Current Events that Relate to History
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CommentThe Gulf of Mexico’s Long History of Colonization and Varying Names
Long before Trump expressed interest in a name change, conquerors have battled to claim the wealth of its rich waters.Retropolis -
Book ReviewThe Worlds of Noam Chomsky
If ordinary Americans know one critic of the American Empire, it’s almost certainly Chomsky.The Nation -
Comment
Trump’s Push to Control Greenland Echoes US Purchase of Alaska From Russia in 1867
The tale of how and why Russia ceded its control over Alaska to the US 150 years ago is actually 2 tales and 2 intertwining histories.The Conversation -
ExhibitStamps Capture Unchanging Face of U.S. Violence Abroad
Countries have also used their postal systems to fight back against aggression.Foreign Policy in Focus -
ProfileWhy Faneuil Hall Is a Metaphor for the American Revolution’s Complicated Definition of Liberty
How a lively market on Boston Harbor became part of many defining moments of the Colonial and Revolutionary eras.Smithsonian -
Book ReviewWhy Zora Neale Hurston Was Obsessed with the Jews
Her long-unpublished novel was the culmination of a years-long fascination. What does it reveal about her fraught views on civil rights?The New Yorker -
exhibitLegacies of Jimmy Carter
Historical reappraisals of Carter's legacies in foreign relations, the economy, the environment, and electoral politics.
From the HNN Archive
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Letting the World Scream
In 1984, the U.S. rejected the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction, revealing its tendency to ignore international rules it sees as unfavorable — even when it helped write them. -
The Burned-Over District
The Northeast caught fire this fall, in a way that recalls its past. History has some lessons about how to manage the region’s fire seasons to come. -
The Other Sherman’s March
How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power. -
Knight Club
Were the Knights of the Golden Circle responsible for Lincoln’s assassination? No one knows, but far-right secret societies always draw power from speculation. -
The Forebears of JD Vance and the New Right
Revisiting the Agrarian-Distributists and their fabrication of an American past. -
Nuggets of Condescension
By universalizing their own economic history, Western observers have used the past to portray African economic culture as backward and inadequate.