Roundup

America's Founding was Imperfect. Just Ask the Founders

by George Thomas

"The American founding was imperfect. America’s founders weren’t just aware of the point, they insisted on it."

The Roundup Top Ten for July 23, 2021

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

Every American Needs to Take a History of Mexico Class

by Gabriela Soto Laveaga

Understanding the history of the US-Mexico border from the perspective of Mexico deepens understanding not just of the relationship between nations, but of the complexity of history as opposed to simplistic nationalist myths. 

How Professor Van Winkle Woke Up to Viewpoint Diversity

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Could one of today's professors wake up from a twenty-year nap to a climate of productive and open classroom discussion? 

Cubans Took to the Streets in 1994, Too

by Rozzmery Palenzuela Vicente

Since the Clinton administration, decreased willingness by the US to accept Cuban migrants as political refugees has eliminated a significant safety valve against dissent on the island – encouraging Cuban dissidents to leave. This may make current protests more enduring and possibly more effective. 

Why Japan Forfeited Hosting the 1940 Games

by Paul Droubie

Japan's forfeiture of the games amid rising international and internal tensions shows that the Olympics have always been a vehicle for the promotion of national elites' agendas, often at the expense of popular domestic concerns. 

The United States Owes Haiti a Debt it Can't Repay

by Annette Gordon-Reed

The Haitian Revolution set in motion events that transformed France, North America, and the Caribbean, but conflicts were invariably resolved at the expense of independent Haiti. 

Before Nikole Hannah-Jones, Howard U. Professor Sterling Brown was a Lightning Rod for Right-Wing Outrage

by Carole Emberton

Sterling Brown also engendered political opposition and debate about what constitutes U.S. history when he tried to center the narrative on the diverse experiences of Black Americans.

Could a New Public Digital Dollar Enhance Democracy?

by Jeffrey Sklansky

The debate over the digital dollar is ultimately about whether the production of money should be a business run for private profit or a resource owned and operated by the public.

3 Tropes of White Victimhood

by Lawrence B. Glickman

"In the conservative world, the idea that white people in the United States are under siege has become doctrine." Lawrence Glickman evaluates the major rhetorical tropes of this doctrine and finds that they have a 150-year history dating back to Reconstruction. 

Critical Race Theory Bans Could Make Best Teaching Practices Illegal

by Rosalie Metro

By silencing discussion of systemic racism in classrooms, state laws encourage the interpretation of racial inequality as a product of inherent inequality among people, reinforcing racist stereotypes. 

The U.S. Tax Code Should Not Allow Billionaires to Exist

by Josh Mound

There have been historical precursors to the recent ProPublica report on the extremely low taxes paid by the ultrawealthy. Will this revelation lead to more lasting changes in the tax code that thwart the hoarding of wealth? 

Texas Senate Declares War on History

by Julian Zelizer

"Though much of the debate is being framed as being about "Critical Race Theory" -- a term that is politically useful since most Americans have no idea what it means -- it's really about teaching the history of race relations and civil rights."

Gloria Richardson and Black Women’s Intellectual History

by Robert Greene II

Gloria Richardson became an unusual leader of the civil rights movement as an older woman activist, and her changing views on movement strategy are important to scholars today. 

Migration Is Not the Crisis

by Aviva Chomsky

Migration from Central America is rooted in American support for exploitative oligarchies and export-oriented industry under the guises of anticommunism and economic development. 

Black Lives Matter Misses the Point About Cuba

by Jorge Felipe Gonzalez

American activists who recognize the antiracist achievements of the revolutionary Cuban government miss the ways that that government's authoritarianism and more recent economic policies disproportionately harm Afro-Cuban people. 

Will Biden Reverse 50 Years of Failure on Child Care Policy?

by Anna K. Danziger Halperin

Achieving better childcare policy requires recognizing women may be both mothers and workers, and moving past ideological views that women's economic independence is against the interest of families. 

A Hitler-Style Seizure of Power Was Never in Trump's Reach

by Waitman Wade Beorn

A historian of the German military under Nazism argues that Trump lacked the ability to recruit the military to his side the way that Hitler did, and the US faces greater danger from extremist paramilitaries or civil attempts to subvert democracy than from a military coup.

Why Let the Supreme Court Dominate Democracy?

by Nikolas Bowie

Liberals have been conditioned to look to the Supreme Court of Brown v. Board of Education as a protector of democracy. What if the court's dominant historical legacy is the body of decisions that enabled the rise of Jim Crow in the first place? 

The Roundup Top Ten for July 16, 2021

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