Historians in the News

The Chauvin Verdict: ‘The Terrain Going Forward Will Not Be the Same’

Historians Keisha N. Blain and Simon Balto, with legal scholar Rosa Brooks, are among experts commenting on the significance of the conviction of Derek Chauvin of charges including third degree murder for the death of George Floyd. 

What Should Museums Do With the Bones of the Enslaved?

The Smithsonian is considering how to deal with its natural history collection of human remains, including those of enslaved people. Secretary Lonnie Bunch III suggests that the museum must be guided by the imperative "to honor and remember."

What Does President Biden Need To Understand About Mexico?

Historian Patrick Iber discusses the current politics of Mexico and the historical nature of the country's relationship with its northern neighbor. 

Anglo-Saxon’ Is What You Say When ‘Whites Only’ Is Too Inclusive

by Adam Serwer

Anglo-Saxonism is the belief in a mythical ethnic origin story of the American nation that has always been used to justify exclusion. 

How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America w/ Joshua D. Rothman

Historian Joshua D. Rothman discusses "The Ledger and the Chain: How Domestic Slave Traders Shaped America," a new book linking the internal slave trade to the development of American capitalism. 

The Girl in the Kent State Photo

by Patricia McCormick

Mary Ann Vecchio's life was forever changed by being pictured in the famous photograph with Kent State shooting victim Jeffrey Miller; she became a lightning rod for a nation's anger at age 14. 

‘Prejudice’ Exposed? Jane Austen’s Links to Slavery ‘Interrogated’

The Jane Austen House museum will undertake an effort to examine and publicize the connections between the novelist's family and the Caribbean slave trade. 

Heeding the Lessons of Weimar

by Shikha Dalmia and Arthur Melzer

"There aren’t many examples in the annals of liberal democracy when a major party abandoned so much of what it stood for so quickly for the sake of one man. The most notorious parallel is of course Weimar Germany."

Before the Civil War, New Orleans Was the Center of the U.S. Slave Trade (Excerpt)

by Joshua D. Rothman

After Congress ended the importation of enslaved people in 1808, domestic traders made New Orleans the center of an increasingly active and lucrative slave trade. 

‘If We Don’t Adapt, We Will Wither Away’: Louis Menand on the University

"What we teach in the liberal arts — hermeneutics, history, and theory — are intended to help you do this. Professional schools don’t teach these things. You are not going to learn them anywhere else."

What Do We Want in a First Lady?

Books by historian Julia Sweig and journalist Karen Tumulty examine the stated and unstated expecations of the role of First Lady through the stories of Lady Bird Johnson and Nancy Reagan. 

How the LAPD Guarded California’s Borders in the 1930s

Los Angeles's conservative establishment used tropes of cultural inferiority to justify efforts to stop poor white Dust Bowl refugees from entering the state in the 1930s, 

Nancy Reagan’s Real Role in the AIDS Crisis

Washington journalist Karen Tumulty writes that Nancy Reagan worked against the demands of social conservatives to ask her husband's administration to pay attention to the AIDS crisis, but her efforts weren't enough. 

The Woman Who Made van Gogh

Jo Van Gogh-Bonger, the painter's sister-in-law, has come in for reconsideration for her role in promoting his work to the world. 

Did A Black Undercover NYPD Detective Unwittingly Aid Malcolm X’s Assassination?

A posthumous letter attributed to former NYPD Detective Ray Wood details a sting operation that resulted in the arrest of two of Malcolm X's bodyguards days before his assassination. Debate has raged if the letter is authentic and, if it is, if it reflects NYPD involvement in a conspiracy to kill Malcolm. 

My Grandfather Fled the Nazis. I Moved to His Old Neighborhood

by Laura Moser

The writer reflects on the meaning of her journey as an American Jew to first claim German citizenship and then move to the town her grandfather had fled. 

Two Madison Profs Make 'Collegeland' Podcast About University Life

Historians Nan Enstad and Lisa Levenstein have produced a podcast that tells the stories of college campuses as places of learning, work, and socialization, seeking to counter both right-wing demonization of campus liberalism and the rose-colored view of university PR. 

The Twists and Turns of Black History (Review)

by Jill Watts

Historian Jill Watts reviews new books on Black history by Kate Masur, Thomas C. Holt and Pamela Horowitz and Jeanne Theoharis. 

Choosing Empire: America Before And After World War II

Historian Samuel Zipp reviews two new books by Nancy Cott and Stephen Wertheim that examine how the United States came to embrace, and perhaps become stuck with, a role as the world's policeman. 

F.D.R. Didn’t Just Fix the Economy

Times columnist Jamelle Bouie draws on the work of historian Eric Rauchway to argue that Franklin Roosevelt envisioned the New Deal as a renewal of core democratic principles that the government should serve the needs of the people and be accountable to them.