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'White Lies Matter' Group Claims Responsibility, Demands Ransom For Stolen Confederate Monument

"We took their toy, and we don't feel guilty about it," the letter from the group says. "They never play with it anyway. They just want it there to remind us what they've done, what they are still willing to do.

Women’s College Sports Was Growing. Then the NCAA Took Over

The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was pushed aside by the NCAA as universities dedicated more resources to women's sports to comply with Title IX. Critics say that the NCAA has not followed through on the need for equity while squeezing out women coaches and athletic administrators.

Review: ‘Hemingway’ Is a Big Two-Hearted Reconsideration

“Can you separate the art from the artist?” is a heated and dogmatic argument these days. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick force the viewer to consider if that separation is possible or desirable. 

Slavery ‘Not Just About Profit And Suffering’, UK Government-Backed Race Report Claims

A new UK government report on the teaching of the history of slavery and empire has controversially suggested that the institution was an exchange of cultures between British and enslaved African and colonized people, further fueling the British culture war over the teaching of history.

G. Gordon Liddy, Undercover Operative Convicted in Watergate Scandal, Dies at 90

"Mr. Liddy’s combination of can-do ruthlessness, loyalty to Nixon and ends-justify-the-means philosophy made him a natural fit in a White House determined to get even with its political enemies."

Philip Roth Was His Own Favorite Subject. What’s Left for a Biographer?

Blake Bailey's new biography of the novelist Philip Roth represented a challenge not least because of Roth's notorious resistance to getting the biographical treatment, but also because of the weakness of the literary biographical tradition in American letters. 

Putting Harriet Tubman on the $20 Bill May Take Years. Here's Why

The need to implement new anticounterfeit measures is a principal source of delay for the goal of putting Harriet Tubman's portrait on the $20 bill. 

The Last Time the Suez Canal Was Blocked a Utopian Communist Micronation Was Formed at Sea

The Egyptian blockade of the Suez Canal in the 1967 Six Day War stranded several ships in an adjacent lake. Egyptian policy prevented the ships from leaving, but not from having supplies and fresh crew members brought in. For eight years, the ships were a floating international commune. 

The Republican Poseurs Who Claim to Be True Texans

A number of the most prominent conservatives holding or running for office in Texas are, in fact, recent arrivals. They echo the influx of pro-slavery fanatics to the Republic of Texas, and also obscure the growing diversity and political moderation of the state's large urban areas. 

One Man’s Quest to Crack the Modern Anti-Immigration Movement—by Unsealing Its Architect’s Papers

John Tanton donated 25 boxes of documents related to his work with anti-immigration advocacy organizations beginning in the 1960s. The gift stipulated that much of the collection be sealed until 2035. An immigration advocate says that Tanton's connections to right-wing anti-immigrant groups and the pro-eugenics Pioneer Fund means the university should unseal the papers now. 

Maryland’s State Song, a Nod to the Confederacy, Nears Repeal

"Maryland, My Maryland" was written by a Confederate sympathizer in 1861 and has come under scrutiny in recent years for its characterization of the Union army as a force of tyranny and call for listerners to fight for the Confederacy. 

Both Ivy League Colleges Apologize for ‘Serious Error’ in Using Bones of Black Child for Teaching

The two Ivy League universities at the center of a billowing storm over the use in anthropology teaching of the bones of an African American child killed by Philadelphia police in 1985 have apologized for the “serious error”, promising to return the human remains to relatives who never consented to the practice.

Fed's Raphael Bostic Says There is Merit to Reparations for Racism

“There are definitely merits to it in the sense that, if people have been harmed by laws, then there should be a discussion about redress,” Bostic told CNN Business in an interview published on its website Monday.

The History Of The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal, according to Zachary Karabell, has been a nexus for past great power conflicts, anticolonialist struggle, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Now it shows the vulnerability of global capitalism's supply chain infrastructure. 

Montana Universities Prepare for Guns on Campuses

Montana's public universities are struggling to plan for the consequences of the legislation signed in February allowing open and concealed carry of firearms on campuses. 

Church Membership in the U.S. has Fallen Below the Majority for the First Time in Nearly a Century

Political Scientist Ryan Burge predicts that there will no longer be a single dominant religion in the United States in 30 years, due principally to the rise of non-affiliation. 

The Other Nuremberg Trials, Seventy-Five Years On

by Erica X. Eisen

The defense of capitalism during the Cold War meant that businesses and businessmen who collaborated in war crimes went unpunished. 

‘Atomic Cover-Up’ Reveals A Previously Unseen Story Of Human Devastation

The new documentary "Atomic Cover-Up"  reminds that "people of goodwill can differ over whether we did the right thing in order to bring a terrible war to its conclusion or if, instead, we committed unforgivable crimes against humanity. What none of us can do is look away."

Colleges Are Using COVID as a Pretext to Make Draconian Cuts to the Humanities

The COVID pandemic has given cover to massive declines in academic employment, with the humanities being particularly hard-hit. It's unclear whether the liberal arts will remain viable at many institutions or how higher ed will change as a result. 

The Social Justice Purge at Idaho Colleges

Concerns about free speech on campus should consider the Idaho legislature's recent attacks on "critical race theory" as an effort to use education funds to restrict academic freedom, says NYT opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg.