Considering History: The American Revolution’s Most Inspiring Patriots Include Enslaved African Americans
Many of the heroes of the American Revolution were unsung African Americans who used their critical patriotism to effect profound change.
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Considering History: Let’s Remember All of American History in 2021
American history is multi-layered, often contradictory, and always challenging, making it far more difficult to remember, much less to commemorate, than the simplified myths often represented by our monuments.
News of the Week: Best of the Year, The Landlord’s Game, and Whipped Coffee Is Really Popular (Apparently)
In the news for the last week of 2020 are loads of year-end “best of” lists, Christmas music you can keep listening to, Smokey Bear impersonators, and more.
Considering History: Remembering The Full Life and Legacy of Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks’s fight for equality and justice go well beyond her famous refusal to move to a different seat on a Montgomery bus.
Considering History: Voter Suppression and Racial Terrorism, the Twin Pillars of White Supremacy
American Studies Professor Ben Railton shows how, for more than 100 years, voter suppression has consistently gone hand in hand with racial terrorism to prop up white supremacy.
Considering History: Operation Paperclip and Nazis in America
From prominent figures and voices to mass movements and rallies, the two decades leading up to World War II featured numerous connections between Americans and Nazi Germany, links that reveal that Nazism was never simply a foreign or enemy force.
Considering History: Kamala Harris’s Heritage and the Legacies of Slavery and Sexual Violence
American Studies Professor Ben Railton discusses how the vice presidential nominee’s heritage can help us understand a hidden yet vital history.
Considering History: The Washington Redskins, Oklahoma Territory, and the Myth of the “Vanishing Indian”
What does the name change for the Washington Redskins and the Supreme Court decision regarding Oklahoma “Indian Territory” have in common? They both exemplify two longstanding and contrasting narratives of Native Americans.
Considering History: Reunion, Juneteenth and the Meaning of the Civil War
What would it mean to define the Civil War not as a tragic conflict between divided Northern and Southern states, but as a necessary and crucial final step in the long, even more tragic history of slavery in America?
Considering History: Civil Rights, Racism, and the Question of American Progress
When it comes to key issues such as white supremacist violence, voting rights, and structural inequity and inequality, America remains far too close to where it was in the summer of 1963.
Considering History: The Lessons of Memorial Day’s Decoration Day Origins
The origins of Memorial Day illustrate some of the worst and the best of Reconstruction, race, and American history and identity.
Considering History: Baseball, Chinese Americans, and the Worst and Best of America
Ben Railton tells the story of discrimination against Chinese Americans in the 1800s: In California, one sandlot was used to incite hate, while another sandlot offered a far more inclusive and inspiring vision (through baseball, of course).
Does the 1918 Pandemic Tell Us What Comes Next?
Taking a look at the health and economic impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic may give us some insight into what to expect in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Considering History: The Cedar Rapids Muslim American Community and America’s Collective Identity
For National Arab American Heritage Month, Ben Railton looks at the influential Lebanese American community of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Considering History: The New Deal, White Supremacy, and How the South Won the Civil War
American studies Professor Ben Railton explains how a neo-Confederate perspective came to dominate the national landscape and its effects on Americans of color.
Considering History: Two Wrongs and a Right: Lessons from the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
The 1918-1920 influenza pandemic offers a number of striking lessons for 2020. Ben Railton highlights two warnings and one inspiration we can take away from this century-old pandemic and its American contexts.