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The Roundup Top Ten for January 29, 2021

Fixing the Economy Requires Giving Power to People Who Answer to the Public

by Jonathan Levy

The economy does not exist on a plane separate from politics; the power of the Federal Reserve for the past four decades has been directed at increasing inequality and the power of the financial sector. 

What Julian Bond Taught Me About Politics and Power

by Jeanne Theoharis

A student of Congressman Julian Bond and a biographer of Rosa Parks, Jeanne Theoharis describes how those two figures demonstrated the real political story behind the mythologized civil rights movement. 

The Origins of Trump’s Slapdash, Last-Second ‘1776 Report’

by Joshua Tait

Putting the "1776 Commission" report into context requires understanding that it's not just a "conservative" project, but a product of a movement to define the United States as the realization of classical and Biblical civilization imperiled by relativism and multiculturalism. 

Trump Began With His ‘Great’ Wall. He Ended With It, Too

by Geraldo Cadava

His legacy will be the divisions he has sown between Americans.

Diversity Demands Struggle: Lessons from Lawrence Reddick’s Crusade for Black History

by David A. Varel

After working to build the field of Black history at the margins of academe in the middle of the 20th Century, Lawrence Reddick fought against the perception that a wave of white scholars who took up African American history after the civil rights movement were founders of the field. 

Lives Derailed: Notes from Migration Encounters

by Anita Isaacs and Anne Preston

"The contributions of immigrants, and the human toll of anti-immigrant policies should take center stage as we renew our national conversation on immigration."

White Americans have Weaponized the Idea of Girlhood

by Crystal Webster

The concept of childhood has elastic boundaries; in a racist society, those boundaries stretch to portray whites as innocents deserving protection and Black youth as dangerous and susceptible to punishment. 

What Americans Across the Political Spectrum Got Wrong About the Attempted Insurrection

by Corrie Decker and Elisabeth McMahon

American reactions to the Capitol insurrection made implicit and explicit comparisons to the developing world, reflecting the way that American exceptionalism has grown out of the Enlightenment's hierarchical and racist ranking of civilizations with Europe (and America) on top and Africa at the bottom. 

A Practical Path to Condemn and Disqualify Donald Trump

by Philip Zelikow

The standard of proof required for the Senate to bar Donald Trump from holding office under the 14th Amendment only demands that Trump gave aid and comfort to enemies of the Constitution, not that he participated in an insurrection. As his own words demonstrate that he did, this path should be followed. 

What Hank Aaron Told Me

by Sandy Tolan

The author received a touching reply to a fan letter he wrote Hank Aaron in 1972. Writing a book about Aaron years later, he realized he didn't know the half of the burdens Aaron carried in pursuit of baseball immortality.