In Our Tumultuous Times, History Offers Hope

In Our Tumultuous Times, History Offers Hope

In Our Tumultuous Times, History Offers Hope

A new memoir calls us to action.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

Every Sunday morning, my father and I meet at his kitchen table. Across a stack of newspapers, we talk about life and family before, inevitably, our conversation turns to the news of the week. Despite being steeped in politics, I always learn something from our discussions (and debates) and come away with a more creative way of thinking about challenges that can feel overwhelming as they pull the country apart. After all, my father, William vanden Heuvel, has been a witness throughout his life to this country’s struggles with its destiny. And he has worked alongside some of the most intriguing men and women of the past century to confront challenges similar to the ones we face now.

My father reflects on many of these experiences in his new book, Hope and History: A Memoir of Tumultuous Times. Beginning with his childhood in Rochester, New York, where he was raised by immigrant parents in the shadow of the Great Depression, he retraces his path to the highest levels of government and politics—and the country’s path from the New Deal to the civil-rights movement to the Trump era. Part memoir, part call to action, the book is filled with insights on America’s past, chronicling what historian Douglas Brinkley describes in its foreword as “the constant pendulum swings of history.” Yet it also engages with our current predicament, ending with a powerful warning about the danger that endless wars, racism and corruption pose to our democratic institutions.

In his book, my father ceaselessly reminds us that hard work and idealism can create change. One memorable chapter recalls the long battle to integrate public schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia. After a 1951 walkout by black students led to a lawsuit that ultimately became part of Brown v. Board of Education, local officials in 1959 closed the county’s public schools rather than accept a federal order to desegregate. Public schools in the county wouldn’t reopen for five years. In 1962, my father joined the Justice Department as special assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, with whom he spoke every day as he led the charge to create the integrated Prince Edward County Free Schools. His account of these efforts and the “massive resistance” they faced is particularly resonant in these times of resurgent white nationalism and racial violence—and the ongoing quest for justice and equality.

Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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