Historians in the News

Julian Zelizer says political history is doing ok

He denies the claim of Fredrik Logevall and Kenneth Osgood that the discipline remains eclipsed.

Why do we think Millennials like to share and not buy stuff? Blame these 2 pop historians.

by Laura Marsh

William Strauss and Neil Howe, a popular-historian duo, coined the term “millennial” in 1987, to refer to the children who would graduate high school in the year 2000.

NYT publishes historians' plea for the revival of political history

by Fredrik Logevall and Kenneth Osgood

The topic is everywhere in the news, but it has disappeared from college campuses, complain Fredrik Logevall and Kenneth Osgood.

Lonnie Bunch remembers his first day on the job as director of the new black history museum

He had to break in using a crow bar.

Some Ohio University professors ditch the textbooks, and the prices

When associate history professor Robert Ingram announced to his Western Civilization class that there would be no textbook required, he said he was met with a sigh of relief.

LGBTQ History in Public Schools Is the Next Gay Rights Frontier says PhD student

by Adam Kirk Edgerton

"How much will Obergefell v. Hodges and United States v. Windsor matter 10 years from now if children never learn about those Supreme Court cases in class?"

Douglas Brinkley says the Clinton Foundation conflicts-of-interest will follow Hillary like Watergate

It’s pushing her into a defensive crouch, he says.

OAH President Nancy Cott says the Library of Congress is being politicized

by Nancy Cott

Her comments come in the wake of the nomination of Carla Hayden as the new Librarian of Congress.

The AP and other news outlets are giving wide attention to the proposal to create a White House Council of Historical Advisors

The idea was floated several weeks ago by Niall Ferguson and Graham Allison.

Yuval Noah Harari’s new book, "Homo Deus," claims data will destroy human freedom

Homo Deus is an “end of history” book, but not in the crude sense that he believes things have come to a stop. Rather the opposite: things are moving so fast that it’s impossible to imagine what the future might hold.

Heather Ann Thompson pries loose the long-kept secrets of Attica in her new book

Her prize discovery was memos that showed how Nelson Rockefeller hammered out the state’s official version of the tragedy.

Email from historians' group sparks debate about individual liability insurance offered by professional associations

Networking, subscriptions to journals, the opportunity to present at and attend conferences -- membership in a professional association offers lots of benefits. But should access to third-party liability insurance be one of them?

Retired history Professor Marc Cooper stabbed to death by a colleague

An instructor at Missouri State University has been arrested for allegedly murdering a Jewish retired professor by stabbing him to death in his living room in front of his wife.

Renowned Israeli Holocaust Historian: ‘If I Were a British Jew, I’d Be Worried’

Yehudi Bauer says the Labour Party leader “has a problem” when it comes to Jews.

There’s no mystery why this old column by historian Ron Radosh on Steve Bannon has drawn wide attention

by Ronald Radosh

Bannon told Radosh he’s a Leninist who wants to destroy the state.

University of South Carolina historian warns that students are missing out by not majoring in history

"It is ironic that only a year after the Confederate battle flag was removed from the State House — after a heated public debate among South Carolinians over competing interpretations of our history — the academic major of history is in apparent decline among new freshmen at USC.” — Christine Caldwell Ames

New Yorker asks: Does Henry Kissinger have a conscience?

Documents show he supported the generals behind Argentina’s Dirty War.

Who owns Iran’s history?

That depends who you ask as two Letters to the Editor of the NYT show.

Ernst Nolte, Historian Whose Views on Hitler Caused an Uproar, Dies at 93

Professor Nolte, a respected German scholar of fascism, suggested in a 1986 essay that Nazism had been a logical response to the “existential threat” of the Russian Revolution.

Speaker Ryan loves pseudo-historian David Barton

Speaker Paul Ryan apparently has a penchant for the work of the notorious “historian” and Christian nationalist David Barton. Once again illustrating just how rotten Ryan’s judgment can be.