Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“Genocide Scholars: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza, and We Should Know”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment, posted September 6
On the August 31 adoption of a resolution in which the International Association of Genocide Scholars (by an 86% majority of those voting) found that Israeli actions in Gaza fit the definition of genocide in the United Nations’ 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
“Trump Is Scrubbing Slavery from Our Historical Sites”
By Kevin Sack, New York Times, posted September 5
Focusing on Charleston and its historic sites, this article depicts the kinds of comprehensive truth-telling that the Trump administration is seeking to erase through its effort to enforce a party line on the National Park Service. The author is a senior reporter for the New York Times and author of Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church (Penguin Random House, 2025).
“The MAGA Influencers Rehabilitating Hitler”
By Yair Rosenberg, Portside, posted September 3 (from The Atlantic)
On the embrace of an odious World War II revisionism by Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, and other, lesser-known far-right podcasters. Such views would have gained no footing in the postwar decades when Nazi atrocities were fresh in the public mind, but have spread with the fading of the war’s history. The author is a staff writer for The Atlantic.
“Why Trump’s ‘Anti-Woke’ Attack on the Smithsonian Matters”
By Kimberlé Crenshaw and Jason Stanley, The Guardian, posted August 27
“The fight for our museums and for our memory is a critical bulwark against the unraveling of American democracy. It is vital that we fight to protect our depositories.” Kimberlé Crenshaw teaches at UCLA School of Law and Columbia Law School and is a leading scholar of race theory; Jason Stanley teaches in American Studies at the University of Toronto and is the author of, among other books, How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them (Random House, 2018).
“Actually, Slavery Was Very Bad”
By Clint Smith, Portside, posted August 24 (from The Atlantic)
“None of us can imagine what it is like to be subjected to the unremitting physical, psychological, and social violence of chattel slavery. But museums such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture bring us closer to being able to do so by sharing first-person accounts of those who lived through that terrible violence.” The author is a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of the bestselling How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery in America (Back Bay Books, 2021).
“Trump’s Assault upon the United Nations Is at Odds with U.S. Public Opinion”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, Z, posted August 18
On the Trump administration’s blows at the United Nations in the face of growing support by the US public for the UN and its work. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
“A Presidential Wrecking Ball: Trump Is Spitting on the Grave of Martin Luther King Jr.”
By Clarence Lusane, TomDispatch, posted August 17
On the Trump administration’s cynical release of massive files related to the King assassination, against the King family’s expressed wishes and amid a growing public clamor for the long-promised release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The author teaches political science at Howard University.
“The Education of a Historian”
By Eric Foner, The Nation, posted August 12
A combination of personal and family history with musing about the changing understanding of concepts such as freedom and liberty with the inclusion of previously ignored groups in the nation’s history. “As our country confronts a troubled present, perhaps a candid account of our history, the mirror of a future we cannot yet know, will help lay the foundation for a more equal, more just nation and a reinvigorated American democracy.” The author is a professor emeritus of US history at Columbia University and a much-published scholar on the Civil War era.
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggestion articles that are included in the above list, and to Roger Peace for valuable consulting. Suggestions for these occasional lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.