Portside

Portside readers continue to weigh in to The Vietnam War, PBS series by Burns and Novick, The impact of the war on the country, the role of the peace movement; and today the impact of discussion of the war and the new series on a country living in the "time of Trump".

On October 1, Catalonia will hold a referendum on independence from Spain. As the vote nears, the Spanish government is increasing its repression which is increasing the resistance amongst the Catalan population.

Stephen Greenblatt gives a new look into one of our civilization's origin myths and its role in the development of misogynist discourse.

“I knew that I had come from this very dark place — I was abhorrent to society,” said Michelle Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at N.Y.U. who was released from prison in August after serving 20 years. “But for 20 years, I’ve tried to do right, because I was still interested in the world, and because I didn’t believe my past made me somehow cosmically un-educatable forever.”

Mapping Social Movements Through the 20th Century, a project directed by Professor James N. Gregory, allows us to see where social movements were active and where not, helping us better understand patterns of influence and endurance. It exposes new dimensions of American political geography, showing how locales that in one era fostered certain kinds of social movements often changed political colors over time.

Willie Parker discusses his Christian faith, teen moms, and what’s next for abortion access.

Puerto Rico’s struggle to rebuild after Hurricanes Irma and Maria is being made harder by its own government, and an indifferent White House

Barcelona Dockworkers Refuse to Operate Police Ship Sent to Thwart Referendum

Burns and Novick avoid confronting the question of imperialism – the notion that U.S. foreign policy is deliberately committed to the exploitation of peasants and workers around the world, that it is on the wrong side of the class struggle. Without the concepts of class struggle and imperialism, Burns and Novick will not be able to get at the roots of the political divide over Vietnam.