Historians/History

The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home

by Peter Nelson

The triumphant return from World War I of the U.S. 369th Infantry Regiment, 93rd Division, known popularly as “The Harlem Hellfighters,”

What We Can Learn from a Biography of Hellen Keller's Teacher

by Kim E. Nielsen

Few of us leave instructions for our future biographers. Anne Sullivan Macy did so. The woman best known as the teacher of Helen Keller wanted to be remembered as a skilled and innovative educator—but without the idolization that came along with working

The Trollope Ploy Myth Lives On: Robert McNamara and the Cuban Missile Crisis

by Sheldon M. Stern

The death of Robert S. McNamara severs one of the last profoundly personal links to some of the most contentious events of the 1960s. McNamara, of course, is principally remembered for his role in the escalation of the American phase of the war in Vietnam. Not surprisingly, most people who viewed Errol Morris’s Academy Award winning (2003) documentary film, “The Fog of War,” have been principally interested in McNamara’s agonizing memories about Vietnam. However, McNamara’s account of his role in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, an event which was far more likely than Vietnam to lead to an all-out nuclear war, has received far less attention.

Robert S. McNamara: The War Wizard Passes

by John Prados

Americans no doubt will view the death of Robert S. McNamara with considerable ambivalence. The 93-year old McNamara has fingerprints on many of the key events of his era, whether it be innovation of the nuclear doctrine of “mutua

Why the Vatican's Latest Attempt to Absolve Galileo Is Bound to Fail

by Thomas Mayer

The Vatican is out to monkey with Galileo again. Many might think it had subjected him to enough tender ministrations already, from his two trials in the seventeenth century through John Paul II’s botched rehabilitation to the recent poster show, “Galileo Uomo di Fede,” in Santa Maria degli Angeli which as good as ignores those trials. It appears that Benedict XVI, former head of the Roman Inquisition’s successor, intends to reopen the case, probably with an eye to ann

The African Diaspora as a Perspective on the World

by Patrick Manning

When I agreed in 1990 to write a history of the African diaspora, I found it an exciting but frightening task—exciting as a chance to link the work I had done in African history and in world history; frightening because it meant taking positions on importan

Why Did I.F. Stone Sidestep the Hiss Case?

by Max Holland

Any reconsideration of I. F. Stone should specifically address how he viewed the Cold War spy and loyalty controversies—or chose not to—even if one accepts a minimalist interpretation of Stone’s brushes with Soviet intelligence. Stone often commented about the cases that rocked the country in the late 1940s and were responsible for the repression, fear, and culture of conformity that he repeatedly decried. Most frequently, Stone wrote in passionate defense of government officials, high and

Stalin’s Wars: An Interview with Professor Geoffrey Roberts

by Aaron Leonard

In 2006 Professor Geoffrey Roberts published Stalin’s Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953. In this work he challenges a good chunk of the received wisdom about Soviet leader Joseph Stalin: the longevity of the pre-war Stalin-Ribbentrop pact, Stalin’s

Obama, Buchenwald, and the Children

by Kenneth Waltzer

President Obama visited Buchenwald recently, following the path of his great uncle Charlie Payne, who was with General George Patton’s U.S. Third Army.  He connected Buchenwald with the larger story of the Nazi destruction of the Jews, accompanied by survivors Elie Wiesel and Betrand Herz, and the laid a wreath at the Buchenwald memorial. While he was there, Dr. Volkhard Knigge, director of the Buchenwald museum, highlighted the saving of children, who were kept alive in an organized

How Do Historians Think?

by Michèle Lamont

My recent book How Professors Think: Inside the Curious World of Academic Judgement (Harvard University Press 2009) analyzes how social scientists and humanists go about evaluating the research of the

Some Tips for Celebrating the Fourth

by Ray Raphael

First off, get a jump on your neighbors. Don’t wait till Saturday, when “independence” will be so day-before-yesterday. Today, rush down to your neighborhood fireworks stand, grab a small family pac

Nixonland: An Interview with Rick Perlstein

by Rick Shenkman

Rick Perlstein's books have helped redefine the history of American conservatism in the modern era. His first book in a projected trilogy was Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. The next book was Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (paperback, April 2009). This interview was conducted by email.

A Holocaust Survivor's Reflections on a Grandson's Graduation

by Gustav Schonfeld

Except for the year from May of 1944 to May of 1945, my life has been very satisfactory. However, that one year left an indelible mark upon my life, a mark which affects me still. It was the year my relatives and I spent i

President Reagan Approves the Bombing of Iran

by Jason Saltoun-Ebin

President Reagan ordered strikes against Iran if any of the American hostages held by the terrorist group Hezbollah were killed. The order, made during a January 18th, 1985 meeting of the National Security Planning Group, came on the heels of a threat by the terrorists to “try the American hostages as spies and then give them the punishment they deserve.” The document is posted online for the first time at the newly created website, www.

“What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”

by Anne Pastore

In America today, both black and white citizens gather to celebrate the Fourth of July, but that has not always been the case. Blacks in the antebellum north were sometimes pressured to stay away from celebrations of the Fourth, while in the south no one even thought to include them. Len Travers says in the book Celebrating the Fourth: Independence Day and the Rites of Nationalism in the Early Republic, that in the overwhelmingly black south, “the issue simply did not arise; no

The Age of Reagan: An Interview with Sean Wilentz (Part I)

by Rick Shenkman

Sean Wilentz, professor of history at Princeton University, is the author most recently of The Age of Reagan (2008). He was interviewed by email. Part II will appear in a subsequent edition of HNN.

John Dean Slams "Revisionists" and Nixon Foundation in Talk at Library

by Luke A. Nichter

In a speech at the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on June 17, 2009--the 37th anniversary of the Watergate break-in that ultimately led to the resignation of the 37th president--Dean struck back at the"revisionists","apologists", and Nixon Foundation members who were critical of his appearance during which he promoted the re-release of his 1970s memoir, Blind Ambition.nixontapes.org has obtained a copy of Dean's address and excerpts of it ap

Why I Cannot Stand the Redesigned Smithsonian National Museum of American History

by Larry DeWitt

America’s Shopping MallImagine my surprise—upon my first visit to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) since it reopened last December after being closed for two years for an $85 million remodeling—when I discovered that the NMAH has been replaced by a shopping mall! The building is still there, to be sure, but inside mighty forces have been at work. I suppose my first clue should have been the name change. The old name i

Anthropologists as the Good Guys

by Elizabeth Weiss

In a recent article posted on HNN (May 14, 2009), Tony Platt (a Professor emeritus, California State University, Sacramento) stated that:Between 1788, when Thomas Jefferson dug up an Indian burial

The Pioneer in Women's Rights Who Was on the Wrong Side of History

by Sheila L. Skemp

Everyone is familiar with the expression, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”  It is a maxim that historians&mda