With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Roundup Top 10!



Why the White Working Class Rebelled

by Juan Cole

Neoliberalism is killing them (literally).


Disciples of Distrust

by Garry Wills

Even comparing Trump to American demagogues is unfair—unfair to the past demagogues.


Donald Trump and the Death of American Exceptionalism

by Jelani Cobb

The problem of Trump is not simply that his opinions far exceed his knowledge; it’s that what he does know is so hostile to democracy, not only in the Republican Party or the United States but in the world.


An Election for the Dark Ages

by John Terry

A medievalist on the uses and misuses of history in the 2016 campaign.


The Republicans' Andrew Johnson Moment

by Timothy S. Huebner

The Republican Party of the 1860s faced a stark choice. It could either commit itself to its founding principles of expanding freedom, opportunity, and rights, or it could follow Johnson toward a narrow conception of what it meant to be a part of the American community.


Hillary Clinton’s Journey—and Ours

by Eleanor Clift

They’ve talked about a woman president for 60 years. She was supposed to be perfect. Hillary isn’t that. But she’s the one who made it—she must have something.


Why Coeducation at Universities Was Not a Triumph of Feminism

by Nancy Weiss Malkiel

Coeducation has fallen well short of righting the fundamental gender-driven challenges that still bedevil our society.


There was real voting fraud in Chicago in the old days

by Rick Perlstein

Here’s how it worked.


America's Know-Nothing Diplomacy

by Daniel Pipes

As someone who's spent his near-50-year career working on the Middle East, the notion that ignorance makes for better diplomacy is pretty depressing.


Top 5 urgent Climate Change/Election Stories MSM Suppressed

by Juan Cole

Corporate television media in the United States is colluding in a cover-up of the threat of climate change, and they have specifically blacked out the climate change issue with regard to this election.