Roundup

Partisans Often Try to Claim July 4 as their Own. It Usually Backfires

by Kevin M. Kruse

Intense partisans seeking to use July 4 celebrations as a way to denounce their opponents as unpatriotic have seldom succeeded, though despite some notorious episodes of Independence Day chaos they will probably keep trying. 

The Roundup Top Ten for July 2, 2021

by HNN Staff

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

The Strange, Sad Death of America’s Political Imagination

by Daniel Immerwahr

What happened to big-thinking utopianism as a response to national problems? 

The Chinese Communist Party Has Followed Sun Yat-sen’s Road Map

by Peter Zarrow

The recent course of the Chinese Communist Party follows the vision of nationalist Sun Yat-sen more than that of Karl Marx. 

The Statue of Chief Justice Taney Never Belonged in the Capitol

by Corey M. Brooks

“If a man,” famed Massachusetts radical Charles Sumner asserted, “has done evil during his life he must not be complimented in marble.” Instead Sumner demanded “the name of Taney … be hooted down the page of history.”

My Relatives Went to a Catholic School for Native Children. It was a Place of Horrors

by Nick Estes

The discovery of mass graves at the site of a Canadian residential school for indigenous children should prompt the United States to investigate abuse at similar schools. 

Blackness and the Bomb

by Erica X. Eisen

"Throughout the atomic age, civil defense authorities demanded the active participation of Black citizens whom their measures failed to protect."

Infrastructure Spending Has Always Involved Social Engineering

by Erika M. Bsumek and James Sidbury

Infrastructure projects have always created winners and losers. Historically, communities of color in America have been more likely to suffer harm from them. It's therefore entirely appropriate to make justice concerns a part of a proposed infrastructure bill. 

AIDS Disappeared from Public View Without Ending. Will Covid-19 do the Same?

by Dan Royles

AIDS activism shifted from framing the epidemic as a political crisis to a medical problem, allowing the ongoing vulnerability of the poor to fade from view as pharmaceutical advances have helped control the spread and impact of HIV among the affluent. 

I Wrote About This Environmental Injustice Decades Ago. It Hasn’t Changed

by Robert Bullard

A vacancy on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will test Biden's stated commitment to advancing environmental justice. 

Racism has Long Undermined Military Cohesion, Just as Gen. Milley Testified

by Natalie Shibley

Right-wing attacks on Gen. Mark Milley's support for military education about racism ignore the long history of similar training in the military and the persistence of the racial inequalities it has tried to address. 

Illusions of empire: Amartya Sen on what British rule really did for India

by Amartya Sen

The prize-winning international economist examines a tricky historical counterfactual: what would contemporary India be like had British colonialism never happened?

The Hidden Stakes of the Infrastructure Wars

by David Alff

Debates over what counts as infrastructure are nothing new and reflect a history of conflict over who should benefit from public works and competing ideas of the scope of government.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s #Pride Tweet Conceals a Violent History

by Jessica Ordaz and Alejandra Portillos

"ICE’s message, that immigration enforcement and LGBTQ equality can be compatible, is dangerous because it conceals a violent history of immigration enforcement that has targeted and harmed LGBTQ people in the name of policing borders."

Country Music's Next Big Question: Where are Latino Artists?

by Amanda Marie Martinez

“My dream is for the cowboys and the vaqueros — who were the first cowboys — to all be in one place, to bring those two worlds together.”

The Age of Neoliberalism is Ending in America. What will Replace It?

by Gary Gerstle

It will be difficult for the Biden administration to revive a (Green) New Deal Order, but making progress may be key to stopping the nation's slide toward authoritarian and racist forms of populism. 

This Late Civil Rights Icon's Imprint Is Everywhere Today

by Peniel E. Joseph

"Stokely Carmichael's legacy spans the movement for Black power, the push for voting rights in the 21st century and the recent political campaigns that have given voice to those seeking more radical change."

The Surfside Disaster is Our Generation's Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Moment

by Hannah Lebovits

The deadly collapse of the Surfside condo building near Miami should be a call for Jewish Americans to protest for reform in the way that Jewish immigrant workers did after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. 

The Bishops Are Wrong About Biden — and Abortion

by Garry Wills

The historian of Catholicism argues that the US Bishops' demand to deny communion to Joe Biden over his abortion policies rests on a shoddy understanding of the Church's own history with the issue. 

The Emancipation Proclamation did not End Slavery. Here’s what Did

by Clarence Lusane

Chattel slavery was ended by the enactment of the 13th Amendment. Whatever the merits of recognizing the Juneteenth holiday, it commemorates the specific emancipation of enslaved Texans, and not national abolition.