Seven marble head stones lie along a chain link fence in the Old Grounds of Austin’s historic Oakwood Cemetery. Their inscriptions read simply “U.S. Soldier.”
Reconstruction in Austin: The Unknown Soldiers
Sanctuary Austin: 1980s and Today
Edward Shore revisits the history of the Sanctuary Movement in Austin and the legacy of Casa Marianella, an emergency shelter for refugees and asylum seekers in East Austin. Since 1986, Casa has sheltered more than six thousand refugees, assisting many to secure housing, jobs, language classes, and support. The article appeals to UT historians to get involved in defending Austin's refugee and immigrant community.
The Sword and the Camera: Becoming ISIS
When it comes to Islamic fundamentalism and inter-Arab politics, the influential Palestinian journalist Abdel Bari Atwan, has seen it all. Since the 1980s he carefully documented the slow metamorphosis of a young Arab generation that came to believe that it had nothing to lose at home and everything to gain from a festival of death and glory in the distant mountains of Afghanistan.
Review of The Anatomy of Fascism (2004), by Robert Paxton
When people think about fascism, two men come to mind: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. However, as Robert Paxton shows in The Anatomy of Fascism, fascism was a practice that extended far beyond these two leaders. This is an original approach, as the majority of scholars focus on fascism as an ideology. Paxton instead examines […]
Beyoncé as Historian: Black Power at the DPLA
Edward Shore revisits the controversy surround Beyoncé's Super Bowl 50 halftime show that paid tribute to #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Panthers. He uses Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) primary source sets to contextualize Beyoncé's message of protest and to explore the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and the Black Power Movement.
Ordinary Yet Infamous: Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso
This case, this story, and the black woman at the heart of it forces us to move past binary notions of race, gender, and sexuality but also, too, it resists snap judgments about who exactly is good or evil and calls into question the validity of standard notions of justice.
Digital Teaching: Talking in Class? Yes, Please!
Some scholars wince a little when they hear the words “online class.” But what if online education wasn’t meant to supersede traditional teaching methods? What if online tools enhance the student experience? Instead of increasing the quantity of enrolled students, what if we increased the quality of the course through the use of online learning? The biggest feature for many students to adjust to, and for the teaching team to navigate, is the Class Chat.
Our History Mixtape: Embracing Music in the Classroom
By Eyal Weinberg and Blake Scott It’s midway through the semester and you’ve slogged through one of the infamous central Texas morning monsoons to make it to class. You’re soaked and so are the students starting to arrive. And you’re all a bit stressed from the commute and all the other work still floating in […]
Vietnam between the United States and Yugoslavia
A specter is haunting Europe (also the United States and, really, much of the globe)—the specter of a new Cold War. In recent years columnists have been invoking the memory of the global ideological conflict that governed much of the violence and geopolitics of the twentieth-century.
History Museums: The Center for Memory, Peace, and Reconciliation, Bogotá, Colombia
September 23, 2015, marked a historic day in Colombian history. President Juan Manuel Santos and Timoléon Jiménez, leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People´s Army (FARC-EP), agreed to sign a peace treaty.