Historians in the News

AHA Asks Members to "Take Action to Keep Graduate Education Affordable"

by James Grossman

The House tax cut bill contains a provision that would make tuition waivers for graduate students subject to income tax, significantly increasing the tax liability of hundreds of thousands of graduate students. The Senate bill does not include that provision.

Professor at UC-Santa Cruz Disputes Sexual-Assault Accusations

Gopal Balakrishnan has denied the accusations, which were made by seven anonymous individuals whose accounts are part of a public statement circulating on the internet.

In a new lecture Jill Lepore ponders what it’s like to write history at a time of polarization

“Conservatives rested their claim to political power on winning elections, and perhaps above all on winning history.”

Editor of AHA’s Perspectives says historians are undermining themselves with the public by "Complicating Ourselves into Obscurity”

by Allison Miller

"History, of course, is tremendously complicated. That’s part of its beauty. …  But the cliché bespeaks a set of assumptions about how one must think about history and then go about doing it."

Arizona State’s Laura Tohe delighted to see the Code Talkers finally getting national recognition

In her 2012 book she explains that the "Navajo Code Talkers did not have voting rights in Arizona until 1948, after WWII ended.” 

Vincent Scully, 97, Influential Architecture Historian, Dies

“I think he probably did more than anyone else over the last 60 years to affect not just architecture but architecture culture as well,” one disciple said.

You may be worried about the rise of rightwing parties in Germany. Daniel Pipes isn’t.

by Daniel Pipes

This insurgency indicates a healthy means for Europeans to protect their mores and culture.

Rick Perlstein interviews Daniel Ellsberg about his new book and it’s scary reading

The book: "The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner."

How I became a corporate historian

An interview with Tracey Panek, director of archives, at Levi Strauss & Co.

In an interview Ibram X. Kendi says racism so infuses society that even liberals like Ruth Benedict couldn’t escape its assumptions

"I think most people who are operating within racial justice spaces, or outside of them, have never really sat down to define a racist idea and thereby apply that definition to their ideas.”

Dartmouth’s Douglas Irwin agrees that trade policy is important. But all manner of powers are wrongly laid at its door.

Only twice has the broad direction of trade policy shifted, according to Mr Irwin. Both reconfigurations were triggered by catastrophic events.

Professor Maya Jasanoff embraced adventure to explore the mind behind ‘Heart of Darkness’ and other classics

She retraced the 1,000-mile journey Joseph Conrad made down the Congo River more than 100 years ago when researching her new book on Conrad.

University of Michigan’s Victor Lieberman objects that he was silenced at a debate over divestment from Israel

"This is not a partisan but a serious national concern. So far this year alone, at least 29 speakers have been disinvited or prevented from speaking on college campuses."

Georg G. Iggers, renowned historian and civil rights activist, has died at age 90

His experience of anti-Semitism as a child in Nazi Germany inspired his activism as an adult.

Russia Expels Polish Historian Without Explanation

Professor Henryk Glebocki was detained in Moscow on November 24 and ordered to leave Russia within 24 hours after he gave lectures in St. Petersburg about the Soviet-era purges of 1937-1938.

Historian Alfred McCoy discusses his new book, the deep state, and Donald Trump’s threats to the US position as a global power

by Nick Turse

"We are certainly witnessing the end of the US empire, but not empire as a form of global governance."

Highway in Durham named for John Hope Franklin

Franklin retired to Durham in 1980. Two years later, he became the James B. Duke Professor of History, Duke University’s highest professorship.

Is This Professor ‘Putin’s American Apologist’?

How Stephen F. Cohen became the most controversial Russia expert in America.

Vietnam veterans challenge Ken Burns on the accuracy of his epic documentary

"The film portrays U.S. support for South Vietnam as blustering, blundering jingoism and the choice of music, graphics, and interviewees demonstrates a bias in favor of the militant leftist anti-war cliches of the 1960s."

OAH historians say events of the past year show they were right to emphasize freedom as the theme of the 2019 annual convention

by Joe W. Trotter Jr. and Kate Haulman

The theme of the OAH in 2019 will be The Work of Freedom.