Latest posts

  • Permalink Gallery

    Southern Democrats’ split with Republicans over Confederate symbols is more recent than you might think. 

Southern Democrats’ split with Republicans over Confederate symbols is more recent than you might think. 

Share this:

Following the recent police killing of George Floyd, recent months have seen Confederate monuments and symbols removed from public display in parts of the Southern US and elsewhere. And while Southern Republicans generally oppose Democrats who are pushing for these changes, this is a relatively recent development, argue Christopher A. Cooper and co-authors. By analysing public opinion data, they find that up until the 1990s, there […]

July 10th, 2020|Christopher Cooper, Democracy and culture, Featured, H Gibbs Knotts, MV Hood, Quentin Kidd, Scott H Huffmon , Seth C. McKee|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    Long Read: As in 1968, in 2020 Americans face a defining choice

Long Read: As in 1968, in 2020 Americans face a defining choice

Share this:

More than fifty years ago a US presidential election was similarly marked by protests over racial inequality. Effie Pedaliu writes that in 1968, following the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy, Americans came face to face with the country’s inability to build an equitable and racially harmonious society, and chose the Republican, Richard Nixon to […]

July 9th, 2020|Effie Pedaliu , Featured, U.S. History|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    AMLO’s attacks on Mexico’s higher education institutions may accelerate the country’s scholarly exodus to the US.

AMLO’s attacks on Mexico’s higher education institutions may accelerate the country’s scholarly exodus to the US.

Share this:

In recent months the administration of Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has moved to reform the country’s higher education system by cutting funding and creating new ‘popular’ universities. Jesus Velasco argues that these reforms will cause long-term damage to the country’s future by reducing access to education for the underprivileged and further increasing the brain drain of scholars […]

July 9th, 2020|Education, Featured, Jesus Velasco|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    As Trump’s poll slump continues, expect him to continue to go negative as the election approaches 

As Trump’s poll slump continues, expect him to continue to go negative as the election approaches 

Share this:

This past weekend, on the eve of Independence Day celebrations, President Trump took a divisive tone by attacking his opponents on the left. In this Q&A, Thomas Gift writes that Trump’s poor polling against his Democratic presidential challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the ongoing criticisms of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, mean that he is likely to continue to hit […]

July 6th, 2020|Elections and party politics across the US, Featured, Thomas Gift|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    The Ballpark Podcast Extra Innings: African Americans in a White House: an event with Professor Leah Wright Rigueur

The Ballpark Podcast Extra Innings: African Americans in a White House: an event with Professor Leah Wright Rigueur

Share this:

On the 5th of March 2020, Professor Leah Wright Rigueur joined the LSE US Centre for the event “African Americans in a ‘White’ House: Presidential Politics, Race, and The Pursuit of Power.” At the event, using one of the most outrageous scandals in modern American political history as a case study – the Housing and Urban Development Scandal (HUD) of the […]

July 6th, 2020|Elections and party politics across the US, The Ballpark Extra Innings|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    Book Review: Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs by Antony Loewenstein

Book Review: Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs by Antony Loewenstein

Share this:

In Pills, Powder and Smoke: Inside the Bloody War on Drugs, Antony Loewenstein offers an expansive medley of facts, figures and accounts of life in the midst of the drug war, based on travels to six countries on five continents: Honduras, Guinea-Bissau, the Philippines, the UK, the US and Australia. While the book’s ambitious breadth means it sometimes struggles […]

July 6th, 2020|Alessandro Ford, Book Reviews, Justice and Domestic Affairs|0 Comments|
Read More

Book Review: The New Despotism by John Keane

Share this:

In The New Despotism, John Keane revives this term to examine how the ‘new despotism’ functions today through qualitatively different characteristics and processes to its older forms. As the book skilfully identifies how the new despotism thrives on ambiguity above all, this is a perceptive study that will shift the analytical lens through which despotic regimes are viewed, writes […]

July 6th, 2020|Book Reviews, Democracy and culture, Gergana Dimova|0 Comments|
Read More

Why are CEOs commenting on racial injustice?

Share this:

They speak out not to promote their personal views but because it benefits the company’s bottom line, writes Swarnodeep Homroy.

In the last few weeks, CEOs of large American companies have publicly condemned the death of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis police. In the last few years, CEOs have been increasingly speaking on social issues, which […]

July 4th, 2020|Democracy and culture, Swarnodeep Homroy|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    Why Trump’s racist Tweets and rhetoric will not help him win reelection

Why Trump’s racist Tweets and rhetoric will not help him win reelection

Share this:

With Trump trailing in the 2020 presidential election polls against his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, the president has returned to his 2016 campaign playbook of using racist and derogatory comments to increase his support. Bryan T. Gervais writes that Trump’s use of incendiary racial rhetoric since his election has turned off many Republican voters, and failed […]

July 3rd, 2020|Bryan T. Gervais, Elections and party politics across the US|0 Comments|
Read More
  • Permalink Gallery

    There are signs that as president, Joe Biden could adopt a proactive human rights approach similar to Jimmy Carter’s

There are signs that as president, Joe Biden could adopt a proactive human rights approach similar to Jimmy Carter’s

Share this:

During the 2018-2019 academic year, Joss Harrison was an undergraduate research assistant with the US Centre. As part of his work, he investigated the human rights-orientated foreign policy of the Jimmy Carter administration. Building on this work, he writes that the foreign policy rhetoric of the Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, has shown some close parallels […]

July 3rd, 2020|Joss Harrison, U.S. History|0 Comments|
Read More
This work by LSE USAPP blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported.