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Dispatches From the Culture Wars - Guns and Roses Edition

Lead poison; The myth that murders; Black and white in the slave south; Graham, cracker of souls; BS manufacturers; On the new gun control movement

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America’s Gun Sickness Goes Way Beyond Guns

By Jacob Bacharach
February 23, 2018
The New Republic

The ongoing debate about gun control points to a deeper rot that pervades this country's culture and political economy.

The Hunter and His Gun: An American Myth That Just Won’t Die               

By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
January 26, 2018
Literary Hub   
How Daniel Boone and Last of the Mohicans built a colonialist origin story.   

Book Review: 'Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South'

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By Ian Reifowitz
February 25, 2018
Daily Kos
The author describes the deep antagonism between poor whites and the plantation owners, and the fact that the owners were deeply afraid that that antagonism could actually threaten their ability to maintain the system of slavery on which their wealth depended.

The Soul-Crushing Legacy of Billy Graham

By Bob Moser
February 23, 2018
Rolling Stone
"I would torment myself for another 20 years trying to 'reform,' never quite able to shake the voice of Billy Graham promising me eternal damnation"

The Listening Con

By Liza Featherstone
February 13, 2018
The Baffler
How the powerful learned to launder their reputations using focus groups.
                        

Why This Round of Gun-Control Activism Feels Different

By Gilbert Garcia
February 20, 2018
San Antonio Express-News
For the first time in modern American history, we’re seeing a grass-roots movement of teenagers rallying to the cause of gun control.