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By HNN Staff
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Experts Beware: Is America Headed for a Scopes Moment over Critical Race Theory?
Charles J. Holden
William Jennings Bryan wasn't trying to win a debate in the Scopes Trial. He tried – successfully – to draw cultural battle lines. The fact that today's opponents of "Critical Race Theory" are often poorly informed is similarly beside the point.
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It's Time for a "Don't Trust, Do Verify" US-Russia Cybersecurity Treaty
Glenn C. Altschuler and Justin Lifflander
The Reagan-Gorbachev summit meetings that yielded the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and established mutual weapons monitoring weren't expected to succeed, but offer hope that negotiations between Biden and Putin could advance progress toward needed mutual cybersecurity action.
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The Night Vietnam Veterans Stormed Bunker Hill
Elise Lemire
The Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 was a military defeat for the Continental Army but a coup for morale. In 1971, Vietnam Veterans Against the War won a nonviolent battle at the site for the allegiance of the working class residents of Charlestown.
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Valor Roll: American Newsies in the Great War and the Flu Pandemic
Vincent DiGirolamo
Newsies were a critical labor force in the early 20th century, connecting Americans to information. The author of a history of Newsies shows that their service drew praise in the First World War but suspicion in the ensuing influenza pandemic.
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A Celebrity Apology and the Reality of Taiwan
Evan Dawley
Actor John Cena's blunder into the Taiwan-China controversy should be an opportunity for Americans to learn more about the history of this conflict and of an independent Taiwanese identity that has been shaped by Japanese colonization, Chinese nationalism, war, and the Communist revolution.
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American Conference for Irish Studies Connects the Past, Future of Irish-American Relations
Mark Holan
The recent virtual American Conference for Irish Studies meeting convened scholars and diplomats to discuss challenges posed by Brexit and opportunities for cooperation between the United States, Northern Ireland, and the Republic.
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The Roundup Top Ten for June 11, 2021
HNN Staff
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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America's First Peaceful (Just Barely!) Transfer of Power
Akhil Reed Amar
While the selection of Thomas Jefferson as the third president in 1801 (after an electoral college deadlock) is touted as a crucial peaceful transfer of presidential power from one party to another, the transition was far more fraught with peril than most realize.
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Why a Culture War Over Critical Race Theory? Consider the Pro-Slavery Congressional "Gag Rule"
Frank Palmeri and Ted Wendelin
Like the Southern delegations who opposed discussion of slavery, opponents of Critical Race Theory believe that any discussion of persistent racial inequities in legal and other institutions is unacceptable because it is “divisive.”
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The Legacy of Same-Sex Love in Ancient Thebes
James Romm
The story of the Sacred Band of Thebes – a fighting force of pairs of male lovers – was discovered in time to provide inspiration to gay rights struggles from the Victorian era to the present. James Romm's new book tells the story.
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Paying People to Get Vaccines is an Old Idea Whose Time has Come Again
Margaret DeLacy
John Haygarth devised a system for rewarding working-class residents of Chester for receiving the risky smallpox inoculation and maintaining social distance afterward. The effort was largely superseded by the more effective and safer Jenner vaccination, but was a foundational public health experiment that pays dividends today.
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Understanding Gun and Police Violence Lies Between History and Power
Kwasi Konadu
Dealing effectively with gun violence and police violence requires recognizing they are connected by the long history of America's culture of force in defense of the social order. The National Gun Violence Awareness Day observed today should reflect this connection.
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The New Meaning of "The Loyal Opposition"
Glenn C. Altschuler
The concept of a loyal opposition depends on the deference of non-governing parties to the authority of democratic institutions and the normative framework in which they operate. That deference seems to be collapsing.
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John Cena's Taiwan Controversy Recalls Richard Nixon's Biggest Mistake
Justin Coffey
John Cena's recent social media kerfuffle over Taiwan reflects the legacy of Richard Nixon's acquiescence to a "One China" policy advanced by the People's Republic, in hindsight the worst error of his presidency.
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Whataboutism Didn't Get Nixon Off the Hook. It Shouldn't Stop Investigation of the Capitol Riots
James Robenalt
There's a long and ignominious tradition of playing "whatabout" to thwart investigations into official misconduct, so it's no surprise the move was part of Republicans' rejection of a January 6 commission.
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Two Films Show the Historical Toll and Present Danger of Ethnic Violence
Walter G. Moss
Two films show the dire consequences of ethnic antagonism during and after the second world war, and the potential for ideology to incite and justify violence.
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Blog
Governing With an Evenly Divided Senate is a Rare Tightrope Act
Ronald L. Feinman
The current US Senate, monkeywrenched by the filibuster and unified Republican obstruction, is unlike any of the three prior Senates with even partisan representation. It appears Biden will need ev...
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The Roundup Top Ten for June 4, 2021
HNN Staff
The best opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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In 1844, Nativist Protestants Burned Churches in the Name of Religious Liberty
Zachary M. Schrag
Rick Santorum's dismissive take on Native American history led to his ouster at CNN. But his remarks also glossed over a violent history of Protestant intolerance that should be a warning to us today about the danger of the idea that only one creed is truly American.
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The War Beat, Pacific: How the American News Media Went to War Against Japan
Steven Casey
Censorship, technological limitations, and competition with news from Europe in World War II made the early part of the Pacific theater a "shrouded war," but not for lack of effort by war journalists.
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Politics Aside, Was Trump Even an Effective Leader?
George C. Edwards III
Trump's supposed dealmaking genius amounted to playing to his base to the detriment of any policy agenda.
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The Enduring Fascination – And Challenge – Of World War II
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
This Memorial Day offers the chance to read about and reflect on World War II, particularly the stories of ordinary people trying to understand world-changing events, and consider our time's connections to past and future.
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Review: Lesley Blume's “Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World”
Lawrence Wittner
Journalist Lesley Blume's book "Fallout" ably tells the story about how John Hersey and the New Yorker navigated government censorship and political opposition to publish Hersey's "Hiroshima," a foundational work in later movements to prevent nuclear war.
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Preserving the Stories of the Second World War
Colin Heaton
Colin Heaton's latest book of oral history (with Anne-Marie Lewis) is based on oral histories he conducted with five significant Allied Airmen from World War II. Here, he discusses his work collecting veterans' stories from all sides of the airborne war and why those stories matter.
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Blog
My Great Grandfather, Stephen Douglas, and the Seductions of Non-intervention
Ann Banks' Confederates in My Closet
Also among my belongings is a gold-framed tintype photo, of the kind made by itinerant photographers around the time of the Civil War. Etsy offered one for sale recently for $18, and in the d...
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The Settler Colonialist Frame Helps Clarify What's at Stake in the Middle East for Israelis, Palestinians, and Peace
Jeff Kolnick
Looking at the recent resurgence of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas as part of a project of settler colonialism clarifies the nature of the conflict, and suggests that the immediate cessation of eviction of Palestinians is essential for peace.
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The Post-Trump GOP: Rebirth or Stillbirth?
Michael A. Genovese
The Republicans are betting that sticking with Trump's MAGA posture will usher in a political realignment with a broader GOP base. History shows that with anger and resentment standing in for a substantive policy agenda that meets the challenges of the times such a realignment is unlikely.
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Disregard for the Electoral Process is New and Alarming
Donne Levy
How did the nation reach the point where one party is openly rejecting the democratic process?
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The Roundup Top Ten for May 28, 2021
HNN Staff
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
- Racist Mural Puts Tate Galleries in a Bind
- "We're Going to Publish": The New York Times' Oral History of the Pentagon Papers
- ‘What the Hell Happened?’ Inside the Nikole Hannah-Jones Tenure Case
- Virginia Theological Seminary Pays Reparations to Descendants of Enslaved and Jim Crow Laborers
- Supreme Court Rejects Sentence Reductions for Minor Crack Offenses
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