Born from the wave of activism that followed the inauguration of President Trump, Demand the Impossible asks scholars what they can do to help solve present-day crises. The twelve essays in this volume draw inspiration from present-day activists. They examine the role of history in shaping ongoing debates over monuments, racism, clean energy, health care, poverty, and the Democratic Party. Together they show the ways that the issues of today are historical expressions of power that continue to shape the present. Adequately addressing them means understanding their origins.
The way our society remembers the past has long served to cement inequality. It is no accident that the ahistorical slogan “make America great again” emerged after decades of income inequality and a generation of funding cuts to higher education. But the movement toward openly addressing injustice and inequality though historical inquiry is growing. Although many historians remain tucked away in ivory towers of their own making, we join a long tradition of activist scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois, C.L.R. James, and C. Vann Woodward, as well as a growing wave of engaged colleagues including Keri Leigh Merritt, who penned the foreword for this volume. As historians and citizens, we feel a responsibility to preserve an authentic vision of the past in a moment riddled with propaganda and lies. In doing so, we hope to help provide a framework to fight the inequities we inherited from prior generations that are repurposed and enshrined by the powerful today.
Nathan Wuertenberg is a doctoral candidate at The George Washington University. He is conducting research for a doctoral dissertation on the 1775 American invasion of Quebec, entitled “Divided We Stand: The American War for Independence, the 1775 Quebec Campaign, and the Rise of Nations in the Twilight of Colonial Empires.”
William Horne is a PhD candidate at The George Washington University researching the relationship of race to labor, freedom, and capitalism in post-Civil War Louisiana. His dissertation, “Carceral State: Baton Rouge and its Plantation Environs Across Emancipation,” examines the ways in which white supremacy and capitalism each depended on restricting black freedom in the aftermath of slavery.
Contents
I. LIBERALS, LEFTISTS, AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Be Realistic: Demand the Impossible! Ben Feldman
This Really is Your America, Nathan Wuertenberg
II. RACISM AND RIGHTS: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND CONTESTED CITIZENSHIP(S)
“Hands off D.C.”: Race and Congressional Control of Washington, D.C., Kyla Sommers
Ferray vs. Pompeyo the Free Black: Fear and Black Masculinity in the Era of the Haitian Revolution, Sarah Senette
III. MONUMENTS AND POWER: RACISM AND PUBLIC MEMORY
Monuments, Urbanism, and Power in Urban Spaces: Looking at New Orleans, Louisiana from São Paulo, Brazil, Douglas McRae
Producing and Protesting Invisibility in Silver Spring, Maryland, David Rotenstein
IV. JOBS AND THE ENVIRONMENT: MOVING BEYOND THE HERRENVOLK DEMOCRACY OF COAL
Energy and the Trump Administration: Pipelines, Promises, and the Third Energy Shift, Tom Foley
Bring Back Our Jobs: Work, Memory, and Energy Infrastructure, William Horne
V. INSURING MENTAL HEALTH: TREATMENT AND ACCESS FOR THE MENTALLY ILL
Treating Mental Illness in Victorian Britain, Jade Shepherd
Inheriting Expulsions from the Insurance Industry, Kathleen M. Brian
VI. POVERTY AS POLICY: WAGELESSNESS AND AID
Taxing Values: What Our Tax Code Says About Us, Tessa Davis
From Moral to Political Economy: The Origins of Modern Philanthropy’s Charitable Feedback Loop, Thomas Barber
Conclusion: Policing Patriotism and the Responsibilities of Activist History, Cory James Young
