Historians/History

Not Until the Loving Decision Legalizing Interracial Marriage Did the Supreme Court Denounce White Supremacy

by Sheryll Cashin

What does that tell you?

The Coal Industry Killed My Book

by Greg Bailey

Southern Illinois University Press in Carbondale was going to publish my book about an infamous massacre of strikebreakers in 1922. Then the head of the Illinois Coal Association was asked to review the manuscript.

Developers in Nashville Are Encroaching on a Civil War Fort Unlike Any Other

by Ed Hooper

It was built by thousands of newly-freed slaves, hundreds of whom died in the process.

Why There’s Plenty to Celebrate on JFK’s 100th Birthday

by Michael McQuillan

“My children ask why I still admire Kennedy since he betrayed his marriage vows. He matured as a leader, I say.”

What We’re Learning Now About the Hidden Lives of Tudor Women

by Elizabeth Norton

A fresh perspective is giving us insight into the challenges they faced.

Video of the Week: These Stones Marked the Boundary of the District of Columbia

by Scott Rensberger

They may well be the first markers featuring the words:  United States. This is one's man's story to assure they're not forgotten. 

Why We Remember Nathan Hale (And Nobody’s Heard of Moses Dunbar)

by Virginia DeJohn Anderson

What, you don’t know who Moses Dunbar was? There’s a reason for that.

Why I Decided to Remove 4 Confederate Monuments

by Mitch Landrieu

The 23-minute speech that has drawn wide attention.

If a President Makes History He Should Know Some History

by David W. Blight

"The problem we may have with President Trump is that he does not know what he does not know."

Why I Study Comics: An Interview with Hillary Chute

by Robin Lindley

In her latest book, "Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form," she studies graphic visual narratives.

Massachusetts Has Had a Confederate Flag Problem, too

by Kevin M. Levin

It’s not just Southerners who have to face hard truths.

The US Once Sent the Army to Russia. Here’s How It Came About.

by Margaret E. Wagner

It happened in World War I, when the U.S. sent 14,000 troops to Russia to resist Bolshevism.

A Key Turning Point in Darwin’s Thinking – And It Didn’t Happen in the Galapagos Islands

by Isobel Charman

It happened in a London zoo.

An Outrageous Claim About Jefferson Made to Make a Point

by M. Andrew Holowchak

On the “sloppiness of much of Jeffersonian scholarship.”

Why It’s Vital We Remember the Bystanders to the Holocaust as well as the Criminals

by Amos N. Guiora

It’s their complicity that allowed evil to flourish.

Dark Days in the City of Light: An Interview with Holly Tucker

by Robin Lindley

On magic, murder and the first police chief of Paris and the reason it's called the City of Light.

Today’s the Anniversary of R-Day! What, You Don’t Know What that Is?

by Waldo Heinrichs and Marc Gallicchio

R-Day (this stands for redeployment and readjustment) was the day in 1945 when GIs in Europe and the Pacific Theater learned if they had accumulated enough points to be sent home.

Donald Trump Is a Civil War Revisionist

by Louis P. Masur

His views echo the line (now rejected by most scholars) taken by historians after World War I.

What Every Historian Dreads

by Walter R. Borneman

Getting a fact wrong. Mea culpa.

Our Historian in Chief: What Scholars Are Saying on Social Media About Trump's Analysis of the Civil War

Historian David Blight: "You can be too ignorant to know you're ignorant."