Historians in the News

Forty years ago, George H. Nash created the field of conservative intellectual history. What can he tell us about the right today?

There is truth in the conservative intellectuals’ claim that Trump hijacked conservatism. It is also true that despite its principled origins, conservatism birthed Trump.

Was John Boswell’s book on Christianity and homosexuality over-criticized?

by David Clark

A fresh assessment calls into question much of the criticism, says David Clark.

What Historians Make of the Election

Beverly Gage, Ken Burns, Juan Cole, Emily Charnock, Blair Kelley, Gil Troy, Jack Censer, and many more!

Nancy Isenberg says the media got the profile of the average Trump voter wrong

They’re really the disinherited.

Princeton’s Kevin Kruse Calls 2016 Election Time of ‘Reckoning’ for Religious Right

“The old cross-denominational coalition of the religious right, one that had been in place since the 1970s has been deeply fragmented.”

This scholar says we’ve lost our way

Steven Bullock says one reason is we’ve forgotten how to be polite.

A Scholar of Fascism Sees a Lot That’s Familiar with Trump

Ruth Ben-Ghiat recently wrote a book about Benito Mussolini.

VW asks historian to research role under Brazil dictatorship

The company said in a statement Thursday that Christopher Kopper, a history professor at Bielefeld University in Germany, has been commissioned to “clarify” what role it played.

Journalist explains why he decided to write a biography of a 19th century Native American woman who became a doctor

by Joe Starita

Joe Starita says her complex story allows us to see the West in a new way.

More information is coming out about Volkswagen's firing of the historian who chronicled its Nazi past

75 prominent German academics accused Volkswagen of a vindictive punishment.

Classicist says historians would make bad policy advisers

by Neville Morley

University of Exeter's Neville Morley weighs in on the suggestion by Niall Ferguson that the White House set up a council of historians.

Blanche Wiesen Cook has finished her 3 volume biography of Eleanor Roosevelt

“Do we need her now?” Cook asks. “Yes we do!”

Historian and former Nixon Library director Tim Naftali says Clinton's emails are actually no small matter from the perspective of Watergate

by Tim Naftali

“While ‘Emailgate' is no Watergate, there are some noteworthy echoes."

Historians' latest effort to win over the public

by Elisabeth M. Marsh

A summary of the October meeting of the History Relevance Campaign. 

Historian Allan Lichtman who’s predicted 30 years of presidential elections correctly is doubling down on a Trump win

He would change his mind, he says, if polls show Gary Johnson can’t win 5 % or more of the vote.

Ian Kershaw denies Europe is slipping into a 1930s-style fascist mood

Kershaw — the acclaimed biographer of Hitler — insists that drawing parallels with the rise of fascism is off the mark.

Alex Lichtenstein to serve as next Editor of the American Historical Review

Lichtenstein is professor of history at Indiana University, where he teaches US and South African history.

Jim Downs laments that Americans still aren’t being taught LGBT history

by Jim Downs

It’s time this changes, he says, in an article written for LGBT History Month (October).

British historian Sheila Lecoeur is on trial for defamation

by Antoon De Baets

She's accused of defaming a Greek family whose patriarch served in the quisling government of Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Rallis.

Historian Jeremy Kuzmarov calls on Obama to pardon Ethel Rosenberg

He says the trial was unfair and no evidence exists implicating her in a crime, rumors notwithstanding.