News at Home

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• 8/2/2020
  

  Learning from Lincoln: Meeting Crisis with Action

  by William L. Barney

  The United States is at a crossroads. The path chosen will determine whether contemporary America resumes its role as a beacon of hope and progress to the rest of the world or joins the Confederate slaveholders of the past among history’s losers. 

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• 8/2/2020
  

  Better Than Silence: The Need for Memorials to the Manhattan Project

  by Stephen Kiernan

  Creating the bomb was both a milestone achievement, and a profound expansion of the limits of warfare. This complexity deserves a permanent public memorial.

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• 8/2/2020
  

  What's in an Un-Naming? Berkeley's Kroeber Hall

  by Tony Platt

  Alfred Kroeber built the University of California's anthropology department into a world leader literally with the bones of the Native peoples of California. It's time to honor them. 

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• 8/2/2020
  

  From Historical Injustice to Contemporary Police Brutality, and Costs of Monuments to the Unworthy

  by Billy J. Stratton

  Silas Soule and Joseph Cramer, two Civil War-era heroes who rebelled and refused to join a brutal attack against Native peoples represent the moral courage we would do well to honor.

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• 8/2/2020
  

  Federal Agents, “Insurrection,” and the Long, Bloody History of U.S. Counterinsurgency

  by Rachel Ida Buff

  Now, on the streets of U.S. cities, federal agents join militarized police in waging war on Americans who are exercising their lawful rights of freedom of speech and assembly. There is no doubt that the results endanger us all.

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• 8/2/2020
  

  Free Speech and Civic Virtue between "Fake News" and "Wokeness"

  by Campbell F. Scribner

  Left critics of the recent "Harper's Magazine" open letter on free speech and open debate make some claims that are narrowly meritorious. But they don't address the value of speech as a way of building the collective citizenship necessary for democracy. In this respect, the signers are correct.

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• 8/2/2020
  

  The Mississippi Flag and the Shadow of Lynching

  by David T.Z. Mindich

  Lynching helped to raise the odious flag in 1894.  But in 2020, hundreds of thousands of marchers protesting the lynching of George Floyd brought the flag down. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Will the Crisis Year of 2020 Turn Out Like 1968?

  by James Thornton Harris

  Trump’s attempt to use Nixon’s outdated playbook will fail. Our nation is younger, more diverse and better educated now. We know better. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Two Contagions, One Opportunity to Reboot our Approach

  by Steve Pyne

  Outbursts of megafires resemble emerging diseases because they are typically the outcome of broken biotas – a ruinous interaction between people and nature that unhinges the old checks and balances. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Weighing the Evidence when a President is Accused of Antisemitism

  by Rafael Medoff

  In weighing the evidence that has so far been produced concerning Trump, one must consider the standards that historians have applied with regard to the other three presidents who have been accused of antisemitism—Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt.

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• 7/26/2020
  

  What's in a Name?: Decolonizing Sports Mascots

  by Paul C. Rosier

  Decolonizing sports history requires a deeper analysis of how false historical narratives that ‘blamed the victim’ became embedded in public venues in everyday life that shaped generations of Americans’ perceptions of Native people

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Mankato’s Hanging Monument Excluded Indigenous Perspectives when it was Erected and when it was Removed

  by John Legg

  Both while it stood and when its presence became inconvenient, the Hanging Monument shows how memorials control historical narratives and elevate particular interpretations of the past.

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Let Us Now Remove Famous Men

  by Calvin Schermerhorn

  Should the statues remain up, doing the quiet work of reinforcing white supremacy while we get to work dismantling the interlocking components of structural racism? Or are the statues part of a 400-year history of violence against African-descended people that needs urgent attention and rectification?

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• 7/23/2020
  

  What the Faithless Electors Decision Says about SCOTUS and Originalism

  by Ray Raphael

  The outcome of the "faithless electors" case shows that judicial "originalists" use that principle pragmatically and selectively. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  Can Martin Luther King’s Spiritual Vision Kindle a New Progressivism?

  by Walter G. Moss

  Advocates for a broader social democratic political agenda should consider the spiritual roots of Martin Luther King's activism, which have historically engaged a broad range of political views to reform movements. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  One of the Chicago 7 Reflects on Dissident Politics Then and Now

  by Lee Weiner

  A veteran of dissident politics in the 1960s warns that while today's broad coalition of activists for a more just and democratic America are on the right track, they must learn from the mistakes of an older generation and find ways to keep united despite difference. 

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• 7/19/2020
  

  A Historian's Reflections on American Dissent

  by Ralph Young

  At a time like this one longs for a Gandhi or a King to come along and show us the way. Or a Lincoln or a Roosevelt who took up the challenge of leading the United States through existential crises. But I don't see that happening. Not in 2020. Not on the federal level.

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• 7/19/2020
  

  Monumental Folly

  by Pete Daniel

  Change is on the front foot, and this is no time to allow wealth and ignorance to gain ground.  Achiever exhibits and sculpture gardens seem pathetic sideshows to the powerful history of the country.

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• 7/19/2020
  

  Trump Made it Manifestly Clear: The Discussion of National Destiny is Ongoing

  by G.W. Gibson

  We can take heart that our country and our discipline have come a long way from the nadir and Frederick Jackson Turner. Somewhere between Teddy Roosevelt and Colin Kaepernick, we have managed to pick up a few yards as Americans and as American Historians.

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• 7/19/2020
  

  Make Digital History a National Common Ground

  by Stewart D. McLaurin

  No one should be at a disadvantage because they can’t visit D.C., or other historical landmarks like Presidential homes and libraries. We can take advantage of our increased dependence on online learning to inspire students, no matter where they live.