The Latest 
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The Great Upheaval of 1877 Sheds Light on Today’s Protests
Richard Schneirov
1877 saw a wave of mass protests and strikes by the urban poor of multiple ethnicities, violent repression by the forces of law and order, and a news media that focused on sensational instances of looting and property damage while ignoring the protesters' complaints about inequality during a brutal economic downturn.
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Witness Against the Beast
Christopher Tomlins
Nat Turner followed his evangelical faith to challenge a profane and degenerate slaveholding regime. Today's white evangelical Christians must decide whether to support the successor of that regime.
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After Those Cruel Wars Were Over: Lessons from Two Economic Recoveries
Hugh Rockoff and Mark Wilson
An economist and economic historian argue that a well-planned response to the economic disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in economic recoveries like those that followed the two World Wars.
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Misremembering the Fall of France 80 Years Later (Part 2)
Robert J. Young
The French defeat was driven by strategic error and faulty battlefield strategy, but not by a lack of will to fight.
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Viral Consequences
David Marks
The indifferent response of the Trump administration to the COVID-19 pandemic and the repressive police response to protests are a signal that we need a political and social transformation to address the ongoing global climate crisis.
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The Twisted History of Domestic Military Intervention
Alan Singer
The use of federal troops to enforce domestic law and order has usually served the interests of big business and white supremacy; recent calls to send in the troops are not concerned with protecting freedom.
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Peace is Temporary Without Trustworthy Leaders: Lessons from the Philadelphia Mutiny
David Head
In an environment of intense mutual suspicion—soldiers accused civilians of stingy ingratitude while civilians saw the army as a threat to their liberty—Washington’s trustworthiness bound the two sides together.
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Walter Mondale's Campaign Did Accomplish Something (Ask Joe Biden's Future Running Mate)
Joel K. Goldstein
Walter Mondale's choice of Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate in 1984 opened the major parties' general election tickets to women for the first time. Will Joe Biden's campaign fulfill that promise this year?
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Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods: How Bad is It?
Jerry Lembcke
A historian of public perceptions of the Vietnam War (who served as a military chaplain there) warns that Spike Lee's latest film traffics in stereotypes of both American veterans and the Vietnamese people while reinforcing right-wing narratives about the war.
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Dear Vice President Biden: Bring Achievers Back to the White House
Joseph A. Esposito
Joseph Biden is urged to remember John F. Kennedy's admiration and celebration of achievement and Franklin Roosevelt's spirit of pragmatic experimentation in his campaign. Should he be elected, he'll need inspiration to lead the nation out of dire circumstances.
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Roundup Top Ten for June 19, 2020
The week's best op-eds by historians or about history from around the web.
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Tear Down that Statue, Mr. Macron!
Marlene L. Daut
Four figures from French history whose statues could replace that of Jefferson in Paris.
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The SS Officer's Armchair
Daniel Lee
The discovery of a trove of documents in an old armchair led the author on a five-year search for information about a previously anonymous Nazi, whose history intersected with the author's family in surprising ways.
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John F. Kennedy Did What Donald Trump Only Wishes He Could Do
Paul Matzko
Rules to promote “fairness” or prevent “discrimination” can all too easily turn into tools for gaining partisan advantage at the expense of free speech, a free press, and a functioning democracy.
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Hungarian-American Relations in 1849 and Today: Why We Need Another Lajos Kossuth
Tim Roberts
A Hungarian nationalist visited the United States in 1849 to plead the case for an independent, democratic state, inspiring the cause of abolition in America. Today Hungarian-American relations are running in the direction of authoritarianism.
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Respectability and Remembrance: The Continued Condemnation of Black Resistance
Anne Stokes
Addressing the full depth of racism and white supremacy in America requires understanding the limits of the non-violent civil rights movements, and the necessity of armed self-defense for African Americans against the violence perpetrated or instigated by whites — including the police — throughout American history.
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The Vexations of History In An Age of Police Violence: A Ventura County California Perspective
Frank P. Barajas
Protests like those in the author's home city show that minority communities across the nation have longstanding historical grievances against police departments that must be addressed with meaningful change.
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Misremembering the Fall of France 80 Years Later (Part 1)
Robert J. Young
On the 80th anniversary of the Fall of France, it's time to retire the idea that the French surrendered without a fight.
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Where Was Such Solidarity Two Weeks Ago?
Frederick Gooding, Jr.
The author is skeptical of the sudden wave of "performative solidarity" by white individuals and corporate America. Ensuring that Black Lives matter will require solidarity in the long term.
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One Small View of a Big Picture
Arnold R. Isaacs
A journalist and writer didn't expect a Black Lives Matter demonstration to happen in his mostly white, Trump-supporting suburban Baltimore community. Here are his observations on the event and what it might tell about white Americans' actions and attitudes.
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It's Time for White Parents to Have The Talk with their Children
Roy E. Finkenbine
Many African American parents have a common experience of teaching their children about racism and its dangers. Not enough white parents talk with their children about how racism affects their lives.
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Let Them Eat Weapons: Trump’s Bizarre Arms Race
Lawrence Wittner
The Trump administration's stated intention to "spend the adversary into oblivion" through arms buildup is likely to bring ruin to the American public before it harms Russia or China.
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Israel and the Palestinians: Architects of Their Own Destruction
Alon Ben-Meir
The political positions of Israeli and Palestinian leadership set the region on a path toward more bloodshed.
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Baby Boomers: Incapable of Greatness
Gregory D. Foster
The problems of contemporary society can be attributed to a generation born at the right time who squandered the opportunity to do something for the allure of being something.
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What if Trump Refuses to Leave?
Richard Striner
History offers few guidelines for how to handle the increasingly plausible scenario of a defeated president refusing to leave office.
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Roundup Top Ten for June 12, 2020
The week's top opinion writing by historians or about history from around the web.
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Interconnected Histories of Race, Violence, and Policing in America
Michael J. Pfeifer
A historian of criminal justice contends that two conceptual boundaries--between North and South and between lynching and police force--help conceal the racist violence in the American system of justice.
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How Could 400 Years of Denied Humanity Find Voice in a Whisper?
Leonard Steinhorn
Visual images convey power relationships, and many famous images have shown that African Americans are not yet fully recognized as American citizens to whom police are accountable.
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"I Imagine Everything Happened on Beale Street": Remembering Memphis in "Brother Robert"
Annye C. Anderson and Preston Lauterbach
In an excerpt from the new book Brother Robert, Annye Anderson, sister of blues legend Robert Johnson, describes time spent with Johnson in Memphis, and the trends in music, movies, and black politics that shaped Johnson's personality as well as his innovative music.
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A Brief Note to the History Graduates of 2020
Jeffrey Herf
A University of Maryland professor urges this spring's history graduates to "place skills you have learned here in service of defending and developing the search for truth that we need to move from catastrophe to recovery."
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Blog
Love, Loss, and Leadership in a Time of Mass Death— An Interview with Erik Larson
Robin Lindley
"Churchill also had an ability to express empathy, which was an important element in a time of war. It was not unusual to see him op...
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The Decline of the Humanities and the Bleach-Drinking Epidemic
Lior Sternfeld and Mana Kia
When Donald Trump hinted that injecting "disinfectants" could cure COVID-19, he was displaying a lack of critical thinking skill that is endemic in a society where learning is valued only in economic, rather than civic, terms.
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Contagion and Recovery in the Hittite Empire
Eva von Dassow
The progress of an ancient plague shows that when faith--in gods or medical research--fails, it's a long road to safety.
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Mourning in America
Ed Simon
Historically the powerful have described deaths from disease and starvation as "natural" to hide the political nature of suffering and their own responsibility. To mourn is to fight this erasure.
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Blog
Are Republicans Nasty People?
Steve Hochstadt
A talk radio ethos that puts provocation above understanding and ideological rigidity over cooperation has become the core of the Republican Party. This is not a good thing.
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Trump's Bad "Bloodlines"
Rafael Medoff
Donald Trump recently continued an ignoble legacy of American presidents endorsing eugenics and other pseudoscientific theories of racial hierarchy.
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Excerpt: Routine Dehumanization Under Jim Crow Policing
Kevin Shird
Police in Jim Crow Alabama offered two kinds of outreach to schools: an "Officer Friendly" visit to white children, and traumatizing and intimidating threats of incarceration to black children.
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Turning Points and Roads Not Taken in American Foreign Policy
Roger Peace
The end of the Cold War presented an opportunity for American foreign policy to turn away from militarism and toward cooperative development. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest consequence of failing to secure a "peace dividend."
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Blog
The Potential for Crisis Between Election Day and Inauguration: Then and Now
Ronald L. Feinman
Four prior presidential elections have made the period between election and inauguration a time of uncertainty and danger. The period of time beginning on November 3 might outdo them all. ...
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The Chinese Dream Imperiled
Andrew Meyer
We are going to hear much in the near future about the dangers of Chinese ambition. World leaders would be well advised, however, to prepare for the dangers of internal Chinese instability.
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Six Reasons Besides Racism Americans Voted For Trump
Walter G. Moss
Donald Trump certainly exploited many white Americans' racism to win votes in 2016. But there are some other disturbing trends--from our anti-intellectualism to our taste for celebrity--that he could exploit again.
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Roundup Top Ten for June 5, 2020
It was a big week, and impossible to choose ten op-eds. We've got a baker's dozen.
News
- Forgotten Civil War Map Shows Antietam as a Cemetery
- Why Trump Is Right To Worry About That Glass of Water
- Tulsa's Black Residents Grapple with the City's Racist History and Police Brutality Ahead of Trump's Rally
- The Real Story Behind “Because of Sex”
- The A.P. Apologizes for ‘Thought for Today’ From Jefferson Davis
- David Abulafia’s ‘The Boundless Sea’ wins Wolfson History Prize 2020
- National History Center Webinar: Protest and Civil Unrest in American History
- Rick Perlstein on Our "Law and Order" Presidents
- Riots Helped Elect Nixon in 1968. Can Trump Benefit From Fear and Loathing Too?
- Military Bases Named for Confederates: Renaming Suggestions From Military Historians
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