Academic Rants

In a recent newsletter James Basker, president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, wrote: "Earlier this summer, I read a rather dispiriting poll from Harvard’s Institute of Politics: Only 57% of 18- to-29-year-olds said it is “very important” that the United States is a democracy; 7% of respondents said it is either “not very” or “not at all important.” The same poll found a third of young Americans questioning whether we’ll remain a unified nation." Although Basker received some encouraging news from another source, it is not difficult to see why young Americans might harbor such feelings. There is very little in the news that supports the continuation of our democracy. Our politicians on the left and the right, but especially the right, are engaged in tricking the population about major issues. It would take a devoted academic, attorney or activist to keep up with the manipulations that constantly skirt the law and easily make us doubt the worthiness of our political instituti...

In another era, one much earlier than now, most major cities had multiple daily newspapers. Many cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago, had newspapers that were written in different languages. New York, for instance, had newspapers printed in Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, and Yiddish.  Papers were sold at corner stores, at newsstands, train and subway stations and on the streets. Often on the streets, the job of selling newspapers fell to youngsters. Now only captured in period piece movies, young folk cried out the name of the paper, the headlines or feature stories to get people to buy newspapers. There was a skill in selling newspapers and it became a product of an urbanizing society. Indeed, this was hard work. But it was a job that had no age requirement, did not require a formal education, was not restricted by race, ethnicity or religion, yet required some mathematical and consumer-oriented skills. Crying The News , Vincent Digirolamo’s award winning b...

Since Richard Nixon’s presidency, every Republican administration has taken steps to try and kill Affirmative Action. They and their conservative allies have miscast its purpose and its targeted audience. The current actions in front of the most conservative Supreme Court in recent memory continue to weaken the intent of the program, and simultaneously allow attorneys to use racial identities against students of color to deny them from obtaining access that symbolizes the American Dream. Each case brought before the court tries to stress that white students are victimized in an attempt to improve the nation. In this instance to highlight white victimization, white organizations are supporting Asian American groups thereby pitting Asian Americans against African Americans in the Harvard case, and supporting a white coalition to challenge the enrollment of African Americans and Latinos at UNC.  The arguments against Affirmative Action always focus on "alleged losers". However, ...

 I recently attended a conference and one of the reoccurring points of conversation was: "What happens after Tuesday?" Tuesday, of course being Election Day. There is a great deal of fear surrounding this election. Both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, have a lot riding on the decisions. People have called it the most important election of our lifetimes. There is a great fear that the American experiment, our democracy, is threatened by the outcome of the election. That if the Republicans win, authoritarianism will emerge. Conversely if Democrats win that the nation will fall prey to mass murders, criminals and radical rule. Conspiracy theories are dominating the public discourse and it is hard to tell what will actually happen. Ever since 2016, Americans have lost faith in pollsters and polling. They want to believe that people are hiding their true feelings and not sharing their political views. In contrast, I don't think that is true. People are masking so...

  Often the academic world collides with popular culture. If one were looking for a broader definition of Afrocentricity, it can be found in depictions of the Black Panther. The aura of the Black Panther has been captured as a comic book series, a series of graphic novels, several video games and most recently a movie. Historically, the “Black Panther” is a product of the 1960s. It is associated with the freedom crusade for Civil Rights as political party struggling to secure African American voting rights in Mississippi and also the progressive political organization that supported black nationalism a few years later. The uniqueness of the panther made it an ideal symbol for Negro/Black liberation. In 1966 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby enhanced the symbolism. They introduced the Black Panther, the first African superhero, in the developing Marvel comic book universe. The uniqueness of a non-white character authored and drawn by white men was revolutionary even in the Civil Rights era...

There Is No Return To Normal The lesson that I want to stress is the importance of time in the writing and analysis of history. Keep in mind the Black Death spread from Asia to Europe in less than a year. The pandemic traveled throughout Europe within another two years and then continued for another four before it was temporarily extinguished. Yet, historians of the West are and were largely concerned with the impact of the pandemic in Europe. They did not follow its duration in Africa, the Middle East or Asia. And they did not record its return in those places. European history ignored the experiences of non-Europeans in its coverage of the plague. The pandemic though changed the course of the western world and impacted the rest of the globe. Two centuries later, a more immune European continent had conquered the world. In English history, the Black Death reframes the monarchy, the economy and the trajectory of the nation towards an empire. Smallpox, not the plague, became the more fe...

  Two recently published Op-Eds, “How Gun Violence Changed My Father, Ronald Reagan, and Our Family”, by Patti Davis July 5, 2022 New York Times and “Baseball should Honor Larry Doby, another pioneer in integrating the sport” by Dave Kaplan and Joseph Thomas Moore July 4, 2022 Chicago Sun Times seemingly have very little to do with each other but I would argue they are strongly connected. On this July 4th holiday the stories of the Heartland are speaking a bit louder than usual. I encourage you to read each article. They are well written and tell important stories about what makes America unique and special. On July 5, 1947, Larry Doby became the second African American to play in the major leagues, and the first to play in the American League. As a pinch-hitter he struck out. A day earlier, on the 4th of July, Doby, born in the segregated South Carolina and raised in New Jersey, played for the Newark Eagles in the segregated Negro Leagues hitting a home run at his last at-bat. Dob...

  Over the past year I have argued that American exceptionalism has been eroded and perhaps never existed. Daily, I have hoped that my writings would be proven false. I’ve wanted to be challenged on my views about the pandemic, class inequality, gun violence, police brutality, racism, climate awareness, elective politics, and most recently the Supreme Court. Yet, since 2015, I’ve been losing faith in America as the wrong things keep happening. Other historians keep suggesting that there is still time to make changes. They have written that the more progressive voices are wrong and that the center will hold. Their views are that this happens with every nation and within every century. America is simply getting ready for a course correction. They point to the Roaring 20s, decade before the Great Depression, and the Gilded Age to highlight similarities. In contrast, I believe that the center is cracking, that the more conservative historians are wrong and that the American experiment ...

In 1774 the American struggle with England became a war for independence. On July 4, 1775 the leadership of this revolution declared freedom from England but gave themselves a year later before making it official. The following year they signed the document celebrating America's birth.  1776 America was far from perfect. The war still had to be won and peace with England needed to be forged. It would take decades for things to become normalized. The original government, the Continental Congress, would be replaced as would be the Articles of Confederation, the governing principles.  The original states printed their own currencies and had their own treaties and there were arguments over state borders.  Even when the Constitution was established and the presidency was created, all of current concepts were not set and the process of electing a president and vice president were fuzzy at best.  Many current Americans were alive when Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959...

  As I write Covid-19 continues its reign as the longest nightmare. Our national failure to take this crisis seriously, and to remain steadfast in addressing the broad consequences of the pandemic are now contributing to political and social unrest, as well as increasing supply shortages and growing inflation. Every major issue can be blamed on the pandemic - for example increased gun violence, increased urban violence, heightened discussions on school curriculums, the lack of infrastructure development, political stagnation, mental illness, the changing workforce, housing shortages, high rents, food shortages, altered economies, and an energy crisis. Largely due to disinformation campaigns and vaccination fears, the numbers of unvaccinated support the increasing numbers of Covid-19 mutations.  New strains of the virus are not following existing scientific principles, and newer mutations are proving more infectious. Covid-19 can easily become a common and deadly virus for year...

 Good Morning!   But is it good? Let's look at our world through a prism of sorts and try to make sense of how we truly feel. Living in America should be wonderful. But if you live in the New York metropolitan area, that sentiment is quickly swept away. We awaken to a negative world! The news is negative - you pick up the paper, flick on the radio, turn on the television. What do you learn about: inflation, war, panic, crime, domestic violence, hate crimes, murder, disease, homelessness, unemployment, and the list goes on! What is positive about the world that we live in? The news confirms nothing! Is there anything we can do to make things better? Your mind says no! With so much negativity surrounding us, there should also be positivity.  After all, this is what America is about. Where is the can-do spirit that made America great?  Remember, a positive outlook guides our history. So how do we see positivity? Is it as obvious as studying history? Or what about r...

 I think that one of the greatest fears of this era is the oversimplification of history and the greater simplification of events. We tend to oversimplify things in terms of explaining them in writing and in speech. And it is not as if we don't believe that people cannot understand what we mean, but rather that the simplification of thoughts, messages or ideas will convey similar concepts to a wider audience to gain a broader consensus than actually believed possible. For example, by saying that the 2020 election was "stolen" allows for any imaginary thought to have validity.  Similarly, to state "defund the police" creates an ocean of possibilities suggesting a state of lawlessness.  At the same time, the simplification of an idea such as the positioning of slavery as "the center" argument in the American experiment, which is used as the charge levied against the creators of the 1619 Project or calling a piece of legislation "Don't Say Gay,...

  Recent global affairs bring greater awareness to the instability of world peace. Daily the threat of another world war appears to grow.  For example, there are acts of chaos in virtually every major nation. There are demonstrations in authoritarian and democratic states, government crackdowns in numerous nations, economic crises associated with the pandemic and rising inflation, and the growing embers of war. Some of these challenges are ongoing. The Chinese government is quelling freedom movements in Hong Kong and religious freedom in the west. Protests in Iran have met fierce regime resistance. In more democratic settings, protestors have used social media to test the limits of free speech and freedom of assembly. Protests appear to pop-up in response to imagined or perceived threats.  The January 6th controversy has invigorated violence in the United States and it is seeking additional outlets. Cheered on by Fox News, North American truckers contesting COVID mask and...