Historians in the News

Amid Professors’ ‘Doom-and-Gloom Talk,’ Humanities Ph.D. Applications Drop

Graduate programs in the humanities have faced withering criticism for churning out a surplus of doctorates despite a tight academic job market. Now fewer students are applying.

Robert Rosenstone asks why historians write memoirs

He should know. He wrote on himself!

Balfour Declaration, now 100, was ‘gun pointed at heads’ of Palestinians says Rashid Khalidi

"The issuance of the Balfour Declaration thus marked the beginning of what I would describe as a century long colonial war in Palestine supported by an array of outside powers which continues to this day."

Religion strong on Cundill History Prize longlist

The winner will receive a prize of $75,000.

Historian Anne Applebaum Details Stalin's War Against Ukraine

"I Believe It Was Genocide"

Conservatives are blaming Howard Zinn for “birthing” the "Anti-Columbus Crusade”

by Jarrett Stepman

"His narrative is based on the idea that not only was Columbus a villain, but the product of his discovery was also an evil."

Jelani Cobb unloads on Trump’s double standard of patriotism in the New Yorker

by Jelani Cobb

Trump’s selective patriotism "drives him to curse at black football players but leaves him struggling to create false equivalence between Nazis and anti-Fascists in Charlottesville."

Lonnie Bunch is astonished the African-American History Museum has become a pilgrimage site so fast

"You know, we thought we'd get 4,000 people a day. We're getting 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 a day. I didn't expect that.”

Nancy Isenberg says what Americans think is exceptional about them is that they erased class distinctions

Of course, it’s a myth.

Niall Ferguson’s new book is a warning about the pernicious threat of networks

“This networked world is not going to be a harmonious one. It will be characterised by polarisation and, frankly, by conflict.”

Yale history department now emphasizing global history in undergraduate courses

Department leaders say that the new undergraduate series is meant to reflect global history’s growing prominence.

University of Utah appoints first Mormon Studies professor

W. Paul Reeve is researching early black converts.

Eric Foner discusses the manipulation of history

Foner, author of “Battles for Freedom: The Use and Abuse of American History,” discusses confederate monuments, the role of the historian and the lies of omission.

Male historian tapped to lead Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas

“I am mostly trained as a historian, but a historian of women, gender and sexuality.” – Nicholas Syrett

Decline in History Majors Continues, Departments Respond

by Robert B. Townsend

History departments are not sitting idly by as their numbers decline.

He’s 75 now. When he started teaching at the University of New Orleans students walked out on his class.

Professor-Emeritus Dr. Raphael Cassimere was the first black instructor hired at the University of New Orleans where he served for 37 years.

‘Fake news’ from 1738 offers lessons for modern historians, says Missouri scholar

It’s a warning to be skeptical about newspaper sources.

Peter Dreier calls on Americans to build monuments to liberal heroes

by Peter Dreier

The organizers, activists, artists, writers, athletes, judges and occasional elected officials who fought to make the United States a more humane and inclusive country often go unacknowledged.

Economics historian Joel Mokyr says it was culture that made the West rich

They believed in studying nature to improve the human lot – a new idea in the 1500s, he says.

“I’m white with the exception of the color of my skin.”

by Emma Green

In a new book Max Perry Mueller profiles blacks who became Mormons.