Historians in the News

Sacramento State historian chastised by student for denying Indians were victims of genocide

The student claims she was expelled from class after protesting Professor Maury Wiseman’s presentation. The school denies she was disenrolled but has launched an investigation.

Historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham wins National Humanities Medal

The National Humanities Medal honors Professor Higginbotham "for illuminating the African-American journey. In her writings and edited volumes, Dr. Higginbotham has traced the course of African-American progress, and deepened our understanding of the American story."

She's a historian who's trained to examine the past, but Harvard's Drew Gilpin Faust says in interview that she personally prefers looking forward not backward

by Stephen J. Dubner

This was in answer to a question on a Freakonomics podcast about subjects she's changed her mind about.  "I think I’m a person who doesn’t look back a lot, I’m always looking forward, and so I don’t identify and say ‘whoops, I changed my mind there.’ “

AHA President Vicki L. Ruiz named National Humanities Medalist

We are proud to announce that AHA president Vicki L. Ruiz will be among the 10 honorees for this year’s ceremony, to be held September 10.

Henry VIII voted worst monarch in history

‘Self-indulgent wife murderer and tyrant’ tops poll of historical writers, ahead of Edward VIII and Charles I

The Fuhrer style: Historian says press coverage of Hitler’s lavish life fueled his rise to power

Despina Stratigakos, an architectural historian at the University at Buffalo, says even the NYT fell for Hitler’s propaganda.

Two scholars from UT object to the Texas school's decision to remove the statue of Jefferson Davis

by Al Martinich and Tom Palaima

Al Martinich and Tom Palaima say the school president has made things worse than before.

Now Greg Grandin has come out with a study of Henry Kissinger

by Steven Cohen

This makes two new books on Kissinger.  The other is by Niall Ferguson.  Guess which is more sympathetic.

Critic: Michael Oren shouldn’t have published his memoirs this soon

by Elliott Abrams

The memoir blasts Barack Obama but pulls its punches elsewhere.

Historians of Color Are Revolutionizing the Narrative of ‘American Exceptionalism’

by David Levering Lewis

For too long, says David Levering Lewis, we have looked in the wrong place and race for the genesis of our national story.

A history professor explains why Americans are so prone to conspiracy theories

Historically, conspiracy theories have often focused on orchestrated wrongdoings supposedly perpetrated by big business or government on ordinary citizens. But recent conspiracy theories have focused on the victims and their loved ones as key players in the manipulation of the public. What has changed?

Sam Wineburg praised for his courage and insights

by John Dichtl

He’s celebrated for teaching us that thinking historically is "an unnatural act."

Japanese historian upends the familiar narrative of WW 2 by taking a bottom up approach, focusing on fascism from the grassroots

by Ethan Mark

As a young historian researching prewar popular political movements in the early 1970s, Yoshimi Yoshiaki (b. 1946) became increasingly struck—and troubled—by the systematic inattention to popular experiences of the war period. So he wrote Grassroots Fascism: a radically different vantage on the wartime experience from the “bottom-up” and a bold attempt to break out of the constricted confines of “history in the passive voice.”

Holocaust-denying historian David Irving organizes 'disgusting' £2,000-a-head holiday tours of former concentration camps and Hitler's HQ so people can 'make up their own mind about the truth'

Irving, 77, is notorious for his attempts to play down the extent of the Holocaust, and his insistence that Hitler was unaware of the plan to exterminate the Jews.

72 history professors sign letter urging removal of Jefferson Davis statue from Kentucky Capitol

Seventy-two historians from 16 public and private colleges and universities in Kentucky want a controversial statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis removed from the state Capitol. A commission voted 7 to 2 to retain it.

10 Years After Katrina, the Enduring Value of the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank

The Hurricane Digital Memory Bank (HDMB) played an important role in documenting the stories of individuals, and offered a non-commercial digital space to collect photographs, audio diaries, or digital video that would be cared for as a digital collection.

Historian author Antony Beevor says his new World War 2 book may anger Americans

“After the Malmedy massacre (in which 84 American prisoners of war were murdered by their German captors near Malmedy, Belgium) the Americans started to kill their prisoners, and often with the approval of commanders.”

Ron Radosh and Allis Radosh plan to defend Warren Harding in a new book

by Ron Radosh and Allis Radosh

They outlined their defense in an op ed in the NYT this past week.

Report: Russian studies in crisis

by Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies

Fewer grad students in history and the social sciences are taking an interest in Russia.

Historians tackle America’s mass incarceration problem

The United States holds the world’s largest prison population, but just how deep does our nation’s system of punishment and containment run?