Departments

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Roundup

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    5/24/2023

    Does Lincoln Hold the Key to the Debt Ceiling Crisis?

    by Roger Lowenstein

    Issuing "greenback" paper currency backed by the government's credit instead of gold was seen as a radical move in 1862, but Lincoln and Treasury Secretary Salmon Chase recognized the paramount importance of safeguarding the nation's credit and did it anyway. 

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    5/23/2023

    Coca Cola Can't Go Green While Selling Drinks Cold

    by Bart Elmore

    If the worldwide beverage giant wants to reduce its carbon footprint, it's time for it to reverse its historical commitment to make its drinks available cold—in electric coolers—across the globe.

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    5/25/2023

    Americans Still Fumble in the Dark for Facts on Torture

    by Karen J. Greenberg

    The persistent efforts of scholars and human rights advocates are chipping away at the secrecy surrouding America's use of torture under the banner of national security in the War on Terror. 

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    5/17/2023

    Have Corporations Captured Social Science Research through Donations?

    by Nina Strohminger Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

    From decisionmaking to climate change, a focus on individual choices has flourished in social scientific research at the expense of sytemic change. Is corporate enthusiasm for funding this research any coincidence? 

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    5/17/2023

    Statehouses, not Stanford Students, Threaten Speech on Campus

    by Eduardo Peñalver

    Higher ed administrators have recently flexed their muscle in response to student protests of controversial speakers and demands for content warnings. They appear to have no such sense of purpose when it comes to defending free speech and free inquiry from legislative interference. 

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    3/23/2023

    Civics Education is at Rock Bottom. We Can Raise it Back Up

    by Danielle Allen

    Both disinvestment in the civics curriculum and political fights over what to teach mean that US children learn little about the democratic process at all.  A new project aims to rebuild consensus about the need for civics and lay out guiding principles. 

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    5/23/2023

    How to Fight Back Against the Right's "Parents' Rights" Moral Panic

    by Jennifer Berkshire

    Parents' fears about losing control over their children have been the raw material for potent politically-motivated moral panics for a century and more. But those panics aren't irresistible, because parents everywhere still value public schools as democratic community institutions.  

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    5/15/2023

    Hollywood Strikers Carry the Legacy of Ned Ludd

    by Gavin Mueller

    Our techo-utopian society holds the Luddites in low regard, but their actual history helps explain what's at stake in the screenwriters' strike and any labor conflict where new technology threatens workers' livelihoods. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    5/19/2023

    After Dobbs, Abortion Politics are Straining the Republican Coalition

    by Daniel K. Williams

    When the party could focus on appointing anti-Roe judges, the Republicans could make abortion a political issue without having to decide matters of policy that inevitably leave parts of their coalition angry and disappointed. Have they lost by winning? 

  • SOURCE: TomDispatch
    5/21/2023

    Trump and DeSantis Two Peas in a White Nationalist Pod

    by Clarence Lusane

    Any Republican candidate will need to lean in to the politics of white Christian nationalism ascendant on the right; Trump has needed the MAGA movement as much as it's needed him. 

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    5/22/2023

    "Return to Rigor" Isn't the Answer to Restoring Student Engagement

    by Kevin Gannon

    A post-COVID reaction to the improvisations made on grades, schedules and deadlines supposes that students are suffering from too much flexibility, but a singular focus on rigor won't address the causes of disengagment.