Roundup

Obama Makes It Harder to See the Arc of History Bend

by John Gans

My old boss’ post-presidential center is a missed opportunity.

Black women led the charge against R. Kelly. They’re part of a long tradition.

by Danielle McGuire

Why has it taken more than 20 years and testimony by about 50 accusers to get to this moment?

The important way the 2008 crisis was worse than the Great Depression

by Matt O'Brien

The 2008 crisis is still with us to this very day even though it officially ended almost a decade ago.

Revisiting The American Nazi Supporters of "A Night at the Garden"

by Margaret Talbot

One advantage to living through Trumpism is that it has compelled a reckoning with aspects of our country’s past that, for a long time, many Americans preferred not to acknowledge.

America Needs an Education in Whiteness

by Jordan Lindsey

Not a white equivalent of Black History Month—but a better understanding of the concept of whiteness and the harm it inflicts on race relations.

The Direct Line Between Slavery And Racism In Boston

by Janna Malamud Smith

When you live with a false story about your nation’s past ... developing an informed consensus for action becomes extremely difficult.  

Roundup Top 10!

This week's broad sampling of opinion pieces found on the Internet, as selected by the editors of HNN.

Video of the Week: Ibram X. Kendi on Surviving Cancer & His Anti-Racist Reading List for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam

And the legacy of Frederick Douglass on his 201st birthday.

Protesting on Bended Knee: Race, Dissent and Patriotism in 21st Century America

by Eric Burin

This digital book is available for free download!

The "Historovox" and the Bad Synergy Between Historians and Journalism

by Corey Robin

When academic knowledge is on tap for the media, the result is not a fusion of the best of academia and the best of journalism but the worst of both worlds. 

A quick response to Max Boot’s critique of historians

by Glenn David Brasher

Aren’t retention and anti-intellectualism the real problems?

Max Boot’s Screed Against Historians

by John Fea

Boot is the latest public intellectual to chide academic historians for failing to speak to public audiences. 

What we get wrong about the roots of slavery in America

by Eric Herschthal

How we remember the past shapes the fight for racial justice today

Why History is Important Today

by Luis Martínez-Fernández

"The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

Americans’ ignorance of history is a national scandal

by Max Boot

You simply can’t understand the present if you don’t understand the past. 

The Catholic Church is bursting with secrets. Investigating one will unravel them all.

by Garry Wills

Secrecy in one clerical area intersects with secrecy in others. 

How George Washington would fix partisan politics in America today

by Eli Merritt

The United States' first President George Washington would prescribe rule of law and emotional intelligence to help us heal.

Do American Women Still Need an Equal Rights Amendment?

by Susan Chira

We’re already living in Phyllis Schlafly’s nightmare.

Why Are We Still Segregating Black History in February?

by Christina Proenza-Coles

Even before the U.S. was a nation, African-Americans played crucial roles in nearly every stage of history in the new world. ‘Honoring’ that history in one month is a travesty.

The black men of the Civil War were America’s original ‘dreamers’

by Colbert I. King

Like dreamers of today, those black soldiers and sailors also had families and attended churches; some were enrolled in schools.