News at Home

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• 9/26/2021
  

  A House Still Divided (Part 1)

  by Walter G. Moss

  The core of our polarization is a disagreement about what kind of country we will be – one dominated by Christian white men or one, in Frederick Douglass's words, "of perfect civil equality to the people of all races and of all creeds, and to men of no creeds." 

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• 9/26/2021
  

  The Roots of the Politicization of the National Parks Service

  by Nick DeLuca

  The National Park Service has never been totally independent of politics. But a 1996 law requiring Senate approval of the NPS Director, combined with the Trump administration's use of acting directors, has created uncertainty. Approving Biden's nominee Chuck Sams is a key step to putting the National Parks on solid footing. 

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• 9/26/2021
  

  The Rogues Gallery: The Messy Growth of Modern Policing in Gilded Age New York City

  by John Oller

  John Oller's new book on the rise of the NYPD combines a history of the social dynamics of the booming city, with its extremes of wealth and poverty, and a gallery of colorful rogues – in and out of uniform – whose battles shaped American law enforcement for good and ill. 

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• 9/19/2021
  

  We are All Becoming Cassandras: Leaders Must Heed the People on Climate, Disarmament, and Pandemic

  by Lawrence Wittner

  In classical myth, Cassandra was a lone prophet whose accurate predictions were ignored. Today, a growing share of humanity are playing the Cassandra role against a political and economic elite standing in the way of solutions to the threats of climate change, pandemic disease and nuclear annihilation. 

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• 9/19/2021
  

  Richmond's Lee Statue Has Come Down. What About Confederate Memorials in Cemeteries?

  by Jeffrey Smith

  The statue of Robert E. Lee on Richmond’s Monument Avenue finally came down, to both fanfare and controversy. But some Confederate monuments are even more politically loaded—the ones where we bury the dead.

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• 9/19/2021
  

  Inequality Tends to Reach Political Tipping Points – Is That Happening Today?

  by Richard Vague

  "Proposals for a $15 minimum wage, more support for childcare and education, and even an alternative minimum income did not emerge out of nowhere as radical notions imported from Western Europe."

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• 9/12/2021
  

  See a Piece of History: Retired FDNY Fireboat John D. McKean

  The Fireboat McKean Preservation Project and the Hudson River Parks Friends offer those in New York the opportunity to visit the McKean at Pier 25 in lower Manhattan. The McKean's half-century of service most notably included evacuation and firefighting support on 9/11. 

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• 9/12/2021
  

  The Missed Lesson of Vietnam: Plan for Unconditional Victory or Don't Intervene at All

  by James D. Robenalt

  Comparisons between American withdrawal from Vietnam and Afghanistan miss a key point: failure was overwhelmingly likely from the beginning because, if the United States was unwilling or unable to secure unconditional surrender, time was on the side of its foes. 

• 
• 9/12/2021
  

  9/11's Memorials and the Politics of Historical Memory

  by Marita Sturken

  Major 9/11 memorials try to fix the public memory on a moment of national unity that, 20 years later, seems illusory. Other memorials point the way to using the force of memory to encourage critical reflection on nationalism.

• 
• 9/19/2021
  

  Teaching "All Men are Created Equal" (Part II)

  by Jeff Schneider

  In the second part of this essay, a longtime teacher of American history maintains that a close reading of the Declaration of Independence makes it possible to discuss revolution and racism in a thoughtful way without intimidating either white students or students of color.

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• 9/12/2021
  

  Teaching "All Men are Created Equal" (Part I)

  by Jeff Schneider

  A longtime teacher of American history maintains that a close reading of the Declaration of Independence makes it possible to discuss revolution and racism in a thoughtful way without intimidating either white students or students of color.

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• 9/12/2021
  

  Scammed From the Beginning: Rejecting Expertise as an American Value

  by Guy Lancaster

  When Americans demand and take unauthorized medications to treat COVID-19, they aren't indulging a new conspiratorialism but are tapping into currents of American cultural and religious history that have always rejected established authority. 

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• 9/5/2021
  

  Resettling Refugees is Harder than You Think – A Personal History

  by Ron Steinman

  Experience shows that resettling refugees isn't easy. But with respect for common humanity and dedication, it's possible. 

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• 9/5/2021
  

  Were the 9/11 Attacks Preventable?

  by J. Samuel Walker

  It's impossible to know if more diligent preparation for potential Al Qaeda attacks could have prevented them, but the Bush administration's slowness to develop a national security strategy for terrorism will always haunt the nation and the world. 

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  Critical Theory Opposes the Right Wing's Cancel Politics

  by Leah Allen and Pipa Marguerite

  Before Critical Race Theory, the Frankfurt School of social criticism was a preferred target of the right. Ironically, it is the right that has been most agressively and systematically moving to "cancel" ideas it opposes, and the Frankfurt School that shows how to resist. 

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• 8/29/2021
  

  Comparing Trump to Hitler is a Wrongheaded Distraction

  by Claudia Koonz

  The comparison indulges liberal distaste for Trump, but it obscures the degree to which, absent any coherent policy of national rebuilding, Trumpism is hitched even more closely to racial nationalism than Nazism was.

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• 8/29/2021
  

  A Brief History of the "Isolationist" Strawman

  by Brandan P. Buck

  As the United States enters another round of agonizing soul searching after another lost war, Americans should learn the fraught political history of the "isolationist" label.

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• 8/29/2021
  

  Words of Warning: Many Opposed the Afghanistan Invasion in 2001

  by John Bodnar

  "Today Americans worry over the humanitarian crisis at the Kabul airport.  But they mostly forget the one that transpired over a period of two decades and led to the death of some 150,000 Afghans in a war to eliminate evil from the world."

• 
• 8/22/2021
  

  The View from the New York City Hiroshima Peace Vigil

  by Michael McQuillan

  The march featured the testimony of antinuclear activists and rekindled a demand for New York's city council to divest the city budget from contractors who make nuclear weapons, but too much of the public seems willing to ignore the nuclear threat.

• 
• 8/22/2021
  

  In California Recall, a Tiny Minority of Voters Could Choose the Governor

  by James Thornton Harris

  The particularities of California's recall process create a dangerous situation where a minority of voters can choose the state's chief executive.