Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Eric Foner, New York Review of Books, September 22 issue
An extensive review essay on Donald Yacavone's new book Teaching White Supremacy, an account of how US history textbooks, from the early twentieth century to the 1880s, treated issues of slavery, Reconstruction, and racial issues generally. The reviewer teaches US history at Columbia University.
By Steve Fraser, TomDispatch.com, posted September 6
Argues that the liberal rulings of the “Warren Court,” were an exception to an otherwise consistent history in which the Court's “basic orientation” was “to side with propertied interests, not the unpropertied; slave-owners, not slaves; and industrialists and financiers rather than with those who worked for and depended on them.” The author is an editor and historian who has written widely on class conflict in US history.
By Alan J. Singer, History News Network, posted September 4
A short summary of the section concerning the United States in the August 30 report by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The author is a historian who teaches in the Hofstra University Department of Teaching, Learning, and Technology”
By Laura Carlson, Portside, posted September 1
On the history and background of feminist organizing that has led to the legalization of abortion in Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia. The author is a writer and documentary filmmaker who is a dual Mexican-US citizen and lives in Mexico City.
By Federico Finchelstein, Washington Post, posted September 1
“Over the past century, fascism has evolved, as leaders have reformulated its look. While explicit fascism faded from power after World War II, its illiberal ideas survived, often intertwined with various strands of populism.” The author teaches history at the New School and is the author of A Brief History of Fascist Lies (U. of California Press, 2020).
By Blaise Malley, The New Republic, posted September 1
The headline is overblown, but the article provides an analysis of tensions within the left-right coalition that has maintained a sometimes fragile unity around a belief in the need for greater restraint in US foreign policy.
By Samuel Moyn, Responsible Statecraft, posted August 31
” Abetted by critical outsiders and sympathetic insiders who decry the brutality rather than existence of wars, humanizing war reflects ethical progress in the fighting of American war, while entrenching its permanence.” The author teaches law and history at Yale University. His books include Humane: How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War (Macmillan, 2021).
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted August 31
Argues that from the time of his accession to office in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev made clear his intention of ending the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan but that US officials refused to believe him and stepped up their military aid to the fundamentalist rebels. The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
By Abba Solomon, Mondoweiss, posted August 30
A review essay on the book Anti-Colonial Resistance in South Africa and Israel/Palestine (Routledge, 2022) by Ran Greenstein, a South African-Israeli sociologist whose book traces and compares the histories of anti-colonial resistance in the two areas. “The Israel/Palestine system meets the definition of apartheid in international law but presents different challenges for the campaign against it than was the case for the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.“
By Leah LaGrone and Michael Phillips, Texas Monthly, posted August 25
An extensive critique of the Texas state commission (chaired by the president of the Heritage Foundation) appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to prepare an official history of the state. Leah LaGrone teaches history at Weber State University and Michael Phillips is a senior research fellow at Southern Methodist University.
By Anatol Lieven, Responsible Statecraft, posted August 25
Argues that neither side can win a complete victory and that all sides, including Ukraine's Western allies, face harm from a continuation of the war. “The time to begin negotiations for peace is now, not after months or years in which tens of thousands more people have died and Ukraine has suffered still greater harm.” The author is a historian who has written several books on Russia and its neighbors.
By Michael Konciewicz, Jacobin, posted August 24
An appreciation of the late historian Howard Zinn on the 100th anniversary of his birth, featuring his trip to North Vietnam in February 1968 to facilitate the release of three captured American pilots. The author is a research scholar at the Tamiment Library, New York University, which has a collection of Zinn's notebooks.
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting some of the articles included in the above list, and to Roger Peace for very helpful comments on articles being considered for the list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.