Articles you'll be glad you read – Politics Weekly

+ Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for reading͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ US Edition - Today's top story: Union gunboats didn't just attack rebel military sites – they went after civilian property, too [View in browser]( US Edition | 26 November 2020 [The Conversation]( Academic rigor, journalistic flair Whatever you think about Thanksgiving as a holiday, it’s always good to give thanks. This week, each of us editors on The Conversation’s politics desk has chosen two stories from the last year that we’re particularly grateful to have worked on. Here’s a small selection of the stories that delighted, compelled or challenged us this year: Jeff Inglis: [This story]( by Robert Gudmestad about Civil War gunboats was an excellent deep dive into a slice of history with color, detail and quotes that brought the war alive. Putting the article together also involved some really fun mapmaking work, which I always enjoy. Then there’s Valerie Hansen’s story of how globalization started 1,000 years ago – I’m a big fan of history, and [this article]( transported me back in time 1,000 years. It was an article that made me really want to go and read the book it was based on. And the book was even better than I’d hoped! Catesby Holmes: Gonzalo Soltero, an author and professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, isn’t just a beautiful writer, he’s also a meticulous investigative reporter dedicated to finding the facts. On the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, [his story debunked a 57-year-old conspiracy theory about why assassin Lee Harvey Oswald traveled to Mexico just before Kennedy’s killing](. In a similar vein, Andrew Nestingen wrote for us about how [a Swedish prosecutor finally solved the 1986 assassination of Sweden’s longtime prime minister Olof Palme](, a political killing that traumatized his country. It was Palme who created Sweden’s identity as a progressive, peace-loving nation. Solving his murder “may be an injection of good news for Sweden, which has suffered an exceptionally high death toll during the pandemic,” wrote Nestingen. My favorite stories were both by historians. Matthew Countryman is a scholar of African American social movements, and his June story [set the social justice uprisings across the country in historical context](: “It is as if the dam has broken, and the many currents of the American protest tradition…have all come together in a massive river of outrage and sorrow, exhilaration and hope,” he wrote. As the country’s political face-mask wars raged, scholar Maurizio Valsania, who is working on a biography of George Washington, wrote that [“The Father of this country would wear his mask in public.”]( Why? Because Washington believed that “no real man should ever put up shows of strength, risk his life wantonly or, worse, put people’s lives in jeopardy.” And because I can, I’m adding one more of my favorite, most delightful stories: poet and classics scholar Rachel Hadas wrote a reflection for us about the wisdom Greek tragedy offered when Donald Trump got COVID-19. “As a classics scholar, I can assure you,” she wrote, [“What goes around comes around. Greek mythology provides insight to help us understand today’s chaos](.” We give our thanks today for interesting facts, for the good writing that conveys them – and for readers like you, who give our work meaning. Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Society The USS Cairo pulls up to the banks of the Mississippi River in 1862. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command [Union gunboats didn’t just attack rebel military sites – they went after civilian property, too]( Robert Gudmestad, Colorado State University A new look at detailed data about Civil War skirmishes along the Mississippi River reveals another key to the Union's victory. ‘The Meeting of Two Worlds,’ a sculpture at L'Anse aux Meadows, commemorates the meeting of Vikings and Native Americans around the year 1000. D. Gordon E. Robertson/Wikimedia Commons [Globalization really started 1,000 years ago]( Valerie Hansen, Yale University The allure of novel goods was so strong that it triggered 1,000 years of trade and interactions among people from different places, but there were limits on globalization then that no longer exist, - [Who killed Sweden’s prime minister? 1986 assassination of Olof Palme is finally solved – maybe]( Andrew Nestingen, University of Washington Prosecutors say they've closed Sweden's most famous cold case. But many Swedes still have doubts. The crime and botched investigation have been a 'national trauma' for this normally peaceful place. - [JFK conspiracy theory is debunked in Mexico 57 years after Kennedy assassination]( Gonzalo Soltero, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) In 1967 a Mexican reporter told the CIA he had met Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City just before the JFK assassination. New research and recently declassified intelligence pokes a hole in his story. - [2020 uprisings, unprecedented in scope, join a long river of struggle in America]( Matthew Countryman, University of Michigan Protests over police violence and white supremacy have erupted in almost 600 US cities. A historian of black social movements says what's happened after George Floyd's death is unprecedented. - [George Washington would have so worn a mask]( Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino A biographer of George Washington says that the father of the country would have no problem wearing the kind of protective gear that President Trump shuns. - [‘What goes around comes around,’ or what Greek mythology says about Donald Trump]( Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University - Newark A classics scholar and poet turns to Greek mythology, especially the story of Oedipus the King, to explain the drama -- or perhaps tragedy -- that is taking place in the highest office in the land. You’re receiving this newsletter from [The Conversation](. Not interested anymore? [Unsubscribe](. 303 Wyman Street, Suite 300 Waltham, MA 02451