The Latest 
-
We Are All Americans Here: The Crisis of Civic Empathy and our Besieged Democracy
Chris J. Magoc
Many Americans are living in a state of grief at the rise of a movement led by an authoritarian sociopath. The answer is to rediscover through action a sense of shared humanity.
-
Blog
Dr. Gillian Frank on the Decimation of Roe v. Wade
Skipped History with Ben Tumin
An interview about the history of anti-abortion laws
-
Where Will America Be by 2030?
Ed Simon
The right's agenda is for a white, Christian, patriarchal nationalism that simply can't be achieved by majority rule. That's what the Supreme Court and 400,000,000 privately owned guns are for.
-
Excerpt: INAUGURAL BALLERS: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team
Andrew Maraniss
“Win this game,” Billie Moore told her team, “and it will change women’s sports in this country for the next twenty-five years.”
-
50 Years Ago, a SCOTUS Decision Placed a Moratorium on Executions. It's Time to Revive it, Permanently
Rick Halperin
Fifty years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the Constitution, opening a de facto moratorium as states legislated new capital punishment statutes. It's time to make this brief victory for human rights permanent.
-
The Traitor King: Edward VIII and The Future of the British Monarchy
Andrew Lownie
The author of a new book on the post-royal lives of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson says that the hard lesson they learned—the brand comes before the family—will see the Royal Family through to a future despite scandal and resignation.
-
Dark Skies Over SCOTUS
James D. Zirin
If the Supreme Court justices don't want to be perceived as partisan hacks, the latest rulings aren't helping their cause.
-
What Americans Might Learn About Political Collapse from the Classical Greeks and Romans
Daniel Noah Moses
The right traces political turmoil in the US to the supposed abandonment of the classical canon. But reading those works might not teach the lessons they want about hierarchy, authority, and political collapse.
-
Organized Defiance May Be the Only Answer to an Undemocratic Court
Alan J. Singer
If Democrats in the legislative branch won't use their majorities to define the scope of judicial power to stop rulings that defy the will of the public, the public must organize to defy the rulings of the courts.
-
The Roundup Top Ten for July 1, 2022
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
-
What Prohibition History Tells Us about Returning Abortion to the States
Richard F. Hamm
Federal control of interstate commerce and the mail mean that medical abortifacents will be difficult for state-level antiabortion politicians to keep out of their borders. There's no doubt that they will seek to pass federal laws leading to a national abortion ban.
-
50 Years Ago, a SCOTUS Decision Placed a Moratorium on Executions. It's Time to Revive it, Permanently
Rick Halperin
Fifty years ago this week, the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty violated the Constitution, opening a de facto moratorium as states legislated new capital punishment statutes. It's time to make this brief victory for human rights permanent.
-
"Oh, We Knowed What Was Goin’ On": The Myths (and Lies) of Juneteenth
Clyde W. Ford
After the myths of Juneteenth are stripped away, the day symbolizes the incompleteness of the promise of emancipation.
-
Clearing the Name of a Horse Blamed for Near-Defeat at Waterloo
Stephen Dando-Collins
A failed cavalry attack nearly doomed Wellington at Waterloo. For years, Major General William Ponsonby's Irish horse was blamed to deflect from the tactical mistakes of human officers.
-
Russia's Justifications for Invasion Don't Hold Up Any Better Now than in February
Lawrence Wittner
The alleged threat of Ukraine's NATO membership, supposed "denazification" and claims of cultural unity all fall flat; none excuse Russia's violation of Article 2 of the United Nations Charter.
-
Will Artificial Intelligence be the Agent of Capitalism's (and Humanity's) Creative Destruction?
Jim Castagnera
Between science fiction and the political economy of the present, the author wonders if artificial intelligence will constitute humanity's successor species.
-
Watergate at 50: Did Kennedy Loyalists Squelch a 1968 "October Surprise" that Could Have Beaten Nixon?
James H. Barron
Did Democratic party insiders bury the story of Richard Nixon receiving campaign funds from the Greek military junta because they disliked the Greek exile journalist who broke the news?
-
The Roundup Top Ten for June 17, 2022
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
-
Florida's Divisive Concepts Bill Mistakes What Historians Do, with Dire Implications
Jessica L. Adler
The legislation would make it difficult – and even legally risky – for professors to perform the kinds of source-driven teaching that underlies the pedagogical goals of the discipline.
-
Should the USPS Honor the Sabbath, or Amazon?
Rebecca Brenner Graham
A Pennsylvania postal worker's lawsuit claims religious discrimination because he was scheduled to deliver Amazon packages on Sunday. The history of Sunday mail service shows the case is about anxiety over power in society as much as religious obligation.
-
Why Andrew Jackson Believed in Gun Control
Anders Walker
Andrew Jackson loved guns, but his correspondence with John C. Calhoun from 1818 shows that he believed that the Second Amendment didn't guarantee an individual right to own them and that regulation was key to public safety.
-
Top-Gunning for Empire
Scott Laderman
"Top Gun: Maverick" is ressurecting the theatergoing experience. Will it do the same for American enthusiasm for the imperial ambitions it represents?
-
"Our Best Memorial to the Dead Would be Our Service to the Living"
Allison S. Finkelstein
An overlooked cohort of American women who served in the first world war worked to establish service, instead of statuary, as a mode of memorialization. Their example offers a path out of the heated politics of commemoration.
-
As an Island, Britain Became a Stage for Roman Politicians
Richard Hingley
The conquest of Britain mattered to Roman emperors not for the island's strategic significance, but because it signaled a ruler's mastery of the ancient deity Oceanus and thus his worthiness in domestic politics.
-
Excerpt: The Fires of Stavishche, 1919
Lisa Brahin
Between 1917 and 1921, an estimated 100,000 to 250,000 Jews were murdered in pogroms across Ukraine. The author has worked to reconstruct this history, including her ancestors' escape from the town of Stavishche.
-
Blog
Lindsey Fitzharris on Visionary Surgeon Harold Gillies
Robin Lindley
In "The Facemaker," Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of the British surgeon Harold Gillies, who pioneered reconstructive surgeries for the horrific facial wounds suffered by soldiers in...
-
Trump’s Involvement in the January 6 Conspiracy Is Easy to Prove
James D. Zirin
A veteran prosecutor explains that the legal standards for conspiracy put Trump in the crosshairs. Whether he faces consequences for the attempted coup, however, is a question of politics.
-
The Roundup Top Ten for June 10, 2022
The top opinion writing by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
- Haitian Americans Reclaim the Traditions of Vodou from Centuries of Misperception
- DeSantis Proposes Surveying Students, Faculty on Political Views
- Philly Plan for Tubman Memorial Draws Fire: Were Black Artists Excluded?
- One Absurdity of Texas's Divisive Concepts Law? Call to Rename Slave Trade as "Involuntary Relocation"
- 3 Law Profs: Connecting Abortion and Voting Rights at SCOTUS
- If "Heathen" Sounds Outdated, Historian Kathryn Gim Lum Says it Still Explains Racism in America
- How The Court Just Changed America
- The Crisis Historian Has Bad News About the Crisis
- Joint OAH-AHA Statement on Dobbs Decision
- Academics Worry Florida's Academic Legislation is Coming to the Rest of the Nation