Historians/History

Top Young Historian: Jason Opel

by Bonnie Goodman

"Really great lectures... good guy too... I'd take another class!"

MLK's Final Year: An Interview with Tavis Smiley

by Robin Lindley

For a full understanding of Dr. King, Mr. Smiley urges, Americans must get beyond the stereotype of a civil rights leader and see Dr. King in his full dimension as a human rights advocate with powerful ideas on community, peace and justice.

Gaza: How We Got Here ... And the Prospects for Peace

by William R. Polk

We would be prudent to prepare for more and worse Gazas.

Some in Japan Want to Deny "Comfort Women" Were Employed in WW II. They Need to Watch This.

by David McNeill

Japanese wartime medical orderly reports on army’s role in maintaining “comfort women” system.

What Can We Learn from History?

by Robert Zaretsky

Political and moral judgment requires experience, both one’s own and that of others, distilled into narrative.

Why Walter Lippmann Is Still Talked About

by Craufurd D. Goodwin

His career should be a model for journalists of the future.

Looking to Science for Answers About Race

by Michael Yudell

Race of course matters, and so too does the meaning we give it. We have often turned to science for that meaning—to justify beliefs and to provide a vocabulary for explaining human differences. But science too struggles with understanding race.

This Is the History Behind the Awful Idea that Mankind Is Divided into Races

by Robert Wald Sussman

The new “scientific racism” of the twenty-first century is just the old ideology of 500 years of prejudice dressed up to look new.

Russians Mark the Start of World War II in 1941. Here's Why They're Wrong.

by Roger Moorhouse

Russians like to pretend they were uninvolved in WW II until Hitler's attack. This is a lie.

Sometimes, the Cover-up Works: What the Tapes Show LBJ Did in 1964

by Robert "KC" Johnson

An aide had been arrested in a washroom.  The election was just weeks away.  LBJ was worried.

Why Did the British Try to Burn Down the White House?

by Peter Snow

Don't ask British people ... most don't know this ever happened. 

Why the History Curriculum Matters

by Laura Auricchio

Americans care deeply about history and how it’s taught. As we should. Were it not for a solid grasp of history, the United States might never have existed.

What We Can Learn from Innovators

by Walter Isaacsonis

How did the most imaginative innovators of our time turn disruptive ideas into realities?

Why I Stand by What I Wrote About the Dutch

by Russell Shorto

It goes without saying that the Dutch founders of New York were bigoted—just like all Europeans of the time. But they also laid the roots of tolerance.

This Is How Abraham Lincoln Played Politics. And It Won Him Re-Election.

by Harold Holzer

He did it by cutting deals with the powerful leaders of New York's three newspaper publishers.

5 Ways Coffee Changed the Course of History in England

by Rachel Rolnick

It even helped the establishment of democracy.

This Historian Has Written Six Books About Wartime Christmases. Now He Explains Why.

by Stanley Weintraub

“I do not expect to write another book in which Christmas is a factor. I have run out of appropriate wars.”

The Pentagon's Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. Just How Accurate Is It?

by Edwin Moise

The Pentagon says it only wants to present accurate history.  Here are some errors they can fix.

This Is What We Are Celebrating on Columbus Day. It's Ghastly.

by William Loren Katz

It is time to follow the advice of today’s Native Americans and reject Columbus Day in favor of a Native Americans Day.

What Should You Include in an Encyclopedia?

by Gregory Norris

That's the question the editors of Encyclopaedia Aethiopica faced. But did they make the right choices?