Historians/History

Survivors Outraged at Holocaust Museum over Bad Arolsen

by Edwin Black

Holocaust survivors from coast to coast have exploded with unprecedented public vitriol against the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum generally, as well and its plans to prohibit immediate offsite electronic access to the secret records of the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen. Many in the Holocaust and second generation community have long harbored quiet seething resentment against the Museum’s aggressive fund-raising tactics, denial of Sephardic victimization, refu

Hitler's Carmaker: How Will Posterity Remember General Motors' Conduct? (Part 4)

by Edwin Black

Click here for Part 1. And click here for Part 2. And here for Part 3.The epilogue of the tumultuous saga of General Motors during the New Deal and Nazi era is still being written. In 1974, a generation after World War II, the company’s controversial history was resurrected by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committ

The Two Historians Who Are Playing a Key Role in "The Surge"

by John Elrick

It has been nearly four months since the Bush administration announced its latest strategy for the war in Iraq. The centerpiece of the "new way forward" is a strengthened US ground presence. Two historians, Frederick Kagan and H.R. McMaster, have emerged as important supporters of the troop surge. Kagan wrote the blueprint for  “the surge”  and McMaster is serving as a top military advisor in Iraq.  Both men are central figures in the success of the

The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the Girl in the Polka Dot Dress

by Mel Ayton

For the past forty years the issue of conspiracy in the Robert Kennedy assassination has continued to haunt America.

Yale's Hidden, then Disappearing Portrait

by Alfred L. Brophy

Close on the heels of Brown University's comprehensive report on its connections to slavery and the Virginia House of Delegate's apology for its role in slavery, Yale University announced in February that it will take down a portrait of Elihu Yale. The portrait depicts a young slave (or perhaps it is a young Indian servant) wearing a metal collar, waiting on the great

Tulsa Still Hasn't Faced the Truth About the Race Riot of 1921

by John Hope Franklin

Following is the testimony Mr. Franklin gave on April 24, 2007 before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which is considering the Tulsa Greenwood Riot Accountability Act of 2007. The Act would extend the statute of limitations to allow the victims of the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 to sue for damages.I am an historian currently serving as the James B. Duke Professor of His

What’s Wrong with the New Conservative History?

by Donald T. Critchlow

In the decade since Alan Brinkley and Leo Ribuffo issued their call for scholars to examine the history of conservatism,  a plethora of monographs have appeared exploring the history of the Right in America.  

Who's Distorting History? Me or David Horowitz? You Decide.

by James W. Loewen

Editor's Note: A response by David Horowitz appears below.Having been left off David Horowitz's academic prom card of The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, I felt jilted, until I read his "Breaking the Law at Penn State" (later retitled "Breaking the Rules at Penn State") at his e-magazine, FrontPageMag.com, 1/22/2007.  Earlier Horowitz had prodded the Pennsylvania House to set up a “co

Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan

by Larry Berman

Why did one of the great spies of our century allow me to be his American biographer?  During the Vietnam War, Pham Xuan An was a highly respected Time Magazine reporter who turned out to be a spy for the North Vietnamese. He was a trusted source for the era’s best known reporters; his circle extended well beyond journalism to include the CIA’s Lou Conein, Edward Lansdale and William Colby. He was friends with the most notable South Vietnamese politicians and

Hiss and History

by Victor Navasky

Click here to read an exchange between Mr. Navasky and Mark Kramer written in response to this article. In 1951 Leslie Fiedler, the literary critic, wrote "it is time, many of us feel, to forget the whole business...[t]he prison doors have closed [on Alger Hiss ]; let us consider the question also closed." Twenty-seven years later another literary critic, the distinguished and thoughtful cultural and political obs

The Storm Facing Tulane's History Department (And We Don't Mean Katrina)

by Rick Shenkman

"I was floored and devastated." This statement by Tulane historian Susan Schroeder is not a reference to Katrina. It is a comment about charges involving racism, harassment and slander that have riven Tulane's department of history, led to the filing of a lawsuit by one member against another, and made a mockery of the image of school collegiality created in the wake of the 2005 storm when students and teachers

Jessica Lynch, the Media, and History

by Richard S. Lowry

The American public only sees short bites of history on the evening news and receives precious little detail in their morning newspapers. Seldom are stories revisited for in-depth analyses. In the case of the invasion of Iraq, reporters were embedded with specific units and were required to stay with units as they advanced toward Baghdad, leaving no time for in-depth reporting.

Gunnar Myrdal’s a lot More Complicated than You Think

by Clare L. Spark

Recently, History News Network published an excerpt from a widely- and well-reviewed book The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation, written by journalists Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff and published by Knopf in 2006 for a general educated readership. Leaving aside the perhaps unconscious link to The Birth of a Nation in the subtitle, I was astonished by the excerpted first chapter, w

Hiss Was Guilty

by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr

For nearly sixty years, Alger Hiss's defenders have mounted one campaign after another to discredit the mountain of evidence that proves he spied for the Soviet Union.

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the 2007 OAH Convention: Day 4

by Rick Shenkman

Related Links OAH 2007: Day 1 OAH 2007: Day 2 OAH 2007: Day 3 OAH 2007: Day 4 Index: OAH 2007 HNN Videos & Podcasts Past OAH & AHA Conven

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the 2007 OAH Convention: Day 3

by Rick Shenkman

Related Links OAH 2007: Day 1 OAH 2007: Day 2 OAH 2007: Day 3 OAH 2007: Day 4 Index: OAH 2007 HNN Videos & Podcasts Past OAH & AHA Conven

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the 2007 OAH Convention: Day 2

by Rick Shenkman

Related Links OAH 2007: Day 1 OAH 2007: Day 2 OAH 2007: Day 3 OAH 2007: Day 4 Index: OAH 2007 HNN Videos & Podcasts Past OAH & AHA Conven

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights from the 2007 OAH Convention: Day 1

by Rick Shenkman

Related Links OAH 2007: Day 1 OAH 2007: Day 2 OAH 2007: Day 3 OAH 2007: Day 4 Index: OAH 2007 HNN Videos & Podcasts Past OAH & AHA Conven

Congress Acts after Survivors Challenge Jewish Leadership on Holocaust Insurance and Bad Arolsen Revelations

by Edwin Black

Reaction to recent revelations in the Jewish media regarding evidence of corporate complicity, unrevealed insurance company involvement and pervasive IBM punch cards among the papers in the secret Bad Arolsen repository has re-ignited a grass-roots survivor campaign to recover their rightful Nazi-era insurance claims against such companies as the giant Italian insurer Generali. Following the series of revelations that began last year, grass roots survivor and second generation groups in

American Museums in Crisis: A New Thing?

by Samuel J. Redman

A recent Washington Postarticle written by Robert Sullivan, a former associate director for public programs of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and the current vice president of Chora, a museum consulting firm in Washington accused the Smithsonian Institution of failing on many fronts over the course of the past decade.  Terms used by Sullivan in the Washington Post to