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It Was Never a Civil War

Michael Podhorzer Washington Monthly
The threat posed by Trump and the MAGA movement, like the Confederate States, is not “conservative” or even “extremist” but criminally anti-democratic.

Incapable of Sustaining Weeds

Tom Stevenson London Review of Books
What are​ the major wars of our time? Ukraine and Gaza, of course. But what about Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Sudan? Most of these are civil wars with very large numbers of fatalities. This is a review of "Understanding Ethiopia’s Tigray War"

A Brief History of the Ku Klux Klan Acts

Joseph Patrick Kelly The Conversation
The 1870s laws passed by the Reconstruction Congress to enforce 14th Amendment rights and to protect Black voters, ignored for decades, are now being used against Trump.

This Week in People’s History, June 27–July 3

Portside
Newspaper headline: World Court Supports Nicaragua International law? What's that? in 1986. First marches for Gay Pride in 1970. Saving a bridge in 1923. Torturers unwelcome in 1980. Bronx hospital patients first in 1970. Guantanamo opens in 1903. Gettysburg in 1863.

Juneteenth, Explained

Fabiola Cineas Vox
The holiday’s 158-year history holds a lot of meaning in the fight for Black liberation today.

The Little Man’s Big Friends

Eric Foner London Review of Books
This book covers more than two centuries of American history, seeking to explain the evolution and enduring power of a racially inflected understanding of freedom.

The First Decoration Day

David W. Blight Zinn Education Project
A precursor to Memorial Day occurred in 1865 when thousands of freed slaves marched in Charleston, South Carolina to declare their sense of the meaning of the Civil War, that it was about their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic.

This Week in People’s History, May 16 . . .

Portside
Member of Congress using a whip to drive Lady Liberty out of the U.S. Capitol President Wilson unleashes repression of peace advocates. Republican Party denounces slave trade as a ‘crime against humanity.’ First compulsory public education. Camden draft protestors acquitted. Wiretapping gets the nod. Amnesty for Confederates.

The Great Slave Strike That Helped End Slavery

Mark A. Lause Jacobin
Today, on Presidents’ Day, we rightly celebrate Abraham Lincoln for helping end slavery. But we shouldn’t forget the unstoppable force that also brought down the Slave Power: the several million slaves who left the plantation, many of whom joined the Union Army.
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