Historians/History

Lenin's Brother: An Interview with Philip Pomper

by Aaron Leonard

Alexander Ulyanov, was V.I. Lenin’s older brother. Like his brother he was a revolutionary committed to the overthrow of the Russian autocracy

Immigrant Loyalties During the Great War and Today

by David Laskin

Italians, Poles and Jews, the three largest groups of newcomers during the peak years of immigration at the turn of the last century, arrived in the United States with deep cultural traditions, fervent religious beliefs, grea

A Discussion on Irish Immigrants in America with Timothy Meagher

by Jill O'Neill

Timothy Meagher is associate professor of history and curator of the American Catholic History Collections at the Catholic University of America in W

Mexican War Traitor, Hero, and Irishman: The Three Faces of John Riley

by Peter F. Stevens

By the end of the Mexican-American War, 1846-48, John Riley wore three labels – American traitor, Mexican hero, and Irish nationalist.  Which o

A Critique of Peter Kuznick's Interview with HNN

by Ron Radosh

If you wonder how people on the Left deal with their critics, look no further than this new lengthy interview with Prof. Peter Kuznick, the co-writer and co-director with Oliver Stone of the forthcoming Showtime ten-part documentary on the twentieth century.  I first

Oliver Stone's Secret History: An Interview with Peter Kuznick

by Dave Lieberson

Since The Birth of a Nation, Hollywood has been trying to make history its own.  While some movies are loathed by historians (Troy) and others loved (Platoon) it is hard to find a movie or television show that sheds light on an entertaining subject and yet remains historically accurate.  Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone are collaborating on a ten part Showtime series in an attempt to do just that.  The series focuses on the new, undiscovered asp

Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission: An Interview with Kim Dong-choon

by Mark Selden

Since the formation of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to come to terms with the legacy of apartheid and colonialism, Commissions have sprung up in many countries that have sought to come to terms with painful legacies of colonialism, war, and interna

Why Saladin Continues to Captivate the Arab World

by Jonathan Phillips

On October 2, 1187, the demoralized Christian defenders of Jerusalem watched Saladin, the ruler of the Muslim Near East, enter the city.  This day – by coincidence, the anniversary of the Prophet’s Nigh

Decline of a Great Power?

by Robert Brent Toplin

Yale historian Paul Kennedy’s 1987 best-seller, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, has been getting renewed attention these days, because the book carries a message of interest to Americans in 2010.  Kennedy demonstrated that many of the great nations of earlier history made expensive military commitments.  Eventually, the cost of defending vast interests weakened their economies.  Kennedy said the United States appeared to be engaging in “overstr

Big Tobacco and the Historians

by Jon Wiener

Last summer Robert Proctor, a Stanford professor who studies the history of tobacco, was surprised to receive court papers accusing him of witness tampering and witness intimidation, along with a subpoena for his

How Thomas Jefferson's Wartime Record Shaped His Life

by Michael Kranish

“I think one war enough for the life of one man,” Jefferson wrote a friend in 1808, “and you and I have gone through one which at least may lesson our impatience to embark in another.”

The Forgotten Washington Race War of 1919

by Rawn James Jr.

For all the ink spilled lamenting Washington, D.C.’s allegedly massive racial divide, it is worth noting that the District of Columbia, perhaps more than any other American city, has come an extraordinarily l

The 240th Anniversary of the Boston Massacre

by Richard Archer

We all know the basic facts about the Boston Massacre.  On March 5, 1770, a small contingent of British troops fired on an antagonistic crowd, kill

The Importance of Coal in Appalachia

by Jay Luke

Mining coal has been an ongoing process in the United States for nearly three hundred years.  From its humble beginnings in the late 1700s in Northeast P

Interview with Gordon S. Wood

by Jill O'Neill

Gordon S. Wood is Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University. He received his B.A. degree from Tufts Universit

Remembering the Late J.R. Pole

by Joyce Appleby

Jack Pole, whose career as a British historian of the United States spanned more than fifty years, died in Oxford on January 30th.  He was 87 years old.  From his magisterial Political Representation in England and the Origins of the America Republic, published in 1966, to his ambitious Contract and Consent: Representation and the Jury in Anglo-American Legal History which appeared a few weeks before his death, Pole explored with perseverance and perceptivene

The Return of Staughton Lynd

by David Waldstreicher

For the generation that came of age intellectually in the 1970s and 80s, Staughton Lynd’s Intellectual Origins of American Radicalism (1968) was one of those tattered Vintage paperback (num

The Howard Zinn I Remember

by Staughton Lynd

Next Christmastime, it will be exactly fifty years since as a graduate student at Columbia University I attended the Columbia "smoker" at the American Historical Association meetings in New York, looking for work.  At about midnight there came toward me across the floor Bill Leuchtenberg, in whose classes both Howard and I had studied, and together with him a tall, skinny man with dark hair, already walking awkwardly because of a back injury sustained (as I understand it) at a

Howard Zinn Briefly Recalled

by Sheldon M. Stern

Ever since Howard Zinn’s death last week, there has been an avalanche of articles, letters, editorials, op-eds, and Internet postings justifiably praising him as a courageous activist in the struggles against war, racism, and economic injustice.  However, there have also been repeated claims that he was a great historian.  But, as several historians have pointed out, (e.g. Ron Radosh, History News Network, February

Thank You, Howard Zinn

by Ron Briley

The last week of January 2010 marked important watersheds in recent American history.  The nation’s first African-American president delivered his initial State of the Union message to Congress following a political season in which his poll numbers have declined and his legislative agenda stalled.  The speech, alongside a televised debate with House Republicans, seemed to mark the return of a more activist President Obama willing to fight for health care reform, tighter