Debunking misconceptions about AIDS history

Plus: Foreign princes and lame ducks |

Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. SUBSCRIBE to TIME Magazine November 29, 2018 By Lily Rothman The history of HIV is much more than medical — it's also inextricably tied to cultural meaning, trauma and myth. Ahead of World AIDS Day on Saturday, TIME's Olivia B. Waxman spoke to experts to debunk some of the untruths that have, sometimes to the great detriment of those who live with the disease, dominated popular ideas about AIDS. You can click here to learn more. Here's more of the history that made news this week: HISTORY ON TIME.COM How 343 Women Made History by Talking About Their Abortions "One million women have abortions each year in France," they wrote in a manifesto published in the magazine Nouvel Observateur. "I declare that I am one of them." Why WWI Was a Pivotal Moment for American Indian History American Indian troops were key to the U.S. effort in World War I—but their contributions have often been left out of popular narratives of the war Presidents Have Sparred With the Supreme Court Before Trump's spat with Chief Justice Roberts has precedent Why America's Founders Tried to Recruit a Foreign King And how that moment holds a warning for today The Lame Duck Session Is a Dangerous Time for Congress Here's what House Democrats can learn from history FROM THE TIME VAULT 75 Years Ago: President Roosevelt “Most Americans now 40 were still in their 20s when Franklin Roosevelt entered the White House; thousands of U.S. soldiers and sailors fighting around the world remember no other President. Yet associates still marvel at his Gargantuan appetite for work, his ability to relax in the midst of it, his endless gay optimism. As it has to everyone else, the strain of war has wrenched, strained and hacked at his basic traits of character. But in the President's case the grind has only polished what was already polished, only toughened what was already steel-strong.” (Nov. 29, 1943) Read the full story Today in 1976: The Joy of Art “In art, as in most other matters, the '70s have not yet been named. Historians looking back on American art in the '60s see movements and orthodoxies—Pop art, minimal art, conceptual art, Op art, color-field painting, doctrines about flatness and framing edge, proscriptions, mandates. The categories rattle briskly like punch cards in their slots. Art in the '70s is more polymorphous, less ambitious, harder to sort out. The present creed proclaims belief in the Either, the Or and the Holy Both.” (Nov. 29, 1976) Read the full story This Week in 1936: Marlene Dietrich “There are more beautiful women and better actresses in Hollywood than Marlene Dietrich. But no other embodies so perfectly that elusive combination of qualities—variously defined as glamour, personality or, even, color—which added to less subtle requisites makes a beautiful actress a Star. Marlene Dietrich is not so good a tragedienne as Greta Garbo. She is inferior as a fashion plate to Constance Bennett, and less potent at the box office than Shirley Temple. What they are not she is—the ultimate refinement of a rare and delicate artifact, the distilled essence of a Movie Actress.” (Nov. 30, 1936) Read the full story HIGHLIGHTS FROM AROUND THE WEB Take Notes Dora Mekouar at Voice of America takes on a question with which many history classrooms are contending: in a world of instant access to online information, what’s the point of a history textbook? Weighing In On the same note, the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss has polled historians about what the most important things are for kids to be learning today. Their answers are here. By Royal Decree For The Guardian, Kate Connolly covers the news that a historian has found the original royal order that essentially exiled Friedrich Trump, Donald Trump’s grandfather, from Germany. Talking Back The historian Kevin Kruse, who has become a familiar figure on history Twitter, talks to David M. Perry of Pacific Standard about how historians can use social media and their own expertise to push back against the spread of misinformation. Chef’s Surprise The winged beast called the cokentryce never really existed, explains Anne Ewbank for Atlas Obscura, but that didn’t stop Medieval Europeans from serving it for dinner—by stitching together a suckling pig and a bird. To Unsubscribe Unsubscribe here if you do not want to receive this newsletter. Update Email Click here to update your email address. Privacy Policy Please read our Privacy Policy. TIME may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. For Further Communication Please email history@time.com TIME Customer Service 3000 University Center Drive Tampa, FL 33612-6408 Connect with TIME Find TIME on Facebook Follow TIME on Twitter Subscribe to more TIME Newsletters Get TIME on your Mobile Device Get TIME on your iPad Subscribe to RSS Feed