Historians in the News

Luke Nichter says the Burns/Novick Vietnam documentary was unfair to Nixon, among others

by Luke A. Nichter

He says the tapes show Nixon’s Vietnam policy wasn’t solely motivated by his re-election prospects.

Liz Cohen to step down as Radcliffe Institute dean

After seven years, she’ll return to teaching and research in history after a sabbatical year.

Russia honors founders of the Soviet Terror while jailing historian who uncovered their victims

Yury Dmitriev is being tried behind closed doors.

How are young historians rewriting the history of Vietnam?

by Ronald Spector

They’re showing that the Vietnam War wasn’t an American story.

Jonathan Zimmerman asks: What’s So Bad About Ken Burns?

by Jonathan Zimmerman

There’s one big reason that academic historians turn up their noses at his popular documentaries: sour grapes.

Student Sues Columbia Over ‘Deliberate Indifference’ to Harassment Claims Against Historian William V. Harris

When the woman, age 29, identified only as Jane Doe, reported Dr. Harris’s behavior to other professors and university officials, the complaint said, they turned a blind eye.

Leslie Lindenauer: Your grandfather tells stories differently than your mother

Women’s role in the Revolutionary War wasn’t acknowledged until many years after it took place.

Journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates acknowledges his debt to historians

"I really enjoy talking to historians, for the most part, because there’s so much — this is going to sound elitist but it’s true — there’s just a basic ignorance about facts in American history.”

Historian Donald Matthews grew up in Idaho but writes about the South. Why?

“Because my grandfather was lynched for defending a black family from being lynched.”

Massey College professor resigns over ‘master’ comment to Black student

When the master of the college arrived, Michael Marrus asked a black Junior Fellow: "You know this is your master, eh? Do you feel the lash?"

Historian Alice Dreger championing the right of academics to take controversial positions

by Alice Dreger

In an essay in the Chronicle of Higher Ed she recounts a time when a dean chastised her for approving the publication of a blunt piece about sex and the disabled.

Tiya Miles is mapping forgotten corners of slave history

The MacArthur "genius" grant winner and author of "Ties That Bind” is digging into the history of slavery in Detroit.

15 historians file an amicus brief in the case against gerrymandering

by Cliff Sloan and Michael Waldman

This is their argument: History frowns on partisan gerrymandering.

Ron Radosh says Steve Bannon Is Winning With the Old Communist Party Playbook

Bannon argues he is fighting the establishment by backing candidates like Roy Moore, but like the optimistic Communists of the early 1940s he’ll likely find that his time for gaining power is shorter than he believes.

NYT devotes an entire page to Mike Wallace and his history of NYC

Volume two of Wallace’s magisterial history has just been published.

Amid Professors’ ‘Doom-and-Gloom Talk,’ Humanities Ph.D. Applications Drop

Graduate programs in the humanities have faced withering criticism for churning out a surplus of doctorates despite a tight academic job market. Now fewer students are applying.

Robert Rosenstone asks why historians write memoirs

He should know. He wrote on himself!

Balfour Declaration, now 100, was ‘gun pointed at heads’ of Palestinians says Rashid Khalidi

"The issuance of the Balfour Declaration thus marked the beginning of what I would describe as a century long colonial war in Palestine supported by an array of outside powers which continues to this day."

Religion strong on Cundill History Prize longlist

The winner will receive a prize of $75,000.

Historian Anne Applebaum Details Stalin's War Against Ukraine

"I Believe It Was Genocide"