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Roundup

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/15/2021

    White Christian Nationalists Want More Than Just Political Power

    by Lauren R. Kerby

    "White Christian nationalism also unites nostalgia for a lost age of Christian power with a profound sense of victimization. No one should underestimate how dangerous this combination is, particularly among those who decide that their faith requires them to retake their nation."

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/19/2021

    France Knows How This Ends

    by James McAuley

    "What is especially useful to remember about the Dreyfus affair now is the point of no return it represented, the repugnant embrace of lies by one half of society, educated people who were not ignorant but who had simply ceased to care."

  • SOURCE: Bloomberg CityLab
    1/18/2021

    The Next New Deal Must Be for Black Americans, Too

    by Willow Lung-Amam

    Those advocating for New Deal-type programs from the Biden-Harris administration must be profoundly aware of the way the first New Deal accommodated racial prejudice and deepened material inequality; any acceptable understanding of "build back better" must actively tackle racial inequality as well as protecting the existing middle class.

  • SOURCE: Dissent
    1/15/2021

    Legacies of Cold War Liberalism

    by Michael Brenes and Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

    Two historians interrogate the origins of liberal intervention after World War II. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
    1/9/2021

    Pre-Nazi Germany Tells us the Fight to Save American Democracy is Just Beginning

    by Michael Brenner

    German history highlights how the real risk to American democracy came hours after order had been restored in the U.S. Capitol when seven U.S. senators and 138 members of the House of Representatives voted to sustain an objection to Pennsylvania’s electoral votes.

  • SOURCE: Politico
    1/17/2021

    What Will Trump's Presidency Mean to History?

    by David Greenberg

    Above all else, a pattern of rule-breaking and a determination not to be bound by rules are the characteristics of Trumpism, and inseparable from the policies the 45th president pursued. 

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    1/16/2021

    QAnon Is Destroying the GOP From Within

    by Ben Sasse

    The Republican Senator from Nebraska, who holds a doctorate in American history, warns that his party cannot continue to "preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon," and suggests ways to repair the frayed social fabric in which conspiracy theories thrive.

  • 1/15/2021

    The Roundup Top Twenty for January 15, 2021

    This week was extraordinary. Historians have been working overtime to put current events in perspective. It was impossible to pick the ten best, so we're featuring a double dose of the top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web. 

  • SOURCE: The New Republic
    1/14/2021

    The Capitol Riot Revealed the Darkest Nightmares of White Evangelical America

    by Matthew Avery Sutton

    Many observers have speculated that American evangelicals have had a transactional relationship with Donald Trump. But his messages of "American carnage" and warnings of dire consequences if he is defeated mesh perfectly with their end-times outlook and have helped tie evangelicals to the far right coalition. 

  • SOURCE: Perspectives on History
    1/12/2021

    Vikings, Crusaders, Confederates

    by Matthew Gabriele

    The far-right has combined a selective and outdated version of medieval history from popular culture to express values of racial superiority, aggressive masculinity and violence in defense of threatened values.

  • SOURCE: Washington Post
    1/14/2021

    Five Myths about the Lost Cause

    by Karen L. Cox

    At this time, it's worth examining the particular tenets of the Confederate Lost Cause mythology because of how pervasive they remain and because they may be a template for narratives of resentment and betrayal that are developing now.

  • SOURCE: New Statesman
    1/13/2021

    Why Trump Isn't a Fascist

    by Richard J. Evans

    Richard J. Evans argues that "fascism" arose in the specific context of states defeated in World War I and thus embraced military expansionism and a concurrent militarization of domestic life in addition to racial domination. While Trump is dangerous, labeling him a fascist doesn't explain his political movement. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/13/2021

    Trump Is the Republican Party’s Past and Its Future

    by Lisa McGirr

    It's not a question of whether Trump voters are driven by racism, nativism or conspiracy theories, or by "economic anxiety." Republican economic policies have created inequality and instability that the party can only paper over by encouraging resentment, suspicion and hostility. It won't end with Trump's departure.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    1/14/2021

    Why Trump Can Be Convicted Even as an Ex-President

    by Steven I. Vladeck

    The historical record of impeachment trials suggests that they treat removal from office and disqualification from future office as separate questions, meaning that the Senate may still vote to disqualify Trump from office even after his term has ended.