Historians in the News

A Scholarly Screw-Up of Biblical Proportions

by Ariel Sabar

The author of a book on the high-profile forgery of papyrus fragments indicating Jesus had a wife discusses how an article based on those fraudulent documents passed peer review. 

A New History Changes the Balance of Power Between Ethiopia and Medieval Europe

by David Perry and Matthew Gabriele

Verena Krebs's new book on medieval Ethiopian contact with Europeans reverses the lens to argue that the African kingdom engaged with Europeans from a position of strength. 

Many Children Left Behind: How American Schools Became so Unequal

Christina Groeger's new book upends the American faith in education as an engine of social mobility and a cure for inequality. 

Fists of Freedom: A Storymap of Responses to the Olympics Protest of John Carlos and Tommie Smith

by Lou Moore

Louis Moore presents an interactiv graphic exploration of media responses to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics protest of American sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith. 

The Republican Plot to Ban LGBTQ History in Public Schools

So-called "Don't Say Gay" laws seek to restrict the teaching of LGBTQ history in schools or allow students to opt out of individual lessons. Historians Anthony Mora, Marc Stein and Charles Kaiser discuss the politics of moral panic.

When Henry VIII Wrestled the King of France—and Lost

A wrestling match between Henry VIII and Francis I may never have happened, but it's an enduring, if apocryphal, explanation for the failure of diplomacy between England and France. 

A Maryland Attic Hid a Priceless Trove of Black History. Historians and Activists Saved it from Auction

The discovery of a trove of documents related to the slavery-related business of a Maryland family was just the beginning, as historians and activists had to raise money to buy them to keep them as a community history resource. 

Revealed: Neo-Confederate Group Includes Military Officers and Politicians

Despite its denial of links to far-right groups, the Sons of Confederate Veterans has considerable overlap with them, and was a key player in the fight over statues that led to the notorious "Unite the Right" assembly in Charlottesville in 2017. 

With Discovery of Unmarked Graves, Canada’s Indigenous Seek Reckoning

The discoveries of the remains of hundreds of First Nations children at the sites of boarding schools intended to separate them from indigenous language and culture are forcing Canadians to confront the brutality of the nation's history. 

If the Right Gives Up the "Lost Cause," What Historical Myths Will Replace It?

Rebecca Onion interviews Matt Karp, who argues that, while the right has distanced itself from pro-Confederate mythology, it still seeks to appropriate history to support a culture war. 

New Research Shows Slavery’s Central Role in U.S. Economic Growth Leading up to the Civil War

Historian Sven Beckert and economist Mark Stelzner's collaborative research applies new methods for quantifying how much the labor productivity of enslaved people contributed to economic output, as well as identifying the gap between white households with and without slaves as a driver of inequality. 

The Unknown History of Black Uprisings

by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor reviews Elizabeth Hinton's new "America on Fire" and explains how it shakes up established accounts of a "good" and "nonviolent" civil rights movement giving way to protest and violence.

"Burn This Letter Please": A Drag Queen's Letters to Hollywood Agent are a Key Source For LGBTQ History

"Collectively, the letters painted a vivid portrait of an intimate existence among a tight group of friends in the late 1950s and early ’60s in New York."

Event: History Matters with Annette Gordon-Reed, Historian & Author, “On Juneteenth” (Friday, June 18)

Jonathan Capehart will host a discussion with Annette Gordon-Reed of her new book "On Juneteenth" on Friday at 12:00 eastern. 

Capitalism American-Style: A Financial History of the United States

“Ages of American Capitalism" by Jonathan Levy sheds light on U.S. history as seen through a financial lens. 

Amazon’s Greatest Weapon Against Unions: Worker Turnover

Labor historians Nelson Lichtenstein and Joe McCartin say that Amazon's corporate turn against retaining employees reverses longstanding business strategies because it makes organizing unions extremely difficult. 

There Once Was a Republican Fight for D.C. Statehood

Historian Derek Musgrove's research on DC statehood shows that prominent Republicans, including conservative Barry Goldwater and segregationist Strom Thurmond, have strongly supported the cause in the past. 

The Freeing of the American Mind

Louis Menand joins Ezra Klein's podcast to discuss his new book and the intellectual history of the cold war era. 

When the Government Supported Writers

by Max Holleran

"With its reminder that creative labor was once seen—like a strategic reserve of fuel, weapons, or medical supplies—as worthy of federal protection, Republic of Detours mobilizes New Deal history to help us imagine what our society would be like if federal tax dollars supported a reserve army of muralists, poets, and oral historians."

How to Think Like a Utopian

The Dutch macrohistorian says that utopian thinking – that doesn't accept the present as necessary or permanent – is very different from fatalism because it ideally spurs action.