Historians in the News

Conservatives are blaming Howard Zinn for “birthing” the "Anti-Columbus Crusade”

by Jarrett Stepman

"His narrative is based on the idea that not only was Columbus a villain, but the product of his discovery was also an evil."

Jelani Cobb unloads on Trump’s double standard of patriotism in the New Yorker

by Jelani Cobb

Trump’s selective patriotism "drives him to curse at black football players but leaves him struggling to create false equivalence between Nazis and anti-Fascists in Charlottesville."

Lonnie Bunch is astonished the African-American History Museum has become a pilgrimage site so fast

"You know, we thought we'd get 4,000 people a day. We're getting 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 a day. I didn't expect that.”

Nancy Isenberg says what Americans think is exceptional about them is that they erased class distinctions

Of course, it’s a myth.

Niall Ferguson’s new book is a warning about the pernicious threat of networks

“This networked world is not going to be a harmonious one. It will be characterised by polarisation and, frankly, by conflict.”

Yale history department now emphasizing global history in undergraduate courses

Department leaders say that the new undergraduate series is meant to reflect global history’s growing prominence.

University of Utah appoints first Mormon Studies professor

W. Paul Reeve is researching early black converts.

Eric Foner discusses the manipulation of history

Foner, author of “Battles for Freedom: The Use and Abuse of American History,” discusses confederate monuments, the role of the historian and the lies of omission.

Decline in History Majors Continues, Departments Respond

by Robert B. Townsend

History departments are not sitting idly by as their numbers decline.

“I’m white with the exception of the color of my skin.”

by Emma Green

In a new book Max Perry Mueller profiles blacks who became Mormons.

He’s 75 now. When he started teaching at the University of New Orleans students walked out on his class.

Professor-Emeritus Dr. Raphael Cassimere was the first black instructor hired at the University of New Orleans where he served for 37 years.

‘Fake news’ from 1738 offers lessons for modern historians, says Missouri scholar

It’s a warning to be skeptical about newspaper sources.

Peter Dreier calls on Americans to build monuments to liberal heroes

by Peter Dreier

The organizers, activists, artists, writers, athletes, judges and occasional elected officials who fought to make the United States a more humane and inclusive country often go unacknowledged.

Economics historian Joel Mokyr says it was culture that made the West rich

They believed in studying nature to improve the human lot – a new idea in the 1500s, he says.

The National Book Award Longlist

Books include Erica Armstrong Dunbar's “Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge” and Nancy MacLean's “Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America.

Jonathan Zimmerman steps into the debate over a law professor denounced as racist

by Jonathan Zimmerman

While we may not agree with what she says, we in academe should defend her right to say it, he argues.

Chris Appy is providing running commentary on the new Ken Burns Vietnam saga

by Christian G. Appy

He commends Burns for his long focus on history, but has reservations about the series.

Historian Keri Leigh Merritt defends activist scholars

"What I see emerging within the profession – especially over the last few years – has been a sharp divide between the moral relativists and the scholars who believe that history does have a presentist purpose."

She went from prison to a PhD program in history at NYU

Harvard faculty accepted her too, but then school officials stepped in and overruled the decision.

The Discipline of the History Professor in the Age of Trump

by John Fea

In class this historian is helping students grapple with the difference between history and nostalgia, and the way Trump’s campaign used the past as a tool to win supporters in the present.