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The Roundup Top Ten for August 12, 2022

How to Fight Inflation Without Interest Rate Hikes and Recession

by Meg Jacobs and Isabella M. Weber

The history of World War II price controls shows that it is possible to fight inflation without imposing recession, if controls are targeted and backed by concerted effort to win political support. 

From "Oregon Trail" to "Uncharted," How Video Games Have Helped Teach History

by Julio Capó, Jr.

The popularity of immersive historical narratives in video games means they have the ability to engage players deeply – historians need to understand the potential and limits of games for teaching. 

The Rediscovery of David McCullough

by Lindsay M. Chervinsky

A presidential historian now at work on her own book on John Adams reflects on how McCullough's blockbuster inspired her own career, and his hits and misses as a chronicler of overlooked or forgotten people and events in American history. 

Liberals: The January 6 Hearings Won't Save Us

by Daniel Bessner and Ben Burgis

Liberals hoping the televised hearings will result in criminal charges or accountability for Trump and his accomplices are in denial about the culture of elite impunity in America. The Democratic Party can't hope that outrage over January 6 will help them in November. 

"Phantom Catholic Threats" Haunt Ireland's National Maternity Hospital

by Máiréad Enright

Secular Irish health advocates fear that a partnership between the state and religious charities to operate the national maternity hospital will impose limits on care, including abortion access. Is this justified or a case of finding "nuns under the bed"? 

You Do Not, Under Any Circumstances, Gotta Hand it To America Firsters

by Eric Rauchway

Critics of American aid to Ukraine have misconstrued the history of FDR's "Lend-Lease" aid to Britain and the USSR as a factor that pushed the world into total war. It's worth considering the political affiliations of people who made that argument in 1941. 

What a Family Archive of the Nazi-Soviet Fight in Ukraine Tells Us About the War Today

by Pascal Trees

A family archive of letters from a German soldier fighting the Red Army in Ukraine reveals the complexities of ethnic and national identity that are in dispute by Russian and Ukrainian partisans today. 

Thoroughly Modern Maxie: Robespierre and His Legacy for Democracy Today

by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall

"If Robespierre was not by nature a murderous despot, who was he and what does he have to teach us – especially at a time, like that of the French Revolution, when progressives and liberals are divided about how to prioritize the rights of minoritized groups?"

Counterfeiting for Freedom in Colonial America

by Zachary Dorner

A lively trade in "coining," the creation of false Spanish coins, reflected both the multinational colonization of North America and the hardships created by a constricted money supply in the British colonies. Though illegal, "bad money" made commerce and taxpaying possible for many colonials.

Putting the Tenure Debate in Historical Perspective

by Adam Sitze

Academic tenure has much in common with the historial practice of lifetime appointments for judges. Why are academics reluctant to embrace the comparison?