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History News Network

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Roundup Top 10!


How ‘The New York Times’ Whitewashed the 1968 ‘October Surprise’ — and Why It Still Matters

by Greg Grandin

Ever since Nixon and Kissinger undermined the Vietnam peace talks to win that election, politicians have used militarism abroad to defeat domestic opponents.


In the 1850s, the future of American slavery seemed bright

by Matthew Karp

That star was extinguished not by the operation of the laws of history – much less the natural evolution of the market – but by the victory of a political movement, a bloody civil war, and a social revolution across the South.


The Case Against Democracy

by Caleb Crain

If most voters are uninformed, who should make decisions about the public’s welfare?


The Liberal Dilemma: Can the New President Achieve Both Guns and Butter?

by Matthew Dallek

“Wake up every one of you to the two fronts on which our defense must be built!” - Eleanor Roosevelt, 1940


No Concession, No Sleep: Glued to the TV on Election Night 1960

by Michael Beschloss

The shifting returns of the Kennedy-Nixon race tested the fledgling television news operations and kept viewers in suspense until well past dawn.


Does history happen in leaps or incrementally?

by Stephen J. Dubner

A discussion with Harvard economist Ed Glaeser on the podcast Freakonomics.


Why Historians Must Use Wikileaks To Write The History of the 2016 Election

by Paul Gregory

Wikileaks is giving historians access to documents the authors never thought would be public; that makes the documents invaluable.


Why the Black Panthers Matter Today

by Yohuru Williams

One of the lessons to take away from the formation of the Black Panther Party is the need to acknowledge the concerns of citizens brutalized by a criminal justice system which functions today much in the same way it did fifty years ago.


The Truth About the Late Tom Hayden—Whitewashed by the MSM

by Ronald Radosh

The worst claim in the Times’ obituary is that Hayden was a “peace activist” who “opposed violent protests but backed militant demonstrations.”


Blowback for American sins in the Philippines

by Stephen Kinzer

Rarely has blowback from an overseas intervention come back to haunt us so long after the shooting stopped.