Historians/History

Why Americans First Ignored the Discovery of Gold in the West — And then Ran Screaming for It!

by Edward Dolnick

The fascinating story of the Gold Rush and how it challenged American assumptions about life, work and glory.

When We Think of Industrialization We Think of Henry Ford. We Should also Think of World War I.

by William J. Astore

The age of mass warfare and mass destruction was both catalyst for and byproduct of the age of machinery and mass production.

Walt Whitman’s Secret History as a Barfly

by Justin Martin

Between roughly 1858 and 1862, Walt Whitman spent almost every night hanging out in a dingy Manhattan saloon.

Did Mexico Reshape the American Civil Rights Movement?

by Ruben Flores

Mexico, it turns out, shaped America just as America shaped Mexico. And it did this by adopting John Dewey's Pragmatism.

Classroom Lesson Plan: Global Issues Since the Fall of the Wall

by Deborah Springhorn

The goal in developing the course, Global Issues Since the Fall of the Wall, is to create an interdisciplinary, common core based course that can be a model for high school teachers to adopt in its entirety or adapt to fit their own curriculum.

Why Did Women Begin Sporting Short Hairdos?

by Kevin Kennedy

That’s just one of the many interesting questions addressed in an exhibit on World War I now on display in Berlin.

What a Historian Learned by Attending His 1964 High School Class Reunion

by John W. Johnson

Why write about it for HNN? Let me make the case.

Is This How We're Going to Learn Queer History in the Future?

by Sarah Prager

No. It's how we're learning it now.

Why We Should Remember Lionel Ferbos for More than His Trumpet

by Mary Niall Mitchell

For jazz historians, and for the musicians who played with him for many years, Ferbos was another kind of link to the past.

The Longest Battle of the First World War: Historian Paul Jankowski on the Slaughterhouse of Verdun (Interview)

by Robin Lindley

"Next to cultural fantasies historical truths can appear as sacrilegious, but to demystify Verdun is not to impugn the compelling power of the truths behind legend, nostalgia or parable." -- Paul Jankowski

This Is How Racist America Was During the Civil War

by Alan Singer

The Miscegenation hoax that reveals how white America truly felt about African-Americans.

Five Questions About World War I that Remain Unanswered

by J. Fred MacDonald

The following questions remain definitively unanswered.

50 Years Ago Congress Gave the President a Blank Check for War

by Leonard Steinhorn

The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the hubris behind it were the linchpins of Johnson’s Shakespearean Vietnam tragedy – and ours as well.

Why Didn't Anyone Kill Hitler?

by Daniel Mandel

70 years ago this week came the most serious attempt on his life. 

So You Want to Get Good Scores on Rate My Professor?

by Thomas Buttaccio

Secrets of professors who score high.

Why Doesn't Everybody Know Who Alice Paul Was and What She Did?

by J.D. Zahniser

She organized the first march on Washington. Her cause? Women's suffrage.

History Doyen: Bernard A. Weisberger

by Bonnie Goodman

Bernard A. Weisberger is a distinguished teacher and author of American history.

'Conspiracy Fiction' versus the French Revolution. A Reply to David Bell's Critique in the New York Review of Books

by Jonathan Israel

A response to a critic.

Which Historians Have Made Bank in the United States?

by Alexandra M. Webster

An old joke goes, “Become a historian. Get rich.” But for some historians it’s no joke.

Why a Contrarian History of the United States Is Needed Now

by Ilan Stavans

I’m tired of the hypocritical way immigrants are constantly being described today in public discourse.