Archives

Thomas J. Brown

by Bonnie Goodman

"I thought Brown was excellent. He's absolutely brilliant and conveys his knowledge effectively."

Jonathan Earle

by Bonnie Goodman

"Jonathan Earle revises the revisionists in this lucid and well-argued demonstration of the vital Jacksonian contribution to the abolition of slavery. Jacksonian Antislavery enriches the literature of the age of Jackson." -- Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

Top Young Historians: Joanne B. Freeman

by Bonnie Goodman

"A slew of popular historians have gone on tour in recent years with their speculative psychodramas about the American founders. Joanne B. Freeman puts them all to shame."

Top Young Historians: Julian Zelizer

by Bonnie Goodman

"Reform is the work of the tortoise, not the hare."

Top Young Historians: Gil Troy

by Bonnie Goodman

"Going to a Troy lecture was like sitting in a crowded theater watching a one man spectacle."

Top Young Historians: Lillian Guerra

by Bonnie Goodman

"As a historian, I knew that I would never find a single answer. As a Cuban (at least by desire, if not by birth), I felt I knew the origin of the question, Would the Republic and Cuba's twentieth-century history have been different if Martí had lived?"

Top Young Historians: Daniel Lord Smail

by Bonnie Goodman

"When graduate students don't get jobs they invariably assume it's their fault."

Timothy Snyder

by Bonnie Goodman

"Someone (I know who) stole all of my dissertation research in New Haven, Connecticut, in May 1993."

Top Young Historians: 2008

by Bonnie Goodman

This page features profiles of interesting historians who are making their mark on the profession.

Review of Robert Justin Goldstein's American Blacklist: The Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations and Loren Ghiglione's CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism

by Murray Polner

Don Hollenbeck was a reporter and editor and this fine book does him justice.

David Rothkopf offers a A withering critique of Obama's National Security Council

Rothkopf was an acidic critic of the Obama administration's policy-formulation process long before such criticism became the thing that one does in Washington.

History Doyen: William Hardy McNeill

by Bonnie Goodman

William H. McNeill is Robert A. Milikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago.

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Political Debates: America's Political Gift to the World

by Alan Schroeder

Democratic primary debate in Charleston, South Carolina on July 23, 2007. Credit: Flickr/grittycitygirl.As the nation prepares to indulge in another round of presidential debates, let us consider an underappreciated legacy of this quadrennial ritual: the export of American-style TV debates around the world. The political tradition that John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon wrought in a Chicago studio in 1960 now extends to every corner of the globe. In some seventy-five countries television debates have become part of the electoral landscape; even fledgling democracies like Iraq and Afghanistan have incorporated candidate match-ups into their campaigns. This most American of programming genres qualifies as a worldwide hit.

History Blogs

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Quote/Unquote Archives 2001 to 2003

Your critique of the Monticello Association's decision to reject the descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson for membership ("Multiculturalism at Monticello," editorial, May 24) was inspiring. But in noting the shift in scholars' thinking on this subject, you did not cite the work responsible for this re-evaluation. "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy," by Annette Gordon-Reed, was published a year before the DNA tests and predicted the re

What Are the Origins of the Middle East Crisis? (Continued)

by Michael Oren

HNN Editor: This is a continuation of a chapter in Mr. Oren's history of the Six-Day War. Click here to read the first part.The following year, 1954, undistinguished elsewhere in the world, was a Middle Eastern watershed. That year, the Soviet Union, having supported Israel since its creation, having recognized and armed it, switched its allegiance to the other side. The USSR indeed had nothing more to gain from Zionism--the

Quote/Unquote 2006 Aug.

WEEK of August 14, 2006Re: History Editorial in the Weekend Australian: THE tide of postmodern education is receding in Australia. At this past week's history summit, a diverse group of thinkers and historians including Geoffrey Blainey, Bob Carr and Reconciliation Australia's Jackie Huggins issued a communique agreeing that history teaching needs to be reformed, that the subject should be taught as a separate and stand-alone cour

Quote/Unquote 2006 July

WEEK of July 31, 2006Re: US Solders: Deaths Linked to Lebanon War?Juan Cole: Has Ehud Olmert indirectly killed 12 US Marines and soldiers, and wounded many more, this week? I mean, while thousands of US and British troops were essentially hostage to the good will of mill

Quote/Unquote 2006 June

WEEK of June 26, 2006Re: Supreme Court & Civil Liberties Cass Sunstein:For much of American history, the Supreme Court has refused to resolve the most fundamental conflicts between individual rights and national security. Instead it has required Congress explicitly to authorize any presidential in