The Latest 
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Martha Hodes Talks "My Hijacking" with HNN
Michan Connor
In 1970, when she was 12, Martha Hodes was held hostage for nearly a week in a campaign of airline hijacking that captured world attention. She discusses trauma and erasure in the historical record, the roles of remembering and forgetting in shaping views of the past, and how she investigated herself as a historial actor.
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SCOTUS Declares Race-Aware Admissions at Harvard, UNC Unconstitutional
The decision makes most race-based affirmative action admission policies at selective universities illegal. Historians discuss the decision, the history behind it, and the likely effects.
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Blog
Blaine Harden on the Persistence of Marcus Whitman's Myth in the West
Robin Lindley
"The history we learned was a lie, and it was a deliberate lie, one that had been debunked in 1900 by scholars at Yale and in Chicago. But the people of the Pacific Northwest, despite all evid...
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New York's Education Wars a Century Ago Show how Content Restrictions Can Backfire
Bill Greer
Laws enforcing ideological positions in education can gain popularity when they focus on unpopular ideas. But when they take effect to punish popular teachers, the public gets second thoughts.
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The Army Warned Troops in 1945 of the Danger of Fascism. That Warning Rings True Today
Alan J. Singer
As the military prepared for the occupation of conquered Axis nations, it realized that without awareness of the content and goals of fascism, it could emerge at home as "Americanism."
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Was a Utah District's Decision to Remove the Bible from Shelves a Win for the Anti-Anti-Woke? History Says Maybe Not
Matthew Smith
When citizens invoked Utah's new "sensitive content" law to force the district to remove the Bible from school libraries, some hoped they had achieved a coup demonstrating the folly of the law. But the Bible has long been a part of cultural conflicts focused on schools, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
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The Unlikely Success of James Garfield in an Age of Division
C.W. Goodyear
In a bitterly divided and restive political climate, James Garfield was too old, too esconced in the Washington establishment, and too conciliatory to be a credible candidate or a successful President. But he did ultimately change politics, though he didn't live to see it.
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Reading Peter Frankopan's Ambitious Planetary History
Walter G. Moss
The Oxford historian's new book is a work of immense scope that succeeds in making human interaction with the environment a central character in history and argues for urgent action against the climate change that could write the final pages of that story.
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The "Critical Race Theory" Controversy Continues
Florida's legislature is working to implement the agenda laid out by Governor Ron DeSantis, including eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives and putting control of faculty hiring in the hands of university presidents, not faculty.
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The Right's Political Attack on LGBTQ Americans Escalates
Historians discuss the escalating attacks on LGBTQ Americans.
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Mifepristone, the Courts, and the Comstock Act: Historians on the Politics of Abortion Rights
HNN Staff
Conflicting court rulings leave the future of access to a widely used abortion medication in doubt, antiabortion activists openly discuss using a 150 year-old antiobscenity law to enforce a national ban, and Republican politicians face the fallout of unpopular policies.
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The Roundup Top Ten for June 23, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Can Canada Contain Conflagration?
Steve Pyne
Fire is a part of the long natural history of Canada, but this month's wildfires show the insufficiency of the nation's plans to live with fire at the opening of a Pyrocene era.
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A Historian of Photographic Defacement in the USSR Faces His Own Erasure
Olga Shevchenko
Like the human rights group Memorial, photographic historian Denis Skopin has run afoul of the Russian state for his efforts to preserve knowledge of Soviet abuses of human rights and historical memory.
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What to the Incarcerated Is Juneteenth?
Antoine Davis and Darrell Jackson
"We prisoners who are left to deteriorate inside one of America's most inhumane systems are able to find joy in celebrating Juneteenth, but not without indignities."
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Maps are the Record of Humans' Imagination of the World
Meredith F. Small
World maps have always been made without regard for practicality. Useless for navigation or for demarcating ownership, they are imaginative and expressive of a society's view of the world—which makes them important.
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How Bob Dylan Ran Afoul of the FBI
Aaron J. Leonard
The combination of alcohol and unconsidered remarks about Lee Harvey Oswald in the wake of the Kennedy assassination helped ensure that the FBI opened a file on the singer.
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Jared McBride Sheds Light on the Darker Parts of Ukraine's History
James Thornton Harris
The issue of Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi genocide has been a propaganda point in the war with Russia. Historian Jared McBride talks about the complexities of ethnic violence and the complications of archival research in Russia and eastern Europe.
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Blog
The "Surreal" SCOTUS Case on Indian Adoptions
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
A conversation with Professor Matthew L.M. Fletcher about the Indian Child Welfare Act and "centuries of precedents that don't seem to matter to the justices."
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The Roundup Top Ten for June 16, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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California's Collusion with a Texas Timber Company Let Ancient Redwoods be Clearcut
Greg King
It wasn't shocking that a Houston-based energy company would seek to liquidate newly acquired holdings of ancient redwood trees and defy California law to do it. It was shocking that state agencies seemed determined to help them do it.
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Historians on Trump's Post-Presidential Legal Issues
Trump's legal difficulties increased significantly with the announcement of a federal indictment on charges related to the improper possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
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Recovering the Story of the Empress Messalina After a Roman Cancellation
Honor Cargill-Martin
After the empress Valeria Messalina's fatal fall from favor with her husband Claudius, her name and image were stricken from public and private spheres, an episode that reveals the tightly-regulated dissemination of imperial women's images (and puts current "cancel culture" panic and whisper networks into perspective).
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From "Shell Shock" to PTSD, Veterans Have a Long Walk to Health
Charles Glass
Iraq War veteran Will Robinson brought himself out of a mental health crisis by hiking more than 11,000 miles of trail from the Pacific Crest to the Appalachian, following the century-old prescription of British military doctor Arthur Brock.
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Can the Left Take Back Identity Politics?
Umut Özkırımlı
Recovering the liberatory potential of identity politics means going back to the term's source—the Combahee River Collective—and recognizing its radical roots and embrace of coalition-building and politics.
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Ayn Rand's Defense of an Anti-Union Massacre
Greg Mitchell
The screenwriter and novelist was inspired by the 1943 memoir of Republic Steel head Tom Girdler, in particular his refusal to apologize for collaborating with Chicago Police to crush a march of striking steelworkers and their families in 1937.
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The Power of Dependency in Women's Legal Petitions in Revolutionary America (Excerpt)
Jacqueline Beatty
It's anachronistic thinking to ask whether the American revolution improved women's status; a legal historian's new book seeks to understand change and continuity in women's status through those women's own worldview, which often involved leveraging their dependent status in specific claims.
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Comparing the Trump – DeSantis Race to the Republicans' 1912 Debacle is a Stretch... Right?
Adam Burns
The whiplash of Ron DeSantis's rise and fall against Trump in the polls could be nothing in comparison to the political shockwave that would result if the Florida governor succeeds in taking the GOP nomination, but Trump doesn't go quietly—the falling-out between Roosevelt and Taft shows how it might go.
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A Trip Through the Mind of Vlad the Conqueror: A Satire Blending Imaginary Thoughts with Historical Facts
Lawrence S. Wittner
"Today I am Vlad the Conqueror! Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
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Blog
Trump Poised to Join Short List of 3-Time Presidential Nominees
Ronald L. Feinman
Although other figures have appeared on the presidential ballot three times, and FDR did it four times, Trump could potentially become the first three-time popular vote loser.
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The Roundup Top Ten for June 2, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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The Modern Relics in Crow's Cabinet of Curiosities
Matthew Dennis
Understanding Harlan Crow's collection, including Nazi memorabilia, as a set of relics (and not trophies or investments) helps to clarify the unease Americans feel about his understanding of power and cultivation of relationships with people of influence over the federal judiciary.
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What We Can Learn From—and Through—Historical Fiction
Carol K. Kammen
"I have written this to praise historical fiction when it respects the line between our times and the past, when it adheres to the known-truth and does not pervert it for excitement—or for book sales."
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Blog
White House Speechwriter Cody Keenan on the Crucial 10 Days of the Obama Presidency
Robin Lindley
"Politics isn’t some rigid system we’re trapped under. It’s us. It’s only as good as we are."
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Dangerous Records: Why LGBTQ Americans Today Fear the Weaponization of Bureaucracy
Emily Hand
Requests made by Texas's Attorney General for information about gender change requests on drivers' licenses and other documents alarmed transgender advocates because the data could support an official list of trans Texans at a moment when the group faces public vilification. History shows that innocent bureaucratic records can be used oppressively.
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Blog
150 Years of "Zero-Sum Thinking" on Immigration
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
"Since the 1870s, we’ve had a restrictionist, gatekeeping system, but it’s possible to widen access if we want to. The thing preventing us, as it’s always been, is racis...
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The Mexican War Suggests Ukraine May End Up Conceding Crimea. World War I Suggests the Price May Be Tragic if it Doesn't
Alan J. Singer
Ukrainian leadership would likely compare the abandonment of its claim to Crimea to be an injustice on par with Mexico's surrender of California and the southwest to the United States. Is it the least bad alternative?
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The Roundup Top Ten for May 25, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
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Texas Judge Revives Anthony Comstock's Crusade Against Reproductive Freedom
Bill Greer
The career of Anthony Comstock shows what can happen when a highly committed moral crusader gains traction in the political system. His rehabilitation in the contemporary abortion war is cause for concern.
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Forget "Finding Forrester"—Our Best Teaching Can Be Ordinary
Elizabeth Stice
Hollywood loves to tell the stories of singularly brilliant students pushed to greatness by similarly singular mentors with unconventional methods and unaccommodating personalities. This ideal won't help anyone teach the real students in their classrooms.
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Stronger Global Governance is the Only Way to a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Lawrence Wittner
The war in Ukraine and escalating tensions between the PRC and Taiwan are just two examples of the resurgent danger of nuclear war. A revived movement for true international governance is needed to ensure that the unthinkable becomes impossible.
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AI the Latest Instance of our Capacity for Innovation Outstripping our Capacity for Ethics
Walter G. Moss
The words of General Omar Bradley are as prescient as ever: "Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."
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Blog
John de Graaf on his Powerful Documentary on Stewart Udall, Conservation, and the True Ends of Politics
Robin Lindley
A documentarian discusses his efforts to highlight the forgotten contributions of former Interior Secretary to the environmental and conservation movements, a mission that touches on deeper questio...
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The Roundup Top Ten for May 19, 2023
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
- Josh Hawley Earns F in Early American History
- Does Germany's Holocaust Education Give Cover to Nativism?
- "Car Brain" Has Long Normalized Carnage on the Roads
- Hawley's Use of Fake Patrick Henry Quote a Revealing Error
- Health Researchers Show Segregation 100 Years Ago Harmed Black Health, and Effects Continue Today
- Nelson Lichtenstein on a Half Century of Labor History
- Can America Handle a 250th Anniversary?
- New Research Shows British Industrialization Drew Ironworking Methods from Colonized and Enslaved Jamaicans
- The American Revolution Remains a Hotly Contested Symbolic Field
- Untangling Fact and Fiction in the Story of a Nazi-Era Brothel
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