Historians in the News

From Cholera To Seat Belts: History Of Americans Reacting To Public Health Messages

Public Health historian David Rosner argues that strains of religiosity and individualism in American culture have made it difficult to win acceptance for many public health and safety measures in the past. 

The Story of a 1970s Mississippi Textbook that Changed how Students Learned about their Past

Contemporary historians look back on the long struggle to unseat the "Lost Cause" myth and other white supremacist ideas from the state's history curriculum that began with the introduction of "Mississippi: Conflict and Change" to state high schools in 1980.

Can Trump Change A Key Census Count? Supreme Court Hears His Claim

Margo Anderson says that the Trump administration's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census is unprecedented in the history of the count. 

A Massive New Effort to Name Millions Sold into Bondage during the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Historians Daryle Williams, Walter Hawthorne, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and David Eltis, along with Henry Louis Gates, are part of an interdisciplinary collaboration to create access to biographical and genealogical information about individual people enslaved in the United States. 

Social Media 'Misinformation' Endangers Democracy, Historians Say

Historians Peniel Joseph and Karl Jacoby, along with media scholar Howard Schnieder, assess the way that strategic misinformation on social media has exploited racial divisions in Trump's efforts to overturn the election results. 

The Ugliest Presidential Election in History: Fraud, Voter Intimidation and a Backroom Deal

Any comparison between the disputed election of 1876 and today must put the role of racist terrorism against black voters by figures like South Carolina's "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman at the center of analysis, contents Ronald G. Shafer. 

Do Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Issues with his Father Help Explain Mass Incarceration?

by Ben Tumin

Ben Tumin's "Skipped History" video series tackles the legacy of the Moynihan Report through the work of historians Elizabeth Hinton and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. 

Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico (Review)

by Don S. Polite, Jr.

A review of Marisol LeBrón's "Policing Life and Death" which connects the turn to austerity governance in Puerto Rico with increasingly punitive and racially discriminatory policing practices. 

The Great Black Radical You've Never Heard Of

by Peter Cole

The author of a new book on an understudied Black labor radical presents context for an exerpt of an interview Ben Fletcher gave to the New York Amsterdam News, a rare surviving case of the organizer telling his own story.

The Gadfly of American Plutocracy (Review)

by Simon Torracinta

A new biography of the social theorist examines how his approach to understanding a past gilded age can offer lessons for our present one. 

Grave Is Found at Site of Historic Black Church in Colonial Williamsburg

The excavation may have discovered the remains of a Baptist congregation dating to the late 18th century, and may prompt a rethinking of the place of African American history in the open museum of Colonial Williamsburg.

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Trump's Coup Is Not Over; His Enablers Aren't Done

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat speaks with Salon's Dean Obeidallah and argues that the danger of a collapse of democracy is not over. 

A History of Felines, as Narrated and Illustrated by a Cat

A new book presents a history of significant cats and the human-feline relationship, with a substantial assist from the author's cat. 

Atlantic Slavery: An Eternal War (Review)

by Julia Gaffield

Historian of Haiti Julia Gaffield reviews two new books examining the Atlantic Slave Trade through the lenses of war against slave rebellion and disease. 

2020 Contingent Magazine Booklist

Contingent Magazine recommends books written by non-tenure track faculty and historians and scholars in non-academic positions. 

Online Roundtable: Brandon R. Byrd’s ‘The Black Republic’

The African American Intellectual History Society will present next week a series of responses to Dr. Brandon Byrd's 2019 book examining the relationship between Black American intellectuals and activists and the Republic of Haiti. 

Israel’s Pick to Head Holocaust Memorial Stirs International Uproar

“You don’t play politics with the Shoah, and this is playing politics with the Shoah,” Professor [Deborah] Lipstadt said. She is one of 750 historians, Jewish studies experts and cultural figures who signed a petition protesting the appointment of Effie Eitam to head Israel's national Holocaust memorial.

1918 Germany Has a Warning for America

German editorialist Jochen Bittner warns that Trump's insistence that the election has been stolen from him echoes the Dolchstosslegende rhetoric which sustained the ascendant National Socialists for years after the end of World War I.

When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras

by Claudrena N. Harold

Professor Harold's new book looks at gospel music in the late 20th century and reappraises it as a period of artistic innovation, not of misguided pursuit of commercial or crossover success. 

The Complicated History of Religion and Archaeology

Modern archaeology has largely succeeded in instituting professionalization and historical rigor to the study of sites of theological significance, but the discipline has a long and continuing historical entanglement with efforts to find proof of religious doctrines.