Historians in the News

People Longing for Movie Theaters During the 1918 Flu Pandemic Feels Very Familiar in 2021

As in 2020, public health concerns closed movie theaters in 1918. But then, without home streaming technology, a fledgling industry was threatened with ruin. Hollywood bounced back because so many Americans missed the theater experience.

How Did "Bipartisanship" Become a Goal In Itself? (Podcast)

TNR's "Politics of Everything" podcast discusses how bipartisanship came to be the end of politics instead of a means to achieve other goals. Features historian Julian Zelizer. 

Mock Slave Auctions, Racist Lessons: How US History Class Often Traumatizes, Dehumanizes Black Students

Experts acknowledge that teaching the history of slavery as a brutal and dehumanizing system is difficult. The persistence of assignments that impose humiliation on students shows more work is needed. 

'More Dangerous And More Widespread': Conspiracy Theories Spread Faster Than Ever

Kathryn Olmsted says that conspiracy theories have always been part of American politics, but they have become more widespread in the last ten years, and their endorsement by a former president is unprecedented. 

Online Roundtable: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s ‘Race for Profit’

Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society, will sponsor a virtual roundtable on the award-winning "Race For Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership" with new essays being released beginning March 8. 

Should Black Northerners Move Back to the South?

by Tanisha C. Ford

Historian Tanisha C. Ford reviews Charles M. Blow's book, which advocates for a Reverse Great Migration to empower both Black Americans and progressive policies. She concludes it's an intriguing idea but oversimplifies the history of migration, disenfranchisement, and activism by Black southerners and their allies.

The Deep South Has a Rich History of Resistance, as Amazon Is Learning

Columnist Jamelle Bouie draws on the work of historians Michael W. Fitzgerald, Paul Horton, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Robert Widell, Jr. which shows that Alabamians, and Black Alabamians in particular, have organized to fight both racial oppression and labor exploitation.

America’s Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama

"The terror campaign of 1870 ended the promise of Alabama’s brief Reconstruction era, allowing the so-called Redeemers to pry Alabama from the hands of reform. This was the critical juncture that led to the way things are."

University Finds 18th-Century Schoolhouse Where Black Children Learned to Read

The discovery of a 260-year-old structure with such a deep connection to a little-known chapter of the history of Colonial Williamsburg, when the population was more than 50 percent Black and teaching slaves to read was legal, is especially significant, said history professor Jody Lynn Allen. 

Searching for Our Urban Future in the Ruins of the Past

Annalee Newitz's book on lost cities debunks the idea of sudden, catastrophic collapse. But the death of cities does show that humanity is vulnerable to change that makes centuries-old ways of life untenable. 

Denied a Teaching Job for Being ‘Too Black,’ She Started Her Own School — And a Movement

Scholars Sharon Harley and Jenifer Barclay discuss the obstacles of colorism that Nannie Helen Burroughs overcame to launch an influential school for young Black women and lead the civil rights struggles of the early twentieth century.

The 1976 Swine Flu Fiasco

David Parsons of the "Nostalgia Trap" history podcast joins Mass For Shut-Ins to discuss the Swine Flue vaccine fiasco and how its history has been abused by today's anti-vax movement.

Fired for Tweeting?

"In a written statement to The Chronicle, Burnett said, “Collin College is a government organization that has unconstitutionally sought to punish me for my speech as a private citizen." 

Debunking the Myth of the Lost Cause: A Lie Embedded in American History

by Karen L. Cox

Karen L. Cox examines the cultural myth of the Lost Cause.

How a Wave of Segregationist Tributes, from Streets to Schools, Entrenched the Idea of White Supremacy

Understanding the stakes of renaming public buildings, streets, or schools requires understanding the purposeful politics that attached the names of Confederates to public spaces a century ago, say Virginia historians Dan Margolies and Calvin Pearson.

The Mega-Ode

The Urban History Association accentuates the positive in academic culture as urbanists salute the people who made a difference for them. 

Why Biden’s Forceful Endorsement Of Labor Is The Strongest From A POTUS In Decades

Labor historians Karen Sawislak and Erik Loomis discuss how Joe Biden's endorsement of freedom of workers to form a union (without mentioning Amazon in particular) goes against decades-long trends in the political power and cultural esteem of labor unions. 

A Chapter In U.S. History Often Ignored: The Flight Of Runaway Slaves To Mexico

USC Historian Alice Baumgartner's book examines the stream of enslaved people who fled to Mexico between the 1830s and Emancipation, and the role of Mexico in international debates about abolition. Roseann Bacha-Garza of UT-Rio Grande Valley is an expert on the local networks of abolitionists and allies on the route.

For Many, an Afro isn’t Just a Hairstyle

Journalist Ernie Suggs reflects on how hairstyles reflected his own family's history, with backing from historians Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Noliwe Rooks. 

With Free Medical Clinics and Patient Advocacy, the Black Panthers Created a Legacy in Community Health That Still Exists Amid COVID-19

by Olivia B. Waxman and Arpita Aneja

Sociologist and social movement historian Alondra Nelson explains that Black Panther Party community action to provide health services grew out of a mistrust of mainstream health institutions' willingness to direct resources to the needs of poor Black communities, a mistrust that remains today.