culture wars

Why Meat and Masculinity are a New Culture War Front

by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. Rosenberg

The recent embrace of conspiracy theories around food consumption—liberals want to make us eat insects!—show how a sense of imperiled masculinity is being used to stop necessary conversations about making the food system safe, sustainable, and humane. 

"They Want Your Children!": Right-Wing School Panics Seek to Repeal Modernity

by Rick Perlstein

"Reactionary panics about what children learn in school are about as old as time. And they won’t ever go away."

Racism in the Curriculum Isn't Limited to History – It Affects Math, Too

by Theodore Kim

Math is not a neutral space, beyond the reach of history and entrenched racism. At a time of anti-Asian prejudice, American mathematicians obscured the importance of Chinese scholars in developing core concepts that are still significant today, preserving the fiction of math as a western intellectual tradition.

Historian Gary Nash, Who Fought to Update History Teaching, Dies at 88

Dr. Nash led a project to update national history teaching standards which was denounced by Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives, after a long career as an influential scholar of early American history who reconstructed the lives of ordinary Americans.

James W. Loewen, Who Challenged How History Is Taught, Dies at 79

James W. Loewen, a sociologist and civil rights champion, took high school teachers and textbook publishers to task for distorting American history.

HNN Honors James W. Loewen, 1942-2021

by HNN Staff

HNN honors the life and work of James W. Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and numerous other books, and an HNN contributor. He passed at the age of 79 on August 19. 

America's Founding was Imperfect. Just Ask the Founders

by George Thomas

"The American founding was imperfect. America’s founders weren’t just aware of the point, they insisted on it."

Today It’s Critical Race Theory. 200 Years Ago It Was Abolitionist Literature

In 1829, South Carolina and Georgia responded to a series of fires they assumed were set by enslaved people by banning both the abolitionist literature they blamed for inciting rebellion and the teaching of literacy to slaves. Today's battles over curriculum are likewise about ideas deemed threatening to social hierarchies.

Partisans Often Try to Claim July 4 as their Own. It Usually Backfires

by Kevin M. Kruse

Intense partisans seeking to use July 4 celebrations as a way to denounce their opponents as unpatriotic have seldom succeeded, though despite some notorious episodes of Independence Day chaos they will probably keep trying. 

The Battle for 1776

How will the re-emergence of history as a culture war battle front impact the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence? Annette Gordon-Reed, Jane Kamensky, Michael Hattem, Kevin Gover, Philip Mead, Robert Parkinson and Alan Taylor are among the historians commenting.

Tom Hanks: You Should Learn the Truth About the Tulsa Race Massacre

by Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks weighs in on the new culture war over teaching history.

Georgia State Education Board to Consider Rules on Race

Georgia is the latest state in which conservatives have staked out social studies curricula as a culture war battle front. 

Why We Should Cancel The Phrase ‘Cancel Culture’

by Max Boot

There are legitimate and important arguments about how much society should tolerate offensive or controversial speech, and how much the markets or public opinion should sanction individuals for what they say. The current "cancel culture" outrage on the right has nothing to do with these arguments. 

Why Can't Britain Handle the Truth about Winston Churchill?

by Priyamvada Gopal

"Churchill was an admired wartime leader who recognised the threat of Hitler in time and played a pivotal role in the allied victory. It should be possible to recognise this without glossing over his less benign side."

What Attacks on Science Get Wrong

by Andrew Jewett

Reductive diagnoses of a "war on science" ignore the specific political and cultural stakes of controversies around vaccination, climate, or creationism. 

The Latest Resurgence of Ethnic Studies

by Elwood Watson

The history of ethnic studies as an academic movement is a cycle of rise and retrenchment; protest movements often push for more representative curricula, while forces of tradition and austerity seek to uphold a canon or push majors linked directly to the job market. Today's protest movements are pushing an ethnic studies renaissance despite the dire financial straits of many colleges and students.

Stephen Prothero says liberals always win culture wars

That’s his conclusion after a careful review of culture wars since 1800.

Women’s Rights and the Decline of the Culture Wars

by Jonathan Zimmerman

Last Sunday, at the United Nations, world leaders marked the 20th anniversary of the landmark Beijing accord on women’s rights. They celebrated women’s progress—especially in education, health, and labor—and underscored ongoing gender inequalities.

Historian hailed for offering a history of the culture wars

As a guide to the late twentieth century culture wars, Andrew Hartman is unrivalled.

Right Versus Left: Culture Wars, Past and Present

by Walter G. Moss

Both left and right have something to learn from each other.