History Often Rhymes TPT

03/19/2022

Interesting look at the history behind Russia's military strategy in Ukraine.

Its experience in a string of wars led to the conclusion that attacking civilian populations was not only acceptable but militarily sound.

03/12/2022

A very interesting and sobering interview with Julia Ioffe, a Russian-born American journalist, on what led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and what may happen next. Interview: March 3, 2022.

New in The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast: Julia Ioffe discusses Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine in advance of "Putin's Road to War."

02/25/2022

We stand with Ukraine against this unprovoked and illegal invasion by Russia. If you're looking for ways to support Ukraine, you can find some ideas here:

Several organizations are asking for assistance in helping people affected by the Russian invasion.

02/25/2022

An explainer for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Such an invasion would — and does — contravene security agreements the Soviet Union made upon its breakup in the early ’90s. At the time, Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, had the third-largest atomic arsenal in the world. The US and Russia worked with Ukraine to denuclearize the country, and in a series of diplomatic agreements, Kyiv gave its hundreds of nuclear warheads back to Russia in exchange for security assurances that protected it from a potential Russian attack.

But the very premise of a post-Soviet Europe is also helping to fuel today’s conflict. Putin has been fixated on reclaiming some semblance of empire, lost with the fall of the Soviet Union. Ukraine is central to this vision. Putin has said Ukrainians and Russians “were one people — a single whole,” or at least would be if not for the meddling from outside forces (as in, the West) that has created a 'wall' between the two."

Putin declared a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Now, Europe is witnessing its first major war in decades.

02/25/2022

Using mini-golf to see "how politicians tilt elections using maps"

Can you beat par — and other Washington Post readers — in our first-ever Gerrymander Invitational?

02/04/2022

A fun geography wordle-like game to try! Find the mystery country for the day...

Use your geography knowledge to figure out the mystery country in as few guesses as possbile!

02/01/2022

An intergenerational story of a teen and his great-grandmother working together to use TikTok to tell her story from the Holocaust and remind us all that "it happened."

With the help of her 18-year-old great grandson, the Holocaust survivor has attracted 1.7 million followers on TikTok.

01/27/2022

A Tennessee school board voted to remove the Pulitzer-Prize winning graphic novel, Maus, from their curriculum. A sad reminder of the continued importance of teaching the Holocaust today, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and always.

"'It shows people hanging, it shows them killing kids,' said board member Tony Allman, according to minutes from the meeting. "Why does the educational system promote this kind of stuff? It is not wise or healthy.'

An assistant principal, Julie Goodin, responded: 'I can talk of the history, I was a history teacher and there is nothing pretty about the Holocaust, and for me this was a great way to depict a horrific time in history.'"

It is the latest in a string of books that have been banned including Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" and Sharon Creech's "Walk Two Moons."

01/27/2022

Excellent resources for teaching about the Holocaust from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Find lesson plans and training materials that match your curricular needs for teaching about the Holocaust.

01/27/2022

The King of Spain praised Spain's colonial model for the Americas on a recent visit to Puerto Rico.

"In contrast to those who only see criminals and genocides in the colonizers —which in 2020 unleashed an iconoclastic wave of attacks on statues and monuments in the United States—, [King] Felipe VI has highlighted that in the first Hispanic cities in America 'Spain promoted constructions and buildings that today, more than 500 years later, continue to house public institutions'; and they have caused the historic center of San Juan to be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1993.

Beyond architecture, Spanish colonization, he stressed, 'involved the creation of government institutions, the construction of universities, schools, hospitals and printers. Spain brought with it its language, its culture, its creed;'"

(This article should be translated into English when you click the link.)

Frente a la petición de disculpas, Felipe VI afirma que “hay que estar orgulloso” de la herencia hispana

01/04/2022

How relevant is the flu of 1918 to today's Omicron variant? One historian's take...

The past provides a key lesson to minimize the damage from the omicron surge.

12/26/2021

, (Reuters) -"Like falling in love" is how Archbishop Desmond Tutu described voting in South Africa's first democratic election in 1994, a remark that captured both his puckish humour and his profound emotions after decades fighting apartheid. Desmond Mpilo Tutu, the Nobel Peace laureate whose moral...