Historians in the News

She Was Buried With a Silver Crown. Was She the One Who Held Power?

The double burial at La Almoloya and other Argaric graves are making archaeologists reconsider life in ancient Iberia. Was she the one wielding the power?

Tenure’s Broken Promise

The tenure system was established during historically flush times in higher ed, says historian John R. Thelin. Budgetary, ideological, and political changes affecting higher ed are calling into question whether academic work needs a different system. 

Women’s Experiences Matter? Natalie Kimball’s An Open Secret: The History of Unwanted Pregnancy and Abortion in Modern Bolivia

"Women’s experiences matter – this simple truth is at the core of Natalie Kimball’s brilliant new exploration into the tragic history of unwanted pregnancy and abortion in highland Bolivia over the past sixty years."

The Underground Activists Who Fought for Freedom Across Asia

by Jeffrey Wasserstrom

A new book on the movements against colonial rule in Asia looks to grassroots movements and multiple ideological and political groups and challenges "great man" ideas of national liberation. 

How Failed Quarantines Led to 20th-Century Measles Outbreaks

Misperception of the severity of measles contributed to loosely enforced and poorly observed quarantining around periodic outbreaks of the disease. 

Eat Like England’s First Non-Royal Ruler With This Propaganda-Filled Cookbook

Anti-Cromwell sentiments during the Restoration era ran high, and royalists used every possible venue to attack the Lord Protector's legacy. 

Daryl Michael Scott: ‘Bad History and Worse Social Science Have Replaced Truth’

"If I thought that lies would set you free, maybe I would go along with lies. But I believe that you’re not going to lie your way out of it; you’re going to think your way out of it."

Walter LaFeber, Historian Who Dissected Diplomacy, Dies at 87

Walter LaFeber was an influential scholar of diplomacy whose work balanced analysis of institutions and individual influence, challenged views of American exceptionalism, and even capably wrote about how Michael Jordan explained globalization. 

Dr. Philip Nel on the Legacy of Dr. Seuss

"A lot of people have a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that an artist and a writer can be both a genius and a racist, can do brilliant work and be profoundly damaging. Those are not mutually exclusive categories."

The Roots of Racial and Spatial Inequality

by Kimberley S. Johnson

As part of the AAIHS's roundtable on Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor's "Race For Profit," urban studies scholar Kimberley Johnson looks at the ways that generations of housing policy enabled banks to write predatory loans to Black buyers, profiting first by high interest, then by foreclosure, while blaming outcomes on the individual irresponsibility of Black borrowers. 

The G.O.P. Isn’t Going to Split Apart Anytime Soon

by Jamelle Bouie

The Times columnist checks in with a number of political historians and argues that, while pundits are comparing today's GOP to the Whigs and Federalists, a more vital comparison is to the 19th century Democratic Party, which held on to power through aggressive use of anti-majoritarian institutions. 

Oregon once Legally Banned Black People. Has the State Reconciled its Racist Past?

Activists in Oregon are working to recover knowledge of the state's forgotten African American history, which is as old as white settlement in the region. 

Beyond Marie Curie: The Women In Science History We Don’t Talk About

Historian Anna Reser: "I think one of the things that [coauthor Leila McNeill and I] had to do for this book, and that I think we need to do more broadly when looking at the history of women in science, is to rethink what counts as science."

Transcript: Race in America: History Matters with Erika Lee & Helen Zia

Historian Erika Lee and Asian-American civil rights activist Helen Zia discuss the way that COVID-19 has reignited hostility against Asian Americans. 

History Matters: Debates About Monuments Reflect Current Divisions

How should local governments approach the question of memorials? Historians can advise about the significance or meaning of historical figures, but community values and state laws are subject to partisan politics. 

What Is Happening to the Republican Party?

by Jelani Cobb

The historian and New Yorker writer consults a roster of political historians (including Marsha Barrett, Thomas Patterson and Heather Cox Richardson) to ask whether Trumpism has the potential to break the Republican Party as previous factional splits have disrupted prior incarnations of the American party system. 

Trinity College Reckons with Slavery Links as Ireland Confronts Collusion with Empire

Dublin's Trinity College is undertaking a review of its institutional ties to slavery, a project that involves acknowledging the participation of Irish merchants in the Atlantic slave trade. 

How a Disaster Relief Program Changed the Roman Empire for the Better

The 10,000 Pompeiians who evacuated the city ahead of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD benefited from the redistribution of the property of nobles who didn't. 

Black Spirituals as Poetry and Resistance

The author reflects on the experience of collecting oral history interviews from Black Brooklynites. The way her respondents understood death offers insight into the communal impacts of the COVID pandemic. 

How Black Women Brought Liberty to Washington in the 1800s

by Karin Wulf

Karin Wulf discusses Tamika Nunley's book on Black women in the nation's capital with the author.