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!


Midterms and Troops: The Bid to Save a Party that Led to the Wounded Knee Massacre

by Heather Cox Richardson

"The president sent soldiers to South Dakota, the largest movement of troops since the Civil War, in the midst of a midterm election campaign that looked bad for his party."


When black women journalists fight back

by Martha S. Jones

Against all odds, black women have been creating space for themselves in political media for centuries.


What we get wrong about ‘a city on hill’

by Daniel T. Rodgers

And why we need to rediscover its real meaning.


Democrats Aren’t Moving Left. They’re Returning to Their Roots.

by Joshua Zeitz

Many on both sides are worried about the party’s leftward swing. They say it’s a deviation from the mainstream. It’s not.


America’s Struggle for Moral Coherence

by Andrew Delbanco

The problem of how to reconcile irreconcilable values is what led to the Civil War. It hasn’t gone away.


What Happened When a Nation Erased Birthright Citizenship

by Jonathan M. Katz

The Dominican Republic deported an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people of Haitian descent over three years. Those left behind live in a state of institutionalized terror.


How a Difficult, Racist, Stubborn President Was Removed From Power—If Not From Office

by David Priess

Members of Congress and some in Andrew Johnson’s own Cabinet wanted him gone. They did the next best thing.


The British Empire is still being whitewashed by the UK’s school curriculum

by Deana Heath

Why this must change.


The Complicated DNA of ‘God Bless America’

by James Kaplan

The nation loved the song, which was introduced 80 years ago. But some reviled Irving Berlin for his presumption, as an immigrant and a Jew, in having written it at all.


Matthew Whitaker is a crackpot

by Ruth Marcus

The acting attorney general doesn’t accept Marbury v. Madison.