This Week in Literary History: Malcolm X was Assassinated in New York City
“Whatever hand pulled the trigger did not buy the bullet.”
https://lithub.com/this-week-in-literary-history-malcolm-x-was-assassinated-in-new-york-city/
ushistory
#LettersAndPolitics welcomes #MaryAnnettePember, national correspondent for ICT News, and author of #MedicineRiver: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of #IndianBoardingSchools
https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-june-3-2025/
#Indigenous #NativeAmericans #NativeBoardingSchools #NativeAmericanBoardingSchools #NativeResidentialSchools #NativeAmericanHistory #UShistory #AmericanHistory #colonialViolence #memoirs #books @histodons @bookstodon
Not Just Balto: 7 Other Heroes From Nome’s 1925 Serum Run
by Kassandre Dwyer
The 1925 Serum run delivered life-saving serum to Nome to combat an outbreak of diphtheria. Many dogs and men were involved.
https://www.thecollector.com/other-heroes-nome-1925-serum-run/
The Outcasts of Zion | review essay by #BenjaminBalthaser
"The manufacturing of Jewish Zionist consensus lies at the heart of #AmericanLiberalism’s identity crisis."
#books discussed:
#BeingJewishAfterTheDestructionOfGaza
#TheThresholdOfDissent
#Doppelganger
#Unsettled
#OurPalestineQuestion
https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-outcasts-of-zion/
#JewishAmericanPolitics #JewishAmericanHistory #JewishAmericanLeft #UShistory #USpol #USleft #Palestine #Gaza #PalestineQuestion @palestine @israel @histodons @bookstodon
![review essay in today's Boston Review
text (at right)
POLITICS
The Outcasts of Zion
The manufacturing of Jewish Zionist consensus lies at the heart of American liberalism’s identity crisis.
Benjamin Balthaser
[tags] Books & Ideas, History, Israel and Palestine, U.S.
image (photo, at left): Don Peretz, second from left, in Palestine in February 1949 with fellow American Friends Service Committee volunteers. The group was distributing aid to Arabs displaced during the Nakba. Image: Courtesy of Deb Peretz](/proxy/post_attachment/722312/6e265d1b70.png "review essay in today's Boston Review
text (at right)
POLITICS
The Outcasts of Zion
The manufacturing of Jewish Zionist consensus lies at the heart of American liberalism’s identity crisis.
Benjamin Balthaser
[tags] Books & Ideas, History, Israel and Palestine, U.S.
image (photo, at left): Don Peretz, second from left, in Palestine in February 1949 with fellow American Friends Service Committee volunteers. The group was distributing aid to Arabs displaced during the Nakba. Image: Courtesy of Deb Peretz")
"The story of how the #UnitesStates identity was formed is almost invariably told by looking east to Europe. In #AmericaAmérica #GregGrandin vividly demonstrates that the nation’s unique sense of itself was in fact forged facing south toward #LatinAmerica"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAko46HvZSQ
#historyOfTheAmericas #LatinAmericanHistory #AmericanHistory #UShistory #ModernHistory #colonialism #colonialViolence #revolutions #books @bookstodon @histodons
As a grad student at the College of Charleston, Lauren Davila found an ad for the auction of 600 enslaved people — the largest known slave auction in the U.S.
The discovery prompted a small group to spearhead the creation of a historical marker in downtown Charleston.
(Published Oct. 2024)
https://www.propublica.org/article/charleston-slave-auction-historical-marker?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#SouthCarolina #BlackHistory #Juneteenth #USHistory #BlackMastodon
Los Angeles’ 1936 ‘Bum Blockade’ Targeted American Migrants Fleeing Poverty and Drought During the Great Depression
"The two-month patrol stopped supposedly “suspicious” individuals from crossing into California from other states. But its execution was uneven, and the initiative proved controversial"
by Olatunji Osho-Williams
A Stop On The Underground Railroad Has Been Discovered Hidden Inside New York’s Historic Merchant’s House
By Cara Johnson
"The Merchant's House Museum in Manhattan was built by abolitionist Joseph Brewster in 1832 — and a secret passage behind its walls now appears to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad."
https://allthatsinteresting.com/new-york-merchants-house-underground-railroad-stop
Books about the Underground Railroad at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=underground+railroad
"Long was influential in getting Roosevelt the presidential nomination in 1932, but when Roosevelt strayed from his promises to the ‘forgotten man’, he raised hell. [...] Though he was frequently reminded that it was not a junior senator’s place to rock the boat, he paid no attention."
Jefferson Cowie reviews #ThomasEPatterson's #AmericanPopulist: #HueyLong of #Louisiana
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n05/jefferson-cowie/that-damn-smooth-stuff
#HueyPLong #UShistory #AmericanHistory #SouthernHistory #populism #TheKingfish #books @bookstodon
"Marx Prestige" ep 1
#AndrewHartman, author of #KarlMarxInAmerica, discusses "how #KarlMarx understood the United States as a testing ground for capitalism and democratic development in the nineteenth century."
#Marx #Marxism #AmericanMarxism #USleft #UShistory #AmericanHistory #AmericanLeft #USpolitics #AmericanLaborMovement #AmericanSocialism #books @bookstodon
Edited 221d ago
#Minnesota serves as the flagship for nationwide '#NoKings' #protests against #Trump
Organizers of Saturday’s “No Kings” rallies across the country are predicting that the protests against the actions of President Donald Trump & his admin could add up to one of the largest demonstrations in #UShistory, with Minnesota taking center stage.
Organizers say >3,100 events have been registered in all 50 states, with >9 million people expected to participate.
#law #democracy
https://apnews.com/article/no-kings-protests-minnesota-trump-springsteen-2fab6b3a64e5275bcf111e8dd6d2e075
Nonprofit sues to stop Trump’s changes to Reflecting Pool, a #HistoricSite
A Washington-area nonprofit Monday asked a federal court to halt Trump’s efforts to resurface the #LincolnMemorial #ReflectingPool, saying that #Trump [once again] failed to undergo required federal reviews before applying a blue color to the basin.
#law #landmark #preservation #UShistory #HandsOffOurProperty
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/05/11/trump-reflecting-pool-lawsuit-memorial/
Edited 182d ago
"There are records of people being whipped for celebrating and being threatened for celebrating. And even outside the context of celebrations, there was retaliation against the Freedmen [..] There was a lot of hope in the middle of a lot of hostility."
Historian #AnnetteGordonReed, author of #OnJuneteenth
https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-june-19-2024/
#Juneteenth #OTD #EmancipationDay #Emancipation #BlackHistory #UShistory #AmericanHistory #TexasHistory #BlackTexas #books @bookstodon
When a Photographer Turned His Focus on Social Injustice, It Helped Usher in the First Child Labor Laws
Lewis Hine didn’t consider his job as taking pictures; it was “detective work.” Sometimes gaining access with ruse and subterfuge, he captured stark images that touched hearts and changed minds
"West Side Studies: Boyhood and Lawlessness; The Neglected Girl" at PG contains some of Hine's photographs
Edited 139d ago
Theodore Roosevelt Survived an Assassination Attempt Because a Speech Tucked Inside His Pocket Slowed the Bullet. He Insisted on Delivering His Remarks Anyway
“I am very much uninterested in whether I am shot or not,” he told an audience in Milwaukee. Newly discovered documents shed light on how the 26th president wanted the incident to shape his legacy
"I argue that #antiZionism, like #socialism within the American Jewish world, arose autochthonously out of the desire of mostly working- and middle-class Jews to create a world that was far more egalitarian and also less racist and less antisemitic."
Pt 1 of Francesca Freeman's talk w/ #BenjaminBalthaser about his book #CitizensOfTheWholeWorld
#JewishLeft #JewishAmericanLeft #JewishAmericanHistory #UShistory #Palestine #Israel #PalestineQuestion #books @bookstodon
"#TheCherokeeWarOf1776 recasts America's founding moment by tracing the importance of westward ambition and #settlerViolence to the origins of the Revolutionary War. In this gripping and sobering book, historian #KevinKokomoor uncovers the rarely acknowledged war waged by the emerging United States against the #Cherokee people just days after the Declaration of Independence was signed."
https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/54068/cherokee-war-1776?srsltid=AfmBOopCfe5J7Kh2tklkz6cNBUiWEQhpKq6cDxcy-Rkc7DiIBgBm1h93
#NativeAmericans #NativeAmericanHistory #UShistory #Indigenous #books @bookstodon
Here’s What Life Was Like in 1776 vs. Today
At a Pivotal Moment of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass Delivered a Speech That Reframed What Was at Stake if Slavery Stood
In “The Mission of the War,” America’s incomparable orator helped turn public sentiment in favor of the Union and Abraham Lincoln, beginning the process of “national regeneration”
It’ll probably be as well done as the no-bid #ReflectingPool.
#Trump is using a $500M #NoBid contract to build his White House #ballroom
The secret agreement was routed through a #WhiteHouse office that typically handles repairs & furnishings & is exempt from competitive bidding requirements.
#law #TaxPayersMoney #GovernmentWaste #oversight #landmark #UShistory #UrbanPlanning #architecture
https://wapo.st/4vWKurH
The #DeepState didn’t take down #Nixon.
So why did #JDVance say it did?
Nixon’s #Crimes, the #Courts, #Congress & the #FreePress drove #Watergate.
Such a scandal of #crime & #corruption could easily happen again — [especially in a nation where #Trump controls the #press, the rule of #law only applies to his enemies & the courts have been subjugated by a #corrupt #SCOTUS].
#Trumpaganda #propaganda #Republicans #RevisionistHistory #UShistory #law #criminal
https://wapo.st/4eOdXMT
Edited 132d ago
Elizabeth Van Lew’s Heroic Career As A Civil War Spy
By Gina Dimuro
Perhaps the Union's most important spy, Elizabeth Van Lew freed prisoners and passed along crucial information gathered at the Confederate capital of Richmond.
Edited 111d ago
13 of the Most Unusual Fourth of July Traditions in U.S. History
Americans have come up with a variety of interesting and unexpected ways to celebrate the Fourth of July over the last 250 years!
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" at PG:
How Five Points Became The Most Infamous Slum In The History Of New York City
By Ella Spitz
Located in Lower Manhattan, Five Points was a poor, overcrowded neighborhood where disease spread rapidly, rival gangs battled for control, and violent riots frequently broke out in the streets.
Judge orders #Trump admin to restore #NationalPark changes at sites that 'disparaged' #US
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump admin to restore sites changed under an executive order calling for the nation’s #museums, #parks & #landmarks to not display elements that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.”
#law #censorship #RevisionistHistory #whitewashing #UShistory
https://apnews.com/article/trump-national-parks-lawsuit-c39eee6f77c2e782fc494e2167bf5a39
Edited 149d ago