Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It”
By Omer Bartov, New York Times, posted July 15
A lengthy essay by a well-known student of genocide, applying the term to Israeli actions in Gaza and decrying the reluctance of most scholars of the Holocaust to see parallels with present-day Israeli policy. The author, a former soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, is a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University.
“How US Universities Became So Vulnerable to Government Threats”
By Ellen Schrecker, Bloomberg, posted July 11
On the history of the federal government’s growing role in higher education since the nineteenth century, bringing with it a greatly increasing potential for damage at the hands of a hostile regime. The author is a professor emerita of history at Yeshiva University. Among her books is The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s (U. of Chicago Press, 2021).
“Domestic Terrorism in the Post-Civil War South”
By Alan Singer, Daily Kos, posted July 9
Discusses the white-supremacist terror that ended Reconstruction as an example of the history that the Trump administration is seeking to erase. “A genuine patriotic history is history that teaches the truth about the past equipping students to actively defend democracy in this country.” The author is a historian who directs social studies education at Hofstra University.
“Of Myths and Monuments: Mount Rushmore and Storytelling at America’s National Parks”
By Stephen R. Hausmann, AHA Perspectives, posted July 9
Treats Mount Rushmore as a symbol of the tension between myth making and realistic history in the national parks. “Rushmore is not, and cannot be, just Rushmore, and it is up to historians to ensure the entire spectrum of history continues to be available to all those millions who visit the national parks.” The author teaches history at Appalachian State University.
“The Founders Knew Great Wealth Inequality Could Destroy Us”
By Daniel Mandell, Made by History – Time
On the prevalence of egalitarian ideas in the late colonial and early national periods. “By the mid-18th century, Anglo-Americans generally believed … that a republic needed to avoid concentrated wealth and great poverty in order to maintain the public good and prevent corruption.” The author is a professor emeritus of history at Truman State University and and wrote The Lost Tradition of Economic Equality in America, 1600-1870 (Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2020).
“In Trump’s America, Who Gets to Call Themselves American?”
By Greg Grandin, New York Times, posted July 4
On the contested meanings of “America” and “Americanism” from the colonial era on. “The fight over the meaning of America reveals MAGA nationalism for what it is: the latest expression of Anglo-Saxon supremacy — a desire to dominate the world, but not be held accountable by the world.” The author teaches history at Yale University and has written America, América: A New History of the New World (Penguin Random House, 2025).
“Chilling Parallels: The Trump Team’s Purge of Pentagon Photos Raises Sinister Echoes from the Past”
By Arnold Isaacs, TomDispatch, posted July 3
Likens the Pentagon’s removal of “DEI” photographs from its websites with the selective cropping of historical photographs that the author encountered as a journalist in post-Mao China and in the last days of the Soviet Union. The author is a longtime journalist among whose books is Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia (1983, updated 2022).
“Iran: The Things It Won’t Do to Say”
By Kevin Young, Common Dreams, posted July 1
Quoting George Orwell on voluntary censorship, the article takes the recent Israeli-US bombing of Iran as an example of how mainstream discourse, notably in the New York Times, may make room for conflicting views on the wisdom of US policy but excludes issues of morality and international law The author teaches history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is on the H-PAD Steering Committee.
By Lydia Wilson, New Lines magazine, posted June 27
“What we are witnessing is what could be called historicide: the attempted elimination of the possibility of future historical work.” Among other connections, the author is a visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the Culture Editor of New Lines magazine.
“The Moral Distortions of the Official Korean War Narrative”
By Grace M. Cho, The Nation, posted June 24
An alternative history of the Korean War highlighting armed conflict before the June 25, 1950 “start” of the war and civilian massacres by the South Korean government before and during the war. The author teaches sociology at the College of Staten Island (CUNY) and wrote the forthcoming book We Will Go to Jinju: A Search for Family and the Hidden Histories of the Korean War (Viking Press).
“Scuttling International Humanitarian Assistance”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted June 23
A trenchant summary of the scale and effects of reductions in US humanitarian foreign aid under the Trump administration. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
“Why George Washington Integrated the Army”
By Andrew Lawler, The Bulwark, posted June 16
Why Washington, half a year after refusing to allow black soldiers in the Continental army when he first took command in June 1775, reversed himself, with the result that “Washington’s army was the most integrated U.S. force until the Korean War.” The author is a journalist whose four history books include A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025).
“Trump’s Deportation Frenzy Echoes the Fugitive Slave Hunts of the 1850s”
By Garrett Epps, Washington Monthly, posted June 11
Finds eerie parallels between today’s immigration enforcement and federal implementation of the 1950 Fugitive Slave Act. “The federal government is now committed to treating immigrants almost precisely as the antebellum South treated slaves.” The author is a retired law professor and is legal affairs editor of the Washington Monthly.
The usual thanks to an anonymous reader who flagged several of the above articles, and to Roger Peace for valuable consulting on the selection of articles. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.