Historians/History

• 
• 1/23/2022
  

  A Ten Year Old's Witness to the Liberation of Auschwitz

  by Bernice Lerner

  Jerzy (George) Ogurek had beaten the odds to survive in Auschwitz for three months when the Red Army arrived to liberate the camp. 50 years later, none of his colleagues at Boston University knew of his ordeal.

• 
• 1/23/2022
  

  For Child Survivors of Auschwitz, "Who Am I" was the Most Difficult Question

  by Alwin Meyer

  For child survivors of Auschwitz, efforts to reunite them with families after forced separation in the camp often proved to be an ongoing source of pain and confusion.

• 
• 12/19/2021
  

  The Theodore Roosevelt Oral History Collection Proves There's More to Learn about TR

  by Michael Patrick Cullinane

  Seven audio recordings from the 1950s, found at the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace, opened a window into the memories of TR's relatives and contemporaries of his political and social world, showing there's always more to discover about even the most famed figures of history. 

• 
• 12/19/2021
  

  Reflect on Solomon Northup's "A Slave's Christmas"

  by Alan J. Singer

  Solomon Northup's famed description of being kidnapped from freedom in New York to slavery in Louisiana includes a description of Christmas revelry that shows how the enslaved preserved community and humanity, and a contrast to the yearly reality of fear and labor. 

• 
• 12/19/2021
  

  Veracity or Virality? How Social Media are Transforming History

  by Jason Steinhauer

  History is a growing content category on social media, but history content going viral has very little to do with its quality or reliability. The author of a new book on history on social media says historians and readers need to understand how political agendas and content algorithms are shaping history on the web. 

• 
• 12/12/2021
  

  While Hanukkah is a Minor Jewish Holiday, The Events it Commemorates Have Lasting World Significance

  by Ralph Seliger

  Hanukkah is almost unique as a religious holiday in having a very solid basis in historical events; and although the holiday and the conflict it commemorates may seem minor, their impact was enormous for world events in the ensuing centuries.   

• 
• 12/12/2021
  

  The Hidden Story of the West's Most Important Double Agent

  by Tim Tate

  How and why did the CIA turn on Michal Gleniewski, a Polish defector who was one of the most valuable intelligence assets of the Cold War? 

• 
• 12/5/2021
  

  On Writing The Bright Ages

  by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele

  The authors of a new book reconsidering the history of the medieval world describe how the project came about and how the work of writing history benefits by collaboration.

• 
• 12/5/2021
  

  What if Hannibal Had Won?

  by Philip Freeman

  Historians' dependence on the accounts of Roman historians has distorted modern understanding of Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and the different possibilities for the world if he had succeeded in defeating Rome.

• 
• 11/21/2021
  

  To Grasp Geopolitical Transformations, Don't Forget to Look at the Map

  by Tim Marshall

  Historians and thinkers in other fields could benefit from a greater attention to geography and a greater understanding of how ideas, politics and identities are anchored to the physical space of the earth. 

• 
• 11/21/2021
  

  The Accident that Almost Decapitated the US Government

  by Stan Haynes

  John Tyler intended to show off the firepower of the USS Princeton to boost his abysmal popularity and scare foreign goverments into letting him annex Texas. He nearly got more than he bargained for in one of the biggest close calls of presidential history. 

• 
• 11/14/2021
  

  Look to Lincoln's Interactions with Black Americans to Understand His Racial Attitudes

  by Michael Burlingame

  As Lincoln's personal racial views have come under scrutiny, a biographer says that the prominent and ordinary Black Americans the 16th president dealt with didn't have the doubts today's activists do about where Lincoln stood. 

• 
• 11/7/2021
  

  Writing a Classic: Richard Tregaskis and "Guadalcanal Diary"

  by Ray E. Boomhower

  Combat reporter Richard Tregaskis's account of the August 1942 Marine invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands passed military censors and became a popular sensation while offering the public an account of the difficulty and brutality of the Pacific war.

• 
• 11/7/2021
  

  The Black Women Veterans of World War II Fought for More than the "Double V"

  by Kaia Alderson

  Kaia Alderson's new historical novel "Sisters in Arms" tells the story of the Black women in the World War II military whose service combined fights against fascism, racism and sexism.

• 
• 11/7/2021
  

  Remember the Army's Role in the Pacific War: Important Then, Influential Afterward

  by John C. McManus

  During the second World War and after, the Marine Corps has received admiration and attention for its role in the Pacific, but the Army carried out a huge number of invasions and performed the logistics other services depended on. The Army's experiences in WWII also were foundational, for good and ill, for the next half-century of American war. 

• 
• 10/24/2021
  

  Portrait of the Artist as a Businesswoman: Dorothea Lange’s Lost San Francisco Years

  by Jasmin Darznik

  Dorothea Lange's early work as a portrait photographer for San Francisco's elite seems at odds with her famous documentary work of the Depression. But that work sharpened her sense of aesthetics and of her own place in the world, foundations of her more famous later period.

• 
• 10/24/2021
  

  How the Great War Helped the Drive for Prohibition

  by Kathryn Smith

  Hatred of Germans (and their beer) was essential to dry propaganda.

• 
• 10/17/2021
  

  “Some of Our Superpatriots are Simply Going Crazy”: America's Response to the Fall of France

  by Michael S. Neiberg

  The fall of France in 1940 disrupted Americans' understandings of their stable and secure place in the world. One response was intense nativism and paranoia about spies and subversives that resonate with today's pandemic response.

• 
• 10/10/2021
  

  Tracing World War 2's Impact on Sicily's Cultural Heritage Sites and Museums

  by Antonino Crisà

  World War II profoundly affected museums and antiquities in Sicily; a new research project is examining this underappreciated destructive consequence of war.

• 
• 10/10/2021
  

  Reviving the Conflict Between Columbus and Taíno Chieftain Caonabó Through Historical Fiction

  by Andrew Rowen

  By resisting the conquest of Columbus, Taíno peoples made the story of conquest their story too. A novelist explains how he worked to recover both sides of the conflict, including the values and worldview of Native and European antagonists, through historical fiction.