News at Home 
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1/29/2023
Latino Activists Changed San Antonio in the 1960s
by Ricardo Romo
San Antonio in the 1960s faced many of the same challenges of cities throughout the South; its emerging Mexican American political leadership helped steer the city in a progressive direction.
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1/29/2023
No Golden Anniversary for the Paris Peace Accords
by Arnold R. Isaacs
While the West observes January 27 as the anniversary of the agreement, it was already January 28 in Vietnam when the accords took effect, a telling symbol of the disjunction between American and Vietnamese views of the conflict and its stakes that contributed to their tragic failure.
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1/22/2023
The US is a Procedural, Not a Substantive, Democracy
by Van Gosse
"The United States is well on its way to becoming a strictly procedural democracy, wherein legal and constitutional norms are observed, but the core requirements for democratic decision-making—the rule of the majority, the right of all citizens to vote without hindrance—are ignored."
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1/22/2023
As the Progressive Era Ideal of Regulation Vanishes, What Will Stop the March of AI?
by Walter G. Moss
If capital decides that artificial intelligence is sufficiently profitable to put in charge of driving our cars, writing our essays, or even teaching our history classes, what is left to stop it, even if the products are terrible or even dangerous?
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1/22/2023
Why CRT Belongs in the Classroom, and How to Do It Right
by Stacie Brensilver Berman, Robert Cohen, and Ryan Mills
"If classroom realities matter at all to those governors and state legislators who imposed CRT bans on schools, they ought to be embarrassed at having barred students in their states from the kind of thought provoking teaching we witnessed in this project."
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1/15/2022
One Term, Two Presidencies: Biden's Prospects under Divided Government
by Michael A. Genovese
If recent patterns prove out, the second half of Biden's term will be marked by executive orders with little prospect of significant legislation.
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1/15/2023
50 Years Ago, "Anti-Woke" Crusaders Came for My Grandfather
by Max Jacobs
In 1972, "Search for Freedom" was rejected for adoption in Texas classrooms after conservative activists launched a national media campaign to attack it as unamerican and corrupting. The author's grandfather wrote the book.
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1/8/2023
Hillsdale College's New Strategy in the School Wars Merges Curriculum and Privatization through "Choice"
by Megan Threlkeld
During the Progressive era, as today, American education reformers examined the connection between schooling and the cultural and political divisions affecting the nation. Today's conservative agenda, however, openly rejects the idea of public schools as a force for unity and democratic culture.
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1/8/2023
The Legacy of Charlene Mitchell: The First Black Woman Presidential Candidate
by Alyssa Spinosa and Adam Arenson
Although Charlene Mitchell's candidacy with the Communist Party gained few votes, her campaign reflected an effort to advance a critique of capitalism that addressed the American context of racial inequality and oppression.
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1/6/2023
"You Don't Have the Votes": The House Speaker Fight Echoes 1839
by Michael Trapani
With multiple votes, partisan hostility, and charges of an electoral "steal" in the air, the House Speaker battle of 1839 offers a compelling comparison to today.
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12/18/2022
Revisiting the "Knickerbocker" Origin Story of Santa Claus
by Tom A. Jerman
The notion that the American Santa Claus evolved naturally from the European Saint Nicholas conceals an origin story for the character that's both simpler and more complex.
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12/18/2022
Fear Was on the 2022 Ballot, with More in Store for '24
by Joe Renouard
Political advertising in the midterm campaigns focused on fear. There's little reason to expect anything different in two years.
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12/18/2022
A Grisly but Significant Discovery at Red Bank Updates the History of the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign
by Robin Baker
Local volunteers excavating near the site of Fort Mercer in southern New Jersey discovered new evidence of the participation of Hessian mercenaries in a key battle in the British attempt to seize Philadelphia in 1777.
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12/11/2022
Kyrie Irving Just the Latest Outspoken Athlete to Go Rogue
by Greg Kaliss
It's entirely fair for the Nets' guard to face criticism for his boosting of an antisemitic film, but the uproar carries the risk of silencing athletes who might otherwise use their public platforms for political advocacy.
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12/11/2022
Immigrant Education in America is a Series of Stories of Courage
by Jessica Lander
One in four K-12 students today is an immigrant or a child of immigrants. A high school history teacher in an immigrant-serving school argues that we need to remember the examples of past educators who defied law and prejudice to make schools places where immigrants became Americans.
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12/11/2022
Virginia's "Guiding Principles" are a Right-Wing Fantasy of History
by Alan J. Singer
Governor Youngkin's allies on Virginia's commission to review state social studies standards have hijacked the process to advance a right-wing vision of history education in the state that expunges "divisive concepts" from the curriculum.
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12/11/2022
The Selective Appropriation of Christopher Gadsden's Famous Flag
by Jordan Baker
The Gadsden Flag originally symbolized the unity of the American colonies against oppression by the Crown and Parliament. It's an irony of history that the symbol has been adopted by some who reject centralized authority.
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12/11/2022
Is Gerontocracy the Problem?
by Cary Heinz
Although Biden, Trump, and other prominent elected officials represent a political leadership that's unprecedented for advanced age, it's not clear we can—or should—do anything about it.
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12/4/2022
While Decrying Election Denialists, Congress Can't Ignore the Need to Protect the Voting Rights Act
by Gregory T. Moore
The best way for a bipartsian coalition of lawmakers to demonstrate more than lip service to the values of democracy is to pass the Electoral Count Reform Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
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11/20/2022
Should We Burst the Campus "Bubble"—Or Balance It?
by Elizabeth Stice
"It is fine for a university to be unusual compared to other environments. That does not make it inherently incapable of preparing people for the real world."
News
- Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham on the AP Af-Am Studies Controversy
- 600 African American Studies Faculty Sign Open Letter in Defense of AP African American Studies
- Organization of American Historians Statement on AP African American Studies
- Historians on DeSantis and the Fight Over Black History
- How the Right Got Waco Wrong