Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted April 6
Likens the Trump administration's responses to the Covid-19 pandemic to the irresponsibility of city officials in Camus' classic novel. The author teaches Middle Eastern history at the University of Michigan.
By Hakim Bishara, Hyperallergic, posted April 6
A very quick read with several striking photographs from the National Archives. The author is a writer, artist, and curator.
By Alan J. Singer, History News Network, posted April 6
This case, now before the Supreme Court, tests a vaguely worded law criminalizing anything that can be construed as encouraging an undocumented immigrant to stay in the US. The author is a historian and professor of social studies education at Hofstra University.
By John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi, National Security Archive, posted April 6
Original documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, with a substantial explanatory essay. John Prados heads the National Security Archive's Intelligence Documentation Project and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi teaches history and politics at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg.
By James Thornton Harris, History News Network, posted April 5
An appreciation of McNeill's book Plagues and Peoples nearly a half-century after its publication. The author is an independent historian and journalist and a contributing editor of the History News Network.
By Gareth Porter, The American Conservative, posted April 4
On how the US military command ignored medical advice and sent troops from infected training campus to the front. More US soldiers died of influenza in World War I than in battle. The article draws heavily on a detailed and footnoted report in Public Health Reports in 2010, "The U.S. Military and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919."
By Tweed Roosevelt, New York Times, posted April 3
Responding to the Pentagon's dismissal of Captain Brett Crozier from command of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, a great-grandson of Roosevelt writes that his ancestor acted similarly to Crozier when American troops were threatened with yellow fever and malaria at the end of the Spanish-American War.
"The Military Knew Years Ago That a Coronavirus Was Coming"
By Ken Klippenstein, The Nation, posted April 2
"The Pentagon warned the White House about a shortage of ventilators, face masks, and hospital beds in 2017 – but the Trump administration did nothing."
By Soraya Nadia McDonald, The Undefeated, posted April 1
Primarily about the 1918 pandemic, with much information on the unequal experiences of African Americans and whites.
Thanks to an anonymous reader (always the same one – a retired doctor who hates war and injustice) for flagging several of the articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.