military operations in 20 nations, where a half-billion people live. In the decades of its existence, it has overseen the decline and imminent collapse of American empire. 

Traumatic Monologues: The Therapeutic Turn in Indigenous Politics

by Melanie K. Yazzie

American and Canadian politicians are happy to promote initiatives based in psychological understandings that "trauma" is the principal source of Native disadvantage, while ignoring the ongoing colonial exploitation of indigenous lands by the oil and gas industries.

Autonomous Robot Weapons Could be More Destabilizing than Nukes

by James Dawes

"Imagine a world in which militaries, insurgent groups and international and domestic terrorists can deploy theoretically unlimited lethal force at theoretically zero risk at times and places of their choosing, with no resulting legal accountability."

Violence Over Schools is Nothing New

by Sherman Dorn

"The history of education teaches us that violence surrounding democratic schooling is part of a recurring pattern and that we have a choice to passively accept or assertively confront violent impulses."

Muscle Motion:

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

A 1983 home workout video featuring the Chippendales dancers reflected the convergence of multiple cultural changes in home video, fitness culture, pornography, and the mainstreaming of female desire. Everything has a history!

Droning On: America's Assassins-in-Chief

by Tom Engelhardt

Since the Bush administration, every President has used drone technology to be the nation's assassin-in-chief. In a nation increasingly tolerant of mass COVID death at home, does this even have the power to shock?

Observe "Banned Book Week" by Standing Up for Academic Freedom

by David Wippman and Glenn Altschuler

"When school boards or legislators with little or no subject matter or pedagogical expertise ban books or direct how certain subjects should be taught, education is impoverished, and everyone loses."

Why I Hope My Kids Never Read Roald Dahl

by David M. Perry

"The Dahl family has apologized for Roald Dahl's anti-Semitism, but the question remains, for readers and viewers, for TV producers and writers: what might it mean to eat the fruit from this poisoned tree?"

When Black History Gets Unearthed, Who Speaks for the Dead?

by Jill Lepore

Locating and unearthing African American burial grounds is only the beginning of a process involving difficult questions of justice and inheritance. Should federal legislation make up for the legacy of dispossession that leaves cemeteries in legal limbo and without means for upkeep? 

Texas Redistricting is Defying Decades of Organizing for Interracial Democracy in the State

by Max Krochmal and J. Todd Moye

Black and Mexican-American civil rights movements in Texas both worked in pursuit of the vote, and the ability to elect meaningful representatives, as the key to ending Jim Crow and Juan Crow. 

The Golden Age of "Traditional Marriage" Never Was

by Lauren Gutterman

Despite conservative mythologizing, married Americans in the postwar era frequently sought and secured space to explore same-sex attractions and relationships. These histories show that regardless of who controls the Supreme Court, conservatives will be unable to force a narrow model of family life on the public. 

The Lost Promise of Black Study

by Andrew J. Douglas and Jared Loggins

Atlanta's Institute of the Black World struggled to negotiate its mission to theorize and document Black oppression and resistance without being captured or controlled by outside institutions, including the established historically Black colleges in Atlanta. Its history raises difficult and important questions about the relationship of universities and freedom today.

The Legal Standard Encouraging Religious Exemptions to Vaccination is Baffling

by Charles McCrary

American courts have established sincerity of individual belief as the standard for recognizing a religious accommodation or exemption. Even though no major religions ban vaccination, this standard could still sustain widespread refusal of coronavirus vaccines. 

Don't Forget that "School Choice" Originated in Massive Resistance to Desegregation

by Nancy MacLean

"Rather than giving families more school options, school choice became a tool intended to give most families far fewer in the end."

Viking Map of Americas Shown to be a 20th Century Forgery

by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

Both financial gain and the prevalent sectarian conflicts over immigration and nationality in early 20th century America probably motivated the forgery and muted the inclination to challenge it.