The Latest 
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Recovering the Story of the Empress Messalina After a Roman Cancellation
Honor Cargill-Martin
After the empress Valeria Messalina's fatal fall from favor with her husband Claudius, her name and image were stricken from public and private spheres, an episode that reveals the tightly-regulated dissemination of imperial women's images (and puts current "cancel culture" panic and whisper networks into perspective).
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From "Shell Shock" to PTSD, Veterans Have a Long Walk to Health
Charles Glass
Iraq War veteran Will Robinson brought himself out of a mental health crisis by hiking more than 11,000 miles of trail from the Pacific Crest to the Appalachian, following the century-old prescription of British military doctor Arthur Brock.
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Can the Left Take Back Identity Politics?
Umut Özkırımlı
Recovering the liberatory potential of identity politics means going back to the term's source—the Combahee River Collective—and recognizing its radical roots and embrace of coalition-building and politics.
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Ayn Rand's Defense of an Anti-Union Massacre
Greg Mitchell
The screenwriter and novelist was inspired by the 1943 memoir of Republic Steel head Tom Girdler, in particular his refusal to apologize for collaborating with Chicago Police to crush a march of striking steelworkers and their families in 1937.
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The Power of Dependency in Women's Legal Petitions in Revolutionary America (Excerpt)
Jacqueline Beatty
It's anachronistic thinking to ask whether the American revolution improved women's status; a legal historian's new book seeks to understand change and continuity in women's status through those women's own worldview, which often involved leveraging their dependent status in specific claims.
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Comparing the Trump – DeSantis Race to the Republicans' 1912 Debacle is a Stretch... Right?
Adam Burns
The whiplash of Ron DeSantis's rise and fall against Trump in the polls could be nothing in comparison to the political shockwave that would result if the Florida governor succeeds in taking the GOP nomination, but Trump doesn't go quietly—the falling-out between Roosevelt and Taft shows how it might go.
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A Trip Through the Mind of Vlad the Conqueror: A Satire Blending Imaginary Thoughts with Historical Facts
Lawrence S. Wittner
"Today I am Vlad the Conqueror! Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
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Blog
Trump Poised to Join Short List of 3-Time Presidential Nominees
Ronald L. Feinman
Although other figures have appeared on the presidential ballot three times, and FDR did it four times, Trump could potentially become the first three-time popular vote loser.
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The "Critical Race Theory" Controversy Continues
Florida's legislature is working to implement the agenda laid out by Governor Ron DeSantis, including eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and putting control of faculty hiring in the hands of university presidents, not faculty.
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The Right's Political Attack on LGBTQ Americans Escalates
Historians discuss the escalating attacks on LGBTQ Americans.
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Mifepristone, the Courts, and the Comstock Act: Historians on the Politics of Abortion Rights
HNN Staff
Conflicting court rulings leave the future of access to a widely used abortion medication in doubt, antiabortion activists openly discuss using a 150 year-old antiobscenity law to enforce a national ban, and Republican politicians face the fallout of unpopular policies.
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The Roundup Top Ten for June 2, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The Modern Relics in Crow's Cabinet of Curiosities
Matthew Dennis
Understanding Harlan Crow's collection, including Nazi memorabilia, as a set of relics (and not trophies or investments) helps to clarify the unease Americans feel about his understanding of power and cultivation of relationships with people of influence over the federal judiciary.
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What We Can Learn From—and Through—Historical Fiction
Carol K. Kammen
"I have written this to praise historical fiction when it respects the line between our times and the past, when it adheres to the known-truth and does not pervert it for excitement—or for book sales."
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Blog
White House Speechwriter Cody Keenan on the Crucial 10 Days of the Obama Presidency
Robin Lindley
"Politics isn’t some rigid system we’re trapped under. It’s us. It’s only as good as we are."
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Dangerous Records: Why LGBTQ Americans Today Fear the Weaponization of Bureaucracy
Emily Hand
Requests made by Texas's Attorney General for information about gender change requests on drivers' licenses and other documents alarmed transgender advocates because the data could support an official list of trans Texans at a moment when the group faces public vilification. History shows that innocent bureaucratic records can be used oppressively.
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Blog
150 Years of "Zero-Sum Thinking" on Immigration
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
"Since the 1870s, we’ve had a restrictionist, gatekeeping system, but it’s possible to widen access if we want to. The thing preventing us, as it’s always been, is racis...
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The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
Alan J. Singer
Ukrainian leadership would likely compare the abandonment of its claim to Crimea to be an injustice on par with Mexico's surrender of California and the southwest to the United States. Is it the least bad alternative?
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The Roundup Top Ten for May 25, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Texas Judge Revives Anthony Comstock's Crusade Against Reproductive Freedom
Bill Greer
The career of Anthony Comstock shows what can happen when a highly committed moral crusader gains traction in the political system. His rehabilitation in the contemporary abortion war is cause for concern.
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Forget "Finding Forrester"—Our Best Teaching Can Be Ordinary
Elizabeth Stice
Hollywood loves to tell the stories of singularly brilliant students pushed to greatness by similarly singular mentors with unconventional methods and unaccommodating personalities. This ideal won't help anyone teach the real students in their classrooms.
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Stronger Global Governance is the Only Way to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Lawrence Wittner
The war in Ukraine and escalating tensions between the PRC and Taiwan are just two examples of the resurgent danger of nuclear war. A revived movement for true international governance is needed to ensure that the unthinkable becomes impossible.
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AI the Latest Instance of our Capacity for Innovation Outstripping our Capacity for Ethics
Walter G. Moss
The words of General Omar Bradley are as prescient as ever: "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."
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Blog
John de Graaf on his Powerful Documentary on Stewart Udall, Conservation, and the True Ends of Politics
Robin Lindley
A documentarian discusses his efforts to highlight the forgotten contributions of former Interior Secretary to the environmental and conservation movements, a mission that touches on deeper questio...
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The Roundup Top Ten for May 19, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
- The Debt Ceiling Law is now a Tool of Partisan Political Power; Abolish It
- Amitai Etzioni, Theorist of Communitarianism, Dies at 94
- Kagan, Sotomayor Join SCOTUS Cons in Sticking it to Unions
- New Evidence: Rehnquist Pretty Much OK with Plessy v. Ferguson
- Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike
- First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs
- The Tulsa Race Massacre was an Attack on Black People; Rebuilding Policies were an Attack on Black Wealth
- British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"
- Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking
- Jeremi Suri: Texas Higher Ed Conflict "Doesn't Have to Be This Way"
Trending Now
- New transcript of Ayn Rand at West Point in 1974 shows she claimed “savage" Indians had no right to live here just because they were born here
- The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
- The Vietnam War Crimes You Never Heard Of
