Historians in the News

Confederacy in the 'Hood

For two-and-a-half years, Benjamin Israel, an African-American Orthodox Jew, attended every meeting of the city council in Hollywood, Florida, to talk about street names.

David C. Driskell, Tireless Advocate for Black Art History, Is Dead at 88

Driskell's work, including the famous exhibition "Two Centuries of Black American Art," illustrated the importance of black artists in American art history.

NCMC Mourns the Loss of Longtime Professor Who Died Due to COVID-19

Larry Cummings was a history and geography professor at North Central Michigan College for more than 50 years.

Scholars v. COVID-19 Racism

Scholars are among those confronting the rise in anti-Asian and anti-Asian American racism that’s come with COVID-19.

A Review of Andrew J. Bacevich's "American Conservatism: Reclaiming an Intellectual Tradition"

From Henry Adams to Joan Didion, Bacevich chronicles American conservative thinking throughout the 20th century.

Singular They: Nonbinary Language in the Historical Community

As the dictionary’s staff wrote in explaining their pick, “English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun... and as a consequence ‘they’ has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.”

In 1918 and 2020, Race Colors America’s Response to Epidemics

Race and ethnicity have been, and continue to be, enormous factors in determining whether people will receive medical attention when they become ill, and the sort of attention they will receive.

The US Government Has a Long History of Using Crises to Justify Indefinite Mass Detention

Governments, both federal and local, are already flirting with emergency powers to fight the spread of coronavirus that contravene the rights residents normally take for granted.

SOU Linguistics Professor Writes a Book About the History of Presidential Insults

In his new book, “Dangerous Crooked Scoundrels,” Southern Oregon University professor Edwin Battistella details the vicious, scurrilous and often laughable ways American political operatives have used name-calling to provoke and besmirch foes in the top job.

Neglected Gems of Urban History

by Richard Harris

For two generations, Lampard told urban historians that cities mattered especially, but not only, in economic terms.

Illinois State University Professor in Italy: "It Got Real Bad Real Fast"

"I didn't take this thing as seriously as I should have. No one here really did," said Jasper. "It got real bad, real fast."

And The Winners of the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Are ...

Henry Louis Gates Jr., who chairs the Anisfield-Wolf jury, said in a statement that the winners "bring us fresh insights on race and diversity."

AHA's Committee on LGBT History Announces Hardship Grants

In an effort to address member needs, we are announcing 10 CLGBTH Hardship Grants of $200 each to members of the Committee. First-come first-served, no questions asked.

Pandemics and the Shape of Human History

Outbreaks have sparked riots and propelled public-health innovations, prefigured revolutions and redrawn maps.

Responsibility and Civility: The Unwritten Essentials

by Mary Lindemann

Critical to the prospering of any academic group are the unwritten expectations that underlie and ground its workings. When they’re observed, organizations prosper; when they’re disregarded, things go terribly wrong.

Lead Pollution in Ancient Ice Cores May Track the Rise and Fall of Medieval Kings

Recently, scientists have identified startling spikes of lead deposited in medieval times in Arctic ice cores and in lake sediments in Europe.

A Brief History of Beards and Pandemics

Unlike what was thought during the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918, beards cannot trap germs nor transfer disease.

Irish Emigrants Tale Told Through Tenement Museum of New York

Hidden away in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the New York Tenement Museum tells the tale of thousands of Irish families that sailed from Ireland to the United States in search of a better life.

As COVID-19 Spreads, Mary Barra Needs To Denounce Trump As Bad For Capitalism

Historian Nelson Lichtenstein compares Trump's response to coronavirus with previous presidents' handling of crises.

How to Battle the Coronavirus and Win: A Historians’ Roundtable

How unprecedented is this situation, really? Business and military historian Mark Wilson, economist Mark Harrison, and political scientist Rosella Cappella Zielinski discuss.