Historians in the News

Nelson Lichtenstein on a Half Century of Labor History

The eminent labor historian discusses his political roots, the evolution of labor studies, and the state of movements for economic democracy. 

New Research Shows British Industrialization Drew Ironworking Methods from Colonized and Enslaved Jamaicans

A process for producing wrought iron from scrap had been credited to Henry Cort. But Cort likely adopted it from a Jamaican works operated by 76 Black metallurgists, including enslaved workers. 

The American Revolution Remains a Hotly Contested Symbolic Field

AHA Executive Director Jim Grossman says that the founding can't be understood without understanding the founders' worldview and actions, which, as a matter of pure fact, incorporated an acceptance and embrace of slavery. 

Untangling Fact and Fiction in the Story of a Nazi-Era Brothel

Kitty Schmidt's Berlin brothel has been the subject of lurid speculation that its owner was forced by the Nazis to spy on her clients for evidence of subversion and disloyalty. A new book tries to untangle the more complicated history of commercial sex in the Weimar and Nazi eras, but struggles against the pervasiveness of myth. 

Can America Handle a 250th Anniversary?

John Dichtl of the American Association for State and Local History says that Americans want "more help navigating these times, which are probably only going to get worse,” portending brutal battles over the upcoming commemoration. 

Americans Will Regret Dismissing 100 Years of Public Health Progress

by Craig Spencer

Politicians have felt free to attack public health authorities to score points in the wake of the pandemic because the profession's achievements have allowed the public to forget just how much damage contagious illness can cause.

Michael Honey: Eig's MLK Bio Needed to Engage King's Belief in Labor Solidarity

A historian and editor of MLK's speeches praises Jonathan Eig's new biography, but says that the importance King placed on labor solidarity as a foundation of social justice is a part of the story that needs to be understood today. 

Should Medicine Discontinue Using Terminology Associated with Nazi Doctors?

Hans Asperger had been identified as an Oskar Schindler figure in the German medical community, with the diagnosis that bears his name helping to save many people from death under Nazi eugenic policies. But he also helped determine who would fall into the unfavored categories. Historian Edith Sheffer says it's time to retire his name.

Review: J.T. Roane Tells Black Philadelphia's History from the Margins

by Charles W. McKinney

Roane picks up a challenge offered by W.E.B. DuBois in his pioneering "The Philadelphia Negro" to understand the spaces of alternative and underground social life as important and formative parts of Black urban life in the Great Migration. 

Blair L.M. Kelley Tells Black Working Class History Through Family

When the historian set out to write the history of working-class African Americans, her own family's stories proved the best place to begin. 

Rachel Swarns Traces the Ties of Slavery and the American Catholic Church

Following up on a blockbuster 2016 Times article, Swarns's book examines the histories of families with ancestors who were sold by Maryland Jesuits to shore up the order's finances (including the fledgling Georgetown University). 

Sports Historian Victoria Jackson: Trans Bans in Sports Part of History of Suspicion toward Women's Sports

Recent state laws regulating the participation of transgender athletes in girls' sports are part of a long history of policing gender in athletics. 

Martha Hodes Turns Historian's Training to Reach Memory Hidden by Trauma

A memoirist of her own experience of terrorist hostage-taking reviews Martha Hodes's effort to apply the tools of historians to recover memory of being held in the Jordanian desert on a hijacked plane in 1970. 

Cash Reparations to Japanese Internees Helped Rebuild Autonomy and Dignity

by Morgan Ome

Many recent proposals for African American reparations prescribe particular uses for compensation, such as securing housing. But the lesson of the $20,000 payments made to Japanese-American internees and their descendants is that restoring dignity and autonomy means letting recipients decide how to spend any payment for themselves. 

Science Historian: Apollo 11 Quarantine after Moon Landing For Show

Dagomar DeGroot's research shows that NASA scientists were aware of the tiny, but potentially catastrophic, risk of moon-earth contamination, and that quarantining the spacecraft and crew would do little to mitigate the risk but could convince the public that authorities were taking precautions. 

J.T. Roane Reconstructs the Historical Spaces of Black Philadelphia

Roane examines the ways that Black Philadelphians between the Great Migration and the Black Power era created and used "underground" and spiritual spaces to stake claims to life in the city, and asks what places can fill that role today. 

British Universities are Researching Ties to Slavery. Conservative Alumni Say "Enough"

Historian Nicolas Bell-Romero found that influential Cambridge backers were happy to learn of the links between the university and famous abolitionists, but not on the university's historical links to an imperial elite that benefitted from the slave trade, part of a broad battle about the politics of British history. 

Martha Hodes Reconstructs Her Memory of a 1970 Hijacking

At age 12, the historian, with her older sister, was a passenger on a jet hijacked by Palestinian militants. After decades of minimizing the story, her efforts to approach her past as a historian highlight the gaps in documentary records, the contradictory ways memory can fill those gaps, and the varying degrees of distance historians keep from their subjects.

First Round of Obama Administration Oral Histories Focus on Political Fault Lines and Policy Tradeoffs

The first 17 of nearly 500 interviews with Obama Administration officials was released this week, as part of a Columbia University project. 

Thomas Zimmer on Danger and Hope for Democracy

The historian and podcaster says hope for a multicultural democracy lies with the young: "Preserving the status quo will not be good enough, and the younger generation understands this better than any other."