Note: H-PAD announces an extensively updated version of its Culture Wars Archive, coordinated by Molly Nolan. Organized topically, It consists of around two hundred articles and statements from the past few years' of right-wing attacks on education – and resistance to the attacks.
Another Note: A June 26 webinar on “Shifting Power Dynamics: Ukraine, Russia, and U.S.-China Relations in a Multipolar World,” sponsored by Massachusetts Peace Action and other groups and featuring Michael Klare, Helena Cobban, and Joseph Camilleri, is now available on YouTube.
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Steve Fraser, TomDispatch, posted July 6
On the recent loosening of child labor laws, with historical background on child labor in the US and the long fight to end it that culminated in the New Deal of the 1930s. The author is an editor whose own books include Mongrel Firebugs and Men of Property: Capitalism and Class Conflict in American History (Verso Press, 2019).
By Greg Grandin, The Nation, posted June 21
On the late Western novelist Cormac McCarthy, who “rubbed away the veneer of Manifest Destiny, revealing US nationalism and empire to be nothing but the right of conquest updated for the democratic age.” The author teaches US history at Yale University, and among his books is The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America (Metropolitan Books, 2019).
By Christian Appy, Common Dreams, posted June 20
“His life and legacy are reminders that individual acts of moral courage depend on examples set by others, and they have the potential to sparo more, far into the future.” The author teaches history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has written widely on the Vietnam War.
By Robin D. G. Kelley, New York Review of Books, posted June 17
“Black Studies has been under attack since its formal inception on college campuses in the late 1960s, and repression of all knowledge advancing Black freedom goes back much further.” A wide-ranging critique of efforts to suppress black history.
The author teaches history at UCLA and has published numerous books on black history and culture.
The author teaches history at UCLA and has published numerous books on black history and culture.
By Stephen Wertheim, New York Times, posted June 16
Argues that the prevailing Western view of the Ukraine war's origin (that “Russia took up arms exclusively out of aggressive and imperialistic drives”) is an obstacle to reaching an end to the war. The author is a historian and foreign policy commentator who wrote Tomorrow the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy (Harvard U. Press, 2020).
By Jennifer Berry Hawes, Pro Publica, posted June 16
A very readable journalistic story that offers a look at the work of professional and amateur historians in exploring the nuts and bolts of the slave trade in the antebellum US. The author is an investigative reporter with Pro Publica, covering the American South.
By Alfred McCoy, TomDispatch, posted June 13
“All wars do end, usually thanks to a negotiated peace agreement. Consider that a fundamental historical fact, even if it seems to have been forgotten in Brussels, Moscow, and above all, Washington, D.C.” On China's potential role in ending the Ukraine War. The author teaches history at the University of Wisconsin and wrote To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change (Haymarket Books, 2021).
By Ann Wright, WorldBeyondWar.org, posted June 13
Uses historical precedent, notably the Korean and Vietnam wars, to argue that negotiating an end to the Ukraine war will be a tedious and lengthy process. The author is a retired Army colonel who also served as a US diplomat before resigning in protest of the Iraq War.She was a keynote speaker, along with Alfred McCoy, at a Historians Against the War conference in 2013.
By Margaret MacMillan, Foreign Affairs, posted June 12
Finds historical parallels between the Ukraine War and World Wars I and II, especially the former, rife with miscalculations on all sides.The author is a professor emerita of International History at Oxford University. Among her books is The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (2013).
Thanks to an anonymous reader for flagging some of the above articles and to Roger Peace for valuable consulting. Suggestions for inclusion in these occasional mailings can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.