Historians in the News

With a Touch of Wisdom: Human Rights, Memory, and Forgetting

by Antoon de Baets

A historian concerned with memory, censorship and human rights considers whether there is an affirmative duty for historians to promote the memory of crimes and atrocities.

New Exhibit Reckons With Glendale's Racist Past as ‘Sundown Town'

The suburban city of Glendale, CA has initiated a series of public programs confronting its legacy as a "sundown town" where minorities, particulary African Americans, were able to work but barred from living or socializing. 

The Broken System: What Comes After Meritocracy?

by Elizabeth Anderson

Philosopher Elizabeth Anderson reviews Michael Sandel's critique of meritocracy, a book that locates an explanation for the Trumpian moment in the rise of competitive individualism in the platforms of both major parties. 

How George Washington Didn’t Lead

Historians Lindsay Chervinsky, Noemie Emery, David Head and Craig Bruce Smith offer reflections in a virtual forum on the first president's leadership.

After the Riot, What’s the Future of Art in the Capitol?

Art Historian Sarah Lewis suggests that damage to the artworks in the Capitol during the rioting presents an opportunity to rethink what subjects are included in a collection that signals inclusion in the national narrative. 

Auburn Professors Working to Preserve History of Selma’s ‘Bloody Sunday’

Richard Burt and Keith Hébert are leading a team of researchers to preserve the site of the historic attack on voting rights marchers by Alabama State Troopers on March 7, 1965, hoping that a better-preserved public monument will clear up misperceptions of the day's events. 

Fight To Vote: The Woman Who Was Key In 'Getting Us The Voting Rights Act'

Historian Carol Anderson explains the contributions of Amelia Boynton to the Selma movement and the erasure of women's organizing work from many histories of the movement. 

We’re Just Rediscovering a 19th-Century Pandemic Strategy

by Sarah Zhang

“We’ve gotten so good at preventing so many diseases, there’s been a loss of knowledge and a loss of experience,” Jeanne Kisacky, the author of Rise of the Modern Hospital, says.

The Future Of Confederate Monuments

by Kim O'Connell

“The Park Service needs to ask, ‘Who’s coming to your site and who’s not coming to your site?’” says Denise Meringolo, a professor of public history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “Those monuments are a barrier to significant portions of the audience, for whom they are not simply inaccurate or annoying. They are traumatizing.”

Black Women Have Written History for over a Century

Pero Gaglo Dagbovie examines the work of Black women scholar-activists like Anna Julia Cooper whose work integrated the writing of African American history with political organizing, despite exclusion from the academy.

Black Women's Roles in the Civil Rights Movement have been Understated -- But that's Changing

Beverly Guy-Sheftall of Spelman College discusses the public minimization of women as leaders in the 1950s and 1960s Black Freedom movements. 

A Poisonous Legacy: New York City and the Persistence of the Middle Passage

by Gerald Horne

Historian Gerald Horne reviews John Harris's book on the role of New York merchants in the illegal last phase of the Atlantic slave trade, which persisted despite the law because trade in human beings enriched Americans throughout the nation. 

As A New Blue Is Discovered, ASU Professor Details History Of The Color Blue

Arizona State's Theresa Devine discusses the discovery of a new blue pigment and the social significance of blue coloring from the ancient world to today. 

Supplement to Special Issue: Academic Integrity at Stake: The Ramseyer Article

by Alexis Dudden

The Asia-Pacific Journal is publishing a collection of letters in opposition to the controversial article by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Rameseyer which characterized the sexual abuse of Korean women during World War II as freely contracted sex work. 

The Current Republic of Suffering

by Murray Browne

Drew Gilpin Faust's "This Republic of Suffering" inspires reflection on how the collective experiences of COVID and the loss of a half million Americans may shape the society that emerges. 

The Arch of Injustice

Historian Steven Hahn reviews Walter Johnson's "The Broken Heart of America," finding that Johnson makes a compelling case that St. Louis is the archetypal American city but is less effective at showing concepts like white supremacy and racial capitalism as dynamic historical processes. 

The Prices on Your Monopoly Board Hold a Dark Secret

The value hierarchy of properties on the Monopoly game board reflect the history of Atlantic City; the game was created as the Great Migration brought African Americans north to New Jersey and spurred northern cities and their white residents to create and defend residential segregation. 

Black Broadway in DC: A New Book Explores the Undeniable Influence of U Street’s History

Briana Thomas's "Black Broadway in Washington, DC" examines the city's U Street, which was not just a daily fixture of Black life in the District, but a connector of Black America's aspirations in politics, education and business. 

Japanese Internment, Football, and a Legendary Team

Dave Zirin's Edge of Sports podcast hosts Bradford Pearson, the author of "The Eagles of Heart Mountain," the story of a group of interned Japanese American teens whose football team dominated the state of Wyoming. 

As American as Child Separation

by Rachel Nolan

Laura Briggs's new book on child separation policies links the treatment of contemporary migrants to other historical cases including Native American boarding schools and the sale of enslaved children, showing that the assertion of control over children and families has been a core component of racial nationalism and even genocide.