With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

Roundup Top 10!

How the Declaration of Independence became a beacon to the world

by Charles Edel

The Declaration’s international reach.

Reflecting On The Civil Rights Act’s Anniversary With James Baldwin

by Lindsey R. Swindall

Much like the time in which Baldwin wrote, we are living through a period of deep political division and social crisis framed by global discord.

The Supreme Court Is in Danger of Again Becoming ‘the Grave of Liberty’

by Eric Foner

Supreme Court decisions have practical consequences, which justices too often blithely ignore.

An Open Letter to the Director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

by Omer Bartov, Doris Bergen, Andrea Orzoff, Timothy Snyder, and Anika Walke, et al.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum released a statement on June 24 condemning the use of Holocaust analogies.

The Surprising History of Nationalist Internationalism

by David Motadel

Internationalism, a concept that, after all, implicitly presumes the existence of the nation, and extreme nationalism are not necessarily incompatible. The far right is less parochial than we think — and that’s dangerous.

The Lingering of Loss

by Jill Lepore

My best friend left her laptop to me in her will. Twenty years later, I turned it on and began my inquest.

The False Narratives of the Fall of Rome Mapped Onto America

by Sarah E. Bond

It is disturbing to see how gravely inaccurate 19th-century depictions of the destruction of Rome are used to illustrate news stories today, particularly those that draw parallels between Rome and the United States.

Why Democrats are wrong about Trump’s politicization of the Fourth of July

by Shira Lurie

He’s not doing anything that hasn’t been done for centuries.

How Lincoln's disdain for demagogues pricks Trump's Fourth of July pomposity

by Sidney Blumenthal

If nothing else, the president’s speech on the Mall on Thursday will show how far we have fallen since Lincoln.