Faculty submit expert statements on democracy and political violence to House Select Committee investigating the January 6th US Capitol attack

Recently, a group of leading experts on democracy and political violence, including Northwestern historians Kathleen Belew and Kate Masur submitted statements to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. The experts’ statements provide valuable insights into the causes and consequences of political violence and offer recommendations for preventing similar attacks in the future.

The statements cover various topics, from the role of disinformation in fueling political violence to the importance of defending democratic institutions and norms. They also highlight the need for bipartisan cooperation and a commitment to truth and transparency in order to strengthen our democracy.

The participation of Northwestern University faculty members in this effort highlights the importance of academic expertise in informing public policy debates and shaping the future of our democracy.

Read statements from Kathleen Belew and Kate Masur below:

• Read Kathleen Belew’s statement
  Belew, Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, specializes in the history of the present. She spent ten years researching and writing her first book, Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Harvard, 2018, paperback 2019). In it, she explores how white power activists created a social movement through a common story about betrayal by the government, war, and its weapons, uniforms, and technologies.

• Read the Kate Masur and Gregory Downs statement
  Statement by Kate Masur, Professor of History, Northwestern University, and Gregory Downs, Professor of History, University of California, Davis
  
  Masur specializes in the history of race, politics, and law in the United States. Her recent book, Until Justice Be Done: America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction (W. W. Norton, 2021), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History and winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize from the American Historical Association, the John Phillip Reid Book Award from the American Society for Legal History, and the John Nau Book Prize in American Civil War Era History.

Learn more about their statements in the Northwestern Now story “Weinberg professors point to historical context for political violence.”