Historians in the News

What Should A Museum Look Like In 2020?

"A call for divestment involves an acknowledgment of the ways that museums rely on local police departments to do the work of mental health providers and emergency medical technicians, as well as the implicit ways contracts with police departments protect property over people," said MoMA curator Thomas J. Lax.

How Wagner Shaped Hollywood

Music historian Daniel Ira Goldmark counts more than a hundred Warner Bros. cartoons with Wagner on their soundtracks.

“The Damage Has Been Done”: Historian Says Trump’s Postmaster Has Undermined Faith in 2020 Election

History professor Philip Rubio was a USPS mail carrier for 20 years. He believes that Postmaster DeJoy has "demoralized postal workers."

Experts Dive into How Protest Action Brings Attention to Causes, Issues

"That 'I'm not alone' feeling is one of the biggest things that people get out of being in a protest," said historian Jonathan Pollack.

Fort Hood: Historians and Veterans Pushing to Rename Post after Female Army Trailblazer

Oveta Culp Hobby, a Killeen native, led the women’s Army corps during World War II.

How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering

A recent study has examined a historical connection between racist redlining practices in urban planning and heat-trapping environments in present-day urban neighborhoods. 

A Disputed Election, a Constitutional Crisis, Polarization… Welcome to 1876

Eric Foner: Rather than 2000, look to the election of 1876 to see what could happen if one party refuses to accept an election result. 

Film Shows Trailblazing Black Female Editor, VP Candidate

A new documentary short highlights the journalistic and political career of Charlotta Bass, the Progressive Party candidate for Vice President in 1952.

The South’s Fight for White Supremacy

by Jon Meacham

Edward Alfred Pollard launched the "Lost Cause" mythology with an 1866 book whose legacy has endured as an emphatic defense of white supremacy.

What Happens if Donald Trump Fights the Election Results?

In 1876 norms governing fair elections broke down beyond the ability of the courts to resolve. The partisan deadlock that ensued was resolved with political dealmaking that relegated Black Americans to second-class citizenship for a century. Anyone who fears a repeat of the 2000 election had better prepare for a repeat of 1876.

What Would Ben Franklin, Our First Postmaster General, Think Of Louis Dejoy?

Richard John, Joseph Adelman, Winifred Gallagher and Devin Leonard offer insight into how Ben Franklin committed to innovation and service improvement to build up the colonial postal service and how the service became an institution tying the new nation together. 

Maryland’s State Song Celebrates The Confederacy. This Alternative Hails Harriet Tubman And Elijah Cummings

“It’s the dumbest thing in the world for Maryland, of all states, to have a racist, secessionist song,” Congressman Jamie Raskin said. “We were with the Union."

More ‘Black Lives Matter’ Signs than Confederate Flags in the New Stone Mountain, GA

Historian Grace Elizabeth Hale reflects on a changing Georgia, where the diverse community of Stone Mountain sits just outside a park housing a prominent Confederate memorial. 

Historian Eric Foner: Broken Promises Of Reconstruction Relevant To Today's Racial Justice Movement

"Our society has never allowed African Americans to accumulate money and assets the way white families have,” Foner said.

The Text That Stoked Modern Antisemitism

The FBI recently tweeted out its archival copy of the notorious antisemitic conspiracy tract "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" without any context or explanation. Here's where it came from and a summary of its influence.

For Japanese Americans, Housing Injustices Outlived Internment

After enduring internment, Japanese Americans were forced to resettle in a changed society with a dire housing shortage. The government's response was grossly inadequate. 

The Black Freedom Struggle of the North (Review)

"'The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North' is a major milestone in the growing historical literature on racial discrimination and the civil rights struggle outside the South," writes Joshua Clark Davis.

“The Post Office Has Always Been Political”

Postal historian Philip Rubio explains that the agency has never been completely separate from politics, though legislation passed in 1970 was supposed to cement the agency's independence. 

Online Forum: The Imprisoned Black Radical Tradition (August 24-28)

Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), will host an online forum in honor of Black August on the Imprisoned Black Radical Tradition organized by incarcerated writer, activist and intellectual Stephen Wilson and historian and professor Garrett Felber. 

Plague and Protest Go Hand in Hand

Scholars like Philip Ziegler and Mark Senn have argued that the Black Death of 1348 laid the groundwork for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, the first large-scale popular revolt in England.