Historians/History

What Happens to the Papers of Dead Historians?

by David Liebers

For intellectual historians, biographers and students looking for senior research projects, the archives of former historians are often indispensable troves of  information.  Letters between scholars often cut to the center of the most pressing arguments in the field, and notes and drafts of books aid in understanding the intellectual development of historians.  Several prominent historians have passed away in recent months.  Among them, John Hope Franklin, Pro

Was William Calley a Scapegoat?

by Gary Kulik

After 40 years, 2nd Lt. William Calley is back in the news. For many years now the young lieutenant convicted in 1971 of the murder of 22 Vietnamese villagers at My Lai has been regarded as a scapegoat. A recent New York Times editorial raised the stakes, calling him a "classic scapegoat." The occasion of the editorial was a speech this past August that Calley gave at a Kiwanis Club gathering in Columbus, Ga. Calley told his audience that "not a day that

The New Relevance of Friedrich Engels: An Interview with Tristram Hunt

by Aaron Leonard

Dr. Tristram Hunt is one of Britain’s best known young historians. Educated at Cambridge and Chicago Universities, he is lecturer in British history at Queen Mary, University of London and author of

When the Rabbis Marched on Washington

by Alex Grobman

At a time when the American Jewish community organizes annual marches in support of Israel, it is imp

The 1990s as History

by William O'Neill

I began writing my book during the 1990s with the idea of duplicating my history of the 1960s, Coming Apart, which came out in 1971 hot on the heels of that turbulent decade. But other projects intervened and the

A Young Palestinian’s Diary

by Kimberly Katz

While many new books on Israel/Palestine pore over the conflict and its lack of resolution, the details of identity formation, the political trials and triumphs on each side, few books give the reader a he

California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963: An Interview With Kevin Starr

by Aaron Leonard

University of Southern California Professor Kevin Starr has just released the eighth book in his “Americans and the California Dream” s

Tweeting History

by Christine Kelly

Average history buffs have a lot on their minds other than history.  They enjoy the occasional TV documentary on the building of the Hoover Dam.  They have visited their region’s selection of quaint local history museums.  Their ability to relay the details of the Allied assault on Nazi territories has impressed friends.  For the buff, history is a source of fact-filled enjoyment, and while he or she would love to spend his days reading War and Peace and critiq

Have You Used an iPhone History App?

by David Austin Walsh

John Clevesy had just gotten married.

Norman Borlaug's Complicated Legacy

by Nick Cullather

Norman Borlaug never liked being called the father of the green revolution.  It was “a miserable term,” he felt, for the modernization of global agriculture, and he knew no one scientist could claim all the credit. His obituaries this week repeated it anyway, along with another accomplishment he never disputed, that his work had saved “hundreds of millions of lives.” It is a low estimate.  Writers for The Atlantic and Reason magazines

Walden Woods Was a Black Space Before It Was a Green Space

by Elise Lemire

Each year, half a million of us visit the Walden Pond State Reservation in Concord, Massachusetts.  We come to this corner of America’s bir

Was Henry Hudson a Spy?

by Douglas Hunter

Was Henry Hudson a spy on his 1609 voyage—an intelligence-gatherer working surreptitiously for powerful men in England? It’s a credible explanation for his otherwise strange behavior on the extraordinary voyage tha

Judging Henry Hudson

by Peter Mancall

            Three of the most noteworthy bodies of water in North America—the Hudson River, Hudson Strait, and Hudson Bay—take their nam

The American Revolutionary War Hero U.S. Historians Have Ignored

by Alex Storozynski

One of the most overlooked figures in history is Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Pole who arrived in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776 and played a major ro

Long Ago: A Total War in the Pacific Came to an Unimaginable End

by Vaughn Davis Bornet

In 1941 to 1945 America’s fighting forces fought a desperate war with a dedicated and ruthless adversary, the Empire of Japan, which the enemy began with a surprise attack and which for nearly four years they did everything—fair and foul alike—to try to win.

The Legacy of Florence Harding, a Most Modern First Lady

by Katherine A. S. Sibley

This past spring, first lady Michelle Obama invited some Washington school children to join her in planting an organic kitchen garden on the White House

Why Is Civil Rights Hero T.R.M. Howard Still Ignored?

by David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito

Fifty-four years ago this month, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old Chicago boy visiting family in Mississippi, was abducted, mutilated and murdered. Several days later, his horribly disfigured body was

The Uses and Abuses of History: An Interview with Margaret MacMillan

by Aaron Leonard

Historian Margaret MacMillan has just published Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History, July's HNN Book of the Month. In it she examines the ways in whi

Distorting the Holocaust: Why Numbers Matter

by Alex Grobman

Holocaust denial is ongoing challenge for the Jewish community. Equally problematic are those who acknowledge the Holocaust, but insist on being incl

The Evolution of the History Department in the United States, 1940-1980

by William Palmer

So perfect was the order as the Yale history department sat down for lunch in the Branford College dining hall in the fall of 1940 that it resembled an academic great chain of being.  The Bran