History Archives - Page 27 of 78

Feature

Reimagining Progressive Politics

An interview with Gianpaolo Baiocchi

August 2, 2019 • by Gianpaolo Baiocchi and Guillermina Altomonte

Popular sovereignty is an emancipatory project to link the democratizing impulses of social movements to institutional politics. Drawing on examples from Latin America, the book provides a set of coordinates for activists to navigate the complications of engaging with formal institutions and political parties. It ultimately seeks to democratize leftist ...

Race

White Women are Not My People

“White women” is a demographic category — not a political group

July 31, 2019 • by Laura Briggs

I recently got asked to sign a public letter in which I was supposed to pledge “as a white woman” that now that I had watched Ava DuVernay’s film series “When They See Us,” I would object to Linda Fairstein (who oversaw the prosecution of the Central Park Five as ...

What Happens When Laws Enforce the Sabbath?

Albeit unknowingly, Israelis today echo the position of early American evangelicals when it comes to protecting the day of rest.

July 30, 2019 • by Rebecca Brenner Graham

The Old Testament says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” No singular Sabbath day is universal. Generally, Christians ...

Politics

The New Prime Minister Versus History

How Boris Johnson misrepresented the United Kingdom’s past to present himself as its political heir

July 30, 2019 • by Alistair Somerville

What do Johnson’s methods of storytelling and the content of his tales tell us about the man and the prospects for his premiership? To many on this side of the Atlantic, he is simply an enigmatic buffoon — little more than a jumped up Trump mini-me with a plummier accent. ...

Podcast

Boris Johnson, Purity Culture, and Spaying and Neutering Dogs

Episode 190

July 29, 2019 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show: Boris Johnson is the new prime minister of Britain. Niki recommended historian Jesse Tumblin’s Washington Post article, “ How the Failure of Popular Politics Triggered the Rise of Boris Johnson.”Evangelical author Josh Harris has separated from his wife and disavowed his influential book I Kissed Dating Goodbye. Natalia ...

It Was Never About The Buses

Personal And Political Reflections On “Forced Busing”

July 27, 2019 • by Leo Casey

One of my earliest recollections dates back to the fall of 1964, in my 6th grade class at St. Matthias Elementary School. The nun who taught the class had us research that year’s presidential election, and each of us had to decide which of the major party candidates – Johnson ...

Why They Marched

A walk through suffrage history

July 26, 2019 • by Susan Ware

For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. In Why They Marched: Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote Susan Ware uncovered a much broader ...

Walking Through Suffrage History

An interview with Susan Ware

July 25, 2019 • by Susan Ware and Elaine S. Abelson

--- Elaine S. Abelson [ESA]: Susan, this walk-through suffrage history has been fascinating for me. I teach the history of American women and thought I knew this history. Turns out I knew only ‘the highlights.’ Many of your stories surprised me for two reasons. First was the depth of your research ...

The New Trail of Tears

How climate change is forcing the relocation of species, including our own

July 25, 2019 • by Brian Stewart

In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, designed to appropriate to the United States lands occupied by aboriginal Americans. The Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional, but the army under Commander in Chief Andrew Jackson acted anyway. Now a lightning rod for condemnation of the expropriation of indigenous property, Jackson ...

Gaming the System

How games create social change

July 24, 2019 • by Colleen Macklin

Not only do these games exist, but they’re also a lot more fun than the daily anxieties of the political moment. Budgetball, The Evolution of Trust and Casual Games for Protesters, respectively -- are examples of games that help us make sense of politics and political action -- they’re “serious games,” or ...

Democrats, Get Your Story Straight!

Democrats have to master their storytelling techniques to counteract Trump

July 24, 2019 • by Janet Johnson

It is still early to predict which Democratic hopeful will emerge as the front-runner, even after the first debate. The media is framing the campaigns as a horse-race. But the race to 2020 is not a race, but rather a marathon. More often than not, debates are to confirm what ...

Europe & Central Asia

Hungary: How Liberty Can Be Lost

Tyrannies always collapse, but whether Hungarians will escape with their sanity and sufficient clarity for a new start remains to be seen

July 23, 2019 • by Agnes Heller

As the Bible (Exodus) teaches and, more recently, Hannah Arendt warns, liberation is not yet liberty. The institutions of liberty must first be constituted, and people need to learn how to make them work while breathing spirit into them. The years 1989–1991 were a time of liberation for all the people ...