Historians in the News

Arizona State honors Matthew Whitaker, accused of plagiarism

by "Ann Ribidoux"

Just months after he was accused of multiple counts of plagiarism, the ASU historian has received an award from the university. 

Ronald Suny says historians have shied away from exploring the roots of the Armenian genocide for fear of taking attention away from the victims

by Stephanie Garlock

In a new book out in March that marks the 100th anniversary of the genocide, he says the Young Turks saw massacre as a solution to the perceived, but largely imagined, threat of Armenian separatism. 

Columbia University professors Eric Foner, Alan Brinkley, and Alice Kessler-Harris to retire

Use of junior faculty reaches three-year high at the school as a result.

A powerhouse appropriations subcommittee is now headed by a historian: Republican Rep. Tom Cole (OK)

Though he's a conservative, Cole likes to cite E.P. Thompson's research!

Slavic scholars divided over a scholarship sponsored (and withdrawn) by Stephen F. Cohen

Cohen — derided as “Putin’s American toady” — is firing back at critics.

Claire Strom to Step Down as Editor of Agricultural History

Dr. Claire Strom, editor of Agricultural History, announced today that she will be ending her term as editor in December 2016.

Joan Peters’s legacy assessed by one of her fiercest critics, Norman Finkelstein

In death, as in life, Joan Peters draws the fire of leftists.

West Point historian says if his cadets can understand the history of war, so can Congress

by Col. Ty Seidule

And Congress needs to, Col. Ty Seidule says.

Australian historian Alan Atkinson wins $100,000 literary prize

Atkinson won the Victorian Prize for Literature for the magisterial third volume of The Europeans in Australia. He said he was very relieved to have finished the final instalment, which covers the period from the 1870s to the aftermath of World War I.

From his perch in Saudi Arabia, Princeton’s Mark Cohen says Jews and Muslims should remember they used to get along

"The political situation today is so dismal that historical periods when Jews and Muslims got along much better than they do today seem irrelevant."

Duke honors historian John Hope Franklin with year-long series of events

Duke University will hold events during the next year paying tribute to preeminent historian John Hope Franklin, who would have turned 100 years old this January.

What New Left History Gave Us

The New Left historians’ withering critiques of liberalism have proven enormously influential. But do they hold up in our more conservative age?

Marcus Borg, Liberal Christian Scholar, Dies at 72

Professor Borg was among a group of scholars, known as the Jesus Seminar, who set out to discern which of Jesus’ acts and utterances could be confirmed as historically true, and which were merely myths.

Richard Hofstadter’s insights into the "paranoid style in American politics” lauded in the NYT

Hofstadter never abandoned his liberal views. But his fear of the mob qualified him as a conservative by temperament.

NYT History Book Reviews: Who Got Noticed this Week?

by Erik Moshe

This week: Heather Cox Richardson, Richard Bernstein, and Jan Jarboe Russell.

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown 149-page manuscript defending homosexuality.

Jonathan Ned Katz, co-director of OutHistory.org, the website on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, analyses the document, which provides insights into gay life in the 1920s and 1930s.

What Counts as Historical Evidence? The Fracas over John Stauffer’s Black Confederates

by Megan Kate Nelson

This latest fracas brings up interesting questions about the uses (and misuses) of evidence in Civil War history, and about what actually constitutes “evidence” — and who gets to analyze it.

Israeli journalist-turned-biographer, Shabtai Teveth, is remembered for his attack on the New Historians

by Martin Kramer

He passed away in November 2014, a dozen years after a stroke silenced his pen. 

Harvard’s Drew Faust says the Civil War marked the start of large-scale industrial war, not WW I

In England, Faust delivered the prestigious Sir Robert Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge’s historic Senate House.

Daniel Pipes says he was mistaken about no-go zones

by Daniel Pipes

But he insists there are places where police in Europe allow Muslims to get away with crime