Historians in the News

What Francis Fukuyama Says Follows the End of History

It’s identity politics. This explains Trump.

Conan O’Brien’s Unrequited Fanboy Love for Robert Caro

The famed biographer of LBJ keeps saying no to interviews.

Allyson Hobbs writes in the NYT about family trips to Hilton Head that left her frightened

She wondered why her family made the annual trips at a time when black people faced uncertainty on the roads they used.

Duke history professors ask to rename their building

It honors the white supremacist who dedicated UNC’s Silent Sam statue.

What an Ancient Historian Says About the U.S.-China Clash

Who came up with the Thucydides Trap?

Sterling Stuckey, 86, Dies; Charted African Culture in Slavery

Early on he was bitterly critical of “numerous white experts on black Africa,” as he described them, who “have elaborated a fabric of untruths to rationalize continued white control over African studies.”

NYU's Stephen F. Cohen continues to dismiss theories of Russian collusion

He says former CIA Director John Brennan's statements about Trump echo Jospeh McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover

Gil Troy urges left and right in Israel to cool it

by Gil Troy

He argues that both extremes are distorting the country’s politics.

For Historians, the Business of Studying Monuments Like UNC’s Silent Sam Takes a Toll

On campuses with Confederate statues, historians are living artifacts to interrogate.

David Greenberg says the left is distorting the fight for the soul of the Democratic Party

by David Greenberg

It’s a mistake to label the fight in the Democratic party as one between “moderates” and “progressives.”

Sam Wineburg's got some advice for teachers

by Elizabeth Elliott

The Stanford professor says historians need to ditch traditional textbooks and teach students how to determine what's true and what's fiction on their phones. 

Kevin Kruse draws attention for his post on lynching

by Kevin Kruse

How he brings home to students the horror of it all.

Kathleen Sprows Cummings says the Catholic Church needs wholesale radical transformation

by Kathleen Sprows Cummings

In an op ed in the NYT she says she can nom longer advocate piecemeal reforms.

Robert H. Ferrell, a Historian of Breadth and Clarity, Has Died. He Was 97.

Truman was his most congenial subject, but his curiosity about the world was unparalleled.

An author defends his decision to write a new book celebrating Henry Kissinger

In Kissinger the Negotiator: Lessons from Dealmaking at the Highest Level, James K. Sebenius, R. Nicholas Burns, and Robert H. Mnookin examine a number of Kissinger’s diplomatic moves, from Vietnam to China to southern Africa.

Julian Zelizer says Avenatti is right: Democrats need to fight fire with fire

by Julian Zelizer

"Without question, whoever the Democratic nominee is in 2020, Trump will go after him or her with hammer and tong, aiming to destroy their reputation, credibility and viability with a barrage of insults and smears."

Mea culpa: there IS a crisis in the humanities

by Benjamin Schmidt

University of Washington history professor Benjamin Schmidt says the statistics show he was wrong to minimize the crisis.

A Historian Explains How Mainstream Conservatives Made Trump

Willamette’s Seth Cotlar argued in a tweet storm that the "embryo of Trumpism [was] lurking within ’90s conservatism” and the Internet took notice.

History professor’s constant "dumb blonde" remarks forced me to dye my hair, claims Stony Brook student in lawsuit

The suit accuses Larry Frohman of sexually discriminating against her.

A UVa Historian Talks About Charlottesville’s White-Supremacist Rally a Year Later

Claudrena Harold discusses the difficult conversations she’s had with students and colleagues at the University of Virginia. “These events tested their faith,” she says.