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Category: American Society

  • The Blind Spot of United States History

    The most frequent question readers ask about An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States is: “Why hasn’t this book been written before?” I’m flattered by that question, because it’s the one I ask about texts that deeply move me; at the same time the information, argument, or story is new to me, it seems…

  • Fierce Activists, Fierce Agitators: Women at the Vanguard of the Labor Movement

    I’d been following the domestic workers movement here in Massachusetts as they campaigned to pass the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. In 2014, Massachusetts became the fourth state to approve the domestic workers bill of rights which guarantees basic work standards, such as meal and rest breaks, parental leave, protection from discrimination, sexual harassment, etc.…

  • The Canonization of Junípero Serra and The Race for Innocence

    In 1988, Pope John Paul II beatified Junípero Serra, the first step to canonization. In the wake of the Red Power movement of the 1970s and the International Indigenous Movement that followed, there was a strong outcry from California Indigenous descendants of those who perished of overwork, starvation, and outright killing in the Franciscan missions…

  • American Horror Story: 5 Myths About Hate and Violence in America

    It’s almost that time of year again—and we don’t just mean Halloween. The eagerly anticipated fifth season of the American Horror Story anthology on the FX television channel is ready to air. AHS is something of a guilty pleasure for the two of us, not least for its superb casts, vivid (if grotesque) blending of…

  • Let’s Make a Family Deal: Why I Wrote Love’s Promises

    I wrote this book for personal and professional reasons. Contracts have been very, very good to me. Without them, I wouldn’t have my child, best friend, marriage, or job. Moreover, our son would only have two parents. Contracts, and mini-contracts I call “deals,” made it all possible.

  • Elegy for Rabbi Harold White, Interfaith Families Pioneer

    When I was in my twenties and thirties, I did not expect to ever want or need a rabbi in my life again. After years of defending my Jewish identity as the child of an interfaith family, I thought I was done with Jewish institutions and clergy. I joined a community created by and for…

  • Teaching the ABCs of Faith Traditions in an Age of Intolerance

    Q&A with Linda K. Wertheimer Linda K. Wertheimer's book launch at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA, August 18, 2015. Photo credit: Christian Coleman Linda K. Wertheimer had a fabulous book launch at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts last month. In her presentation, she talked with us about the classrooms she visited throughout the…

  • Siempre Luchando: Mothers and Their Children Under Fire in Detention Centers

    By Margaret Regan Photo credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Department of Homeland Security) Dilley, a small Texas city eighty-three miles north of the Mexican border, greets visitors with a cheerful sign.  “Welcome to Dilley, Texas,” it reads. “A Slice of the Good Life.” That good life extends only so far. Just west of town,…

  • Un-Renaming Denali

    By Christine Byl Photo credits: Christine Byl I've lived in Interior Alaska for the past eleven years, about 100 miles, as the raven flies, from the highest mountain in North America. I have always called this formidable and beautiful summit "Denali," as do a majority of Alaska residents, including our three Republicans in Congress. Since…

  • Tales of the Unexpected

    By Kevin Jennings When I edited the first edition of One Teacher in Ten in 1994, I did so because I recalled how lonely it felt for me to come out as a teacher in 1988. I never wanted others to feel that way again. 1994 was a very different time. Same-sex sexual relations were…