History Matters: Faculty Opinions

August 2024

• • Albion Urdank – “Current Slowdown Marks the Success of Fed Policy” Financial Times, August 7, 2024.

June 2024

• • Albion Urdank – “Losing Control of the University of California” Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2024.
  • Albion Urdank – “China’s Economy is Proof Protectionism Can Work” Financial Times, June 21, 2024.
  • Albion Urdank – “Breaking Point” London Review of Books, June 6, 2024.

April 2024

• • Albion Urdank – “How Israel Should Deal With Its Existential Enemy” Financial Times, April 21, 2024.
  • Albion Urdank – “Epstein Shortchanges Our Past U.S. Presidents” Financial Times, April 2, 2024.

February 2024

• • Albion Urdank – “Biden’s Foreign Policy Instincts Are Plain to See” Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2024.
  • Albion Urank – “Imposing tariffs is the right response to China’s ‘green’ exports” Financial Times, February 6, 2024.
  • Jared McBride (with co-author Per Rudling) published an op-ed in The Globe and Mail, “By opening up the archives, Canada can finally address its past with Nazi war criminals,” which appeared on International Holocaust Remembrance Day this past weekend. The op-ed argues that the time has long come for the Canadian government to open its archival holdings on alleged war criminals from the Second World War, especially in light of a recent controversial event involving the Canadian parliament. They make a comparison with the approach taken in the United States to similar such holdings.

December 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “Chinese Investors’ Faith in the State is Misplaced” Financial Times, December 15, 2023

November 2023

• • Albion Urdank –  “Iran and the parallels with Germany in 1914” Financial Times, November 1, 2023
  • Albion Urdank – “America’s Chance to Choose What Time it is” Wall Street Journal, November 18-19, 2023

October 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “Israel-Palestine Conflict” Wall Street Journal, October 26, 2023

September 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “Richard Nixon” Times Literary Supplement, September 15, 2023

August 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “Putin’s approach is more like Hitler than de Gaulle” Financial Times, August 16, 2023
  • Albion Urdank – “Legacy Admissions Serve a Purpose Worth Promoting” Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2023

July 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “Dismissing Biden ignores historic shifts under way” Financial Times, July 6, 2023

June 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “What motivates the global south is really simple” Financial Times, June 10, 2023

May 2023

• • Albion Urdank – “Letter reveals true motives for debt ceiling stand-off” Financial Times, May 19, 2023

March 2023

• • Albion Urdank -“Xi’s peace offer to Ukraine should be seen as a kabuki dance” Financial Times, March 27, 2023

February 2023

• • Albion Urdank -“A victim of the narrative that impressions create” Financial Times, February 27, 2023

January 2023

• • Albion Urdank –“China’s decoupling could be to the west’s benefit”, Financial Times, January 4, 2023
  • Albion Urdank – “Fail­ures of free trade have a lot to answer for“, Financial Times, January 30, 2023

November 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “Released savings glut is US inflation villain of the piece“, Financial Times, November 16, 2022

October 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “Tax cuts and growth – the American experience“, Financial Times, October 6, 2022
  • Albion Urdank – “The Conservative Court“, The New Yorker, October 3, 2022

August 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “A Keynesian approach to inflation worked in the 70s“, Financial Times, August 24, 2022

July 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “Old Etonians retain allure“, Financial Times, July 30/31. 2022

March 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “Crisis may prove Macron’s chance to reshape Nato“, Financial Times, March 25. 2022

February 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “Putin’s security concerns were always a red herring“, Financial Times, March 1, 2022
  • Brian J. Griffith – “Failure to respond strongly to Putin’s aggression could prove catastrophic“, The Washington Post, February 24, 2022

January 2022

• • Albion Urdank – “The American Revolution“, Times Literary Supplement (TLS), January 28, 2022
  • Albion Urdank –  “Putin sets up talks for failure, to justify incursion“, Financial Times, January 12, 2022
  • Albion Urdank –  “Striking Graduate Students Are Not ‘Workers’“,  Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2022

December 2021

• • Albion Urdank –  “Judicial Deference, Liberty and Common Law“,  Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2021

November 2021

• • Albion Urdank –  “Interpreting the Acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse“,  Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2021
  • Albion Urdank –  “Luxury brands must heed Xi’s Maoist tendencies,” Financial Times, November 23, 2021

August 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “U.S. Blames Its Allies After It Betrays Them,” Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2021
  • Albion Urdank – “Biden’s comments are cavalier and contemptuous,” Financial Times, August 19, 2021
  • Mary Corey – “Summer of Soul,” August 18, 2021
  • Eric Avila – “East L.A. dreams of independence, again”, August 4, 2021
  • Albion Urdank – “Britain needs a bigger navy to match its rhetoric,” Financial Times, August 2, 2021

July 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “A Totalitarian Progression From Lenin to Deng to Xo,” Financial Times, July 2, 2021

June 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “Should President Biden Receive Communion?,” Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2021

April 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “Games boycott would be a repudiation of Beijing,” Financial Times, April 14, 2021

March 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “US stance on Nord Stream 2 is wake-up call for allies,” Financial Times, March 29, 2021

February 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “The China challenge”, TLS (Times Literary Supplement [London]), February 19, 2021
  • Albion Urdank – “‘American football’s old-timers play it simple”, Financial Times, February 15, 2021

January 2021

• • Albion Urdank – “‘With Malice Toward None’ Worked Badly for Blacks”, The Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2021
  • Albion Urdank – “Trump’s relentless pursuit of his imagined grievances”, Financial Times, January 11, 2021

November 2020

• • Vinay Lal – “The Morning After:  The Bitter Pill of American Democracy”, Open Magazine, November 6, 2020
  • Albion Urdank – “US embrace of Kim has rattled its regional allies” Financial Times, November 5, 2020
  • Vinay Lal – “What the US Election Tells Us About America”, ABP Live, November 5, 2020
  • Vinay Lal – “Voter Suppression:  As American as Apple Pie”, ABP Live, November 2, 2020

October 2020

• • Theodore M. Porter – “Democracy counts:  On sacred and debased numbers” Princeton Press, October 22, 2020

August 2020

• • Amir Alexander – “The New Rose Garden Is Fit for an Unchecked Presidency” Slate, August 24, 2020
  • Ellen DuBois – “L.A.’s proud suffragist past” Los Angeles Times, August 18, 2020
  • Albion Urdank – “President’s pitch for the evangelical vote is comical” Financial Times, August 17, 2020
  • Scot Brown – “White Customers, Black Fabrics” The New York Times, August 6, 2020

July 2020

• • Albion Urdank – “Violent minority plays into Trump’s hands” Financial Times, July 31, 2020

June 2020

• • Albion Urdank – “Soros bond proposal is not the solution for Europe” Financial Times, June 23, 2020

March 2020

• • Michael Meranze – “The University in a Moment of Intersecting Crises” Remaking the University, March 30, 2020
  • Albion Urdank – “Letter: The world has changed, but not beyond recall” Financial Times, March 11, 2020

March 2020 – September 2020

• • Historians’ Perspectives on COVID-19

January 2020

• • Albion Urdank – “Washington’s Slaves” London Review of Books, January 13, 2020; LRB Link

December 2019

• • Amir Alexander – “The geometry of impeachment in the nation’s capital” Washington Post, December 18, 2019
  • Albion Urdank – “Outlier could well cause the median to shift” Financial Times, December 12, 2019

November 2019

• • Albion Urdank – “Liz, Bernie, Tories, Labour and Free Markets” Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2019
  • Albion Urdank – “Sanders and Warren have crucial differences” Financial Times, November 6, 2019

September 2019

• • Robin D. G. Kelley – “We’re Getting These Murals All Wrong” The Nation, September 23, 2019
  • Albion Urdank – “Biden: More Formidable Than Mitt Romney” Wall Street Journal, September 10, 2019

August 2019

• • David N. Myers – “Trump’s silence on Kashmir sends a dangerous signal to the world’s autocratic leaders” Los Angeles Times, August 30, 2019
  • Albion Urdank – “On China’s Currency Manipulation” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2019
  • Katherine Marino – “How Mike Pompeo’s new commission on ‘unalienable rights’ butchers history” Washington Post, August 15, 2019

May 2019

• • Albion Urdank – “Moving steadily towards an impeachment inquiry” Financial Times, July 31, 2019
  • Albion Urdank – “Johnson knows he is not up to the job” Financial Times, May 3, 2019
  • Carla Pestana – “UCLA needs equitable allocation of private donation funds to all departments” Daily Bruin, May 16, 2019

April 2019

• • Robin D.G. Kelley and Makani Themba – “Why the Highlander Attack Matters” The Nation, April 12, 2019
  • Albion Urdank- “Betomania May Not Survive Much Closer Voter Scrutiny” The Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2019

March 2019

• • Ellen Carol DuBois – “What activists today can learn from the women’s suffrage movement” The Washington Post, March 8, 2019

January 2019

• • Albion Urdank – “EU Integration based on Shared Democratic Values” Financial Times, January 24, 2019
  • Albion Urdank – “Obderate EU has upper hand with May’s plan” Financial Times, January 10, 2019

December 2018

• • Caroline Ford – “Naissance de l’écologie” Le Monde, December 13, 2018
  • Robin D.G. Kelley – “The Story of Mine Mill” NPR One, December 4, 2018
  • Albion M. Urdank – “Issues Surrounding Brexit were fully aired last time” Financial Times, December 4, 2018

November 2018

• • Nile Green – “A Muslim Founder of the Social Sciences?” Los Angeles Review of Books, November 3, 2018

October 2018

• • Albion Urdank – “Academic interests can combine with rural life” Financial Times, October 17, 2018

September 2018

• • Robin D.G. Kelley, – “My L.A. in Four Locations: Radical Black Politics and Art” Los Angeles Review of Books, September 18, 2018
  • Robin D.G. Kelley, – “Sorry, Not Sorry” Boston Review, September 13, 2018

August 2018

• • Albion Urdank – “Value of security clearance to US intelligence” Financial Times, August 26, 2018

June 2018

• • Brenda Stevenson – “Today, Explained Podcast About Juneteenth” Today Explained, June 20, 2018 

May 2018

• • Sanjay Subrahmanyam – “Interview on La Marche de l’Histoire on L’Inde sous les Yeux de l’Europe” La Marche de l’Histoire, May 3, 2018

March 2018

• • Albion Urdank – “Bolton may turn out to change with the wind” Financial Times, March 28, 2018

February 2018

• • Albion Urdank – “Murderous diehards have no place in society,” Financial Times, February 24, 2018
  • Sarah Stein – “#MeToo, Tunisia, 1937“, Jewish Journal, February 14, 2018
  • Albion Urdank – “Holding the FBI Accoutnable for Its Actions”, Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2018

January 2018

• • Albion Urdank – “Echoes of Cobbett’s reactionary radicalism”, Financial Times, January 2, 2018

December 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “Democrats Should Have Made a Joint Effort”, Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2017
  • Albion Urdank – “Trump’s tax overhaul”, Financial Times, December 1, 2017

October 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “Trump is right – the Iran deal is an embarrasment.”. Financial Times, October 11, 2017

September 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “Impasse may force a massive realignment”, Financial Times, September 6, 2017

August 2017

• • Andrew Apter – “Debate with Dennis Prager”, Dennis Prager Show, August 7, 2017

July 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “Luce on Trump, Sessions” Financial Times, July 28, 2017

June 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “We have to get out of jail. If there’s a cost, so be it,” Financial Times, June 19, 2017

May 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “Trump, Buchanan, Jackson and the Civil War,” Wall Street Journal, May 11, 2017

April 2017

• • Brenda Stevenson – “No community can tolerate such loss, not in 1992 and not now,” Los Angeles Times, April 28, 2017
  • Carla Pestana – “Arrogant Christians In The White House,“  The Huffington Post, April 8, 2017

March 2017

• • Carla Pestana – “Why Rural Voter Bases Are Susceptible To Politicians Who Lie,” The Huffington Post, March 27, 2017

February 2017

• • Albion Urdank – “I happen to disagree,”  London Review of Books, February 16, 2017

January 2017

• • James Gelvin – “Assad Has Won in Syria. But Syria Hardly Exists,” The New York Times, January 11, 2017
  • Albion Urdank – “Ford Relocation Will Not Benefit U.S. Workers Much,” Financial Times, January 9, 2017

November 2016

• • Robin Kelley – “After Trump,” Boston Review, November 15, 2016
  • Cassia Roth – “The Trump-fueled ‘Safe Spaces’ for anti-Semitism Few American Jews Ever See,” Haaretz, November 8, 2016
  • Zev Yaroslovsky – “Can Californians handle direct democracy?” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 2016

October 2016

• • Juan Gómez-Quiñones – “Las raices antimexicanas de Donald Trump,” Nexos, October 2016
  • Albion Urdank – “Russia Deceived the U.S. With Syria Promises,” Wall Street Journal, October 17, 2016

September 2016

• • Albion Urdank – “The single market and questions of identity,” Financial Times, September 22, 2016

August 2016

• • Stephen Aron – “Interpreting the New History of the Old West,” Zocalo Public Square, August 22, 2016

July 2016

• • Amir Alexander – “The Rise of the Kluges,” Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2016
  • Kamarin Takahara –  “Changing Course: The Flexibility of a History Degree,” AHA Today, July 11, 2016

June 2016

• • Robin Kelley –  “Cedric J. Robinson: the Making of a Black Radical Intellectual,” Counterpunch, June 17, 2016
  • Albion Urdank – “‘Short term’might turn out to be rather long,” Financial Times, June 17, 2016
  • Robin Kelley – “Scholarship Is Not Dispassionate, But It Is Deliberate And Systematic”: Robin D. G. Kelley Reflects On Cedric Robinson, AAIHS, June 13, 2016

May 2016

• • Ben Madley – “Acts of genocide under U.S. rule,” Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2016
  • Albion Urdank – “Response to Trump’s attacks is required,” Financial Times, May 16, 2016
  • Carla Pestana – “Robbery and Rats in 17th-Century Jamaica,” Verso, May 5, 2016

April 2016

• • Albion Urdank – “Trump should not have needed the attention,” Financial Times, April 22, 2016
  • Amir Alexander – “The Science of Serendipity,” Wall Street Journal, April 12, 2016
  • Albion Urdank – “Redistricting, Originalists, and Democracy,” Wall Street Journal, April 11, 2016

March 2016

• • Albion Urdank – “Open markets will simply strengthen regimes,” Financial Times, March 29, 2016
  • Robin Kelley – Black Study, Black Struggle Boston Review, March 7, 2016
  • Thabisile Griffin (graduate student) – Black Study, Black Struggle Boston Review, March 7, 2016

February 2016

• • Eric Avila – “Why Is Studying “Whiteness” Controversial?” History News Network, February 7, 2016

January 2016

• • Albion Urdank – “Momentous times for the US political system”, Financial Times, January 28, 2016
  • Carla Pestana – “A United States Without Muslims Has Never Existed“, Huffington Post, January 6, 2016

December 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Fear of slippery slope has paralysed Obama”, Financial Times, December 30, 2015
  • Carla Pestana – “Outlawing Christmas in a ‘Christian Nation’“, Huffington Post, December 17, 2015

November 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Rivals must sting Trump with more exposés“, Financial Times, November 26, 2015
  • Albion Urdank – “How Hitler Won Power“, New York Review of Books, November 17, 2015

October 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Clinton kept on a short leash as secretary of state“, Financial Times, October 15, 2015

September 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Another Take on Britain’s Post-War Left-Right Divide”, Wall Street Journal, September 3, 2015
  • Albion Urdank – “China’s rulers may opt to repudiate the market”, Financial Times, September 3, 2015

August 2015

• • Zev Yaroslavsky – “How to guard L.A. from an Olympics disaster“, Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2015
  • Robin D.G. Kelley – “Watts: Remember What They Built, Not What They Burned“, Los Angeles Times, August 11, 2015

July 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Now it’s just a waiting game for Tsipras”, Financial Times, July 20, 2015
  • Brenda Stevenson – “The Confederate Flag’s Gone, But Slavery’s Still Here“, Zócalo Public Square, July 15, 2015

April 2015

• • Amir Alexander – “‘Finding Zero’: A Long Journey for Naught“, The New York Times, April 20, 2015
  • Amir Alexander – “Panel Discussion on Science Writing“, C-SPAN, April 18, 2015

March 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Netanyahu was right to speak out after Obama’s shift in dealings with Iran”, Financial Times, March 4, 2015

February 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Sanctions Aren’t Going to Stop Putin’s Bad Behavior“, Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2015
  • Amir Alexander – “Disorder rules the universe“, New York Times, February 16, 2015
  • Albion Urdank – “Stop blathering and give Ukraine military aid now“, Financial Times, February 5, 2015
  • Albion Urdank – “Let Fischer go“, London Review of Books, February 5, 2015
  • Michael Meranze – “Pathology of the Carceral State“, Los Angeles Review of Books, February 4, 2015

January 2015

• • Albion Urdank – “Ridicule helps satire, and free speech, keep its edge”, Financial Times, January 14, 2015

December 2014

• • Eric Avila – “The Freeway Is the Perfect Place to Protest Ferguson“, Zócalo Public Square, December 15, 2014

November 2014

• • Robin Kelley – “Why We Won’t Wait“, Counterpunch, November 25, 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “A critical shift in consumer psychology“, Financial Times, November 20, 2014
  • Peter Baldwin – “The Art of the Steal: Copyright in Retreat”, Newsweek, November 9, 2014

October 2014

• • Joyce Appleby – “How to end an argument”, Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2014

September 2014

• • Albion Urdank – “A dark purpose behind Putin’s interventions”, Financial Times, September 29, 2014
  • Sarah Stein – “Algeria’s Jewish Past-Present”, Jadaliyya, September 11, 2014

August 2014

• • Amir Alexander – “Not Giving an Inch”, Sunday Book Review, The New York Times, August 22, 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “Obama’s sudden change of heart”, Financial Times, August 18, 2014

July 2014

• • David Myers – How many more cycles of war for Israel and Gaza?, Jewish Journal, July 30, 2014
  • Robert Hill – Robert A. Hill on the Centenary of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association, News from Duke University Press, July 29, 2014
  • Robin Derby – Beyond Fugitive Speech: Rumor and Affect in Caribbean History, Small Axe, July 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “The Views of Cruz”, The New Yorker, July 21, 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “Wilson offered a peace without victory”, Financial Times, July 13, 2014
  • Ruth Bloch and Naomi Lamoreaux – Property v. Liberty: The Supreme Court’s Radical Break with Its Historical Treatment of Corporations, Perspectives on History, American Historical Association, July, 2014
  • David Myers – Legacies of the Great War, Jewish Journal, July 2, 2014

June 2014

• • Albion Urdank – “Iraq crisis offers Iran its chance . . .but it could go the other way”, Financial Times, June 13, 2014
  • Robin Derby – “Black In The Dominican Republic: Denying Blackness”, HuffPost Live, June 10, 2014 (Best viewed in Internet Explorer or Chrome)

May 2014

• • Amir Alexander – “Integrating Calculus and the Catholic Church”, Interfaith Voices, May 23, 2014
  • Amir Alexander – “Think the climate change fight is tough? What about the 17th century fight over math?”, Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2014

April 2014

• • Amir Alexander – “Far From ‘Infinitesimal’: A Mathematical Paradox’s Role In History”, NPR, April 20, 2014

March 2014

• • David Myers – “Why I Oppose a Boycott, Mostly”, Los Angeles Review of Books, March 16, 2014
  • Michael Meranze – “We Wish We Weren’t in Kansas Anymore: An Elegy for Academic Freedom”, Los Angeles Review of Books, March 4, 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “Putin pursues geopolitical ambitions in true Stalinist form”, Financial Times, March 26, 2014
  • Amir Alexander – “A Brief History of Infinitesimals: The Idea That Gave Birth to Modern Calculus”, Scientific American, March 18, 2014
  • Amir Alexander – “The Secret Spiritual History of Calculus”, Scientific American, March 18, 2014

February 2014

• • Albion Urdank – “Lesson for Ukraine is that resistance worked for Finland”, Financial Times, February 28, 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “Face It, ObamaCare May Help Some, but Is a Job Killer”, Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2014
  • Robin Kelley – “Afro-American studies has right to be department”, Daily Bruin, February 5, 2014

January 2014

• • Amir Alexander – “Examining the Square Root of D’oh!”, New York Times, January 27, 2014
  • Albion Urdank – “Agitation has nothing to do with speech”, Financial Times, January 17, 2014
  • David Myers – “Israel’s dilemma: Who can be an Israeli?”, Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2014