Historians in the News

Bristol Brexit-backer Arron Banks ridiculed for arguing Roman history with Professor Mary Beard

"Sorry but you may have strong views but you guys don't know Roman history."

New Ken Burns' 'Vietnam War' documentary tackles divisive era

The series, called "The Vietnam War," features testimony from nearly 100 witnesses. It took six years to complete and includes archival footage and home movies as well as audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.

Rightwing website is putting historians on its “Watchlist” for signs of apostasy

Heather Cox Richardson says finding her name on the list was a “punch in the gut.”

Princeton’s Julian Zelizer worried about the rise of anti-Semitism

He’s surprised more Jews aren’t.

UCLA history professor Gabriel Piterberg continues to come under attack after being accused of sexual harassment

by Cinnamon Stillwell

Now it’s a pro-Israel group that is targeting him.

Novelist says History classes are our best hope for teaching Americans to question fake news and Donald Trump

by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

"History classes matter because they help students learn to question the stories that are handed down to us."

National Book Award winner Ibram X. Kendi is youngest in 30 years in the non-fiction category

He argues in his book, "Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas," that it is erroneous to attribute racist ideas to "the boiling pot of ignorance and hate." Rather, racist ideas stem from racially discriminatory policies.

Historian Volker Ullrich’s book on the rise of Hitler is spookily relevant

"What are the necessary social and psychological conditions that allow populists of Hitler’s ilk to gain a mass following and attain power?”

People are still talking about historian Mark Lilla’s NYT op ed 2 weeks after it was published

Lilla, a historian at Columbia, argued that the Democratic Party has lost its way by focusing on identity politics.

Rick Perlstein says Trump’s election confirms a paranoid trend in the GOP

by Rick Perlstein

"The more Trumpism fails, the more, and more violently, scapegoats will be blamed.” – Rick Perlstein

Historian says it’s a relief to see Trump supporter hammered for suggesting Muslims be registered

Anne Blankenship says this is the difference from World War 2 when Japanese internment was floated as a proposal.

Bruce Mazlish, Who Fused Psychoanalysis and History in His Books, Dies at 93

Professor Mazlish was best known for putting Nixon on the couch in “In Search of Nixon: A Psychohistorical Inquiry” (1972).

Historian is first to write a scholarly biography of Toussaint Louverture in 80 years

Why was Haiti's revolutionary overlooked by historians for so long?

Greg Grandin says it’s a mug’s game trying to figure out when Castro turned to Marxism

by Greg Grandin

"It’s fitting, though depressing, that’s he’s left us on the cusp of a new darkness."

Smithsonian historian says democracy could use the saloons of old

by Jon Grinspan

Jon Grinspan says when reformers closed saloons they killed a place where the working class debated politics.

Grad student in Medieval history says in NYT op ed he grew up as a white nationalist

by R. Derek Black

His godfather is David Duke.

Three Ohio State professors work together to teach multidisciplinary climate change course

The Climate Change course — new to Ohio State University this semester — covers everything from tree rings and rising seas to endangered species and alternative energy.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology invites academe to collaborate on future of libraries

“I don’t think we need to save libraries, but I do think we might need libraries to save us.” — Chris Bourg, director of libraries at MIT

Historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz says Thanksgiving was “never about honoring Native Americans"

"It’s been about the origin story of the United States, the beginning of genocide, dispossession and constant warfare from that time—actually, from 1607 in Jamestown—until the present."

Political scientist Stephen Skowronek talks about how his theory of the cycles of presidential history explains the campaign’s shocking results

One clear lesson: "the Reagan era is not over.”