Recently Published

The U.S. Must Take an Honest Look at the Costs of Spaceflight

by Jonathan Coopersmith

Since 1969, NASA has unsuccessfully struggled with three underlying problems.

Why We Don’t Go to the Moon Anymore

by Matthew D. Tribbe

In short, “the Sixties” happened, and the space program has never recovered.

What a Historian Learned by Attending His 1964 High School Class Reunion

by John W. Johnson

Why write about it for HNN? Let me make the case.

How "Five Old Men" Started the Roll-Back of Hiroshima Revisionism

by D. M. Giangreco

"The revisionists who came of age during the ban-the-bomb 50s and psychedelic 60s were a bit too impatient."

Where Is The Passion for Peace?

by Walter G. Moss

Today, as conflicts and bloodshed occur in Ukraine (and Gaza, Syria, and elsewhere), we wonder why in the past century we have advanced so little in our ability to prevent such senseless wars.

After the Shooting Down of MH 17 ...  We Are All Waiting for Something to Happen

by Juliane Fuerst

On July 17, flight MH 17 fell out of the sky and into a field near a village in Eastern Ukraine. A few hours later the world had changed.

Why We Should Remember Lionel Ferbos for More than His Trumpet

by Mary Niall Mitchell

For jazz historians, and for the musicians who played with him for many years, Ferbos was another kind of link to the past.

Five Questions About World War I that Remain Unanswered

by J. Fred MacDonald

The following questions remain definitively unanswered.

So You Want to Get Good Scores on Rate My Professor?

by Thomas Buttaccio

Secrets of professors who score high.

What Went Wrong with the American Experiment?

by Jim Sleeper

"Jim Sleeper is the Jonathan Edwards of civic-republicanism--and anism--and that's a compliment.”— Hendrick Hertzberg

Why Doesn't Everybody Know Who Alice Paul Was and What She Did?

by J.D. Zahniser

She organized the first march on Washington. Her cause? Women's suffrage.

This Generation Changed America – And We Don't Think It too Made a Great Contribution?

by Ron Briley

Modern memory continues to perceive the post-World War II baby boomers of the 1960s as hippies interested in self-gratification, while their parents struggled through the Great Depression and Second World War.

Why Do We Have an Illegal Immigration Problem from Central America? We Should Know. We Helped Create It.

by William Schell, Jr.

Here's how this happened.

Putin's Hands May Be Bloody, but this Was No Re-Run of KAL 007

by Mark B. Tauger

While the claims of denial may be similar, however, the comparison between the events themselves does not hold up.

The Longest Battle of the First World War: Historian Paul Jankowski on the Slaughterhouse of Verdun (Interview)

by Robin Lindley

"Next to cultural fantasies historical truths can appear as sacrilegious, but to demystify Verdun is not to impugn the compelling power of the truths behind legend, nostalgia or parable." -- Paul Jankowski

Is this What 1914 Looks Like in the 21st Century?

by Jonathan Schell

Then came the attack of September 11th.

That Summer You're Enjoying? What Few Realize.

by Jackson Murphy

Until the 20th century, Summer (as we know it) was for the rich.

Why a Contrarian History of the United States Is Needed Now

by Ilan Stavans

I’m tired of the hypocritical way immigrants are constantly being described today in public discourse.

Shouldn't the People Who Build Cities Be Able to Live in Them?

by Pearl Duncan

Recently, there has been discussion in New York and other cities about affordable housing for people who are workers.

How a Book Reviewer Got My Book Wrong

by Jonathan Israel

A response to the book critic who trashed my book, “Revolutionary Ideas,” in the New York Review of Books.