Historians/History

• 
• 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. 

• 
• 10/10/2021
  

  Recovering Women's Reproductive Lives, One Mutilated Record at a Time

  by Catherine Prendergast

  "Far too often, archives resemble graveyards with marked tombs for men in which a few bones of women are scattered. It’s time to dig up all of the bones and ask them what story they tell."

• 
• 10/3/2021
  

  Latitude: The Pioneering International Mission to Measure the Earth

  by Nicholas Crane

  The scientists and technicians of the Geodetic Mission to the Equator did more than measure a degree of latitude; they showed how a disparate group of human beings from different countries and backgrounds could pool their collective resources and solve problems.

• 
• 9/26/2021
  

  The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood

  by Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace

  American diplomats and military leadership in 1945 believed Japan was close to a negotiated surrender without the use of the atomic bomb, a history that has since been replaced by the myth that the bomb saved lives. 

• 
• 9/26/2021
  

  Group of Historians Recognized for Best SCOTUS Brief of the Year

  by Ronald A. Smith

  A group of six historians has been recognized by the Education Law Association for the best Supreme Court brief of the year. Their historical deconstruction of the myth of amateurism in college athletics influenced a unanimous decision that the NCAA cannot bar college athletes from profiting from the commercial use of their names, images, or likenesses.

• 
• 9/19/2021
  

  For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention

  by Richard Hall

  "On Constitution Day, I say drink a toast to the losers. Let us study their criticisms of our imperfect system."

• 
• 9/12/2021
  

  Untold Stories from the Largest Boat Lift in History

  by Jessica DuLong

  On September 11, 2001, nearly half a million civilians in Lower Manhattan escaped by water when mariners conducted a spontaneous rescue. This was the largest waterborne evacuation in history, but has gone largely untold.

• 
• 9/8/2021
  

  The Specter of Emancipation and the Road to Revolution: A Rejoinder to Richard Brown et. al.

  by Woody Holton

  Woody Holton responds to a recent open letter of criticism by six Revolutionary-era historians of his interpretation of the significance of slavery as a motivation for colonial independence.