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Breaking News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/27/2021

    No More Lies. My Grandfather Was a Nazi

    "Suddenly, I no longer had any idea who my grandfather was, what Lithuania was, and how my own story fit in. How could I reconcile two realities? Was Jonas Noreika a monster who slaughtered thousands of Jews or a hero who fought to save his country from the Communists?" writes Silvia Foti. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/27/2021

    Make the Filibuster Difficult Again

    by Burt Neuborne and Erwin Chemerinsky

    Two law professors argue that there's no need to remove the Senate filibuster. Insisting that Senators actually talk through the filibuster and that no other Senate business could be conducted during one would return to Senate rules that made the filibuster rare, rather than a routine procedure. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/26/2021

    Out of the Barrel of a Gun

    The resurgent militia movement and renewed attention to the threat of political violence compels a reckoning with the vast number of firearms in America and with the political significance of guns. 

  • SOURCE: The Guardian
    1/21/2021

    'His Work is a Testament': The Ever-Relevant Photography of Gordon Parks

    "Deborah Willis, the chair of photography at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, has curated Parks’s work in over 30 exhibitions. She says that the photographer was not only there to document everyday life during turmoil for many African Americans, but to give them hope."

  • SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
    1/26/2020

    History Jobs Stabilized Before COVID-19

    The American Historical Association's pre-COVID numbers on the job market for history PhDs showed a small increase in the number of history faculty positions. It can be assumed that that stability is now gone. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/19/2021

    The Stories of Those Who Lost Decades in the Closet

    "On a quiet block in downtown Brooklyn, a new photography exhibit — housed inside a senior living center — invites viewers to consider an essential question: How do we measure the emotional and social costs of discrimination?"

  • SOURCE: Smithsonian
    1/21/2021

    The Rise and Fall of America's Lesbian Bars

    Even before COVID-19 a combination of factors have made lesbian bars much less common than their counterparts catering to gay men. Two filmmakers are working to raise funds to keep these establishments in business. This article also explains how bars became safe gathering places as cities passed "vice" laws that subjected lesbians to police harassment in public.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/22/2021

    Why Biden’s Inaugural Address Succeeded

    Joe Biden's inaugural address won't be remembered as a masterpiece of rhetoric. But it succeeded in presenting an authentic and realistic picture of Biden's plans to lead the nation in crisis, argues The Atlantic writer. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/17/2021

    My Sister Was Disappeared 43 Years Ago

    A writer became the legally-designated recipient of his sister's remains after she was killed by Argentina's military dictatorship during the nation's Dirty War. The experience led him to confront how a society suppresses the knowledge of political violence.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/23/2021

    How Alvin the Beagle Helped Usher in a Democratic Senate

    On the surface, Raphael Warnock's campaign ads featured a cute beagle. But they reflected a calculated – and successful – effort to counter racial dynamics in Georgia politics to bring about a historic victory. 

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    1/26/2021

    Rewinding Jimi Hendrix’s National Anthem

    "Jimi’s Woodstock anthem was both an expression of protest at the obscene violence of a wholly unnecessary war and an affirmation of aspects of the American experiment entirely worth fighting for."

  • SOURCE: The Week
    1/26/2021

    Democrats are getting Chuck Grassleyed

    The Senate negotiations over the Affordable Care Act and the 2009 Recovery Act are not ancient history. It remains to be seen if Senate Democrats can learn from them. 

  • SOURCE: National History Center
    1/25/2021

    Washington History Seminar TODAY: Claudio Saunt's "Unworthy Republic"

    Please join the National History Center of the American Historical Association for a Washington History Seminar roundtable on Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory with author Claudio Saunt. TODAY 4:00 PM EST