Historians/History

The United States in 1960

by Vaughn Davis Bornet

Author’s Afterword (written in 2008)The wording of the following essay is precisely that placed in the mail on December 30, 1960.  It was written for the New International Year Book for 1961.  Although I was duly paid for this after working hours effort, the manuscript was returned to me, for there was a dispute between the publishers and the writer over the paragraphs dealing with Fidel Castro’s degree of attachment to Communism, for example,

The Problem with Middle East Studies: A Microscopic Investigation

by Daniel Pipes

As one of the few pro-U.S. and pro-Israel voices in the field of Middle East studies, I find my views get frequently mangled by others in the field – thus I have had to post a 5,000-word document titled “Department of Corrections (of Others' Factual Mistakes about Me)” on my website. Usually, the precise evolution of such mistakes escapes me. Recently, h

Eat Out this Bastille Day ... It's a Tradition

by Tony Perrottet

Many of us will hoist a glass of bubbly and nibble a plate of paté in a Gallic eatery today in a misty-eyed hommage to Bastille Day -- that heart-warming moment in 1789 when a mob stormed a ne

What Are We to Make of Pope Pius XII?

by Paul O'Shea

There have been few problems within contemporary Catholicism that arouse such passions as the subject of Eugenio Pacelli, known to history as Pope Pius XII (1876-1958). Pacelli has been the center of a storm since 1963.

A Historian's Daring Use of Fiction to Tell the Story of the Black Death

by John Hatcher

My new book is not a conventional history book. It combines solid history with fiction. Having studied and taught about the Black Death for more than thirty years I wanted to find a new way of adding to our knowledge and understanding of this massively important but very well-worked historical event. I therefore decided to try to write an intimate history of the tumultuous years of the mid-fourteenth century seen through the eyes of those who lived and died in the ferociously lethal epidem

The Myth of American Diplomacy

by Walter L. Hixson

The Myth of American Diplomacy emphasizes that U.S. foreign policy emanates from a culture of patriotic national identity. As the book derives from secondary sources, depends on theory for its essential argum

Reckoning with the “N” Word

by Andrew Ward

Over the course of writing three books about 19th century African American history, I have wrestled with the problem of what has come to be called the “N” word. It pops up in so many black and white 19th century sources that any historian bellying up to such material has to reckon with it, one way or another.

Habits of Empire: An Interview with Walter Nugent

by David Liebers

Historian Walter Nugent is the author of the just published book: Habits of Empire: A History of American Expansion (Knopf, 2008). He is a member of HNN's advisory board. He was interviewed by email in June.

Give’em Hell, George: The Bush-Truman Analogy

by Ron Briley

As we move to the end of the Bush presidency, there is considerable speculation as to the legacy of the nation’s forty-third President. Right-wing pundits, such as Ann Coulter, laud the President for protecting Americans from domestic terrorism by engaging Al-Qaeda in battle on the Iraqi front. On the other hand, historians seem to agree with the American public which has awarded the President record low poll numbers. In fact, most historians in a recent History News Network

Black Founding Fathers: An Interview with Richard S. Newman

by David Liebers

Richard S. Newman is Professor of History at Rochester Institute of Technology.  His most recent book, Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers (NYU Press), is a long overdue biography of Richard Allen, a prodigious figure in the formation of the black Church. He was interviewed by email.

It's No Fault of Yours that You Don't Know About Thomas Jefferson's Sense of Humor

by Kevin J. Hayes

Is Queer History, History with an Agenda? Sure.

by Vicki L. Eaklor

When I began writing Queer America: A GLBT History of the 20th Century a few years ago I did it to fulfill a need I have perceived in more than 25 years of teaching. Certainly in the last twenty years there has been an explosion of wonderful works in queer history and queer studies, but relatively few are addressed to readers not already part of the conversation. In attempting to present the variety of experiences of nonstraight Americans and their centrality to what we call "American history" I expect to be accused of having, and serving, an agenda. Guilty as charged.

Ted Sorensen's Fallible Memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis

by Sheldon M. Stern

Ted Sorensen’s new memoir, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, is, as expected, beautifully written and unfailingly engaging. His story demonstrates that “the best and the brightest” can serve loyally in the White House without sacrificing their integrity or compromising their intelligence and idealism.The prologue to Sorensen’s 531 page personal story begins with his role in the Cuban missile crisis—which he rightly regards as the most unfo

Disrespecting the Federalist Papers

by Michael I. Meyerson

The Federalist Papers occupy a strangely contradictory position in today’s intellectual environment. This collection of essays, written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison (with a small assist from John Jay) to encourage ratification of the Constitution, is required reading for high school and college students, as well as those arguing before the Supreme Court. The essays have been cited in over 300 Supreme Court decisions, with the number of citations increasing every decade. Non

The Fourteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women

by Anne M. Boylan

Last weekend, about 1,500 scholars gathered at the University of Minnesota (“The U” in local parlance), for the Fourteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women (“the Berks”).  The theme was “Continuities and Changes,” and the program committee had put together a packed program of sessions – 204 in all – encompassing papers, roundtables, seminars, and plenary sessions.   So pack

Bobby Kennedy in The Sixties: A Photographer's Reminiscence

by Bill Eppridge

What Manner of Man Was RFK?

by Thurston Clarke

On June 8, 1968, the most dramatic display of public grief for an American who had never been elected to the presidency unfolded as a twenty-one-car train, its engine draped in black, carried 1100 mourners and the body

Supplanting Societies: A New View of the Past

by David Day

One of the most popular ways in which to view the history of the modern world is through the prism of colonialism. It seems to explain so much about the origins and development of different nations and regions. The history of the American continents, for instance, was changed dramatically by the arrival of Columbus in 1492 and the forces unleashed by his arrival and by that of subsequent European conquerors. But similarly dramatic changes, at least to central America, had been unleashed by the

Historians and Facebook: In the Halls of an Electronic AHA

by Jesse Lemisch

Hobbling along with my cane, I have only recently arrived on Facebook, where I have found great numbers of youth already there, moshing, banging their heads together, high-fiving and dapping each other, singing their distinctive songs, giving new meaning to the term “friends with benefits,” and engaging in other rituals of youth. At 71, I may be the oldest person on Facebook. From the number of “friends” my Facebook friends a

Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America

by Thurston Clarke

 In 1968, America was a wounded nation.