Historians in the News

TCU Faculty and Students Prepare to Grapple with the Past

"TCU formed the Race and Reconciliation Initiative in August in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, which prompted TCU and many other universities to research their history with slavery."

Peter Algona: How Cities Became Accidental Wildlife Havens

Algona's book traces the history of land use decisions that inadvertently allowed species, particularly the coyote, to spread across the United States even as the nation became more urbanized.

Historical Novelist Dolen Perkins-Valdez Shares Her Reading List for the History of Medical Racism

"I wrote my newest novel Take My Hand because I believed there were too many people who did not know about the history of forced sterilizations among poor women of color."

What Did We Do in Indochina? Robert Buzzanco Interviewed

"There’s widespread politically useful misinformation about the war. And there’s also widespread liberal apologetics for the war."

Lily Geismer: The Clinton Legacy is Well-Intentioned Failure

"I wanted to challenge the common view that the story of US politics after 1968 is solely about the rise of the right, and that the Democrats adopted the policies that they did as a way of playing electoral defense."

Tucker Carlson Heralds Yet Another "Crisis of Masculinity"

by Mona Charen

Tucker Carlson's recent examination of testicular tanning as a boost to manliness shows the need for societies to support pathways to male expression that don't lead to violence or painful sunburns. 

The Unique Local and National Role of Washington's NAACP Chapter

Derek Gray examined the growth of the capital city's NAACP chapter, the first in the nation to have Black leadership, and one with the unique responsibility to monitor legislation in Congress affecting civil rights and racial justice. 

Racism and the 19th Century Yellow Fever Epidemic in New Orleans

by Karin Wulf

Karin Wulf interviews Kathryn Olivarius about her new book on the social and racial factors that prolonged a contagious epidemic that may have killed as many as 150,000 people in New Orleans between 1803 and 1861. 

The Republicans are Accelerating the War on Abortion Rights

Although two thirds of Americans favor some abortion rights, legal historian Mary Ziegler says the new composition of the Supreme Court means state legislatures will boldly pursue what they really want: totally outlawing abortion. 

These Books Tell of Change Happening Slowly, then Suddenly

Historians Lynn Hunt, Adam Hochschild, Kate Clifford-Larse and Keenaga-Yamahtta Taylor are among the authors whose books dig beneath the surface of famous leaders to describe how social movements built the strength to change laws, institutions and ideas. 

Montpelier Staffers: We Were Fired for Backing Descendants' Group

The firings suggest that there is a backlash by members of the Montpelier board against recent changes in the presentation of James Madison's participation in slavery. 

National Trust Condemns Actions Against Staff at Montpelier

"The National Trust strongly condemns these actions against highly regarded and nationally recognized professionals, which will impede the effective stewardship of Montpelier and diminish important public programming at this highly significant historic site."  

The History of Saloons Helps Understand the Social Harm of the Pandemic

"In the century and a half after the founding, saloons continued to be a key social institution, places of business, leisure, and community for many men—until Prohibition wiped them out, destroying in one fell stroke the cultural and economic infrastructure they had long provided."

CRT Not What You've Been Told, Florida Professor Tells Public

Michael Butler, author of two books on the civil rights struggle in Florida, told an audience that the controversy was being stoked to prevent constructive public debate by folding all historical discussion of racism into a "frightening, dangerous, scary" term. 

Elliott Young: Know the History Behind Today's Crime Panic

The historian gave a minute-long background briefing on what's really driving fears of crime and what should be done. 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat: How History Says Trump's Cult Will End

"The other big story is that his agenda and his methods are being continued at the state level. These states are really laboratories of autocracy now, like Florida, Texas."

America's Taxes Used to be Public Information – The Rich Stopped That

Calvin Coolidge's Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon briefly accepted public disclosure of tax bills in exchange for a lower top rate. The fact that the ultra-rich, like him, were shown to pay lower effective rates, ended the practice.

It Wasn't Long Ago that Easter in Fort Worth Celebrated the Lord and the Klan

A look at the Easter week headlines from a century ago shows the casual respectability of the Klan among white Texas christians. 

Gary Gerstle: Is the Neoliberal Era Over?

"Will new political movements emerge with the strength to compel a serious redistribution of wealth away from elites and toward the masses without reproducing the tyranny that became so intrinsic to communism? This is one of the key questions of our time."

Florida Bill Echoes Anita Bryant's Antigay Crusade in the 1970s

Historians Lillian Faderman, Hugh Ryan and Julio Capó, Jr. trace the links between the Christian entertainer's claims that gay teachers threatened children and the effort to portray them as "groomers" for child abuse today. Also, video of Bryant being hit with a pie.