History
Putin rewrote Ukraine’s history. Ohio Republicans are rewriting American history
Americans are united in denouncing Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including how he has justified it with a warped view of Ukrainian history and has crushed Russian dissent. Meanwhile, in Ohio, Republicans recently held hearings on legislation promoting a warped view of American history while crushing potential dissent. Unlike Ukrainians, we’re not under deadly assault, […]
Book bans accelerate in Ohio as new bill aims to prohibit ‘controversial’ topics
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. Calls for book bans are quickly becoming more and more common […]
Incinerate this commentary
I was in middle school when I first learned of the Harry Potter series making waves in the Christian community. As the daughter of devout Southern Baptist who took the Bible as law, woe unto them that call evil good. Reading a coming-of-age story about a magical boy and all his wand-yielding, spell-casting friends was […]
How common is the ‘Common Era?’ How A.D. and C.E. took over counting years
By Miriamne Ara Krummel, University of Dayton On Dec. 31, people from cultures all around the world will be raising a toast to welcome in A.D. 2022. Few of them will think about the fact that A.D. signals “anno Domini,” Latin for “in the year of our Lord.” In A.D. temporality – the one acknowledged […]
Refugees after the American Revolution needed money, homes and acceptance
By G. Patrick O’Brien, Kennesaw State University The U.S. has long been a destination for people fleeing war-torn regions of the world. But in 1783, the tables were turned: Between 60,000 and 100,000 disaffected colonists from diverse backgrounds were fleeing the American states newly independent from Britain. The leaders of these exiles referred to themselves […]
History Thursday: What a baker from ancient Pompeii can teach us about happiness
By Nadejda Williams, University of West Georgia In a testament to its resiliency, happiness, according to this year’s World Happiness Report, remained remarkably stable around the world, despite a pandemic that upended the lives of billions of people. As a classicist, I find such discussions of happiness in the midst of personal or societal crisis […]
History Thursday: The Ohio Statehouse squirrels’ 150-year legacy
When people thought of the Ohio Statehouse, a reporter wrote in the early 1960s, one defining image came to mind: Not the important policy debates inside or the many famous figures that have traversed its halls. No, the reporter wrote. People thought of the squirrels. Since its completion in 1861, the Ohio Statehouse grounds have […]
Scrap tires and alcoholic bingo: The Ohio budget’s most obscure items
The new state budget allocates billions of dollars to necessary public services, but you have to flip to page 1,326 to find the part about buying to-go cocktails. Tucked between groundbreaking investments in broadband internet and children’s services, this provision lets Ohioans purchase drinks for “off-premises consumption,” so long as the drink is not any […]
Teachers come under pressure as politicians, parents battle over ‘critical race theory’
WASHINGTON — Teachers from Tennessee to Iowa to Ohio are swept up in a wave of outrage led by GOP politicians nationwide over how schools teach kids about race in U.S. history. Conservatives have pilloried much instruction about systemic racism as “critical race theory,” even when that academic term has never been mentioned. A half […]
What the Ottoman Empire can teach us about the consequences of climate change
By Andrea Duffy, Colorado State University In the late 16th century, hundreds of bandits on horseback stormed through the countryside of Ottoman Anatolia raiding villages, inciting violence and destabilizing the sultan’s grip on power Four hundred years later and a few hundred miles away in the former Ottoman territory of Syria, widespread protests escalated into […]
100 years after the Tulsa Race Massacre, lessons from my grandfather
By Gregory B. Fairchild, University of Virginia When Viola Fletcher, 107, appeared before Congress in May 2021, she called for the nation to officially acknowledge the Tulsa race riot of 1921. I know that place and year well. As is the case with Fletcher – who is one of the last living survivors of the […]
History Thursday: The vindication and downfall of Col. John P. Slough
Note: This is the second of a two-part history series about one of Ohio’s most controversial lawmakers. You can read Part 1 here. Two weeks after Rep. John P. Slough planted a sockdolager between a colleague’s peepers, as one newspaper put it, lawmakers gathered at the brand-new Ohio Statehouse for an expulsion vote. The Republican […]