Historians in the News

Michael Mizell-Nelson, historian of the po-boy and streetcar, dies at 49

Michael Mizell-Nelson was a historian so steeped in New Orleans culture that he spent 12 years researching the origin and name of po-boy sandwiches.

Historian seeks to clear embassy of Pearl Harbor 'sneak attack' infamy

Takeo Iguchi, a professor emeritus at Shobi University, has devoted his research to reversing a prevalent view in Japan that the embassy was to blame. It was the military.

Juan Flores, a Scholar of Puerto Rican Culture in New York, Dies at 71

Professor Flores, who was the director of Latino studies and a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University, wrote more than a dozen books and edited many collections of essays.

College prof makes students recite anti-American 'pledge of allegiance'

Historian Charles Angeletti says he uses the pledge to get students thinking.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of WW II, there's a German Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a Graphic Novel

Großväterland will portray war stories from the last living eyewitnesses.

Martin Kramer says boycott fever has seized the Middle East Studies Association

by Martin Kramer

“In the past, whenever the boycott demand percolated in the ranks, cooler heads prevailed. The problem is that the cooler heads are growing grey and losing authority."

Historian asks: Do PhD's in American history really need to know a foreign language?

by John McMillian

Historian John McMillian says we need to do something to shorten the time it takes to get a PhD.  Maybe we should drop the foreign language requirement for Americanists.  

David M. Kennedy says his father hid the truth about the reason for not serving in WW I

by Rebecca White

“He would say things like, ‘What are you going to say when your kid asks, Daddy, where were you during the Great War?’ ”

National Security Archive and Historical Associations File Petition To Open Key Remaining Rosenberg Grand Jury Records

Death of David Greenglass Removes Legal Barrier; 2008 Release Included Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Testimony.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Institute of Armenian Studies raises awareness of culture and contemporary issues on campus and beyond

“Exploring Armenia in such depth offers a wonderful opportunity for our students."

Ned Blackhawk recalls the grim details of the Sand Creek Massacre

The massacre of Native Americans was so horrific that it prompted two Congressional investigations; forced the resignation of two leaders—Colonel John M. Chivington and the governor of Colorado Territory, John Evans—and launched years of battle with the Plains Indians following the Civil War.

The AP US History Wars: Is a Peace Process Possible?

by Jonathan Burack

The History Wars are back. At issue is the new framework for the Advanced Placement US history program.

Nebraska professor rediscovers lost Walt Whitman poem

Combing through the Library of Congress’s collection of penny newspapers, Wendy Katz stumbled across a famous set of initials. W.W. Yes, that W.W.

Rutgers historian Jochen Hellbeck says the war in Ukraine is an information war

Russia is not totally evil and Ukraine not totally virtuous, Jochen Hellbeck says.

For years marginalized, gay history is now front and center (in Indiana!)

by Will Higgins, Indianapolis Star.

"There's a realization that there's a whole culture here, and it's significant and interesting."

Radical prof James Kilgore, who spent 5 years in prison, could cost U. of Illinois a giant donation

His wife is a historian at the school.  

Jason Sokol is praised for his revealing portraits of blacks--and the shell game liberals and conservatives both play

by Jim Sleeper

"In All Eyes Are Upon Us, he shows Northeastern whites, like their Southern counterparts, proclaiming interracial comity by offering enough moral cover to the shell game to make it seem fair."

David Barton's ongoing refusal to admit his mistakes, even after being confronted by Christian historians

by Warren Throckmorton

"The awareness of Barton’s systematic distortion of the nation’s founding is well known at the highest levels of the Christian political right."

Historian spots long-lost painting while watching 'Stuart Little'

The discovery was made by Gergely Barki, a researcher at the Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest.

New-York Historical Society to Open Center for Women’s History

“The new Center for Women’s History will become a destination for discovery of the crucial role that New York women played in our nation’s social, political and cultural evolution as women struggled for and eventually won the right to vote.”