The Roundup Top Ten for September 9, 2022
History as Love and The Presentist Trap: Responses to James Sweetby Malcolm Foley and Priya SatiaTwo historians respond to the AHA president's essay by reflecting on the politics of historical research and of speaking publicly about the past. |
Why Medical Exceptions to Abortion Bans Won't Protect Womenby Evan HartUnder new restrictive state laws, judges and lawyers, not doctors or patients, will decide who can get a medically necessary abortion. |
All History is Revisionistby James M. Banner Jr."The collective noun for a group of historians is an “argumentation,” and for good reason. At the very dawn of historical inquiry in the West, historians were already wrestling over the past, attacking each other." |
I was Fired for Asking My Students to Wear Masksby Michael PhillipsSometimes academic freedom is about the ability of professors to advocate on behalf of the campus community's health against administrators who prefer silence as a matter of political expediency. |
The Supreme Court Ignored the 19th Century "Voluntary Motherhood" Movementby Lauren ThompsonAbortion is, indeed, a deeply rooted right in American history, demonstrated by the extent to which women have worked to control reproduction. |
New Colombian Leadership Means it's Time for the US to End the Disastrous Drug Warby Christy ThorntonThe US has taken steps to pull back from the domestic war on drugs. But the violent, repressive and expensive campaign to fund militarized drug interdiction in Latin America has carried on uninterrupted, fueling political violence abroad and fentanyl overdoses at home. |
Why the Right Hates History Nowby Jonathan M. KatzConservative intellectuals like L. Brent Bozell used to claim the authority of history because the saw it as a set of texts that affirmed the right of men like them to rule. Now that the field has changed, pundits like Bret Stephens have little use for it. |
It's Not Trump's GOP, it's Pat Buchanan'sby Nicole HemmerRepublicans have come around to Pat Buchanan's vision of a hard-right, pessimistic and grievance-driven party. The question now is whether they will soften that vision in pursuit of a majority of voters, or try to keep power as a minority party. |
Colleges Should Quit Trying to Appease the Rightby Silke-Maria Weineck"When J.D. Vance says that 'professors are the enemy,' he is correct. He is our enemy, and we must be his. I welcome his hatred." |
Ken Burns Got "Prohibition" Wrongby Mark Lawrence SchradBurns largely accepts an individualistic and libertarian narrative of prohibition as a misbegotten campaign of moral scolds, missing the reformist, egalitarian, and humane demands of the movement and the exploitative nature of the "liquor traffic" it sought to disrupt. |