Historians in the News

A Texas Bill Drew Ire for Saying it Would Preserve ‘Purity of the Ballot Box.’ Here’s the Phrase’s History

Texas legislation invoked the "purity of the ballot box," a phrase critics argued harkened back to the era of Jim Crow and the White Primary. Historians say the phrase itself is obscure but the idea that white Texans are the preferred voting citizens has a long history in the state. 

Hamilton, Hip-Hop, and the Law (Review)

by Stephen Rohde

Lisa Tucker's edited volume of essays uses the musical "Hamilton" as a lens on several significant legal issues ranging from originalism to employment discrimination. 

A Short History of the Long Conservative Assault on Black Voting Power

Eric Foner and Kevin Kruse discuss the historical precedent for the resurgent ideological position that some votes should be more equal than others. 

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

by Sierra Pettengill and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Sierra Pettengill's new short documentary "The Rifleman" connects racist violence at the US-Mexico border and the politics of influential NRA leader Harlon Carter, who for decades concealed the fact that he was convicted at age 17 of murder for shooting a Mexican youth in Laredo. She discusses that story with historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Death, Taxes, and Ivory Towers

Universities have long claimed to be engines of local economic development. The tax exemptions many wealthy institutions enjoy bring that claim into question. Historian Davarian Baldwin provides background to a report on Yale and New Haven. 

If It’s Not Jim Crow, What Is It?

by Jamelle Bouie

NYT Columnist Jamelle Bouie relies on the historical writing of J. Morgan Kousser, who showed that disenfranchisement after 1877 affected African American and poor white southerners, was implemented through color-blind means, and had partisan, rather than simply racial, goals. But it was still Jim Crow, and the comparison to Georgia's new law is fair and valid. 

France Battles Over Whether to "Cancel" or Celebrate Napoleon

French President Macron will place a wreath on the former Emperor's tomb to commemorate the bicentennial of his death, as French citizens debate his legacy including his contempt for Republicanism both in independent Haiti and in France itself.

Much More Than Muffins: The Women Scientists Who Invented Home Ec (Review)

Journalist Danielle Drellinger's book on the invention and evolution of the disicpline of Home Economics calls it a uniquely American blend of pragmatism and research, but historians who read it may wish it examined the racial and gender assumptions underlying the "best way" of keeping a home. 

How Malcolm X Inspired John Coltrane to Embrace Islamic Spirituality

by Richard Brent Turner

John Coltrane's embrace of influences from religious music from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, profoundly influential to the Black Arts movement and African American spirituality, was influenced by Malcolm X. 

Connecticut Professor Sends Controversial Anti-1619 Project Email Blast to Public School Superintendents

A professor of European history at Central Connecticut emailed every public school superintendent in the state to urge them not to allow use of the 1619 Project in their districts, raising questions about the use of state email resources and the control of history curriculum in secondary schools. 

Niall Ferguson Examines Disasters of the Past and Disasters Still to Come (Review)

Niall Ferguson's synthetic overview of disaster in human history is ambitious and accessible, but it makes some odd decisions, including dismissing the severity of the climate change threat to focus on less predictable potential threats. 

Teacher Appreciation Week: In a Tough Year, These Educators Stood Out

Clemson historian Rhondda Thomas is among the history teachers lauded for excellence – for work to memorialize the Black people who were enslaved by the university or employed under exploitative conditions of convict labor or Jim Crow. 

White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea, by Tyler Stovall

Tyler Stovall's new book argues that Enlightenment concepts of liberty and the slave trade were not contradictory; whiteness and freedom were mutually necessary to each other. 

“This Is Our Community” With Help From its Historic Black University, Elizabeth City Confronts the Tragedy it Tried to Prevent

Historian Melissa Stuckey of Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina has researched and taught about the town's history of racism and civil rights protest, knowledge that has been made tragically relevant by the police killing of Andrew Brown, Jr. 

The Fascinating History Behind the Popular ‘Waving Lucky Cat’

The popularity of the beckoning feline figurines reflects what happened when Japanese folkoric traditions met the rest of Asia and the world in commerce. 

Ancient Egypt for the Egyptians

New books and a documentary consider the entanglement of colonialism with the rise of academic Egyptology.

The Case for Reparations, In Pictures

by Karl Kusserow

A curator looks through the visual depictions of American history to highlight key moments in advocacy for reparations. 

L.A.’s History is Often Whitewashed, Romanticized and Censored. A New Push to Tell the Truth

Christopher Hawthorne leads a Civic Memory Working Group convened by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, that works to reverse the city's tendency to boost myths in the place of public history. 

How Israel Quashed 1982 Efforts to Recognize the Armenian Genocide

A host of political concerns led the Israeli Foreign Ministry to try to sabotage a 1982 conference comparing the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide. 

‘A Tale of the Forgotten Patriots’: New Brooklyn Tour Explores History of British Prison Ships Moored in NYC During the American Revolution

New York's East River was a mooring site for British prison ships where Colonial revolutionary prisoners were held in dangerous (and disgusting) conditions.