Historians in the News

Jesse Lemisch says he is not and never has been a believer in a usable past

by Jesse Lemisch

The radical historian says the pursuit of a “usable past” is perhaps a good thing, but also a limiting goal.

University of Kansas historian resigns to protest law allowing guns in the classroom

by Jacob Dorman

“There is no place for firearms in the classroom” – Associate Professor of History Jacob S. Dorman

African history as a discipline is on the rise

by Glen Ncube

But it’s one that raises many questions.

Why More Historians Are Embracing the Amicus Brief

"To be a legal advocate is freeing," says Tomiko Brown-Nagin, a history professor at Harvard.

Pulitzer Prize winner Annette Gordon-Reed reflects on her personal history

"You can’t let your emotions overtake you so much that you can’t do the work."

In a new book historian Garrett Graff shows how nuclear disaster preparation shaped the modern world

His book recounts the history of "how nuclear war would have actually worked — the nuts and bolts of war plans, communication networks, weapons, and bunkers — and how imagining and planning for the impact of nuclear war actually changed.”

In the Trump era Eric Foner "is one of the most dangerous men in the United States”

Why? Because he remembers the past.

Popular historian John Holland argues in a new book that the Nazis lost the war through “spectacular inefficiency”

German planes and tanks broke down frequently he claims in a new book, "The War in the West" (vol. 2).

Eric Foner explains why he wrote about Lincoln

And why he feared the Lincoln Industrial Complex.

How useful are the humanities? This policeman has an answer.

by Frank Biess

The story of David Livingstone  –  the chief of police in Simi Valley who's working on a PhD in history. 

#1 bestseller in China? Book by Oxford historian Peter Frankopan.

The book:  "The Silk Roads: A New History of the World," which shows the importance of the east and the role it had in shaping modern Europe.

Historian Timothy Snyder: “It’s pretty much inevitable” that Trump will try to stage a coup and overthrow democracy

Yale historian and author of the new book "On Tyranny" says we may have one year left to save American democracy.

Supporters Rally Around Accused Russian Historian Of Stalin's Crimes

Yury Dmitriyev painstakingly assembled a Book of Remembrance that includes the names of 13,000 Great Terror victims.

Mormon history scholars file court brief over Trump travel ban

They draw a parallel with believe the federal government’s targeting of Mormons in the 19th century.

Accused plagiarist Matthew Whitaker wins arbitration case against City of Phoenix over police contract

The victory comes after a series of blows to his career.

Niall Ferguson says the liberal international order has passed its peak

But he doesn’t believe that means we’re headed for more wars.

Nathaniel Philbrick wins the $50,000 2017 George Washington Prize

It’s for Valiant Ambition, his story about the complex relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold.

In an interview Jill Lepore explains how she writes and the writers she admires most

One of her favorites is John Hersey.

Trump is no Hitler – he’s a Mussolini, says Oxford historian

There’s good news and bad news in parallels from the 1930s, warns Professor Margaret MacMillan, outgoing warden at St Antony’s College.

Rick Perlstein’s still drawing brickbats for his confession in the NYT that historians (like him) have misinterpreted modern conservatism

by Josh Mound

Some historians insist economics really explains Trump’s victory.