Historians/History

The Missing Chapter in the History of America’s Sixties Radicals

by Aaron Leonard

Fresh research shows that the FBI had a secret war on Maoists.

90 Years Later: Is It Time to Revise Our Understanding of the Underrated and Misunderstood Locarno Conference?

by Dr. Yoav J. Tenembaum

As a result of the Locarno Conference, Germany was admitted in 1926 into the League of Nations. Isn’t that worth remembering?

China must confront and learn from its postwar history

by Jonathan Zimmerman

China focuses on Japan's willful blindness to its WW II history, but China itself ignores its own. 

The Secret of Abraham Lincoln’s Success as a Writer?

by Rosemarie Ostler

He had a reputation as a country bumpkin, but he knew his grammar inside out.

5 Ways Pirate Ships Functioned as a True Democracy

by Rachel Rolnick

This is something you don’t learn in school. Pirates pioneered many of the features we associate with democracy.

10 Things You Didn’t Know About the Congress of Vienna that Influence Us Today

by Mark Jarrett

The Congress of Vienna statesmen left a legacy of solid accomplishments, many of which still influence us today.

Why History Matters


by Charles Spencer

History comes alive when we connect with characters.

The Slippery Slope We’re on with Selma

by Sheldon Stern

Historical manipulation, even for the best of motives, can easily become a slippery slope on which no one can safely keep their footing.

Selma Corrects Hollywood’s History of the Civil Rights Movement

by Ron Briley

Mississippi Burning depicted a top-down Civil Rights Movement in which whites played the leading role. Selma shows what really happened.

This Is the Civil War Photograph that Inspired a 10 Year Old to Study History – And Eventually to Become a Historian

by Gary W. Gallagher

Leading historians of the Civil War reflect on a photograph that speaks to them.

What I Know about Selma

by Bernard Weisberger

Selma is worth seeing, but does the director’s decision to falsely claim that LBJ conspired with J. Edgar Hoover against King encourage truth-twisting?

HNN Hot Topic: Selma, the Movie

Everything you need to know before you go see the movie -- and after.

Thomas Fleming: What I'm Reading (Interview)

by Tiffany April Griffin

Why did he choose history as a career?  "History seems to have chosen me.  My ambition was to be a novelist. To support my wife and 4 children, I worked as a magazine editor." Then he wrote a history essay people liked. And that was that.

Can Timothy McVeigh and His Ilk Claim Jefferson as a Hero of Liberty?

by M. Andrew Holowchak

They have, but Jefferson was never committed to liberty per se, but always committed to liberty in the service of intellectual and moral advance.

The American Internment Camp You Never Heard of

by Jan Jarboe Russell

FDR’s Executive Order 9066, which ordered the internment of Japanese, also allowed the Roosevelt administration to intern German and Italian immigrants and their American-born children.

What Happens to Historians' Papers After They Die?

by Erik Moshe

Many donate their papers -- a tradition going back centuries.

Should the Federal Government Be in the Business of Policing History?

by Anthony Clark

Defenders of LBJ are less interested in history than in hagiography. 

Remembering the Battle of the Bulge

by Robert Huddleston

A pilot who was there tells what it was like.

The Complex History of Pain: An Interview with Joanna Bourke

by Robin Lindley

In her groundbreaking new book "The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers," renowned British historian Joanna Bourke explores how the understanding of the human sensation of pain has evolved over the past three centuries in the English-speaking world.

Why in the 1930s Did the U.S. Move Left and in the 1970s Move Right? (Video)

by Meg Jacobs

Conservatism survived Watergate, but liberalism struggled.