Historians in the News

Prof. Leonard N. Moore on Teaching Black History to White People

Professor Leonard Moore's new book insists that white people who hope to know more about Black history should begin by understanding more about the challenges faced by Black historians. 

Israeli Diplomat Pressured UNC to Cancel Grad Student Instructor's Course on Israel-Palestine Conflict

"Kylie Broderick had expected scrutiny some of her teaching. What she did not was the degree to which the smear campaign against her would balloon, up to and including interventions from officials of two governments."

Unions Gain Traction in the Restaurant Industry-Again

David Whitford and Dorothy Sue Cobble discuss the ways that workers in the restaurant industry hope to revive the high representation of food service workers by unions that prevailed in the 1950s

Who Owns the Legacy of a Notorious Women's Prison?

Caitlin Davies' "Bad Girls" tells the history of London's Holloway Prison, which is now in jeopardy from a pending redevelopment plan. 

Making the Forever War: Marilyn B. Young on the Culture and Politics of American Militarism: October 11

In the Washington History Seminar, Mary Dudziak and Mark Philip Bradley discuss their edited volume of the work of Marilyn Young, the preeminent historian of war in the modern United States. Monday, October 11, 

Historians Among 2021 MacArthur "Genius" Grant Awardees

This year's honorees include historians Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Ibram X. Kendi, and Monica Muñoz Martinez, plus film archivist Jacqueline Stewart and art historian and curator Nicole Fleetwood.

The Brian Lehrer Show: Reckoning with History of Eugenics

Historian Jack Tchen and organizer Cara Page discuss the way eugenicist ideas are deeply embedded in American Culture and how to move to a post-eugenics future. 

Katharine Graham Grew into Boldness as Washington Post Publisher

Curator Jeanne Guttierez of the New York Historical Society joins Here and Now to discuss a new exhibit on the life of the legendary publisher and Washington social fixture once considered the most powerful woman in America.

The Renaissance's Challenges to Church Authority and Influence on the Reformation

Stefania Tutino, a history professor at UCLA and intellectual and cultural historian of post-Reformation Catholicism, says the Reformation and Renaissance were two parallel but intertwined movements.

Keisha Blain on Fannie Lou Hamer's Life and Legacy

"It’s important to remember that activists of the 1960s were dealing with rampant misinformation too. In many cases, this misinformation was being spread by the state."

Few Remember the Worst Slaughter of Native Americans in US History

The Army killed about 350 members of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone in present-day Idaho 1863. Racism against natives, the banality of such attacks, and the mass carnage of the Civil War overshadowed the massacre; the efforts of Shoshone have ensured it was not forgotten.

Kathleen Belew Explains the White Supremacist "Great Replacement" Ideology

NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Kathleen Belew, co-editor of "A Field Guide to White Supremacy" about Great Replacement Theory, also known as White Replacement Theory.

Albert Raboteau, Expert on African American Religious History, Dies at 78

Raboteau was known for his writings about African American faith, most especially the book “Slave Religion: The ‘Invisible Institution’ in the Antebellum South” as well as “Fire in the Bones: Reflections on African American Religious History” and “Canaan Land: A Religious History of African Americans.”

Charles Sellers, 98, Historian Who Upset the Postwar Consensus, Dies

Charles Sellers was an influential figure in explaining how the rise of market capitalism disrupted all aspects of American life, and argued this change was not for the better. 

The Curious Task of Preserving Darwin's Beans and Butterflies

Although his voyage to the Galapagos is famous, much of Darwin's work on natural selection was based on correspondence with horticulturalists and naturalists who sent him samples from around the world. Cambridge University's libraries are at work to preserve that correspondence.

Rebel is Right: Reassessing the Cultural Revolution

by Chaohua Wang

A new book by the Chinese scholar Yang Jisheng examines the Chinese Cultural Revolution's lasting impact on the Communist Party, concluding that the generation of party leaders who experienced it were indifferent to utopianism but deeply attracted to the exercise of absolute power. 

Redlining Happened, but Not Exactly the Way We've Thought it Did

New economic research reinforces an argument made by historian Amy Hillier, that federal agencies didn't invent "redlining" but responded to widespread public prejudices that imagined Black residents as threats to neighborhood property value. 

Military Historians Divided over Boycotting Texas for Conference

The Society for Military History has planned its annual conference for Texas next spring. The state's radical new abortion law has prompted some members to call for moving the event, and sparked debate over what constitutes political neutrality for the organization. 

US COVID Death Count Surpasses Estimates of 1918 Influenza

Historian Christopher McKnight Nichols notes "we have effective vaccines now.... the thing they most wanted in 1918, we've got. And for a lot of different reasons, we botched the response." 

Park Rangers Bring Black History to Life in the Great Outdoors

As Americans consider the racist views of John Muir and the legacy of exclusion from national parks spaces, the Times highlights the work of African American workers in the national parks service and the Black history they help preserve "for the benefit and enjoyment of people."