Roundup

Thomas Jefferson's Secret Plan to Whiten Virginia

by Timothy Messer-Kruse

After the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson returned from the Continental Congress to a seat in the Virginia legislature, where he undertook an ambitious effort to overhaul the laws. His work is an illuminating look at Jefferson's vision of the ideal American republic as a place purged of both slavery and of Black people. 

Humanists Must Take Back Teaching from the Reformers and their "Learning Objectives"

by Johann N. Neem

Rejecting standardized, quantifiable, mechanistic objectives and assessments is the key to making education an exchange of understanding between human beings, and to reversing the tendency to see each other as bundles of human capital or useful skills. 

Black Mothers Bet on Themselves and Changed Las Vegas—Can Their Ideas Still Change America?

by Annelise Orleck

A courageous and politically imaginative group of women challenged the most powerful interests in Las Vegas to win better public aid and build an organization for community service and empowerment. A historian explains who they were, how she came to tell their story, and what it means today.

The Roundup Top Ten for April 21, 2023

The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week. 

A Deal with the Devil: Nonprofits, Social Movements, and Your Taxes

by Rebecca Gordon

As taxpayers tallied their contributions to nonprofit organizations last month, few probably reflected on the fact that the tax code, by shielding large wealthy foundations from taxes, has historically allowed funders to capture social movements, often stopping them from making demands for drastic change in society. 

Honoring the Confederacy, Tennessee GOP Stands for Insurrection

by Daniel Feller

Amid the recent furor over the expulsion of two Black Democrats from the state House, Tennessee lawmakers made another shameful move: affirming acclaim for the Confederacy while disregarding the work of historians who have demonstrated that the CSA was founded to protect slavery and white supremacy. 

What's Driving J.D. Vance?

by Gabriel Winant

J.D. Vance rose to fame through a book that was heavy on popular psychology and self-help tropes while skirting systemic analysis of poverty and social change. As the Senator now careens hard to the right, a historian decides to evaluate him on his own terms. 

The Feinstein Situation Shows the Senate Dems Have No Plan

by Norman Ornstein

After 9/11, a joint committee formed by two prominent think tanks studied how the Senate could deal with large-scale incapacitation of Senators through temporary replacements. The COVID pandemic and the aging of the Senators make those recommendations, still unfulfilled, more urgent than ever. 

Rutgers Strikers Ran the Table; Is This the Way out of Higher Ed's Crisis?

by Jonathan David

Three Rutgers unions, representing instructors in different professional positions, won by modeling the kind of solidarity that university workers need to fight back against the privatization and corporatization of public higher education. 

How Fox News Helped Break the American Right

by Matthew Dallek

The Republican Party has long struggled to keep extremists within its ranks at bay, if partly for political reasons. But the rise of Fox News has destroyed the guardrails older generations of mainstream conservatives set up against conspiracists, hatemongers, and bigots. 

Teaching the History Wars

by Megan Threlkeld

Teaching first-year undergraduates about the recurrent conflicts over their curriculum takes them from not knowing what the "history wars" are to asking challenging questions about what counts as history. 

Child Labor is Back; History Says Don't be Surprised

by Beth English

In an effort to attract investment from key industries, state governments in the south actively rescinded existing laws banning child labor, showing that there has been no straight line of progress on the issue. 

The Scandal isn't in Clarence Thomas's Corruption, but His Jurisprudence

by Corey Robin

It's a mistake to ask if receiving gifts from a wealthy benefactor has shaped the Justice's rulings. His rulings have paved the way for the power of money in America. 

Will a Grassroots Movement Remake Tennessee—Again?

by Ansley L. Quiros and Anthony C. Siracusa

This month's events in the state capitol, culminating in the expulsion of two House members after a raucous gun control protest, recalls Nashville's role as a center in the Black Freedom movement. 

The Long, Sordid History of Expelling Black Lawmakers

by David A. Love

Throughout the reconstruction era (and after) Black lawmakers faced challenges to their legitimacy by proponents of antidemocratic rule by a white elite. 

Why Meat and Masculinity are a New Culture War Front

by Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N. Rosenberg

The recent embrace of conspiracy theories around food consumption—liberals want to make us eat insects!—show how a sense of imperiled masculinity is being used to stop necessary conversations about making the food system safe, sustainable, and humane. 

Zora Neal Hurston's Town is one of Many Imperiled Historic Sites

by Nick Tabor

Eatonville has temporarily prevented a large development that many residents feared would lead to gentrification and the erasure of Black history in the Florida town, but it is just one example of the difficulty facing efforts to preserve sites of African American history. 

Could Alex Haley's False Quotation of MLK Have Changed History?

by Peniel E. Joseph

By exaggerating the conflict between Martin and Malcolm, Haley helped feed a narrative of the two men's approaches to politics as irreconcilable instead of as facets of a more complex struggle for freedom. It has probably helped to push radical demands for justice to the margins. 

Beyond Quiet Quitting: The Real Crisis of Work

by Erik Baker

Impressionistic accounts of worker withdrawal and labor militancy both fail to capture a deeper issue: Work is failing to deliver on the promises the state has made as an avenue of meaning and fulfillment. 

150 Years Ago, the Colfax Massacre Was the Largest Single Attack on Black People's Democratic Rights

by Gwendolyn Midlo-Hall and Keri Leigh Merritt

The horrific explosion of violence in April 1973, as white southerners refused to accept the results of the 1872 election, was the climax of years of federal abandonment of a commitment to protect the rights and lives of Black people, who were left to fight for democracy on their own.