Historians/History

The Woman Who Attempted to Etch Herself into the History of the Cuban Revolution

by Katrina Gulliver

Camilo Cienfuegos, Cuban revolutionary leader and close comrade of Fidel Castro, disappeared on 28 October 1959. The small plane in which he was travelling from Camagüey to Havana did not arrive, and searches of the Cuban coast and the Florida everglades failed to locate a crash site. Speculation and conspiracy theories began almost immediately: that the plane had been shot down by accident, or that it never took off and the sto

Plaintiffs’ Motion For Reconsideration of Order Overruling Objections To Subpoena And For Protective Order Concerning Unpublished Manuscript [by Robert Proctor]

To comment on this story click here.IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUITIN AND FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDACIVIL DIVISIONIN RE: ENGLE PROGENY CASES TOBACCO LITIGATIONPertains to:  Stella Koballa and Robert Koballa,Case No. 2007-333-CICIPLAINTIFFS’ MOT

Affidavit of Robert Proctor

    IN THE CIRCUIT COURT, SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT, IN AND FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDAIN RE: ENGLE PROGENY CASES TOBACCO LITIGATION Pertains to: STELLA KOBALLA and ROBERT KOBALLA,  

The Unknown Connection between General David Petraeus and Harry Truman

by Ryan Forman

General David Petraeus is one of the most influential men in America today as the current commander of U.S. Central Command and former head of the Multi-National Force in Iraq.  He is increasingly spoken of as a future presidential candidate. A look through General Petraeus's family tree reveals that he has a historical connection to major turning points in America's involvement in foreign wars. From the Meuse-Argonne Offensive of World War I, to the drive across France and Germany in WWII,

Conquering the Demons from the Holocaust

by Natan P.F. Kellermann

Each night after falling asleep, the demons keep coming back. They personify the millions of victims of the Second World War; infants, adolescents, young men and women, and the elderly who suffocated in the g

Happy Birthday ER!

by Nancy Shear

Eleanor Roosevelt didn't photograph well. The camera seemed to capture not only the sloping chin and protruding teeth but the insecurity and shyness that had plagued her since childhood. This week, the week of Mrs. Roosevelt’s 125th birthday, some forty-seven years after her death, first-person accounts of the warmth of her presence and the vibrance of her personality – what many who met her describe as a radiant charm and powerful magnetism – are increasingly rare. And the fac

David Underdown: A Selective Retrospective

by Brian Cowan

David Underdown, (1925-2009), was one of the most prominent and influential historians of seventeenth-century Britain.  Like his fellow early modern historian and fellow Englishman, Lawrence Stone (1919-1999), Underdown was trained as a historian at Oxford, but he chose to work and to build his career in the United States.  Like Stone, Underdown managed to mentor, train and inspire several generations of American students; but unlike Stone, who was already an established scholar whe

Misremembering Martin Luther King

by Simon Balto

If Martin Luther King, Jr. hadn’t been taken from us 41 years ago, one can only imagine the way his head would spin at popular and political misremembrances of his legacy and memory.  I thought of this most recently while driving outside of Milwaukee, when I found myself doing a triple-take at one of the billboards commissioned for the National Black Republican Association’s (NBRA) “

The Madhouse of Colonial Williamsburg: An Interview With Shomer Zwelling

by Priscilla Hart

Chartered in 1770, Williamsburg's "Publick Hospital" was established "for the support and maintenance of Ideots, Lunaticks, and other Persons of unsound Minds" who threatened colonial society. The hospital hoped to restore its patients to their mental health -- or "reason," according to Enlightenment terminology -- and to provide a therapeutic environment for mentally ill individuals who had been placed in colonial jails or left unattended by their families. The

What Happens to the Papers of Dead Historians?

by David Liebers

For intellectual historians, biographers and students looking for senior research projects, the archives of former historians are often indispensable troves of  information.  Letters between scholars often cut to the center of the most pressing arguments in the field, and notes and drafts of books aid in understanding the intellectual development of historians.  Several prominent historians have passed away in recent months.  Among them, John Hope Franklin, Pro

Why The Return To Zion? The Jewish Connection To The Land of Israel

by Alex Grobman

Not long after the establishment of the State of Israel, Abba Eban, Israel’s representative

The 1990s as History

by William O'Neill

I began writing my book during the 1990s with the idea of duplicating my history of the 1960s, Coming Apart, which came out in 1971 hot on the heels of that turbulent decade. But other projects intervened and the

The New Relevance of Friedrich Engels: An Interview with Tristram Hunt

by Aaron Leonard

Dr. Tristram Hunt is one of Britain’s best known young historians. Educated at Cambridge and Chicago Universities, he is lecturer in British history at Queen Mary, University of London and author of

When the Rabbis Marched on Washington

by Alex Grobman

At a time when the American Jewish community organizes annual marches in support of Israel, it is imp

Was William Calley a Scapegoat?

by Gary Kulik

After 40 years, 2nd Lt. William Calley is back in the news. For many years now the young lieutenant convicted in 1971 of the murder of 22 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai has been regarded as a scapegoat. A recent New York Times editorial raised the stakes, calling him a "classic scapegoat." The occasion of the editorial was a speech this past August that Calley gave at a Kiwanis Club gathering in Columbus, Ga. Calley told his audience that "not a day that

A Young Palestinian’s Diary

by Kimberly Katz

While many new books on Israel/Palestine pore over the conflict and its lack of resolution, the details of identity formation, the political trials and triumphs on each side, few books give the reader a he

Tweeting History

by Christine Kelly

Average history buffs have a lot on their minds other than history.  They enjoy the occasional TV documentary on the building of the Hoover Dam.  They have visited their region’s selection of quaint local history museums.  Their ability to relay the details of the Allied assault on Nazi territories has impressed friends.  For the buff, history is a source of fact-filled enjoyment, and while he or she would love to spend his days reading War and Peace and critiq

Have You Used an iPhone History App?

by David Austin Walsh

John Clevesy had just gotten married.

California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963: An Interview With Kevin Starr

by Aaron Leonard

University of Southern California Professor Kevin Starr has just released the eighth book in his “Americans and the California Dream” s

Walden Woods Was a Black Space Before It Was a Green Space

by Elise Lemire

Each year, half a million of us visit the Walden Pond State Reservation in Concord, Massachusetts.  We come to this corner of America’s bir