Weekend Reads for February 10

Unearthing the land grabs that built the American West, hopes and schemes at the border, and what AI might mean for elections

This week, we’ve been thinking a lot about how much we’ve changed as a nation, how that’s changed us, and how disorienting those changes have been for many Americans. Managing that emotional upheaval is likely to be one of the biggest challenges of our time, and it’s something we’ll be looking into long-term at The Ink. We’ve also delved into the biggest crisis facing media (and we’re not talking about the industry’s economic woes), and the new spirit behind the fight for reproductive freedom.

Along the way, we’ve also been reading some striking pieces of journalism and research. An incredible investigative piece on the way the land-grant universities were built on Indigenous land. An inquiry into the ways we can usefully apply our historical understanding of colonialism to current crises on the border and in the Middle East, without resorting to cliches or facile dictionary arguments. A call to arms on how machines might shape elections. An essay on the way we understand meaning in music. And many more.

As we do each week for our subscribers, we’ve pulled together a collection of links that we think will be well worth your time this weekend. Thanks as always for reading The Ink and continuing to support us (and if you’re not a paid subscriber already, we encourage you to join us).

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The stolen land behind the land-grant universities

“Using publicly available data, our investigation locates millions of acres taken from more than a hundred Indigenous nations to provide ongoing sources of revenue for educational institutions. Our reporting reveals how Indigenous lands and resources bankroll land-grant universities, historically and today, and provides insight into the relationship between colonialism, higher education, and climate change.” [Grist]