Historians in the News

When American Politics Turned Toxic (Review)

Julian Zelizer argues that Newt Gingrich made the media unwitting accomplices to his partisan crusade.

Unions Are Essential for Eliminating Racism

A new study finds that unions don't just increase wages and benefits for workers on the job — union membership is also linked to diminished racist attitudes among white workers. If we want to defeat racism, building strong, democratic unions is essential.

This Maine Governor Never Publicly Embraced the Klan, But He Never Disavowed its Support

Ralph Owen Brewster’s silence on the Klan spoke volumes.

How a Lincoln-Douglass Debate Led to Historic Discovery

Just like that, a document apparently unknown to Douglass’s biographers and not found in the orator’s papers at the Library of Congress had landed squarely in the middle of the debate that has swept the nation and the neighborhood around Lincoln Park where the statue stands.

Racist, Brutal Past or Hispanic History? Latinos Clash over Spanish Colonial Statues

Activist and associate history professor Yolanda Leyva breaks down the complex legacy of Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate.

UK Historian David Starkey Quits Cambridge After Slavery Remarks

The British historian caused outrage by saying 'slavery was not genocide' in a recent interview.

Why 2020 Feels Like the Longest Year Of Our Lives — And Yet It’s Only Half Over.

“One day it feels like 1861, the next 1918, then suddenly 1970,” said professor Ted Widmer.

Historians Question Trump’s Choice of ‘Heroes’ for National Garden Monument

“It’s like they threw a bunch of stuff on the wall and just went with whatever stuck,” says history professor Karen Cox.

At Arlington Cemetery, A Confederate Monument to the South and Slavery Still Stands

Historian Micki McElya is among the many who believe the monument should be removed.

Trump Says He Will Create a Statuary Park Honoring ‘American Heroes’

Historians Kevin K. Gaines and Julian E. Zelizer discuss the president's power to shape historical narratives.

The Anthem Debate Is Back. But Now It’s Standing That’s Polarizing.

“You cannot sit around now in this post-George Floyd period we’re in and say, ‘We’re going to continue to take this safe position,’” says historian Charles Ross.

To the World, We’re Now America the Racist and Pitiful

The United States, long the bedrock of the Western alliance, is less inspirational today—and perhaps will be even less so tomorrow.

‘Hamilton’ and the Historical Record: Frequently Asked Questions

The Disney+ filmed version has fans wondering what’s accurate. Historians are fans, too, and they have answers, along with caveats.

MIT Professor Tunney Lee, an Architect, Urban Planner, and Historian of Chinatown, Dies at 88

An architecture professor who taught at MIT and the Chinese University of Hong Kong is remembered as a historian of Chinese American community and an advocate for including the public in the process of planning.

‘The Most Ignorant and Unfit’: What Made America’s Worst Ever Leader?

by David Rothkopf

The best—maybe only—saving grace for Trump in the history books is that no one could accuse him of causing the Civil War.

White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots In U.S. Christianity

At an earlier point in American history, some Christian theologians went so far as to argue that the enslavement of human beings was justifiable from a biblical point of view.

How to Confront a Racist National History

by Isaac Chotiner

"But we have to acknowledge that we’re not upholding history, we’re upholding values, and those are not the values that we want in the twenty-first century."

The Politics of Race are Shifting, and Politicians are Struggling to Keep Pace

The story of how the Republican Party, once the party of Abraham Lincoln, became almost entirely dependent on white voters, and how the Democratic Party, once the party of Southern segregationists, became the political home to black Americans and other minorities has been years in the making.

Trump’s Push to Amplify Racism Unnerves Republicans who have Long Enabled Him

Leah Wright Rigeur of the Harvard Kennedy School argues that Trump keeps making appeals to white racism because it's central to his political identity. 

The Day the White Working Class Turned Republican (Review)

Clyde Haberman reviews David Paul Kuhn's "The Hardhat Riot" which proves heated social divisions--stoked and exploited by politicians--are nothing new.