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The Roundup Top Ten for July 10, 2020

It is Time to Reconsider the Global Legacy of July 4, 1776

by Elizabeth Kolsky

American independence unleashed a hemispheric conquest by the United States and a renewed commitment to empire by Great Britain. Both projects relied on racism, violence, and the devaluing of black and indigenous lives. 

The Cruelty of ICE’s Guidance for International Students

by Brian Rosenberg

There is no soft-pedaling this: It is among the most mean-spirited policies we have seen from an administration that embraces meanness every day.

It Takes a Long Time to Vote

by Jonathan Coopersmith

No federal law governs wait times. Nearly two-thirds of voters in 2012 and three-quarters in 2018 waited less than 10 minutes. But long wait times are a chronic problem primarily for Latino and Black voters in “precincts with high minority populations, high population, and low incomes.”

Productivity Moves With Our Bodies

by Ángela Vergara

Researching the professional and familial lives of women scientists brought the author face to face with the impact of domestic and family obligations on women's academic work during COVID-19. 

Why a Biden Administration Shouldn’t Turn the Page on the Trump Era

by Kevin M. Kruse

The Obama–Biden administration wanted to move forward rather than hold Wall Street bankers and CIA torturers accountable. If elected, Biden should follow FDR’s playbook and expose his predecessor’s corruption and mismanagement instead.

Trump is Running an Openly Racist Campaign

by Max Boot

Trump is running an openly racist campaign at odds with public opinion that has shifted against Confederate monuments and in favor of Black Lives Matter. So he prefers to pretend that he is battling against the unreasonable demands of “cancel culture” — and his supporters pretend to believe him. 

Pandemic Journaling in the History Classroom

by Michelle Orihel

Since memory is essential to functioning in our daily lives, we all think historically to survive, even if only to question ourselves: “Did I pay that bill yesterday?” In answering that question, we reconstruct yesterday’s actions in our minds and perhaps even search for physical (or in today’s case, digital) evidence of that task. There it is — historical thinking!

Trump’s Mount Rushmore Speech Showed Why Our Battle Over History Is So Fraught

by Stetson Kastengren

But this idea of Mount Rushmore as a goosebump-inducing holy site to these liberal and patriotic ideals ignores that the land was stolen from the Sioux Nation — turning the site into a “landscape of denial” in the words of sociologist James Loewen.

I’m a College Professor. Here is What I Think about College Preparations for the Coronavirus this Fall.

by Daniel W. Drezner

Without a viable vaccine in the next six months, higher education in the United States will face a severe reckoning.

When Selecting a Vice-Presidential Candidate Became a Spectacle

by Amber Roessner

Jimmy Carter’s campaign staff recognized that the vice presidency had garnered tremendous attention during the 1970s, and not in a good way.