Historians in the News

Bill Talks with Heather Cox Richardson About ‘How the South Won the Civil War’

It's all about America’s ongoing battle between oligarchy and democracy.

Southern Newspapers were Vocal Supporters of the Confederacy. It Lasted for Generations

For most of American history, newspapers in the South supported the people and systems that promoted and maintained prejudice and discrimination.

When Henry Wallace Warned of ‘American Fascism’

John Nichols's new book argues that Franklin Roosevelt's decision to cut loose Vice President Henry Wallace crippled egalitarian politics in the Democratic Party with lasting consequences.   

Capitalism and Slavery: A Discussion with Caitlin Rosenthal, Tom Cutterham, and Eric Hilt

"Much has been made about how much historians can learn from economists, and I think that this is an area where economists could learn a lot from historians. We are trained to look at things from multiple perspectives and to understand complex contexts."--Caitlin Rosenthal

The Hidden Faces of Apartheid (Review)

A new book documents the way that the South African security forces targeted percevied opponents of apartheid for extrajudicial killing. 

The Future of American Liberalism

Columnist David Brooks looks to historians of the New Deal era to suggest Joe Biden can succeed like FDR by offering an active but pragmatic plan to pull America out of the hole created by the coronavirus pandemic. 

More Than a Month: The Push to Change how Black History is Taught

“Educators need to educate themselves,” educator Rann Miller says. “Quite frankly, you have a lot of white people who are unaware of the history of our nation. You may also have a lot of Black people who are unaware of the history of our nation.”

The Reconciliation Must Be Televised

by Wesley Morris

The United States has flirted with truth and reconciliation. But it abandoned Reconstruction and failed to act on the warnings of the 1968 Kerner Commission. Most of all, these failures reflect the vain hope that overcoming the country's racist past can be done quickly. 

Untold Fight for Black Women's Voting Rights

In anticipation of Martha Jones' book 'Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All'.

Fascism: A Concern

Is the application of "fascism" to describe today's politics accurate or useful? Historians including Samuel Moyn, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, David A. Bell, and Heather Ann Thompson add perspective. 

Black Women’s Long Struggle for Voting Rights

"As historian Faye E. Dudden writes in 'Fighting Change,' her book on the suffrage movement in the Reconstruction period, Stanton dipped her pen into a tincture of white racism and sketched a reference to a nightmarish figure, the black rapist'.”

How a Historian Stuffed Hagia Sophia’s Sound Into a Studio

Bissera Pentcheva used virtual acoustics to bring Istanbul to California and reconstruct the sonic world of Byzantine cathedral music.

The White, European Jesus of Western Imagination is Fiction

Opinion columnist Michael Gerson takes issue with conservative writer Eric Metaxas's comments on the ethnicity of Jesus Christ. 

Is It Time to Repatriate Africa’s Looted Art?

Museums now face a moral reckoning over artifacts stolen by people who took colonial violence and racial superiority as a given. It is time to start having honest conversations about righting those wrongs.

The Mask Slackers of 1918

In 1918 and 1919, as bars, saloons, restaurants, theaters and schools were closed, masks became a scapegoat, a symbol of government overreach, inspiring protests, petitions and defiant bare-face gatherings. All the while, thousands of Americans were dying in a deadly pandemic.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Women Survivors of the Atomic Bombs

Those who survived the bombings are known as hibakusha. Survivors faced a horrifying aftermath in the cities, including radiation poisoning and psychological trauma.

How White Supremacy Infected Christianity and the Republican Party

Columnist Jennifer Rubin discusses the findings of Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, presented in his new book, that elements of evangelical theology are strongly supportive of hierarchy and inequality. 

Reaganland Is the Riveting Conclusion to a Story That Still Isn’t Over (Review)

"Rick Perlstein’s epic series shows political history and cultural history cannot be disentangled."

Returning From War, Returning to Racism

Historians and scholars including Ira Katznelson, Jeffrey Sammons, Edward Humes, Richard Rothstein, David H. Onkst, and Charissa Threat describe the difficulties faced by Black veterans of World War II returning to a racist society. 

Remembering Our Friend and Colleague, Professor David H. Bensman

A champion for workers, Bensman mentored two generations of future labor activists, organizers, and scholars during a 42-year career at Rutgers.