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History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Roundup Top 10!

Why We Need Walt Whitman in 2020

by Ed Simon

With our democracy in crisis, the poet and prophet of the American ideal should be our guide.

How America went from Barack Obama to Donald Trump in one head-spinning political decade

by Kevin M. Kruse and Juian Zelizer

Obama’s America and Trump’s America feel like separate nations, but they are bound by Newton's law: For every action, an equal and opposite reaction.

The case for historians being more engaged in public affairs, not less

by Adam Laats

Americans need to not just study history, but to better understand why our knowledge of the past is ever-evolving.

Historians Should Stay Out of Politics

by Andrew Ferguson

The lasting question the petition raises is: “So what?” Put another way: “Should we care what these historians think about Trump’s impeachment?”

Making Room for Miscarriage

by Lara Freidenfelds

In my new book The Myth of the Perfect Pregnancy: A History of Miscarriage in America, I set out to write the history of our modern culture of childbearing in the US, and how it has produced our expectation of perfect pregnancies.

The Forgotten Story of Christmas 1918

by Mary Elisabeth Cox

We remember the 1914 Christmas Truce as a moment of humanity amid war. Four years later, a darker tale unfolded.

The Fight Over the 1619 Project Is Not About the Facts

by Adam Serwer

A dispute between a small group of scholars and the authors of The New York Times Magazine’s issue on slavery represents a fundamental disagreement over the trajectory of American society.

Why demagogues were the Founding Fathers’ greatest fear

by Eli Merritt

Washington’s greatest fear that summer of decision in Philadelphia was that unwise, self-seeking politicians — even if fairly elected to public office — would tear down the central government and its constitutional laws for the sake of their own advancement and glorification.

The Power of Chilean Women Denouncing Gendered and Sexual Violence Through Song

by Margaret Power

For the last two years and a half women students and faculty have exposed and denounced the rampant sexual abuse and sexist education that take place in Chilean schools and universities.


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Can remembering past atrocities prevent future ones?

by Jennifer Evans and Paula-Irene Villa Braslavsky

How a recent art installation in Berlin sparked controversy.