This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: New York Times
Oct 18, 2020
Jeweler Lafayette Cornwall collected the autographs of the most famous figures of his time, including Melville, Houdini, Edison, Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt.
Source: New York Times
Oct 17, 2020
Despite claims by many estates that weddings and events pay for educational programming that addresses the history of slave labor on the property, many still debate the ethics of using plantation properties for celebrations.
Source: New York Times
Oct 17, 2020
As a young adult in troubled times, Joe Biden steered a moderate course toward public life. For supporters and critics alike, it seems Joe has always been Joe.
Source: New York Times
Oct 16, 2020
by Jamelle Bouie
The Times columnist argues that the original meaning of the Reconstruction Amendments establishes a constitutional vision of equality and civil rights that conservative originalists ignore.
Source: Skipped History
Oct 15, 2020
It took litigation to drag Mississippi's history instruction out of the Lost Cause mythology.
Source: Washington Post
Oct 15, 2020
Trump and Biden both seek to embody a masculine ideal on the campaign trail, but the differences in each candidate's vision of what manliness is show that the idea is changing.
Source: New York Times
Oct 15, 2020
A new project updating the famous Anthology of American Folk Music wrestles with the fact that part of the American songbook has been overtly racist.
Source: New York Times
Oct 15, 2020
The fight over seatbelt laws in the United States was fraught with trying to strike a balance between individual and public interests. Those concerns have also been reflected in similar matters of health and safety, including vaccinations, helmet laws — and masks.
Source: Brookings Institution
Oct 15, 2020
by Willow Lung-Ammam
Trump and Carson do not want white America to see itself as recipients of federal welfare policies that made suburbs possible, profitable, and desirable–from Federal Housing Administration loans and interstate highways to mortgage interest deductions. Instead, they position white suburbanites as defenders of democracy.
Source: Vice News and Retro Report
Oct 14, 2020
A Vice News and Retro Report collaboration on the media coverage of the 2016 campaign asks what responsibility the news media bears for the election result.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Oct 14, 2020
by Richard Roeper
Aaron Sorkin discusses the work of creating authenticity for his Netflix series on the conspiracy trial that followed the protests at the 1968 Democratic convention. This was complicated, as he admits, by being only vaguely aware of the case before Steven Spielberg suggested making a film about it.
Source: Duke Center for Firearms Law
Oct 14, 2020
by Jake Charles
A Second Amendment scholar examines the SCOTUS nominee's historical interpretation of prohibitions on individual firearm ownership, concluding that her record shows a commitment to gun rights but uncertainty about how she might rule on particular cases.
Source: Washington Post
Oct 13, 2020
by 10/13/2020
During a congressional hearing in 1980, Gen. Meyer used the memorable phrase “a hollow Army” to describe how the military branch had been beset by staffing problems, outdated equipment and general malaise after the Vietnam War.
Source: Politico
Oct 13, 2020
by Robert L. Tsai
The rise of national parties, the use of the judiciary to advance policy goals, and the decision of Republican leadership to consolidate a narrow electoral base have made judicial nominations a partisan battle the Founders did not adequately anticipate, according to American U. Law professor Robert Tsai.
Source: Washington Post
Oct 13, 2020
“I knew it was going to be a landmark case,” Mr. Cohen told the Associated Press in 1992. “And I definitely thought there was something serendipitous about the fact that the case would be called Loving vs. the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Source: The Guardian
Oct 13, 2020
“There are some things that I wouldn’t agree with how Sorkin has characterised certain figures in the trial, myself included. But the impact of the movie is there and I certainly endorse and support it," says Chicago 7 defendant and antiwar activist Rennie Davis.
Source: New York Times
Oct 12, 2020
Governor Andrew Cuomo got the jump on Mayor Bill de Blasio to place a statue honoring the first American to be canonized. Cabrini's name was not on the city's first list of women to be honored with statues, angering many Italian American New Yorkers.
Source: Washington Post
Oct 12, 2020
Donald Trump's participation as a military school drill team member shows that his love of spectacle has remained unchanged even as the national dialogue on racism and history has been transformed.
Source: Washington Post
Oct 12, 2020
The year of the COVID pandemic is not an opportune time for museums to weather controversies over the content of exhibits, but many face criticism from across the spectrum about racial inclusivity and provocative works.
Source: The Hill
Oct 12, 2020
Droves of protesters in Portland, Ore., took down the statues of Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln on Sunday in demonstrations that had reportedly been billed online as “Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage” by organizers.
