Historians in the News

What is Citizenship? A Conversation with Mae Ngai on The Takeaway

The Takeaway speaks with historian Mae Ngai about how notions of U.S. citizenship have changed over time.

OAH Signs Amicus Curiae Brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

by Organization of American Historians

“The OAH is committed to the principle that the past is a key to understanding the present, and has an interest—as a steward of history, not as an advocate of a particular legal standard—to ensure that the Court is presented with an accurate portrayal of American history and traditions,”

Fishing, Not Catching, in the History of the Law

by John Fabian Witt

John Fabian Witt writes about a critical exchange over Samuel Moyn's book on humanitarian war, and questions Moyn's conception of the relationship between a scholar's politics and their methodology. 

Beyond the State: An Anarchist History of Humanity

by Daniel Immerwahr

The late radical anthropologist David Graeber, with his posthumous collaborator David Wengrow, looks to the long sweep of history to assess the prospect of human self-governance without a powerful state. 

Local Professor Building History of San Diego's Japanese Americans

San Diego City College professor Susan Hasegawa describes a public history project detailing the story of San Diego's Japanese Americans before and after internment, and a librarian who supported interned children with books and messages of support.

Art History Prof. Recognizes Lost Masterpiece in Local Church

The painting, "Holy Family with the Infant St. John," is the third of a four-part series by Cesare Dandini and represents a continuation of Renaissance techniques in the Baroque period. 

Indentured Students: Elizabeth Tandy Shermer on Student Debt (Monday, October 4)

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer shows that Democrats and Republicans intentionally wanted to create a student loan industry instead of generously funding colleges and universities, which eventually left millions of Americans drowning in student debt. Zoom, Monday, Oct. 4, 4:00 PM EDT.

The Last Good Neighbor: Mexico in the Global Sixties (Washington History Seminar, Mon. 9/27)

Eric Zolov addresses the Washington History Seminar to talk about his revisionist interpretation of Mexican history in the 1960s, when the government tried "to broaden Mexico's international relations and break free of economic subordination to Washington." Zoom, Monday, Sept. 27, 4:00 PM EDT. 

Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience (Thursday, 9/23)

Nancy Sherman addresses the Washington History Seminar to discuss the maladaptation of Stoicism to the modern self-help industry and a fuller understanding of the lessons of the school. Zoom, September 23, 4:00 EDT. 

Traveling Black: Mia Bay Joins the Washington History Seminar, September 20

Mia Bay's new book "places the right to unrestricted mobility at the center of the twentieth-century black freedom struggle." She addresses the Washington History Seminar on Monday, September 20 at 4:00 EDT. 

The Ongoing Battle over Photographs of the Enslaved at Harvard

Tamara Lanier has continued to fight Harvard over the ownership of photos of her enslaved ancestors, which were commissioned by the influential race scientist Louis Agassiz.

AHA and OAH Join Coalition to Protect Integrity of History Education

by James Grossman and Beth English

"Ongoing partisan agitation around this issue will continue, provoked and sustained by a shrewdly organized and amply funded crusade that seeks to replace evidence-based history instruction with a whitewashed version of patriotism."

Do Colleges have a Guy Problem

"The imbalance reveals a genuine shift in how men participate in education, the economy, and society. The world has changed dramatically, but the ideology of masculinity isn’t changing fast enough to keep up."

The 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre: How Fearmongering Led to Violence

The 1906 Atlanta Race Riots, a series of mob attacks on Black residents and their homes and businesses, originated in fears of black political and economic power that were stoked by the local press with fabricated, sensational stories of Black criminality. 

Why Democrats are Losing Texas Latinos

A significant portion of Tejanos consider themselves white and many vote like Anglo Texans; their history shows the contingency of racial categories and the risk for Democrats of assuming demographics will substitute for political appeal. 

Black American Educators: New Laws Silence Us

Historians of education and civil rights suggest that Black teachers may be justified in fearing that new content-based restrictions on teaching history may subject them to more disciplinary action than their white colleagues. 

If/When COVID Ends, What Will Be the Future of Academic Conferences?

"Thinking through how to proceed with annual conferences during and after the pandemic means thinking about why people want to attend them in the first place."

Has BYU Canceled a Leading Historian of Mormonism?

The Neal A. Maxwell Institute appears to be disavowing its previous connections to historian Benjamin Park. Is it because of his objections to some LDS leaders' positions on LGBTQ issues and masking and vaccination in response to COVID? 

Will Homeschool Moms be Steve Bannon's Latest Political Shock Troops?

Bannon's call to parents to withdraw their children from school to protest "Critical Race Theory" echoes the infamous 1974 Kanawha County, West Virginia Textbook Wars. 

Jelani Cobb on Derrick Bell: The Man Behind Critical Race Theory

Derrick Bell's frustrations with the limits of liberal individualism in civil rights jurisprudence pushed him to develop the important critique of institiutional racism in the law.