Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Nick Mirzoeff, Hyperallergic, posted June 30
On the historical background of the Roosevelt statue, with its racial hierarchy, at the American Museum of Natural History. The author is a scholar of visual culture who teaches in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.
By Max Felker-Cantor, History News Network, posted June 28
Uses the experience of Los Angeles in the 1970s to warn against reforms that maintain and even increase the power of police. The author teaches history at Ball State University and wrote Policing Los Angeles: Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD (U. of North Carolina Press, 2018).
“Frederick Douglass Delivered a Lincoln Reality Check at Emancipation Memorial Unveiling”
By DeNeen L. Brown, Washington Post, posted June 27
On Frederick Douglass's eloquent but nuanced tribute to Abraham Lincoln in 1876, on the 11th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The author is a staff writer at the Post.
Interview by Jeremy Cahill, The Intercept, posted June 27
An extensive interview on today's protests against a historical background. Robin D.G. Kelley teaches US history at UCLA.
By David W. Blight, Washington Post, posted June 25
The author teaches history at Yale University and won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History for his Frederick Douglass: Apostle of Freedom.
By Viet Thanh Nguyen, New York Times, posted June 24
The author is a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist who has also written Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War (Harvard U. Press, 2016)
By Adam Goodman, Time, posted June 23
Describes “a coercive, fast-track administrative process euphemistically referred to as 'voluntary departure.'”
By Sarah Churchwell, NYR [New York Review of Books] Daily, posted June 22
Describes fascist and quasi-fascist movements in the US in the 1920s and '30s, from the Klan to Father Coughlin, finding their their echoes in Trumpism. The author's books include Behold America: A History of America First and the American Dream (Bloomsbury, 2018).
By Christopher Tomlins, History News Network, posted June 21
On the evangelical Christianity of Nat Turner in contrast to that of right-wing white evangelicals today. The author teaches law at the University of California Berkeley and is the author of In the Matter of Nat Turner: A Speculative History (Princeton U. Press, 2020).
By Benjamin Denison, War on the Rocks, posted June 16
A warning against US efforts at regime change overseas, based on experiences over the entire post-World War II era. The author is a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Thanks to Teresa Meade and an anonymous reader for flagging some of the articles in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.