Historians in the News

Why are Historians Facing Online Abuse Over Whether Atlantis Existed?

Archaeologists who debunked a popular television series interpreting Plato's references to Atlantis as fact instead of allegory soon discovered the affinity many eugenicists, neonazis and white supremacists have for the myth. 

(Review) The Struggle for Black Education: On Jarvis R. Givens’s “Fugitive Pedagogy”

by Randal Maurice Jelks

Jarvis R. Givens's new study of the life of Carter G. Woodson emphasizes Woodson's work to advance Black education in an American social setting that was profoundly hostile to Black achievement and equality. 

Vice, Vice, Baby: Anna Lvovsky's History of Policing Sex

The “shifting public understandings of homosexuality in the twentieth century,” the legal historian Anna Lvovsky argues, “cannot be fully understood without a history of policing.”

How the Texas Abortion Law Creates Citizen Bounty Hunters

Legal historian and reproductive rights scholar Mary Ziegler: “It almost seemed like anyone could sue anyone — and that didn’t seem right. But it was. It really is that extraordinary.”

The Challenges of Reclaiming Filipino Louisiana’s Centuries-Old History

“Filipinos in Louisiana are always being ‘discovered,’ says Randy Gonzalez. Someone will write an article, ‘I bet you didn’t know there were Filipinos in Louisiana!’ Ten years later, someone will write the same article. I wish that would stop one day.”

Reconstructing an Urban Archive Lost on 9/11

The archives of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which held important information about the history of the region's politics and infrastructure, was housed in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Agency retirees have sent documents, pictures and artifacts to start rebuilidng the record.

Vaccination Mandates Are an American Tradition. So Is the Backlash

Historians Michael Willrich and Elena Conis explains the history of vaccination resistance and the civil liberties and political conflicts that have accompanied it. 

In Slasher Film ‘Candyman,’ the Horror Is U.S. Housing Policy

by Brentin Mock

“Candyman isn't the only ghost in this show,” says Stanford Carpenter, a cultural anthropologist based in Chicago. “The other ghost is Cabrini-Green. In both cases, the thing that makes them scary is that they were made that way by white systemic racism.”

Religious Militancy Overseas and Its Messages at Home

"Recognizing jihad as a diverse and historically evolving practice makes it possible to cast aside the biggest misconception in the West, namely that it is an instantiation of medieval barbarism left over from less enlightened times."

What Set the Stage for Rebellion and Violence at Attica

Tyrone Larkins, Alhajji Sharif and Akil Shaquan were incarcerated at Attica 50 years ago. Hear their story about conditions in the prison and the events of the riot and its brutal suppression. Also features an interview with historian Heather Ann Thompson.

Review: The Case Against "Humane War"

by Daniel Bessner

Samuel Moyn's book "Humane" pushes for policymakers and intellectuals to focus less on the strategy of warfare and more on whether war should be fought, a crucial step to reestablishing peace as the goal of international relations and American foreign policy.

Phil Schaap, Grammy-Winning Jazz D.J. and Historian, Dies at 70

“They say I’m a history teacher,” he said in a video interview for the National Endowment for the Arts, which this year named him a Jazz Master, the country’s highest official honor for a living jazz figure, but he viewed his role differently. “I teach listening.” 

Those Who Can Do: Rewriting the History of Literary Studies from Inside the Classroom

by Dennis M. Hogan

A new history of literature pedagogy reconsiders teaching as a site of intellectual ferment and makes important claims for the value of the academic humanities. 

Carl Zimmer's Planet of Viruses and the Politics of Popular Science Writing

by Danielle Carr

Carl Zimmer's work as a science popularizer has been hailed as a key to bringing Americans on board with public health measures in the pandemic. But does his approach to writing about the science of viruses obscure the context of politics in which science unfolds? 

History Won't Judge: Joan C. Scott and Passing the Buck

by Kirsten Weld

Poor Clio, the muse of history, has been tasked with the passing of retrospective judgments that we in the here-and-now are unwilling to make. Unfortunately, that's not how history works. 

Group of Historians Challenges Woody Holton's Interpretation of the Significance of Dunmore's Proclamation

by Richard D. Brown et. al.

A group of scholars argues that the famous 1775 decree by Lord Dunmore that enslaved Virginians who joined the British forces would be emancipated was a desperate act that followed, not precipitated, the drive of white Virginians toward independence. 

Need to Do Better at Teaching 9/11 as History

"The main split in the way Sept. 11 is taught, says Jeremy Stoddard, is whether to teach it as a memorial, or as an event that continues to have an effect on students’ lives."

Too Few Today Remember the Bloody Uprising of Miners at Blair Mountain

In a region still marked by rampant inequality, the public forgetting of the Battle of Blair Mountain seems like a concerted effort to suppress working people's history. 

When the United States Almost Adopted a 30 Hour Work Week

Historian Benjamin Hunnicutt describes the political negotiations that took place during the Depression to shorten the work week to put more Americans to work. Could similar changes work today? 

Santa Fe's Historian Looks Ahead from Controversial Past

City Historian Valerie Rangel hopes to engage residents of Santa Fe with the complex and difficult histories of colonialism and racism that still shape the city and region.