Why do newscasters still refer to the “top of the hour” and the “bottom of the hour” in a digital world? Do they think their audiences understand the literal meaning of those terms yet alone their symbolic importance like “above the fold” to people who do not read newspapers? Language lingers even as technology moves […]
Historians Tackle 14th Amendment Section 3 and Fail (3 of 3): Jill Lepore, David Blight, Drew Gilpin Faust, and John Fabian Witt
This blog addresses the third of the three historian briefs submitted to the Supreme Court in support of the decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to disqualify Donald Trump from running for President of the United States under Amendment 14 Section 3. JILL LEPORE Before turning to the brief itself, Jill Lepore, one of the […]
Historians Tackle 14th Amendment Section and Fail (2): Akhil Rees Amar and Vikram David Amar
Remember when the 14th Amendment Section 3 was all the rage? Everywhere you turned there was one talking head after another discussing this amendment and section and guessing what the Supreme Court would do. In my previous blog (Historians Tackle the 14th Amendment Section 3 and Fail: How Come?), I proposed that the Court would […]
Historians Tackle the 14th Amendment Section 3 and Fail: How Come?
History is in the news. It is not simply an ivory tower study for academicians. Instead it is front and center in the news today. We are in the first year of the 250th anniversary of America’s first civil war. Actions from the second civil war are being used to fight the third civil war. […]
The Lost Cause: A David Blight Perspective
Yale historian David Blight has been in the news lately. Even he is surprised about the frequency of his cable news appearances. His increased visibility derives from two related by difference sources: The Lost Cause and Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. In general terms, his expertise as an historian in the Reconstruction is what […]
Presidents Are Not Above the Law: Our Lord and Savior Is
Besides slavery, another way the Civil War has become part of the current political discourse is with the figure of Abraham Lincoln. In the Union, he is a revered figure. His Memorial at the nation’s capital has been the site of political gatherings, most famously the “I Have a Dream” march with Martin Luther King. […]
Did the Confederates Win the War of Northern Aggression?
America’s second Civil War has been in the news as of late. Even as we begin the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s first Civil War as part of the American Revolution and fight the third Civil War right now in the presidential election, the second Civil War remains a flashpoint in American political […]
1774/2024: Loyalty then and Now
Before turning the mere three-year anniversary of the insurrection by our Confederacy-loving former President, we should start at the very beginning. The semiquincentennial for the American Revolution really begins to take shape in 2024 even though 1774 does not get the attention of other years. Last year ended with the spectacular Boston Tea Party on […]
Mind Control: Oaths and Diversity Training
In his President column in Perspectives on History (61:7 2023), Edward Muir, American Historical Association, describes an oath-taking incident from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949. It was the Year of the Oath. The Board of Regents required all university employees to pledge their loyalty to the Constitutions of the United States and the […]
South Carolina: Slavery Epicenter for the United States
South Carolina and slavery have been in the news. The former because the former governor of the state and now presidential candidate muffed a softball question where the latter was the answer. She may have been thinking she was campaigning in the Confederacy and not in the Union. One can’t help but wonder how many […]