Profs and Pints Online presents: “Our Tradition of Violence,” a look at the historical precedents for our recent violent social unrest and how we remember and forget them, with Ashley Howard, assistant professor of history and African American Studies at the University of Iowa and scholar of the global history of racial violence.

[This talk will remain available in recorded form at the link given here for tickets and access.]

The January 6th Capitol siege and the protests of last summer often have been treated in the media as events without histories. H. Rap Brown once remarked, however, that “violence is as American as cherry pie.” We struggle as a nation to remember our violent past and even, sometimes, to agree on a basic definition of what violence is.

Join historian and African American Studies professor Ashley Howard, who previously gave a fantastic Profs and Pints Online talk on urban uprisings, as she discusses how the civil unrest of the past year fits into previous moments of political and social violence in American history.  She’ll look at violent clashes rooted in economic tensions, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and the Little Steel Strike of 1937, as well as violence stemming from animosity toward other racial and ethnic groups, such as the Zoot suit riot 1943, the anti-Black vigilantism of the 19th century Midwest, the Chinese massacre of 1871, and the Philadelphia Nativist riots of 1844.

Drawing on her research on urban rebellion and global histories of racial violence, Dr. Howard will examine how past violence has been defined and interpreted. She’ll argue that the bulk of violence in American history has been repressive, not insurrectionary, and that historians often err by writing from the perspectives of those who caused the violence and not tapping into to alternative sources to tell more complete stories. She’ll describe how digital archive projects at Washington University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Maryland, and George Washington University are capturing primary social media documentation of the Capitol riot and unrest in several cities.

Dr. Howard will discuss the current debates among, and challenges faced by, historians who are uniquely positioned to chronicle are most recent violent episodes and offer insights as to what such events say about our national character. She’ll tackle questions such as “Why does history keep surprising us?” “What do we learn if we actually pay attention?” and “Are tweets legitimate historical sources?”

You’ll learn how narrative, memory, and social media will shape future histories of our present time, and you’ll end up better equipped to learn from the past.

Profs & Pints Online: Our Tradition of Violence