Historians in the News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• 
• SOURCE: Time Magazine
  5-25-17
  

  Historian David Kaiser says the most exciting day of his life was JFK’s election

  by David Kaiser

  Possibly the worst trauma of his life was when JFK died.

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  5-25-17
  

  Michael Bliss, Historian Who Dispelled Myths of Insulin’s Discovery, Dies at 76

  Professor Bliss unraveled the story behind the discovery of the hormone, which transformed diabetes from a death sentence into a manageable condition.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  5-23-17
  

  Jill Lepore: Americans Aren't Just Divided Politically, They're Divided Over History Too

  “All politics is really an argument about the relationship between the past and the future. And the more polarized our politics has become, the more polarized our past.”

• 
• SOURCE: AHA
  5-23-17
  

  AHA joins protest of Trump’s plan for drastic cuts to the NEH

  The administration is budgeting just enough money to shut down the agency and to honor pre-existing grant commitments.

• 
• SOURCE: New Republic
  5-23-17
  

  Diane Ravitch says the Democrats paved the way for the education secretary's efforts to privatize our public schools

  by Diane Ravitch

  "The Democratic Party has lost its way on public education."

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  5-19-17
  

  Mark Moyar explains why he came to believe the Vietnam War was winnable

  by Mark Moyar

  Although a minority of professors welcomed a well-substantiated challenge to conventional wisdom, the collective hostility coalesced wherever I applied for an academic faculty position.

• 
• SOURCE: Houston Chronicle
  5-19-17
  

  How should Texas high schoolers learn history?

  by Gene B. Preuss

  HB 1776 would replace STAAR with a new requirement: Passing a citizenship exam.

• 
• SOURCE: The Los Angeles Times
  5-19-17
  

  What's the 'greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history’?

  We asked the experts.

• 
• SOURCE: n+1
  5-19-17
  

  H.R. McMaster criticized – and not for his defense of Trump

  by Daniel Bessner

  He’s taken to task because he "clearly and unquestioningly embraces the premises that have supported the American empire since 1945.”

• 
• SOURCE: Dallas News
  5-17-17
  

  Yale’s David Blight is asked if New Orleans should rewrite its Civil War legacy

  "One thing that is always an answer is: To build new monuments rather than tear down old ones."

• 
• SOURCE: The Washington Post
  5-17-17
  

  Why so many students hate history — and what to do about it

  The topic’s explored in a new book, “Rebooting Social Studies: Strategies for Reimagining History Classes,” by Greg Milo, who taught high school social studies for 13 years.

• 
• SOURCE: Deutsche Welle
  5-18-17
  

  Germany establishes its first Holocaust Studies professorship

  Although Germany has been actively researching the Holocaust since the 1960s, it did not have any specific research professorships until now. Historian Sybille Steinbacher is about to change that.

• 
• SOURCE: Crosscut
  5-18-17
  

  A journalist confesses his Filipino family kept a slave and a historian tries to put the news in perspective

  University of Washington historian Vicente L. Rafael says the word slave might conjure up misleading images.

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  5-17-17
  

  H.R. McMaster Takes a Dive

  by Jack Shafer

  "The national security adviser’s fanboys are having a sad over his shilling for Baby Donald."

• 
• SOURCE: News-Medical.Net
  5-17-17
  

  Meet historian Roger Ekirch: Mr. Sleep

  His research area? Sleep.

• 
• SOURCE: Age of Revolutions
  5-15-17
  

  It’s been 50 years since Bernard Bailyn wrote “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”

  Here’s what people think of it now.

• 
• SOURCE: National Endowment for the Humanities
  5-1-17
  

  Martha C. Nussbaum's Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities

  by Martha C. Nussbaum

  This is the transcript of the lecture she gave on May 1, 2017.

• 
• SOURCE: NYT
  5-15-17
  

  Horst Mahler, German Holocaust Denier, Is Arrested in Hungary

  Mr. Mahler, 81, is a former Marxist urban guerrilla who became an activist on the extreme right.

• 
• SOURCE: cnsnews.com
  5-10-17
  

  Conservatives are praising historians like David Garrow for demythologizing Obama

  They are thrilled with Garrow’s new portrait in "Rising Star." 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  5-11-17
  

  Greg Grandin says Kissinger can teach Trump how to survive impeachment

  by Greg Grandin

  The historian is the author of a biography of Kissinger.