colonialism

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  4/15/2021
  

  The Sun Never Set on the British Empire’s Oppression

  While nationalist leaders in postcolonial states win political support by invoking heroic struggle to defeat British imperialism, they are very happy to use the repressive laws of colonialism against dissidents today. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/6/2021
  

  Review: ‘Exterminate All the Brutes’ Rewrites a Brutal History

  The atrocities documented in Raoul Peck's HBO film series on colonization of the western hemisphere are not news. That's part of what fuels the anger driving the film. 

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  3/29/2021
  

  Who's Afraid of Antiracism?

  by Chelsea Stieber

  Recent books in different genres shed light on the limits of the French governing ideal of republican universalism for a society where racism is real and historically significant. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/18/2021
  

  Napoleon Isn’t a Hero to Celebrate

  by Marlene Daut

  The veneration of Napoleon on the 200th anniversary of his death reflects a systemic problem in French education, which touts the color-blind universality of French republicanism (which Napoleon destroyed) without acknowedging his policy of attempted genocide in the effort to retake control of Haiti. 

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• SOURCE: Los Angeles Review of Books
  3/16/2021
  

  Fascism and Analogies — British and American, Past and Present

  by Priya Satia

  "Historical and local specificities mean all analogies are ultimately inaccurate in ways that historians must always make clear. The point of such comparisons, however, is to uncover darker historical truths obscured by prevailing, more flattering comparisons."

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/9/2021
  

  France Eases Access, a Little, to Its Secrets

  Historians of France's colonial war in Algeria have long been frustrated by the government's classification policies on documents related to the conflict. It is unclear how much this change will create transparency.   

• 
• SOURCE: Open Democracy
  3/2/2021
  

  The UK Government’s Obsession with ‘Culture Wars’ is a Threat to Democracy

  In the British debate over the public history of colonialism and empire, are conservative government ministers the ones really engaged in "cancel culture"? 

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  3/7/2021
  

  Trinity College Reckons with Slavery Links as Ireland Confronts Collusion with Empire

  Dublin's Trinity College is undertaking a review of its institutional ties to slavery, a project that involves acknowledging the participation of Irish merchants in the Atlantic slave trade. 

• 
• SOURCE: Al Jazeera
  2/26/2021
  

  ‘Moral Evil, Economic Good’: Whitewashing the Sins of Colonialism

  by Sabelo J Ndlovu-Gatsheni

  Recent efforts to reframe Europe's history of colonialism as a net contribution to human welfare are misguided, argues a scholar of African history. 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  2/23/2021
  

  Having Vaccines Alone isn’t Enough to Defeat COVID-19

  by Joyce Chaplin

  Early efforts at smallpox innoculation showed the importance of social and political factors in making new medical technologies effective. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  2/22/2021
  

  Pankaj Mishra’s Reckoning With Liberalism’s Bloody Past

  Indian critic Pankaj Mishra argues in a new book of essays that recent liberal concern about right-wing politicians declaring support for "western civilization" ignores the way that liberal colonialists have embraced ideas of cultural supremacy. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/15/2021
  

  The Sinking of a Bust Surfaces a Debate Over Denmark’s Past

  "An anonymous group of artists had unscrewed it from its plinth, popped a black garbage bag over its head and ferried it to the edge of the canal, before tipping it in."

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  

  Irish President Attacks 'Feigned Amnesia' over British Imperialism

  “I am struck by a disinclination,” he says, “in both academic and journalistic accounts to critique empire and imperialism. Openness to, and engagement in, a critique of nationalism has seemed greater.

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  2/2/2021
  

  Museums as Monuments to White Supremacy

  by Ana Lucia Araujo

  Recent protest and scholarship have highlighted the knowledge of major cultural institutions that artifacts in their collections were looted from Africa and other colonized places, and support calls to repatriate the artifacts. 

• 
• SOURCE: National History Center
  1/25/2021
  

  Virtual Event: Sarah Miller-Davenport: Gateway State: Hawai’i and Cultural Transformation of American Empire, FEB. 1

  Please join the National History Center of the American Historical Association for a Washington History Seminar roundtable on Gateway State: Hawai’i and Cultural Transformation of American Empire with author Sarah Miller-Davenport, MONDAY FEB. 1, 4:00 PM EST.

• 
• SOURCE: The Art Newspaper
  12/17/2020
  

  French Senate Blocks Restitution of 27 Artifacts to Benin and Senegal in Dispute with National Assembly

  The bill under consideration would compel France to return artifacts plundered from Benin and Senegal in the 1890s. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/15/2020
  

  The World’s Most Important Body of Water

  by Daniel Yergin

  The author of a book on the dispute over control of the South China sea examines four critical decisionmakers whose actions shaped the present conflict. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/18/2020
  

  The Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year

  “There was an event that happened in 1621,” Wampanoag historian Linda Coombs said. “But the whole story about what occurred on that first Thanksgiving was a myth created to make white people feel comfortable.” Native activists hope to disrupt the stories of Thanksgiving by questioning public history and by recovering indigenous food practices.

• 
• SOURCE: The Guardian
  11/12/2020
  

  The National Trust is under Attack Because it Cares about History, not Fantasy

  by Peter Mitchell

  Britain's historic preservation agency has become the target of conservative politicians who have interpreted the Trust's commissioning of a report evaluating the relationship of its projects to slavery as an attack on the nation's historical identity.

• 
• SOURCE: Nursing Clio
  11/5/2020
  

  The Racist Lady with the Lamp

  by Natalie Stake-Doucet

  "Nursing historiography is centered on whiteness. Even worse, nursing history revolves largely around a single white nurse: Florence Nightingale. This, unfortunately, doesn’t mean nurses understand who Nightingale was."