Historians/History

Portrait or Postcard? The Controversy over a “Rare” Photograph of Slave Children

by Mary Niall Mitchell

For those of us who work with historical photographs (particularly images from the nineteenth century, when the medium was still in its infancy) there a

Henry Luce: The Master of a Changing Media Landscape

by Alan Brinkley

It is no secret that journalism—and especially magazine journalism—is facing hard and dangerous times.  Local newspapers are closing at an a

The Meaning of Brazil's Canudos Campaign

by Ilan Stavans

Euclides da Cunha is a towering literary figure in Brazil, a man who, more than a century after his death in 1909 at the age of 43, is recognized as essential in the shaping of the modern Latin American nation. &n

The Revolving Door at the SEC

by Daniel R. Ernst

I do not usually associate Senator Charles Grassley, from my native state of Iowa, with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, but it happens that they have something in common:  a mistrust of

Garry Wills and a Church Too Far

by John Willingham

In the May 27 issue of The New Republic, the eminent historian and classicist Garry Wills has an article entitled “Forgive Not,” with the subtitle “A Catholic’s struggle with the sins of his church.” Four days earlier, Martin Gardner died in Norman, Oklahoma, at the age of 95.  Gardner, accurately called a “polymath,” admired Wills greatly but found his writing on the Catholic Church to be “mysterious and strange.”  If Gardner had lived to read the article in The New Republic, he might have found further evidence for his view.This year marks the tenth anniversary of Wills’ famous book Papal Sin, a history of papal maneuvering, not his first but probably his most famous criticism of the “structures of deceit” employed by the papacy to maintain an authoritarian and reactionary role in the Catholic Church. 

What If Theodore Roosevelt Were President Today?

by Daniel Ruddy

During the height of World War I, when it seemed that a great pivot point in history had been reached, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt (he preferred the title

Dean King: The Saga of the Women of the Long March

by Aaron Leonard

Dean King has just published Unbound A True Story of War, Love, and Survival, which retraces the historic Chinese Long March which pitted the Chinese Communist Party’s Red Army against Chiang Kai-shek&rsquo

Dwight Eisenhower's Concept of Unified Command

by David Jablonsky

Dwight Eisenhower’s concept of unified command helped lay the foundations for the modern Department of Defense.  That concept, as it emerged in his formativ

Those Damn Immigrants . . . Again

by William Loren Katz

Immigrants have been a favorite American scapegoat for racists who wish to reach beyond their time-honored target—people of color.  Waves of anti-immigration sentiment flooded the country in the 1840s (largely against Irish Catholics), in the 1880s (largely against Chinese) and in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (largely against eastern and southern European Catholics and Jews).  In the 1920s, anti-immigrant fever had Congress passing two discriminator

Dispatches from the Historical Society Conference

by Randall Stephens

HNN, in conjunction with the Historical Society blog is pleased to bring to you dispatches by Randall Stephens from the 2010 Historical Society conference at George Washington University.Index Day 1Day 2 Day 2, Part I Day 2, Part IIDay 3 Day 3, Part I

Can "Reacting to the Past" Help Students Learn About the Israel/Palestine Conflict?

by David Austin Walsh

The beginning of a new decade always seems to be a time of anniversaries.  Reacting to the Past, the interactive teaching program developed at Barnard College by American historian Mark C. Carnes, is hosting its Tenth Annual Summer Institute at Barnard from June 10-13, 2010.  The meeting provides opportunity for teachers at the forty colleges and universities

A Brief History of Military Tribunals

by Robert C. Doyle

Much attention has been given recently to the use of a military commission to bring terrorists to justice in the Guantánamo Bay detention center.  Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among othe

Highlights from the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Washington D.C.

by David Austin Walsh and Dave Lieberson

Index Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 VideosRelated LinksTranscript of Jesse Lemisch's introduction to session"From the Bottom Up: Sailors and Democracy" HNN Coverage: Past AHA & OAH Conferences

The Politics of National Security from World War II to the War on Terrorism: An Interview with Julian E. Zelizer

What is this book about? The book examines the political history of national security from World War II through the war on terroris

Glenn Beck: “Historian” For a Troubled America

by Joseph A. Palermo

Update: Glenn Beck has responded to this article on his TV show. You can see the clip on YouTube here. Mr. Palermo's response to Mr. Beck can be found here.It’s official: Beck is now a doctor of philosophy. The Reverend Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University recently conferred upon Glenn Beck

Arthur Bryant, Britain's Establishment Historian

by Reba N. Soffer

Considerable time, energy, pseudo-science, and wishful thinking have been expended to demonstrate whether any kind of statement—oral, writte

Turkey and the Holocaust

by Arnold Reisman

Turkey is now center stage in many discussions and policy debates worldwide.  When it comes to the State of Israel and Turkey’s small remaining Jewish community, the news coming out of Turkey is not good. But what about the historical relationship between Jews and Turks?  Most historians are quite aware that Jews lived and prospered throug

The Truth About "The Sick Man At Yalta"

by Steven Lomazow

The four years of research involved in writing my recent book with journalist Eric Fettmann, FDR’s Deadly Secret, has brought to light a new de

Richard Cohen is Right to Criticize Newt Gingrich's Historical Claims, But He Needs to Double-Check His Facts

by Nick Underwood

Recently, Richard Cohen published a column in the Washington Post outlining the ways in which Newt Gingrich misuses historical concepts to validate conservative tropes of socialism and secularism within discussions of some of the Obama administration’s programs—the “secular-socialist machine.”  In Cohen’s commentary on “socialism” and “s

Barry Goldwater on the Civil Rights Act: The Antecedent to Rand Paul

by David Farber

Most Americans remember the “Sixties” as a time of civil rights sit-ins, anti-war protests and long-haired rock stars.  But almost exactly