Historians in the News

Tony Platt Reviews Simon Schama’s The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age

by Tony Platt

I’m encouraged that Schama thinks crime and punishment is a sufficiently important topic to bookend his 700-page tome.

WBUR Is Belatedly Giving Credit to a Female Historian for a Segment

The station apologized for having two men discuss researcher Sarah Milov's work without crediting her.

Behind the men on the moon, there were thousands of women

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this week, let’s remember something else: the thousands of women from Cambridge to California who helped make possible the trip to the moon. 

‘The Code’ Review: How Green Was the Valley

by Randall Stross

As late as the early 1970s, Northern California seemed a long-shot candidate for the center of the computerized universe. A review of Margaret O’Mara's The Code. 

Angered by This Roosevelt Statue? A Museum Wants Visitors to Weigh In

Conversation about monuments has reached a fever pitch, and the city was split on this one. The American Museum of Natural History is opening an exhibition on it.

Professor Rebecca Gordon Pens Essay Revealing Her Abortion and Examines Ongoing History of Roe v. Wade

by Rebecca Gordon

"We’ve been going backwards on abortion access for decades. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has denied abortion services to women who get their health care through the federal Medicaid program, or indeed to anyone whose health insurance is federally funded."

Watching 'Chernobyl': How Important Are Visuals for Understanding History?

For those struggling to put the facts and visuals together, documentary photography accompanied with words can be a godsend. 

Robert Caro has a crucial piece of advice on interviewing: 'Shut up!'

"Interviews: silence is the weapon, silence and people's need to fill it — as long as the person isn't you, the interviewer," Caro writes.

A female historian wrote a book. Two male historians went on NPR to talk about it. They never mentioned her name. It’s Sarah Milov.

They have tenure. She does not.

1969 moon landing was a giant leap for moviemakers, too

The space race was always going to be won by filmmakers and science-fiction writers.

Founder Of African American History Museum Discovered Dead

Sadie Roberts-Joseph, 75, was discovered on Friday afternoon in the trunk of a car about 3 miles from her home.

The Surprising Things Arctic Ice Can Tell Us About Human History

In a new study, scientists say that particles of lead trapped in ice in the north pole tell the story of commercial and industrial processes dating back to the Middle Ages.

Colin Palmer, Historian of the African Diaspora, Is Dead at 75

Colin A. Palmer, a historian who broadened the understanding of the African diaspora, showing that the American slave trade was only one part of a phenomenon that spanned centuries and influenced cultures worldwide, died on June 20 in Kingston, Jamaica. He was 75.

What and Whom Are Jewish Museums For?

What is the role of a Jewish museum? Is it for the Jewish community, or those non-Jews around it? And must its leader be Jewish?

Her Book in Limbo, Naomi Wolf Fights Back

After her American publisher delayed her new book, “Outrages,” over accuracy concerns, she is responding with a strategy mixing scholarly peer review and damage control.

Smithsonian interested in obtaining migrant children's drawings depicting their time in US custody

"The museum has a long commitment to telling the complex and complicated history of the United States and to documenting that history as it unfolds," according to a statement from the museum

Archaeologist Sarah Parcak Thinks We Need to Learn From the Fall of Egypt’s Old Kingdom

In a new book, the archaeologist makes the case that ancient history illuminates solutions to modern problems.

Alexandra Witze Reviews Seven Books that Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

Alexandra Witze savours seven books commemorating the 50th anniversary of the lunar landings.

Louie Howland, editor and award-winning maritime historian, dies at 81

Mr. Howland was 81 when he died at home on June 21 of lung cancer, and though he sold textbooks early on, he later charted a memorable path as an editor and antiquarian bookseller in Boston’s literary world.

How Southern Mississippi Professor Leila Hamdan Led Her Team to Explore 2 Historic Shipwrecks

The University of Southern Mississippi and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) worked together to discover and characterize two unexplored shipwrecks in the Gulf and study marine life on and around the wrecks.