Historians/History

Black Loyalists in the American Revolution

by John J. McLaughlin

In 1775 when armed conflict appeared inevitable between England and the American Colonists, there were approximately 500,000 slaves in the Southern Colonies, roughly twenty percent of the total population of the entire 13 colonies.  This presented a frightening situation for the slave owners, but fascinating opportunities for the British forces.  The British were chronically short of troops, and a number of theories were advanced to take advantage of the slave situation, such as

Inspired by John Gunther: An Interview with Mark Weisenmiller

by Aaron Leonard

What inspired you to write this?   Since boyhood, the “Inside” books by John Gunther have been a source of inspiration for me and I always wanted to attempt a similar nonfiction literary project. Traveling and reporting from almost 40 different countries in my reporting career has served as a base, if you will, for this project.  I plan to make this book the first of a series of nonfiction tomes, profiling different areas and countries of the world.

Highlights of the 2009 Annual Convention of the American Historical Association

by Rick Shenkman

News

Interview with AHA President-elect Anthony Grafton

by Jill O'Neill

Anthony Grafton is the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University.  The majority of his research lies within the fields of the Renaissance and Reformation and Historiography.  He

What in the World is Oliver Stone Talking About?

by Eric Kurlander

Last week the director Oliver Stone caused quite a stir when, in describing his new Showtime mini-series, "A Secret History of America," he declared that Adolf Hitler was an "easy scapegoat throughout h

New Video from the 1945 Yalta Summit

by Steven Lomazow

As seen on a recently rediscovered 1988 video, Col. Joseph Gregory Mayton, head of the Soviet division of the OSS during WW2, attended the conference between t

Demystifying the Clinton Presidency: An Interview with Historian Taylor Branch

by Robin Lindley

In his unprecedented account The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President, historian Taylor Branch offers a vivid and candid portray

Texas Social Studies Reform: What Texans Aren’t Talking About—But Should Be

by Keith A. Erekson

This week the year-long process of revising the Texas social studies standards will become dramatically public as the State Board of Education (SBOE) hears testimony in Austin. Two preliminary revisions of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) have been circulated and the hearings will lead to a final draft to be passed into law in March.1 Unfortunately, the process has been constrained by a “laundry list” approac

What Would You Include in a Children's Book About the Ancient World?

by Cathy Diez-Luckie

Can a child of the 21st century imagine the way people lived 2,000 or 3,000 years ago? This was one of the questions I pondered as I started writing Famous Figures of Ancient Times. The ancient world had no car

History without Reading

by Jim Cullen

Imagine, if you will, the study of history without reading. No primary source documents to ground a discussion. No monographic studies to situate a discourse. Not even a textbook for background information. How much a sense of the past could you possibly have? This is not a rhetorical question. Nor is it solely an invitation to consider the ongoing deprivations and inequities that riddle our educational system. Actually, the situation I'm describing is probably the de facto

Backup of Highlights of the 2010 Convention

HNN Daily Reports Day 1 Related Links HNN Coverage: Past AHA & OAH Conferences News San Diego Tsunami A Grim Year on the Academic Job Market for Historians H

Highlights of the 2010 Annual Convention of the American Historical Association in San Diego

by David Austin Walsh

Index Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 News Bloggers VideosRelated Links HNN Coverage: Past AHA & OAH Conferences HNN Hot Topics: Gay Marriage

The Hall of Fame for Great Americans: Organizational Comatosis or Hibernation?

by William N. Thompson and Ernita Joaquin

The world’s first organization that has been specifically designated as a “Hall of Fame” was established in New York City in 1900.  The Hall of Fame for Great Americans honors 102 Americans.  It has served as a model for hundreds of other “halls of fame,” the most prominent being baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, established in 1939.  While the Hall of Fame for Great Americans remains the original icon in a history of popular cul

The Extraordinary Story of the Hanging of the Black Man Who Owned Slaves

by J. William Harris

The bare bones of the story are simple.  A black man, Thomas Jeremiah, was accused in 1775, in Charleston (then, Charles Town), of trying to organize a slave insurrection.&nb

Why Did the Bush White House Copy and Print Every Email It Received? It's a Long Story

by Nneoma Amadi-obi

Who owns the President’s papers? Prior to the passage of the 1978 Presidential Records Act, American presidents claimed legal ownership of the records generated during the course of their presidency, and established public access to these historical materials at their own pleasure. The 1978 Presidential Records Act essentially put an end to this tradition by establishing that ownership and control of presidential records belonged to the United States. The PRA requires Presidents upon leavi

A Closer Look at "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell

by John J. McLaughlin

Americans rightly  regard General Joseph W. Stilwell as a hero. Few know that he was a total failure with respect to his primary  mission which was to be the Commander of American Forces in the China Burma India  theater (CBI) and Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek! That story has not been told. Stilwell became an iconic hero in the annals of World War II. His famous "walk out from Burma," his salty language, and his later  retaking of Burma

The Historian as Time Traveler

by Ian Mortimer

For most historians, the idea of actually visiting the past is something of a joke. For a start, it is impossible. What’s more, it always will be – if anyone in the future were to invent a time machine capable of going backwards in time, by

HNN Debate: The Lincoln Murder Mystery

The question of why John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln was settled long ago as far as most historians are concerned. Booth in league with a ragtag group of Southern misfits was out to change the outcome of the Civil War. But do we know the full story? This sounds like a question one might hear on a bad TV show about the Kennedy assassination. But it's been raised anew in the aftermath of the publication of the book, Dark Union (John Wiley & Sons, 2003), which claims that a fellow

The Christmas Eve Freedom Fighters

by William Loren Katz

This Christmas Eve marks the 172nd anniversary of a battle for liberty in 1837 on the banks of Lake Okeechobee, Florida, that helped shape the United States of America. An estimated 380 to 480 freedom-fighting African and Indian members of the Seminole nation threw back an advance of more than a thousand US Army and other troops led by Colonel Zachary Taylor, a future President of the United States. The Seminoles so badly mauled the invaders that Taylor ordered his soldiers to fall back, bury t

Rethinking Franklin D. Roosevelt: Getting Past the Gospel According to Bruenn

by Steven Lomazow

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Roosevelt’s death, in 1970, cardiologist Howard Gerald Bruenn presented a paper in the highly respected medical journal,