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Balfour Declaration of Support for Jewish Homeland Still Divisive at 100

The anniversary of the British document is greeted with tributes and demonstrations.

Bin Laden's disdain for the west grew in Shakespeare's birthplace, journal shows

CIA released journal as part of 470,000 documents collected from Bin Laden’s house, showing he visited the UK as a teenager and found it to be ‘decadent’

Humans didn’t outsmart the Neanderthals. We just outlasted them.

In a new paper published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, Oren Kolodny and his colleague Marc Feldman test a basic hypothesis — that the extinction of the Neanderthals was simply a consequence of population dynamics and bad timing.

Americans say the USA is at a low point

59% say "they consider this to to be the lowest point in our nation’s history that they can remember."

Paul Manafort Was Charged With Breaking a Law That Was Designed to Fight Nazis

Fear of foreign interference in U.S. affairs is about as old as the U.S., but this 1938 law is a response to a specific fear: Americans in the U.S. working for the Nazis.

The Catalonian Fight for Independence Has Medieval Roots

For hundreds of years, Catalonians have thought of themselves as distinct from the rest of Spain.

Is local history too white?

by Knute Berger

If you travel around Washington state and visit local historical societies, you’ll notice that “history” tends to begin with the arrival of white settlers and extend to perhaps one or two generations back. 

Historians respond to John F. Kelly’s Civil War remarks: ‘Strange,’ ‘sad,’ ‘wrong’

Kelly was asked about the decision of a church in Alexandria to remove plaques honoring George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

Amid backlash, National Park Service yanks $98,000 grant for Black Panther Party legacy project

A month after announcing its plans to greenlight $98,000 in federal funds for a project by a UC Berkeley professor documenting the Black Panther Party’s legacy, the National Park Service has pulled the plug amid a fierce backlash by conservatives who decried the history of what they labeled “a violent extremist group.”

Where Was the First Woman Condemned for Witchcraft? Not in Salem

Decades before the trials in Massachusetts, women in Connecticut were being accused. Now, a group of people there is moving to clear the names of the victims.

Virginia church to move plaques honoring Lee and Washington

In response to violent protests over the fate of a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia earlier this year, a 244-year-old Episcopal church in Alexandria is planning to move a set of plaques honoring former parishioners Robert E. Lee and George Washington.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel

by Dale K. Myers

The latest JFK assassination files leave the media scrambling for something - anything - newsworthy.

The One Thing All Americans Agree On: JFK Conspiracy

The latest numbers from Gallup, from a 2013 survey taken to mark the 50th anniversary of the event, showed 61% of Americans believed the assassination was a conspiracy, while 30% believed Oswald acted alone.

Italy uses Anne Frank's diary to combat anti-Semitism at sports games

After anti-Semitic stickers were strewn around Italian soccer club Lazio's stadium, the team and the Italian soccer federation are taking steps to combat racism and anti-Semitism at games, including reading a passage aloud from Anne Frank's diary before matches.

How a WWII-era forger saved lives, one fake document at a time

Adolfo Kaminsky isn't a well-known hero, but thousands of Jews in France during World War II owe their lives to him.

James Madison's Montpelier explores its history of slaves

Montpelier was the Virginia home of James Madison, father of the Constitution and architect of the Bill of Rights. The plantation was also home to generations of slaves. Now, descendants have a chance to get in touch with their roots.

Controversial Islamic Scholar Tariq Ramadan Accused of Sexually Assaulting Three Women

Supporters say accusations are part of 'international Zionist plot' against him; all the complainants said they had been in contact with Ramadan for spiritual guidance.

Washington Post features 38 ideas for fixing our democracy

Several historians are among the group the Post consulted:  Nancy Isenberg, Andrew Burstein, and Ibram X. Kendi. 

World's witnessing a new Gilded Age as billionaires’ wealth swells to $6tn

Not since the time of the Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts at the turn of the 20th century was so much owned by so few.

Good History Takes Time, So Be Patient With the New JFK Documents

There are unlikely to be any bombshells, and it’ll be months or years before historians can draw conclusions from the new files.