The Roundup Top Ten for April 8, 2022
What's Happening in Ukraine Is Genocide. Periodby Eugene Finkel"I am well aware of the need for caution, and in the past have criticized the governments of many post-Soviet states — including Ukraine, where I was born — for misusing the term. Not now." |
While "Anti-Grooming" Rhetoric Seems to Come from the Fringe, it Can be Influentialby Mical Raz and Paul M. RenfroThe latest culture war battle revives historical efforts to use the law to institutionalize the slander that LGBTQ people pose an inherent danger to children and families. |
Nationwide, Faculty Fight for Academic Freedomby Ellen Schrecker"When they act collectively, professors have the power to protect academic freedom and the desire to teach the truth. Let us hope they also have the will." |
With Amazon Union, What's Old is New Againby Rosemary FeurerThe victory of the Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island doesn't represent a revival of "the 1930s insurgency," but a new generation finding guidance from some of the bottom-up solidarity building strategies from that decade. Today's unionism will have to avoid some mistakes of the CIO to endure. |
The White Nationalist Fringe is Moving to the Center of the Republican Partyby Annika BrockschmidtThe embrace of the white nationalist right by the Republican Party is reflected in the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene's political endorsement is, second to Trump's, the most sought-after for party candidates. |
Over a River Strangely Rosy: Reading Poetry in Wartimeby Joan Neuberger"It’s my job to explain things about Russia and its various incarnations of empire. I know how to do that — I’ve been doing it for a long time. But, in this moment, analysis seems to me to be somehow incomprehensible and profoundly unsatisfying." |
Blaming the "Third Rome" Doctrine for Putin's Invasion Distorts His Motivesby Matthew Lenoe"Bogus theories about an innate Russian drive to expand will only complicate negotiations with Moscow, especially a possible post-Putin Moscow." |
The Radical MLK and a Usable Pastby Robert Greene II"Above all, King’s “usable past” was part of a long tradition of Black Americans claiming a place for themselves in the larger tapestry of American history and memory." |
What I Learned when Donald Trump Tried to "Correct" the Recordby Julian Zelizer"As an academic historian, I never expected to find myself in a videoconference with Donald Trump." |
Winslow Homer: The Melville of American Pantingby Susan TallmanA new exhibition reframes Homer, once seen as a visual poet of American innocence, as an artist who grappled with the bitter conflicts at the heart of the nation. |