Historians/History

Public Interest Declassification Board Seeks Input on Declassification Priorities

by Lee White

The PIDB is seeking the input of historians on the declassification process.

The Nazis' Gun Ban Facilitated Kristallnact

by Stephen Halbrook

Jewish-owned guns were registered and were easily confiscated in the weeks before the onslaught.

Documenting Historians' Revolutionary Demographic Change

by Alan M. Kraut and David A. Gerber

In 1962, the president of the American Historical Association warned about young historians of "lower middle-class or foreign origins." How times have (thankfully) changed.

I Don't Care Who Killed JFK

by Peter Dreier

It really doesn't matter who killed the thirty-fifth president.

What Happens When a Country's Culture is Replaced by Immigrants?

by Diana Muir Appelbaum

It happened before in Mexican Texas.

Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union [INTERVIEW]

by David Austin Walsh

Journalist Peter Savodnik discusses his new book, "The Interloper."

A New Film Life of President John F. Kennedy [INTERVIEW]

by Robin Lindley

Director Susan Bellows on the PBS documentary "JFK."

Why Didn't Obama Say "Under God" in His Recitation of the Gettysburg Address?

by John Fea

Simple: Because "under God" isn't in the version Obama was asked to read.

Would We Still Have Had "The Sixties" If Kennedy Had Lived?

by James T. Patterson

Remember, the turmoil of the 1960s stemmed from forces unrelated to JFK's assassination.

Why Lee Harvey Oswald Pulled the Trigger

by Steven M. Gillon

The Warren Commission painted him as a disaffected sociopath. But Oswald actually had a political reason to kill JFK: to impress Castro.

Does PBS's "JFK" Whitewash Kennedy's Flaws?

by Sheldon M. Stern

The new PBS documentary fails to rise above the imagery crafted by Arthur Schlesinger and Theodore Sorensen in the 1960s.

The Kennedys and Martin Luther King

by Yohuru Williams

King and the Kennedys remain important symbols of the power of hope and the promise of a just democracy.

Abraham Lincoln Never Believed in Racial Equality

by Alan J. Singer

"I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races."

Veterans Day, Ninety-Five Years On

by Adam Hochschild and Joe Sacco

The enduring folly of the Battle of the Somme.

Veterans Day in Ireland

by Jason R. Myers

For one thing, it's not Veterans Day, it's Remembrance Day. For another, it's not an official holiday, even though some 200,000 Irishman fought in World War I.

History Gets Into Bed with Psychology, and It’s a Happy Match

by Carol Tavris

History gives us the data of our march of folly. Cognitive science shows why.

David Dennis on the Nazi Distortion of the Western Tradition [INTERVIEW]

by Robin Lindley

The Nazis tried to put their stamp on the entirety of the Western canon.

The Seven Greatest Naval Blunders in History

by Bill Fawcett

Or, how stupid decisions combined with general incompetence tends to lead to failure.

Lancaster, PA: Home of the Worst President (and Best Congressman) in American History

by M.J. Rosenberg

Lancaster was home to both James Buchanan and Thaddeus Stevens.

Peter C. Doherty: Pandemics Have Had "Enormous Influence" on History [INTERVIEW]

by Robin Lindley

The Nobel Prize-winning immunologist has just published "Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know."