The Roundup Top Ten for January 13, 2023
As a History of Insurrection, the January 6 Report is a Messby Jill LeporeThe Committee delivered a potent indictment of Donald Trump's responsibility for the events of January 6, but shed little light on the origins or the future of the antidemocratic insurrection and failed to tell a compelling story about what happened. |
DeSantis's New College Coup Will Failby Adam LaatsTransforming colleges along ideological lines is much more difficult than amassing political power or appointing allies to governing boards. Conservatives are able to operate successful and ideologically friendly institutions when they accept that they will be occupy a niche, not change the ecosystem. |
The Black Widows' Struggle for Civil War Pensionsby Hilary GreenBlack women's struggles to claim pensions earned by their late husbands' service in the Union Army reflected the incomplete realization of freedom after emancipation and the intrusive controls the pension system and growing administrative state placed on Black families. |
A Profession, If You Can Keep Itby Erin Bartram"Let’s be clear: this “burnout” that secure scholars are feeling is phantom pain where their colleagues should be.... You are suffering from the effects of intentional systemic understaffing." |
50 Years at Cook County Hospital Prove Abortion is Healthcareby Amy ZanoniAbortion rights activists have focused on horror stories of the pre-Roe era as cautionary tales, but the history of public hospitals since Roe shows that real reproductive freedom requires expanded access to care and a robust social safety net. |
Despite Aggressive Rebrand, Charles Koch is Still Fighting Against Democracyby Nancy MacLean and Lisa GravesThe media have latched on to Charles Koch's recent expressions of regret over partisanship. But this is a rebranding, not a redirection. |
Will Ukraine Be the Death of German Pacifism?by Stephen MilderThe real transformation wrought in Europe by the Russian invasion isn't the return of war (which was certainly present in the 1990s) but the turn of Germany away from a post-fascist pacifist posture to a potential remilitarization. |
Israel's Ruling Coalition Turns Toward Theocracyby Bernard AvishaiNetanyahu has engineered an alliance among three disparate strains of religious parties and secular Israelis favoring an aggressive nationalism and occupation policy. But the religious parties have broader goals of undermining secular society in Israel. |
Oil and Spills Have Always Gone Hand in Handby Nolan VareeTransporting a toxic substances quickly over long distances to market will inevitably produce spills. Though the technology of oil transport has changed, this essential fact remains unchanged, and will as long as regulation treats the risk as an acceptable part of the business. |
John Fetterman and the Politics of Disabilityby Anya JabourThe personal became political for a historian who experienced disability similar to that affecting the new Pennsylvania senator on the campaign trail. The media must significantly readjust its framing of how disability impacts the ability to perform work. |