Historians in the News

Distant Moments: Reviewing Joan Scott's "On the Judgment of History"

by David A. Bell

The belief in History as a force driving events toward greater enlightenment has long allowed people to punt on making judgment and taking action to future generations. Joan Scott's book examines the seductive power of this faith. 

We Overlooked May Day This Year – We Aren't Alone in the US

Historian Peter Linebaugh explains that the international day of labor solidarity has always sat uneasily with American nationalism. 

Tim Snyder Discusses Putin's "Big Lie" about Ukraine on Maddow

Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale University and author of "Bloodlands," talks with Rachel Maddow about the manipulative power of a "Big Lie" and why it's so difficult to untangle a person from a Big Lie once they've bought into it.

Dog Breed Stereotypes are Poor Guides to Behavior; Historian Explains Why they Are So Common

Science Historian Michael Worboys explains that the Victorian craze for dog breeding enshrined both a focus on dogs' outward appearances and the idea that heredity was all-important to a dog's quality, leading to frequent disappointment for owners who find their pets don't fit expectations. 

Musk's Twitter Bid Harkens Back to Hearst

Richard White and Brad DeLong consider how the megabillionaire's bid for Twitter stacks up against other efforts by the ultra-rich to build media empires – is it more about attention and less about advancing financial interests? 

A Preview of Summer Books in Black Studies

by Robert Greene II

Academics who plan to catch up on their reading this summer can look here for suggestions. 

Why Doesn't the Fitness Industry Respond to Americans' Real Needs for Exercise?

Reporter Amanda Mull links a new book by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and the work of some outside-the-box fitness influencers to examine the mismatch between how big business sells fitness and how Americans want and need to move their bodies. 

After 4 Decades in the Classroom, a Teacher Keeps History Alive

"When we take out big chunks of history, that diminishment diminishes us. You know, my grandmother was a quilter. And she put scraps together into these beautiful patterns. And I feel that I'm doing that, but with history."

Women's Rights are a Casualty of Democratic Backsliding

Historian Anne Wingenter and law professor Erica Chenoweth discuss the relationship between fascism and patriarchy and the way that women's rights are a signal of the health of democracy. 

Guernica Was a Dress Rehearsal for Horrors to Come

Journalist George Lowther Steer broke the news that the German Luftwaffe had provided the aerial destruction of the town, in what became a training ground for future Nazi attacks. 

René Esparza on AIDS and Health Inequality in Urban History

A new book examines the relationship of sexuality, residential segregation, and class and racial inequality in the AIDS epidemic.

World Socialist Website: Tim Snyder Changes Conclusions on Ukrainian Fascism

Have influential historians of Eastern European nationalism and antisemitism softened their assessment of Ukrainian nationalism because of the Russian invasion? 

Does the Forgotten "Russian Flu" of the 1800s Give Clues How COVID Will Wind Down?

One lesson seems clear: there is no neat two-year timeline for pandemics, and viruses can circulate at a low profile for a long time. 

Racist Policing Has Roots in Controlling Sex Work

by Sarah A. Seo

Anne Gray Fischer's book shows that police policy toward sexuality in public space changed in ways that made Black women's public lives subject to increased control and that entrenched the discretion of police to stop people for suspected minor offenses that is associated with "broken windows" policing today. 

The 19th Century Woman's Secret Guides to Birth Control

Women have always tried to share information enabling them to control their reproductive health, and others have always tried to stop them. Secrecy, coded language and misdirection are historical puzzles to untangle, say Andrea Tone, Naomi Rendina, Lauren Thompson and Donna Drucker. 

Richard Cohen Shows It's Not Just Historians Teaching History

by Douglas Brinkley

A reviewer is intrigued by a new book's argument that memory and understanding of the past is shaped, for better and worse, by storytellers, artists, and filmmakers, who help determine which bits of the past stick in our consciousness. 

The Roots of the Story of "The Northman"

Neil Price describes the work of being a historical consultant on the new Icelandic epic, including the story's common roots with "Hamlet" and the realities of Viking combat. 

Sergey Radchenko: War Will Continue Until Russia "Cannibalizes" Ukraine

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Sergey Radchenko, a Russian history professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, on what's behind Putin's shift in the focus in the war on Ukraine.

How the Public Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Wiretapping

by Andrew Lanham

Brian Hochman shows that the white backlash to civil rights and racial justice protests helped to undermine longstanding civil libertarian opposition to electronic surveillance and normalize the idea of the government spying on Americans. 

Ukrainian Historian: Russian Attack an Imperialist Move Akin to US Invasion of Iraq

Denis Pilash contends that the brutality of some actions against Ukraine compares to US-supported massacres by the Indonesian government in East Timor.