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This Week in People’s History, Jan 9 – 15

Portside
Page 1 of an early issue of La Follette's Weekly Magazine Fighting the Good Fight (in 1909), Teach Literacy, Go to Jail (1854), Deadly But Very Popular (1964), Pretending to Drain the Swamp (1984), Orgy of Police Brutality (1874), McCarthyism's Downfall (1964), Hitler's Friends in the House of Lords (1934)

MAGA’s Revanchist Roots: A Tale of Tropes

Jerry Lembcke CounterPunch
Signs that MAGA is enmeshed in post-Vietnam War culture begin with its namesake. Make America Great Again is an adoption of Ronald Reagan’s assertion that it was “Morning in America Again,” - the country was moving on from its Vietnam War nightmare.

This Week in People’s History, August 1 – 7

Portside
Monument for murder victims Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffit Pinochet's men accused of Letelier murder in 1978. Dick Cheney's hypocrisy in 2000. Reagan's racist dog-whistle in 1980. Dixiecrats defend the poll tax in 1948. Chicago Freedom Movement in 1966. Birth of a hero in 1848. Toxic-waste emergency in 1978.

books

Why Crack Became the 1980s ‘Superdrug’

Jonathan Green The New York Times Book Review
This book "offers a fresh history of the epidemic that gripped minority communities, inflamed media coverage and led to draconian drug laws."

The Reagan Hostage Plot That Defeated Jimmy Carter

David Cay Johnston DCReport
A long-time Republican operative has come forward to spill the beans about the extensive plotting by Reagan allies to force the hostages to endure captivity for months so that voters would deny Carter a second term.

books

Religion of the Market

L. Benjamin Rolsky Los Angeles Review of Books
This new book is a contribution to our understanding of the last half century of both U.S. and global economic policy.

labor

The Downward Path We’ve Trod: Reflections on an Ominous Anniversary

Joseph A. McCartin Working-Class Perspectives
The undermining of workers’ strike power since PATCO's defeat disabled what was a vital instrument for building and maintaining social solidarity and for directing inevitable class tensions and social conflict toward democratic and egalitarian ends.

America’s Drug Wars: Fifty Years of Reinforcing Racism

Alfred McCoy Tomdispatch
It’s time to end the war on drug users — repeal the heavy penalties for possession; pardon the millions of nonviolent offenders; replace mass incarceration with mandatory drug treatment; restore voting rights to convicts and ex-convicts.
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