Jane Shaw Stroup’s Commentaries
The Dual Nature of Land Acknowledgments
Land acknowledgments—formal statements admitting that Native Americans once owned the land a person is standing on—have become a fixture of commencements, public meetings, and websites. Yet ever since they became pervasive (around 2020), they have been controversial—among both conservatives and progressives, including Native Americans.
While I agree with many of the critics, I think the acknowledgments have done a service, and I’ll tell you why in this article.
How Market Innovation Is Reframing the Climate Debate
By all accounts, climate change alarmists are on the defensive—politically, scientifically, I would even say morally (see Bill Gates’s comment). We could leave it at that. But there may be hope for a truce in this conflict—and if so, capitalism can take the credit.
What I’ve Learned about History
My academic adventure evolved into a struggle to understand why “change over time” (that’s how historians define history) occurs as it does. That is one of the reasons I created this blog: I was looking for a theory of history.
To some extent I have come up with one.
Let’s Not Blame Jane Jacobs
My late husband and I had a running debate over which force mattered the most: downtown landowners who wanted to keep up rents (Rick’s view) or urban planners (my view). Rick, the economist, may well have been right—especially about the devastation of Boston that goes back to the 1950s—but planners are at fault, too. That’s the subject of this post.
How the Barbarians Won
Have you ever thought about the difference between the biblical Jesus who said that the meek will inherit the earth and the Christ in whose name the Crusaders warred against Muslims and Jews?
These examples are, of course, at the extremes of Christianity—Jesus’ love of the least-favored people versus triumphant soldiers who went to war with the cross on their flags. But the image of Christians conducting wars and inflicting pain still jars us, and it is impossible for Christians to approve of those who took over Jerusalem in 1099 and massacred Muslims and Jews in the process.
How did this transformation take place?
China’s Decades-Long Tragedy
We are witnessing one of the greatest ironies of modern history: the population policy of the Chinese government. The state’s coercive one-child policy—complete with forced birth control, sterilizations, late (even caesarean) abortions, and likely infanticide—began...
Stubborn History: The Reading Wars
For nearly 200 years there has been a controversy in the United States over how to teach reading.
Before Heretics Were Persecuted
The first 300 years of Christianity were troubled times. As Christians, inspired by their new faith, created churches all over the Roman Empire, they were persecuted and often cruelly executed because they refused to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. The persecutions were not continuous, and some Roman governors made a point of tolerating Christians, but the threat was always there.
One threat they did not face, however, was persecution by other Christians. Christianity was such a fledgling religion that it had no clear hierarchy or even ruling group immediately after the Apostles died. It had no orthodoxy and no political power in those early years.
That would change.
Battles or Logistics? How Wars are Won
“Infantry wins battles; logistics wins wars.” This statement is attributed to World War I commanding general John J. Pershing (although I have yet to find the source). Military logistics means getting soldiers and equipment in place for battle or replacing causalities and destroyed equipment.
Who ‘Saved’ Our Forests?
Postcard above shows Biltmore Estate in 1915. From the Karl Larson Photograph Collection (PhC.205), courtesy of the State Archives of NC. It makes a good story. In the late 1800s demand for wood was insatiable—for houses, for ships, for fuel, for railroad ties....