Historians in the News

Historian Carol Anderson On Voter Suppression

“This kind of silent, quiet bureaucratic violence, where policies are wiping out the voting rights of millions of Americans, that's the piece that is absolutely stunning for my students,” she explained.

A Victory for the Immigrants’ Rights Working Group of Historians for Peace and Democracy

by Margaret Power and Alexander Aviña

On January 5, 2020, the Business Meeting of the American Historical Association passed a resolution condemning affiliations between ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and higher education.

The Daily Princetonian Publishes Article Summarizing Ongoing 1619 Project Debate

A summary of what different historians have said and how others have responded. 

Born a slave, John Hunter lived to be 112. Then NC historian Ernest Dollar found his family.

With luck and the internet, City of Raleigh Museum Director Ernest Dollar rescued him from wills buried in the state archive, articles printed in newspapers that no longer exist and a single line from the 1870 census.

Henry Lewis Gates argues increased economic prosperity for blacks led to racial backlash that empowered Trump

"Between Martin Luther King's death and now, the black middle class has doubled and the black upper-middle class has quadrupled," Gates said in a New York Times interview published Tuesday.

World Socialist Web Site Publishes A reply to the American Historical Review’s defense of the 1619 Project

by David North and Tom Mackaman

"The fact that the 1619 Project is now being editorially defended in the AHR, despite the withering criticisms of highly respected professional historians, is a very troubling development," its authors claim. 

It’s been worse: Doris Kearns Goodwin reflects on America’s tumultuous past

“As difficult as the situation is today, we have lived through far more troubled times before."

3D Technologies for Accessibility in Museums

by Carolyn Dillian and Katie Stringer Clary

We wanted to create an exhibit that was tactile, using 3D technologies, because almost everyone wants to touch when they go in the museum.

Historians Nathan Connolly and Beryl Satter Interviewed On Housing Discrimination in the Jim Crow US and The Case for Reparations

Nathan Connolly is the Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and Beryl Satter is Professor of History at Rutgers University.

UNC Historian Cecelia Moore delves into true history of “Silent Sam” in court brief

This week UNC alumni and donors — and a prominent former university historian — filed briefs in the case insisting the the university will have to face the historical facts and answer those complicated questions if it intends to give the “Silent Sam” monument to the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The challenge of teaching black history: sifting truth, myth, bias

Featuring Morehouse College history professor Frederick Knight. 

Karin Wulf Interviews Alexis Coe About Her Cheeky New George Washington Biography

by Karin Wulf

Alexis Coe’s cheeky biography of the first president pulls no punches

Historians Struggle to Understand Oral History Written in Forgotten Shorthand

The 1951 transcription is written in a decades-old shorthand style that few people use today. “It’s definitely a lost art,” Langsdon said.

Amanda Seligman: Growing Into Teaching Career Diversity for Historians

by Amanda Seligman

Teaching Career Diversity undid my ancient assumption that a PhD in the humanities should lead to a professorship. 

Nazis' Sobibor Death Camp Photos May Feature John Demjanjuk, Historians Say

Historians have presented a collection of photos kept by the deputy commander of the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp that they say appears to include images of John Demjanjuk, the retired Ohio auto worker who was tried in Germany for his alleged time as a Sobibor guard.

What Happens When You Give Students Control of the Syllabus?

Featuring Leslie Lindenauer, a history professor at Western Connecticut State University.

A Civil War-era ‘witch bottle’ may have been found on a Virginia highway, archaeologists say

Witch bottles can be traced to the East Anglia region of England in the late Middle Ages.

The Future of the Academy at the Association of American Colleges and Universities

At the annual meeting of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, academics discussed how to rethink the academy and how to separate it from the university. Features quotes from Johann Neem, chair of the history department at Western Washington University.

The Way We Write History Has Changed

by Alexis C. Madrigal

A deep dive into an archive will never be the same.

Rethinking How We Train Historians

by Rita Chin

What if we designed a graduate course that accounted for the conditions of the job market and history as a discipline? What if we taught students how to undertake the work of historical scholarship in a collaborative manner that more closely resembles the way labor is organized in today’s society, both inside and outside of academia?