The Roundup Top Ten for February 11, 2022
Notes from a Grad School Survivorby Kellen HenifordThis week's revelations of sexual harassment and institutional complicity at Harvard are striking a chord with women academics because they're not surprising. The author discusses her own experiences and the power dynamics stacked against students and survivors. |
It's Black History Month. We Need to Talk About Itby Jeremy C. YoungThe honest teaching of American history is under attack across the United States, undermining the goal of Carter G. Woodson, who linked the teaching of Black history to the advancement of multiracial democracy. |
The United States Needs to Drop the National Prayer Breakfastby Anthea ButlerOrganized by a secretive Christian nationalist organization, the National Prayer Breakfast is an annual ritual that has no place in the political culture of a multicultural democracy. |
Was the Black Death Less Severe and Shorter than We Think?by Adam Izdebski, Alessia Masi and Timothy P. Newfield"While no two pandemics are the same, the study of the past can help us discover where to look for our own vulnerabilities and how to best prepare for future outbreaks. To begin to do that, though, we need to reassess past epidemics with all the evidence we can." |
Adults Support Empowering Youth – Until Youth Dissentby Dara WalkerAmerican youth are seldom credited for having a clear understanding of the policies that affect their lives. COVID safety walkouts are the latest example of student activism to be dismissed. |
Madeline Morgan Fought for the Teaching of Black History in Schools. 80 Years Later the Fight Isn't Overby Michael HinesEducator Madeline Morgan was one of many Black teachers who understood the connection between the social studies curriculum in Chicago and the prospects for interracial democracy in the city. |
The Neil Young-Joe Rogan Affair Shows the Long History of the Music Industryby Sam BackerThe music industry's adaptation to the streaming age (and return to profits for the big labels) is part of a long history extracting money from new technologies, including giving artists the smallest slice of the pie. |
Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy as an American Historianby Bennett Parten"One of the most striking things about reading Blood Meridian now, almost 40 years since its release, is that it anticipates some of the major historical turns of the past decades." |
Single Origin Stories Aren't Good Historyby Emily SclafaniOrigin stories, whether of idealized liberty or racism as national original sin, tie the present to the past in ways that exclude the possibilities for change that existed then and exist now. |
Man of Smokeby Jason RidlerThe task of literary biography can be made much more difficult when authors fictionalize the sparse details of their own lives. |