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Can Japan-Korea Relations Resolve Historical Disputes?

The government of South Korea has dropped its demand for Japanese companies to pay victims of forced labor during World War II. Many Koreans have called the concession a national humiliation, and some surviving victims say they won't accept compensation from Korean sources. 

Kimberlé Crenshaw Speaks Out: Education Restrictions Tied to Resegregation

Professor Crenshaw warned that the College Board's decision to alter its African American studies course resembles the pattern of business collaborating with and profiting under white supremacy that prevailed in Jim Crow America. 

New College Prof: What We Lose by Rejecting Competence and Expertise

by Aaron Hillegas

Courting Trump's base by copying his message that "stewardship is for suckers," a New College professor warns that DeSantis has appointed "chuckleheads" to run the college, something that won't end well for anyone. 

8th Grade History Scores Have Plunged

Are partisan efforts to restrict the content of history instruction to blame? A shift of resources to STEM and reading? 

Descendants of Slaveholder Donor Denounce Law School Name Change

T.C. Williams donated a considerable sum to the University of Richmond's law school. He also relied on slave labor in his tobacco and manufacturing businesses. The university's new policy requires them to remove his name from a building. Descendants call this hypocritical and ungrateful and demanded an inflation-adjusted refund with interest of $3.4 billion.

American Girl Dolls Declare the 1990s Ancient History

Gen X or Milennial parents who buy their children some of the popular dolls-with-a-back-story are in for some bad news about how long ago their own childhoods were. 

Students are the Victims of DeSantis's Education War in Florida

Ron DeSantis's education policies are driven by what will rile up the most reactionary voters in the state and have little do do with rectifying the growing problems with student achievement and teacher retention that are actually putting the state's schools in crisis, argue two Floridian writers. 

Review: DeSantis's Book is a Campaign Tome Written by ChatGPT

The Florida governor's book attempts to hide his aggressively right-wing policy agenda around education, abortion, and voting rights behind platitudes about hard work and conviction. A reviewer says its hard to imagine the volume winning converts. 

Phosphorus Giveth (Life) and Phosphorus Taketh Away

by Elizabeth Kolbert

The industrial age miracle of phosphorus fertilizer production revolutionized agricultual yields. Today, humanity faces a twin crisis of the mineral's scarcity and the toxicity of the algae that it feeds with farm runoff. 

"Argentina, 1985" is a Warning for 2023

The film's most important contribution is to remind that the rule of law must be maintained.

20 Biopics Worth Watching

It's rare for a biopic to attempt artistic innovation. A critic offers a list of those that succeed. 

DeSantis Higher Ed Bill Heads for Legislature

DeSantis ally Chris Rufo tweeted that the bill "is channeling the sentiment of the voters, who have demanded that taxpayer dollars stop subsidizing left-wing racialist ideology and partisan political activism. Democracy returns.”

AAUP and American Fed. of Teachers: Florida Bill "Would Destroy Higher Education as We Know It"

"Simply put, it would make Florida’s colleges and universities into an arm of the DeSantis political operation."

Will Baltimore's Black Communities Ever See Justice for the "Highway to Nowhere"?

The Robert Moses-designed expressway displaced Black families and neighborhoods for a stub of a freeway that ultimately stretched for less than two miles and does not connect to the rest of the interstate system. 

Biden Should Remove Cuba from List of State Sponsors of Terrorism

by Guillaume Long

After Obama removed Cuba from the list of countries sponsoring terrorism, Trump reinstalled it for petty political reasons. The Biden administration should reverse the decision again. 

The Real Story Behind "Cocaine Bear"

The real story of "Pablo Escobear" involves far less action by the bear and much more by a ring of smugglers during the cocaine boom of the 1980s. 

How Social Media and Community Schools Could Fill in Gaps Teaching Black History

As new restrictive legislation in many states threatens the teaching of African American history, the example of southern Freedom Schools is being followed in local and online communities. 

20 Years After Iraq Invasion, Need for Dissenting Perspectives is Clear

by Matthew Duss

A left foreign policy analyst argues that labeling opposition to Ukraine's NATO membership as "pro-Putin" echoes the worst moves of the runup to the Iraq war, and that good policy grows from open discussion. 

UT-Martin Student Government Condemns Tennessee "CRT" Law

Members of the People for Black History group argued that uncomfortable aspects of the state's and nation's history can't be skipped over.   

Texts by Youngkin UVA Appointee Full of Culture War Grudges, References to Faculty and Administrators as "Numnuts"

Bert Ellis's text conversations with other Republican appointees to the university's Board of Visitors show his adamant opposition to recognizing the history of slavery in building the institution, diversity initiatives, and other changes to UVA traditions, pledging a "battle royale for the soul" of the institution.