historical memory

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/2/2020
  

  We Are Still Living the Legacy of World War II

  by Tom Hanks

  The actor Tom Hanks reflects on the false narrative of closure of World War II. The forces unleashed by war and the struggle to reshape the world resonate today. 

• 
• 8/16/2020
  

  Who Shaped the Story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

  by William Johnston

  Most Americans' knowledge of Hiroshima and Nagasaki reflects how American leaders in 1945 wanted the atomic bombings remembered more than their real history. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  8/13/2020
  

  How History Turns Riots Into Tea Parties

  by Stacy Schiff

  For years Boston hesitated to erect a monument to the rabble-rousers of 1770. We do not care for the revolutionary spirit to survive the revolution. The revolution, however, goes nowhere without it.

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  7/6/2020
  

  How to Confront a Racist National History

  by Isaac Chotiner

  "But we have to acknowledge that we’re not upholding history, we’re upholding values, and those are not the values that we want in the twenty-first century."

• 
• SOURCE: USA Today
  7/6/2020
  

  As Divisions Threaten America, The Pressure To Cancel Presidents Is Dangerous

  Any hint of admiration for Lee means automatic cancellation these days but in the mid-20th century, it was ordinary and accepted.   

• 
• 7/3/2020
  

  While Monuments are Being Removed, a Historian Asks Questions

  by Andrew Joseph Pegoda

  People have a right to walk around their neighborhood park without being terrorized by iconography devoted to people who denied their ancestors human rights.

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  6/30/2020
  

  The Confederates Loved America, and They’re Still Defining What Patriotism Means

  by Richard Kreitner

  For most of U.S. history, patriotism and white supremacy, the values supposedly embodied by the two flags, have hardly been at odds. Rather, they have been mutually constitutive and disturbingly aligned.

• 
• SOURCE: KCRW
  6/24/2020
  

  Who Owns History? New Book Reconsiders San Gabriel Valley’s Pioneer Past

  The local history project East of East seeks to amplify the histories of people of color in El Monte, CA.

• 
• SOURCE: San Jose Mercury-News
  6/17/2020
  

  2 Berkeley Elementary Schools, Washington and Jefferson, to be Renamed in Response to Black Lives Matter Push

  Two San Francisco Bay Area schools named for founding fathers who were slaveholders will get new names following a push by Black Lives Matter activists, according to a newspaper report.

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• SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
  6/18/2020
  

  Racist Statues Belong in Museums, not Storage, to Force Us to Face History

  by Jonathan Zimmerman

  The City of Philadelphia shouldn't miss an opportunity to truly make the recently-removed statue of former mayor Frank Rizzo an educational tool. Hiding it in storage won't help Philadelphians learn or heal. 

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• SOURCE: 4WWL New Orleans
  6/11/2020
  

  New Orleans To Create Street Renaming Commission, Change Names 'Honoring White Supremacy'

  The group will be tasked with identifying places to be renamed and create a plan to educate the public on the changes made.

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  6/10/2020
  

  'Gone With the Wind' Reignites Debate as Hollywood Wrestles with its History

  Debate immediately ensued at the 1936 publication of Mitchell's novel, with its nostalgia for plantation life, portrayal of happy slaves and threatening freed blacks, and sympathy toward the Confederate cause.

• 
• SOURCE: The New York Times
  6/6/2020
  

  Coronavirus Depletes the Keepers of Europe’s Memory

  The pandemic has hastened the departure of witnesses to the wrenching conflicts of the last century, allowing rising political forces to recast history.

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• SOURCE: Daily Beast
  5/26/2020
  

  Leonardo DiCaprio’s Big Middle Finger to the Confederacy

  The History Channel miniseries “Grant,” executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, celebrates Ulysses S. Grant’s Civil War heroism and exposes the racism of the Confederacy.

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  5/18/2020
  

  "Rumors of War" Arrives in the South

  Kehinde Wiley's new sculpture serves as a rejoinder to the statues of Confederate leaders along Richmond's Monument Avenue. 

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• SOURCE: The New York Times
  5/8/2020
  

  Russia Was Ready to Celebrate a Glorious Past. The Present Intervened.

  As the coronavirus began its inexorable march across the country’s 11 time zones, it robbed the capital of lives, and also its chance to come together over a shared victory.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/4/2020
  

  They Survived the Holocaust. Now They’re Confronting the Virus.

  The generation that endured Nazi death camps is especially vulnerable to the pandemic.

• 
• SOURCE: Jewish Telegraphic Agency
  5/3/2020
  

  A ‘Holocaust Disneyland’? Historians Say a Controversial Film Director Wants to Turn a Ukrainian Museum into One.

  A Ukrainian filmmaker's controversial methods and subject matter have sparked criticism of his leadership of a memorial project for the massacre by Nazis and local collaborators of 150,000 people (including 50,000 Jews) at Babyn Yar, outside Kyiv.

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  5/1/2020
  

  How 13 Seconds Changed Kent State University Forever

  As the 50th anniversary of the Kent State killings passed this week, the University had been advancing along a difficult path to acknowledge the events and introduce new students to the campus's tragic history.

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• Lexington and Concord -- Where the Rubber Meets the Road

  by Guy Chet

  The Revolution was, first and foremost, a war.  The Revolution’s battles and campaigns thus offer sound insights as to the rebels’ motivation and aims.