A Congressional Update follows the list of articles.
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Gar Alperovitz and Martin Sherwin, CommonDreams.org, posted August 6 (from the Los Angeles Times)
Argues that the imminent entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan was sufficient to force Japanese surrender. Gar Alperovitz teaches political economy at the University of Maryland and Martin Sherwin teaches history at George Mason University. Historians Kai Bird and Peter Kuznick contributed to the article.
By Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, posted August 6
On the significance of John Hersey's August 1946 book-length New Yorker article on the human suffering caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The article broke through a curtain of silence with the US military had imposed on reports of the atomic bomb's civilian damage.
By Lesley M. M. Blume (with photographs by Hiroki Kobayashi), National Geographic, posted August 6
A richly illustrated essay on Hiroshima in the wake of the atomic bombing and today. The author's new book on John Hersey, Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World, was released by Simon and Schuster on August 4.
By Anna K. Danziger-Halperin, Washington Post, posted August 5
On Nixon's veto of federally funded universal child care in 1971 and its lasting consequences. The author is a postdoctoral fellow in women's history and public history at the New-York Historical Society.
By Peter Kuznick, Consortium News, posted August 3
Written as the introduction to the memoir of a Nagasaki bombing victim, Taniguchi Sumiteru, tthis essay touches on the purpose and impact of the atomic bombings and the role of victims in the Japanese anti-nuclear movement. Peter Kuznick teaches history at American University and directs the Nuclear Studies Institute there.
By Marc Wortman, History New Network, posted August 2
On the struggle to get coastal homeowners and businesses to observe a coastal blackout in the interest of preventing German submarines from enjoying free visibility for their attacks. The author is an independent historian and journalist who wrote 1941: Fighting the Shadow War. A Divided America in a World at War (Grove Atlantic, 2019).
By Caroline E. Janney, Washington Post, posted July 31
“The South's mythology glamorized a noble defeat. Trump's backers may do the same.” The author teaches the history of the Civil War at the University of Virginia.
By Greg Mitchell, Mother Jones, posted July 24
On the effort to counter the effect of John Hersey's New Yorker report on the impact of the Hiroshima bombing. The author's book The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood–and America–Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
was published earlier this month by The New Press).
By Brent Cebul, Boston Review, posted July 22
“Policing is not the only kind of state violence. In the mid-twentieth century, city governments, backed by federal money, demolished hundreds of Black neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal.” The author teaches twentieth-century US history at the University of Pennsylvania.
By Karl Jacoby, Los Angeles Times, posted July 22
“What’s happening in Oregon reflects the long history of unprecedented police powers granted to federal border agents over what has become a far more expansive border zone than most Americans realize.”
The author teaches US history at Columbia University.
The author teaches US history at Columbia University.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for flagging some of the above articles. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
Congressional Update
By Carolyn “Rusti” Eisenberg and Prasannan Parthasarathi, H-PAD's legislative coordinators
Senators Need to Hear from Their Constituents
Capitol Switchboard : 202-224-3121
Increased funding for a wasteful, dangerous defense budget is nothing new.
But something different is happening this time: With our country in crisis and millions of Americans desperate for federal assistance, the Senate has authorized another $740.5 billion for defense, while refusing to vote on the House of Representatives Heroes Act, in the name of fiscal responsibility. The House bill has shortcomings, but it provides vitally needed benefits that the President's Executive Order leaves out: $600 a week added to unemployment insurance, a second stimulus check for American beneath a certain income level, urgent assistance to states and city government, funding for the post office and for schools, and other important items.
Senators Need to Hear from Their Constituents. Helpful to call your Senators' office today:Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121. Let them know you are furious about the misplaced priorities of $740.5 billion for “defense,” and the failure to support the necessary expenditures contained in the Heroes Act.
If it's a done-deal, why bother? All these offices keep a count of their calls. And in one form another, both defense spending and a stimulus package will come up again. So constituent push-back is still helpful.
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