Historians in the News

Junk: Mark Bittman’s History of Why We Eat Bad Food

Environmental writer Bill McKibben reviews Mark Bittman's critical look at the rise of industrial food and its human, social and environmental consquences.

'The Words That Made Us': Scholar Akhil Reed Amar On How To Better Understand The Constitution

"Scholar Akhil Reed Amar says the one thing every single American shares is the United States Constitution. He shares why he wants Americans to better understand the words that made us."

Middle East Historian: Biden Administration is 'Complicit in Shielding Israel' from International Pressure

Historian Rashid Khalidi discusses the conflict with Andrea Mitchell and argues that the Biden administration's support is protecting Israel from pressure from other nations to stop air strikes in Gaza or negotiate with Hamas.

Rashid Khalidi on Palestinian History: From The Ottoman Empire to Settler Colonialism

Middle East historian Rashid Khalidi speaks with Pacifica Radio's Politics and Letters on the history of Palestine.

Our 250-Year Fight for Multiracial Democracy

The 1829 Virginia Constitutional Convention offers a lens onto the profoundly anti-democratic views held by many of the founding generation. We deal with the same hostility toward majority rule today. 

The Violent Origin Story of Dodger Stadium

by Ranjani Chakraborty and Melissa Hirsch

Through interviews with several former residents of the area, Vox explores the story of their neighborhoods razed to make room for Dodger Stadium. It’s one that’s often missing from the history of Los Angeles and has created a double-edged relationship for some Dodger fans. Features commentary by historian Priscilla Leiva. 

The US Funded Universal Childcare During World War II—Then Stopped

Historian Sonya Michel describes the temporary provision of child day care during World War II as a boost to essential war industry that did not survive the end of mobilization. 

Uncovering Longview, Texas's History of Racist Violence

Longview resident Clent Holmes leads a nonprofit organization that is working to uncover the histories of the 1919 race riot. 

Mary Beard Keeps History on the Move

"I spent part of my career lamenting that there weren’t more female authors in the ancient world. Well, you can mourn the lack of those authors forever, but you’re not very likely to find more. But you can engage with how gender is defined."

How The Republican Push To Restrict Voting Could Affect Our Elections

Carol Anderson: “I think Shelby is going to go down in history the way the Plessy v. Ferguson decision has.” 

Elizabeth Hinton: Unearthing the Roots of Black Rebellion

Elizabeth Hinton's new book argues that anti-police uprisings, commonly called "riots," were frequent and widespread in American Black communities in the 1960s, and should be understood as a political movement against inequality and the inherently abusive nature of the "war on crime." 

The Trouble With the Gavin Newsom Recall

by Ron Brownstein

California's Recall law can allow a relatively small number of petitioners to initiate a recall of an elected official, and for that official to be removed even if he or she gets more votes than any alternative candidate. This isn't what the Progressive Era architects of the law intended, says San Jose State historian Glen Gendzel. 

The World of Edward Said

by Esmat Elhalaby

Previous biographies of the Arab scholar and Palestinian advocate Edward Said have either reduced him to his more provocative political statements or treated those politics as a pose. A new biography by Timothy Brennan examines the connections between intellectual life and a global community of activists. 

How the Modern NRA Was Born at the Border

by Sierra Pettengill and Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Sierra Pettengill's new short documentary "The Rifleman" connects racist violence at the US-Mexico border and the politics of influential NRA leader Harlon Carter, who for decades concealed the fact that he was convicted at age 17 of murder for shooting a Mexican youth in Laredo. She discusses that story with historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.

Event: A War on Global Poverty: The Lost Promise of Redistribution and the Rise of Microcredit with Joanne Meyerowitz (5/17)

Joanne Meyerowitz gives historical perspective on the rise of microcredit aimed at women as a model of international development aid as part of the National History Center's Washington History Seminar. Join on Zoom on May 17. 

A Texas Bill Drew Ire for Saying it Would Preserve ‘Purity of the Ballot Box.’ Here’s the Phrase’s History

Texas legislation invoked the "purity of the ballot box," a phrase critics argued harkened back to the era of Jim Crow and the White Primary. Historians say the phrase itself is obscure but the idea that white Texans are the preferred voting citizens has a long history in the state. 

How Trump Ignited the Fight over Critical Race Theory in Schools

Jonathan Chism of the University of Houston-Downtown contents that all anti-racist education is being labeled as "critical race theory" as part of a culture war strategy by the right. 

Hamilton, Hip-Hop, and the Law (Review)

by Stephen Rohde

Lisa Tucker's edited volume of essays uses the musical "Hamilton" as a lens on several significant legal issues ranging from originalism to employment discrimination. 

Peace Was on the Floor in 1916-17, but Wilson Failed to Pick it Up

by Burt Cohen

Burt Cohen discusses Philip Zelikow's book which argues that diplomatic failures by the great powers extended the first world war by two years and contributed to the catastrophes of fascism and Stalinism. 

Ending the Kennedy Romance (Frederick Logevall's JFK Bio Reviewed)

by Michael Kazin

Frederick Logevall's biography, written by a scholar who didn't experience the Camelot myth firsthand, should point toward a clearer-headed consideration of JFK's legacy, argues Michael Kazin.