Historians in the News

Robert Dallek: “The fish rots from the head”

In an interview Dallek says that the corruption of Trump’s White House is unique.

It’s Been 3 Decades Since There Were So Few Jobs for History Ph.D.s

And back then, the American Historical Association notes in its latest jobs report, many fewer new graduates were competing for those openings.

Conservatives attack Garry Wills’s book on the Quran

by James Arlandson

“[H]e is the one who seems ignorant of unfavorable evidence in the Quran, so his short book comes across mostly as a condescending and shallow exercise in special pleading and unfounded puffing."

Is This Professor ‘Putin’s American Apologist’?

How Stephen F. Cohen became the most controversial Russia expert in America.

Former Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks returns to campus as a member of the history department

His appointment is not welcome by all. Many are upset he was paid nearly half a million dollars during a sabbatical.

Historian: Why We're Still Learning About Nazi Dictator

by Thomas Weber

Thomas Weber says many of the victims and perpetrators haven’t spoken out.

The Scholars Behind the Quest for Reparations

They are propelling a reckoning with slavery’s legacy on campuses, in cities, at companies. What Hilary Beckles is doing represents the next step.

Scholars of Slavery Force a Public Reckoning

As America confronts its past, historians are asking new questions, pushing colleges, corporations, cities, museums, and governments to account for their ties to slavery.

A Lost Cause confession from Georgia’s oldest historical publication

The Georgia Historical Quarterly’s lead article is a take-down of Confederate mythologizer E. Merton Coulter, who ran the periodical for a half century.

Rick Perlstein says liberals shouldn’t trust the anti-Trump Republicans

by Rick Perlstein

No, not even Jeff Flake.

So what does Frances FitzGerald think of the Vietnam War documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick?

by Frances FitzGerald

She generally likes the film but worries that the emphasis on stories may obscure larger meanings.

California Leads the Way Teaching LGBT History to Schoolchildren

California has approved 10 textbooks for use in K-8 classrooms that include covering the contributions of LGBT people to American history. Cue predictable outrage.

Historian McCullough to Republicans in Congress: ‘Stand up’ to President Trump

David McCullough is trying to stage an intervention with Congress.

Longtime Wabash College history professor James J. Barnes publishes his memoir. Big Deal?

Yes, as the title shows: “Unforeseen: The First Blind Rhodes Scholar.”

Reframing Migration: A Conversation With Historian Sunil Amrith

The 2017 MacArthur Genius Fellowship recipient's interdisciplinary work on the Bay of Bengal teaches us that movement and migration are central forces in the making of Asian—and global—history.

Art historian Jaime Lara’s dark secret as a child abuser has been disclosed by the Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn revealed that 25 years ago, Mr. Lara, then known as the Rev. James Lara, was laicized by the Vatican for sexually abusing children.

Canadians choosing health care over all else, says health care historian

Vancouver Island University’s Cheryl Krasnick Warsh says it’s more popular than the queen.

Historian Edgar Feuchtwanger tells his story as a Jewish Boy growing up next to Hitler

The title of his book? "Hitler, My Neighbor: Memories of a Jewish Childhood, 1929-1939.”

UC Davis History Department holds “Ask A Historian” forum in new way to communicate with students

The forum was held to answer questions about white nationalism and Charlottesville.

South Korean Professor Fined for Book About “Comfort Women,” Proving the Truth Is Still Dangerous

The case against Park Yu-ha was not about whether her academic research was correct but whether the nine plaintiffs in the defamation suit had been harmed.