Current Events that Relate to History
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ArgumentNo History Without the T
This is far more serious than the loss of a few letters.Slate -
LongreadThe American Dream 100 Years After the National Origins Act
How a clerk on Ellis Island at the dawn of the 20th century documented discrimination through photography, and what that tells us about today’s malaise.New Lines Magazine -
CommentThe Making of Emergencies
For centuries, theorists of liberal governance have worried about how emergencies can unfetter executive power. Trump has given those fears new urgency.New York Review of Books -
CommentTrump Breaks Washington’s Secrecy Addiction
The president is right to release the Kennedy files.The American Conservative -
Petition
Scholasticide in Gaza: An Appeal to the AHA
The organizers of a resolution condemning scholasticide in Gaza are calling on leaders of the American Historical Association (AHA) to rescind their veto of the resolution and allow all AHA members to vote on it . -
Book ReviewThe Cult of the Entrepreneur
Why do Americans idealize people who found businesses?The New Republic -
exhibitThe Soviets and US
The contours and legacies of the most consequential political rivalry of the 20th century.
From the HNN Archive
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What Is the Role of the Historian?
Rethinking the job of history — and the American Historical Association — after the veto of the Gaza “scholasticide” resolution. -
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 First and Last Queen of Haiti in Exile
Queen Marie-Louise outlived most of her family, yet her story about the revolution and its aftermath was rarely consulted by those writing the era’s history. -
Ohio’s Little-Known Fascist Member of Congress
How a local prosecutor protected white supremacists and went on to a career in Washington, DC. -
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. -
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. -
Who Built the Panama Canal?
Finding testimony from the Afro-Caribbean workers who changed the Americas forever.