Historians in the News

The Republican Retreat From Governance

Dartmouth history professor Bethany Moreton argues that the GOP focus on social issues (and embrace by some of QAnon) isn't divorced from economic policy, but reflects the political decision to forego any social provision for child care and health. 

UCLA Wins $3.65-Million Grant to Build ‘Age of Mass Incarceration’ Archive with LAPD Records

In addition to 177 boxes of LAPD records, which the university fought for and won access to in court, the project will seek out and include oral histories and other ephemera from community members who were affected by the region’s aggressive criminal justice pipelines, said professor Kelly Lytle Hernández.

How the New Orleans Streetcar Revival Left Bus Riders Behind

A number of historical dynamics, including racial segregation and the growth of a tourist economy, account for decisions in the Crescent City that have refurbished a fraction of the old streetcar system at high cost while ignoring the health of bus systems that poor and working residents depend on, says NOLA transit historian Kevin McQueeney. 

The Persistence of Hate In American Politics

After Charlottesville, the historian Joan Wallach Scott wanted to find out how societies face up to their past—and why some fail. Aryeh Neier reviews Scott's comparative history of the Nuremberg Trials, the South African Truth and Reconciliation effort, and the debate over reparations to African Americans for slavery and Jim Crow. 

The Logic of Eugenics Still Haunts Virginia

Ellen Wayland-Smith reviews Elizabeth Catte's book Pure America: Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia. 

‘Despised’ Review: The Left and the Working Class

by Jonathan Rose

Historian Jonathan Rose reviews a book by British firefighter and "left conservative" Paul Embery which identifies the collapse of both working class communities and open debate in Britain as factors in the demise of Labour as a political force. 

How Mexico Reshaped the Global Economy: Interview With Christy Thornton

The Mexican government demanded a program of economic reparations to the developing world, but the system of international aid and trade that emerged worsened exploitation. 

Website Documents Over 700 Lynchings in Texas

Jeff Littlejohn of Sam Houston State University has launched a website to make accessible information about more than 700 documented lynchings in the state of Texas. 

Race on Campus: The Mental Burden of Minority Professors

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz writes about mental health challenges facing minority faculty at predominantly white institutions, quoting historians Marcia Chatelain and Katrina Phillips. 

We’ve Had a White Supremacist Coup Before. History Buried It

LeRae Sikes Umfleet's 2009 book explored the 1898 Wilmington insurrection and showed “how people could get murdered in the streets and no one held accountable for it.”

‘Robert E. Lee and Me’ Dismantles Confederate Mythology

Retired Brigadier General and West Point historian Ty Seidule was drawn to the military by growing up with the myth of the gentleman soldier embodied by Robert E. Lee. His new book deconstructs the myth through autobiography. 

Can We Teach Our Way Out Of Political Polarization?

The AHA's Jim Grossman is among the experts discussing the prospects for civics education to alleviate political polarization and the plague of disinformation. 

A Monument Honoring Brooklyn Abolitionists Stalls Under Scrutiny

“Whatever we build in Downtown Brooklyn should rival the Statue of Liberty,” said Raul Rothblatt, who has fought to preserve the area’s history for nearly 20 years. He added: “But instead, the city is planning to build a dog park above where tunnels once connected abolitionist homes.”

After the Capitol Was Stormed, Teachers Try Explaining History in Real Time

The eruption of political violence at the US Capitol has challenged teachers of history and civics at all grade levels and pushed teachers of other subjects to respond to their students' experience of confusion, anger, or sadness. 

Against the Consensus Approach to History

by William Hogeland

Current debates about the historiography of slavery and the founding mistake the authority claimed by past generations of historians for scholarly integrity instead of recognizing that writing history has always been a political act (that often works to conceal its politics).

How Versailles Still Haunts the World

by Joanne Randa Nucho

Anthropologist Joanne Randa Nucho and Public Books present a virtual forum on the ongoing legacies and impacts of the Treaty of Versailles. 

Virtual Event: Sarah Miller-Davenport: Gateway State: Hawai’i and Cultural Transformation of American Empire, FEB. 1

Please join the National History Center of the American Historical Association for a Washington History Seminar roundtable on Gateway State: Hawai’i and Cultural Transformation of American Empire with author Sarah Miller-Davenport, MONDAY FEB. 1, 4:00 PM EST.

Virtual Event: Joan Wallach Scott's "On the Judgment of History" FRIDAY JAN. 29

Please join the National History Center of the American Historical Association for a Washington History Seminar roundtable on On the Judgment of History with author Joan Wallach Scott. Friday, January 29, 4:30 PM EST

Historian Discusses The Politics That Shape U.S. History In Schools

Hasan Kwame Jeffries: "Nobody's placing that blame on children. No child in school today is even responsible for the mess that we have right now. But they are responsible for the problems of tomorrow and of the future."

This Professor Protested a School’s Racism. Then He Lost His Job

"The sudden termination of Felber sends a very strong and disturbing message. Felber was doing antiracist work and initiated programs that benefited the marginalized and disenfranchised."