Historians/History

Channelling George Washington: The Polarization Problem

by Thomas Fleming

“Polarization, polarization!  That’s all I hear coming out of my namesake town.  If it gets any worse, I’ll start thinking everyone in Congress is planning to become Arctic or Antarctic explorers!”“

The Texas Past and the National Future

by John Willingham

This fading year has provided even more evidence that many Texans remain loyal to the defiance and extreme individualism that have characterized much of the state’s past.  But the year has also witnessed a convergence of Texas attitudes with those of angry people across the nation.The year 2010 gave not only the state but all of America the “history wars” of the Texas State Board of Education.  That running gunfight between moderates and social conservatives gained the attention

Students Need to Stop Trying to 'Catch' Experts

by Margaret MacMillan

Do you remember when you were in school and wanted to aspire to a gold star on an assignment?  In my days that meant cutting pretty pictures out of NationalGeographic, tracing a map, or ge

Anton Chekhov: A Man for Our Times

by Walter Moss

This year, one hundred fifty years after his birth, Anton Chekhov is as relevant as ever.  In January a web site noted that “more than a century after his death [in 1904], Chekhov is one of the most widely translated and imitated writers in the world.  His works are performed as far afield as Tokyo, Santiago, and New Delhi.  Already available in many dozens of languages, Chekhov this year will be translated for the first time into a number of African tongues, including Swahili.” And th

Remembering William H. Goetzmann

by Stephen J. Pyne

On September 7, 2010 the Austin American-Statesman carried two articles on William H. Goetzmann.  One was his formal obituary.  The other was a book review, originally published by the Washington Post, about my study of the Voyager mission.  The review did not mention Bill Goetzmann at all, but the book would not have been written without him.Voyager (the spacecraft) launched in 1977.  Voyager the book launched three years earlier when

Channelling George Washington: Thanksgiving with Abe

by Thomas Fleming

“With Thanksgiving on the way, I’ve been thinking of other times when America has celebrated that great day.  What do you think is the most memorable?” “I don’t have your powers of recall.  I remember how

If You Think This Thanksgiving Was Bad, Remember 1863

by Cassia T. Laham

With poverty rates in the United States hitting a fifteen-year high, the level of unemployment refusing to fall under 9.5 percent, and the greatest wealth disparity between rich and poor since the Great Depression, many Americans may have trouble finding what exactly it is they are thankful for this Thanksgiving.  To make matters worse, the 4 percent of Americans who will be braving the airports this season to visit loved ones will be forced to make the not-so-ideal choice between full-

The Patently False Baseball Myth That Refuses to Die

by George B. Kirsch

On Memorial Day weekend in 1983 I attended a sports history conference at the Mt. Alto campus of Pennsylvania State University.  On Sunday afternoon I joined a bus l

The "State" of Environmental History

by David Stradling

Environmental historians have boundary issues.  Ecology encourages us to study relationships.  Species and the places they inhabit are interdependent, and all organi

Live Q&A with Julian E. Zelizer

This real-time Q&A with Julian E. Zelizer took place between 11:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Eastern on November 18, 2010 on

The Election of 1860 and Secession—to Preserve Slavery

by Douglas Egerton

When news of Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency reached South Carolina on Nov. 8, 1860, joyful Charlestonians took to the streets as if their candidate had won.  They erected liberty poles near the battery, and booming cannon saluted the Palmetto flag. "The tea has been thrown overboard," editorialized the Charleston Mercury. "The revolution of 1860 has been initiated."

Who Really Won the 1960 Election?

by David Stebenne

November 8, 2010 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the presidential election of 1960, which still very much interests those who care about disputed elections.

Remembering Generosity and Commitment this Veterans Day

by William Astore

Let's remember that America's veterans have often exhibited remarkable generosity of spirit and awe-inspiring levels of commitment.

Should Academic Free Speech Accommodate Holocaust Denial?

by Richard L. Cravatts

If you scratch a Holocaust denier long enough, you may reveal an anti-Semite, but not always.  You will, however, probably find someone like the morally repellant Kaukab Siddique, a Pakistani-born, tenured associate professor of English and journalism at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, who seemingly puts great faith in conspiratorial dramas in which a crafty and all-powerful enemy—in this case, Jews—weaves an oft-repeated claim that six million of their people were exterminated jus

Remembering John Galsworthy: International Advocate for Soldiers Disabled in War

by Jeffrey S. Reznick

This Veterans Day, media outlets of every kind will feature stories about medical care and philanthropic support provided to men and women who have sustained permanent injury through military service in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  As these stories appear and calls for remembrance make headlines, the humanitarianism of John Galsworthy—one of the most prolific and best-selling authors of the twentieth century—deserves attention.  His advocacy for soldiers disabled in World War I shoul

Honoring Indian Veterans This Veterans Day

by Ed Hooper

More than 44,000 Indians served in World War II.

The Whys of Pre-Revolutionary America with Jon Butler

by Neda Raeker

Jon Butler is Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History and Religious Studies at Yale University. His books include Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the America

George Washington's Late Fines: An Interview with Tom Fleming

by Neda Raeker

Mr. Fleming is a former president of the Society of American Historians and a historian of the American Revolution. This interview was conducted via telephone.Could you tell a little about your beginning as an histor

Feeding Popular Hunger for Good History and Good Journalism

by David Nord

The Texas State Board of Education, God's gift to op-ed writers everywhere, recently announced that there is a creeping Muslimization of world history textbooks.  They warned of the rising influence of Middle Eastern interests in the U.S. textbook publishing business.Liberal commentators and religious libertarians denounced the board's resolution as misinformed in fact and offensive in principle.  But this latest skirmish in the culture wars in Texas got me thinking about someth

Veiling Shari`a in a Judeo-Christian Cloak: Imam Ra'uf's and Muqtedar Khan's Latest Ruse

by Timothy R. Furnish

A current tactic favored by Muslim apologists is to posit perfect harmony between Islam and Western (particularly American) civilization,  or between Islam and the other two monotheistic faiths.  In an example of the former, last month Imam Feisal Abdul Ra’uf, mastermind of the Ground Zero/Cordoba/Park 51 mosque, gave a