Current Events that Relate to History
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Origin Story
Call of Duty: Pentagon Ops
Inside the weird synergies that launched the videogaming industry—and made the Pentagon fantasies in Call of Duty its stock in trade.The Nation -
Book Excerpt
“I Am the Face of AIDS”: Ryan White and the Politics of Innocence in the History of HIV/AIDS
Ryan White helped challenge existing understandings of the AIDS epidemic. But his story also reinforced arbitrary divisions between the guilty and the innocent.Public Books -
Comparison
Donald Trump Would Be Weaker the Second Time Around
Donald Trump wants the ideology of William McKinley and Gilded Age Republicanism, but with a totally different social base. It won’t work.Jacobin -
Antecedent
How Past and Present Catch Up With Each Other
The election of 1801 offers a first-hand example of how current events can offer historians new perspectives on the past.The Panorama -
Collection
Trumpism = Fascism?
Since 2015, historians and others have been debating the analogy with interwar Europe. Follow along in this annotated collection of their writing on the topic. -
Comment
Many Wealthy Members of Congress are Descendants of Rich Slaveholders
Researchers measured lawmakers’ wealth and found that those whose Southern ancestors owned slaves before abolition have a higher net worth today.The Conversation -
Collection
America's Pastime
Histories of big league baseball, from the achievements of the players to the culture of the stands to the stories and traditions we pass down.
From the HNN Archive
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The Forebears of JD Vance and the New Right
Revisiting the Agrarian-Distributists and their fabrication of an American past. -
Overexposed
What happened to privacy when Americans gained easy access to cameras in the Gilded Age? -
An Early Case of Impostor Syndrome
Why were so many medieval books laden with self-deprecation? Blame genre conventions. -
Why Does American History Feel Like Ancient History to High School Students?
An argument for returning the recent past, and the history of modern conservatism, to classrooms. -
The Bowl Truth
On Joan of Arc’s much-maligned and forgotten haircut. -
Regency Sex Ed
How did women in 19th-century Europe learn about the birds and the bees?