Historians/History

10/13/19

RetroReport is Building a Living Library of Modern News Events

by Kyla Sommers

Learn about RetroReport on PBS with this interview with executive producer Kyra Darnton. 

10/13/19

Rethinking Polygamy: An Interview with Sarah M.S. Pearsall

by Kyla Sommers

"Polygamy controversies place us amid major events in early America because such clashes were about the organization and governance not just of house- holds but of societies, nations, and empires.”

10/13/19

International Resistance in World War 2 Europe

by Olivier Wieviorka

While national histories of wartime resistance are plentiful, the European dimension of the shadow army has rarely been taken into account.

10/13/19

The United States is Not a Healthy Democracy: An Interview with Richard C. Lyons

by Andrew Fletcher and Jonathan Montano

"Power is aggregating away from the people’s representative assemblies of house and senate and into the executive branches myriad agencies and into the judicial branch."

10/6/19

The Nazi Census and a Quiet Hero

by Dwight Harshbarger

The census and discrimination from Nazi Germany to today. 

10/6/19

Holly Jackson on the History Lessons of American Radicals

by Kyla Sommers

"As we grapple with the deep roots and long aftermath of colonialism, slavery, capitalist exploitation, it’s important to know that there was always profound opposition to those forces as well."

10/6/19

On Weather and History

by M. Andrew Holowchak

Thomas Jefferson’s Climate-Induced “Philosophical Hangover” Explained.

9/29/19

The Sexual Assault and Exploitation of Enslaved Men in America

by Thomas A. Foster

Sexual assault of enslaved men occurred systematically and in a wide variety of forms. 

9/29/19

The Value of the USA's Founding Values in a Time of Political Turmoil

by Andrew Fletcher

An interview with Roger Fortin, the author of How the Ideals of America’s Founders Lead Us to Purposeful Living. 

9/15/19

The Native Americans Who Assisted the Underground Railroad

by Roy E. Finkenbine

Studying the role of Native Americans in assisting freedom seekers in the pre-Civil War Midwest requires the historian to assemble an archive from a range of disparate sources.  

9/15/19

Eastern European Historian Emanuela Grama on Romania’s Heritage

by Erik Moshe

“The best historian is a kind of magician; one that can transform a puzzle of disparate dusty documents into a persuasive analysis and an electric narrative.”

9/15/19

The Apolitical Antidote to Unjust Politics

by Steele Brand

Throughout history apolitics guided the greatest minds living in the most unjust times. 

9/15/19

How the Kikotan Massacre Prepared the Ground for the Arrival of the First Africans in 1619

by Gregory D. Smithers

English (and ultimately, United States) colonialism was (and is) built not only with the labor of stolen bodies from Africa, but the stolen lands of Native Americans.

Source: The Washington Post
June 27, 2019

Are we telling the right story of America?

Two historians explore the myths and truths that sustain a nation-state. THIS AMERICA: The Case for the Nation By Jill Lepore. Liveright. 150 pp. $16.95; THE HEARTLAND: An American History By Kristin L. Hoganson. Penguin. 399 pp. $30

9/8/19

The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Trollope Ploy Myth

by Sheldon M. Stern

What we often get wrong about the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

9/8/19

“The thinking power called an idea”: Thomas Jefferson and the Right to Patents

by M. Andrew Holowchak

“Every discovery which multiplies the subsistence of man, must be a matter of joy to every friend to humanity.”

9/8/19

Beyond the Vote, The Suffragists Helped Launch Modern Business Franchising

by Jane R. Plitt

We should also acknowledge the role of the suffrage movement in supporting the launch of modern franchising begun by Martha Matilda Harper in 1891.

9/8/19

Sir Ian Kershaw on His Latest Book, Brexit, and the Future of Europe

by David O’Connor

"The EU has come a long way and, as Brexit shows, the networks built up over previous decades are extremely complex."

9/5/19

How The Media Covered Woodstock – and How Woodstock Changed The Media

by Harlan Lebo

Woodstock was a milestone – not just in coverage of the music scene, but also in broader media exploration of social and economic issues that affect younger audiences. 

9/3/19

Thou Shalt Not Ration Justice

by Pamela Metzger and Andrew Davies

The Norman Lefstein legacy: passionate, tireless efforts for indigent defense reform.