A Common Pleas court judge overturned the City of Philadelphia’s decision to remove the statue last year during the racial unrest following the death of George Floyd. Here is The Philadelphia Inquirer: A Philadelphia judge on Tuesday ruled that the...
Christopher Columbus
Gordon-Reed: “There are far more dangerous threats to history” than the removal of monuments
What should we do with Confederate monuments? Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed offers her thoughts at The Harvard Gazette: Gordon-Reed on whether the removal of Confederate statues dishonors the memory of those who died fighting for the Confederacy: I would...
Happy Columbus Day
That’s right. I said it. I have blogged about Columbus statues here and here, but I also want to call your attention to Yoni Appelbaum‘s piece at The Atlantic: “How Columbus Day Fell Victim to Its Own Success.” The subtitle is “It’s...
Why the Columbus Statues Should Stay
I am in complete agreement with this piece by Laura Ruberto and Joseph Sciorra. (And it is not just because I am half Italian). If we are going to make an argument against Robert E. Lee statues because of the Jim Crow context in which they were erected, then...
Statues of Christopher Columbus and Italian-Americans
In case you have not heard, New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio is considering removing the statue of Christopher Columbus in the circle that bears his name. David Marcus of The Weekly Standard explains how that statue got there: The earliest...
Coming to Terms With Our History
Recently on Facebook I saw a picture of a statue of Christopher Columbus in Buffalo covered in red paint. It is pictured above. The person who posted the photo wrote “When good things happen to bad people.” The responses to...
Is Columbus Day a Racist or Anti-Racist Holiday?
It’s a day or two late, but I highly recommend reading Jay Case’s post on Columbus Day at his excellent blog The Circuit Reader. Case, who teaches American history at Malone College in Canton, Ohio, shows how Columbus Day...
Trollinger Sets the Record Straight on Christopher Columbus
It’s funny how these things go. Last night at dinner I was talking about Bill Trollinger’s excellent book God’s Empire with some Houston-era historians, only to come home to find a link to this video on my Facebook page. Compliments […]