Robin Lindley

Robin Lindley is a Seattle-based writer and attorney. He is features editor for the History News Network (hnn.us), and his work also has appeared in Writer’s Chronicle, Crosscut, Documentary, NW Lawyer, Real Change, Huffington Post, Bill Moyers.com, Salon.com, and more. He has a special interest in the history of human rights and medicine. He can be reached by email: robinlindley@gmail.com.

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  Jun 12, 2022
  

  Lindsey Fitzharris on Visionary Surgeon Harold Gillies

  by Robin Lindley

  In "The Facemaker," Lindsey Fitzharris tells the story of the British surgeon Harold Gillies, who pioneered reconstructive surgeries for the horrific facial wounds suffered by soldiers in the first world war. 

  

• 
  Jun 3, 2022
  

  Jonathan Katz on Smedley Butler and American Empire

  by Robin Lindley

  The author of "Gangsters of Capitalism" discusses Marine Corps General Smedley Butler, who manned the front lines of American imperialism but also blew the whistle on an alleged coup plot against FDR. 

  

• 
  Apr 13, 2022
  

  Tom Roston's Book on Vonnegut and "Slaughterhouse-Five" Arrives When Readers Need It

  by Robin Lindley

  "This is my way of saying that Vonnegut saw in World War II what we are now seeing in Ukraine. And it should turn our stomachs the way it did his."

  

• 
  Mar 2, 2022
  

  Inside the Student Movement in the Sixties: An Interview with Renowned Seattle Municipal Leader and Author Nick Licata on His New Memoir

  by Robin Lindley

  "She looked around, shrugged, turned to me, said, 'Good luck,' and walked off. That's when I figured out that authority had to be achieved by uniting the weaker ones to form a group for protection."

  

• 
  Feb 4, 2022
  

  Charlie English's "The Gallery of Miracles and Madness" Links Psychiatry, Modern Art, and Hitler's War on the Mentally Ill

  by Robin Lindley

  German psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn explored the use of expressive art as therapy. The published works of his patients inspired the surrealists and other interwar modern artists, but proved a foil to Hitler's attacks on "degenerate" art and the state killing of the mentally ill.

  

• 
  Jan 21, 2022
  

  Ty Seidule on Exposing Robert E. Lee, Lost Cause Myths, White Supremacy, and Treason

  by Robin Lindley

  "West Point in the nineteenth century saw Lee and his Confederate comrades as traitors. Lee made a comeback when West Point moved towards equal rights and integration. And that really informed my understanding of Confederate memorialization. It’s always about white supremacy."

  

• 
  Jan 5, 2022
  

  We Almost Lost Our Democracy – and Still Could: A Conversation with Congressman Adam Schiff

  by Robin Lindley

  "There's no division in our purpose. We're all united in wanting to get to the truth and expose the truth to the American people and then legislate in a way that protects our country going forward."

  

• 
  Dec 5, 2021
  

  Patricia Sullivan on Her Reappraisal of RFK's Role in the Civil Rights Movement

  by Robin Lindley

  "Historians have generally discounted the role of the Kennedy administration, concluding that they moved only when forced to by the rush of events, and that somehow RFK experienced an epiphany after his brother was assassinated. This is clearly not the case."

  

• 
  Nov 12, 2021
  

  Professor, Novelist, and MacArthur "Genius" Charles Johnson on His First Career: Cartoonist

  by Robin Lindley

  “To me, if you can create beauty as a gift to others, what more do you want? No riches can surpass that gift.”

  

• 
  Sep 25, 2021
  

  Racist Violence, Lynching Culture, and the Tulsa Massacre: An Interview with Prof. Karlos K. Hill

  by Robin Lindley

  "It wasn't difficult to find photographs of the massacre in 2016 and 2017 when the book started to come to life. What was difficult was looking at them every day trying to understand what I was seeing and also trying to find the courage to continue to look at them."

  

• 
  Aug 15, 2021
  

  Gun Culture, Racial Violence and the Second Amendment: Carol Anderson Interviewed

  by Robin Lindley

  "Interestingly enough, I find hope in the history, because what I see in history is that there are always people who stand up and fight against injustice."

  

• 
  Jun 30, 2021
  

  Emma Southon on the True Crime Stories of Ancient Rome

  by Robin Lindley

  "Murder is such an interesting way of exploring what and who a society considers to be important and worth protecting, and who is considered expendable."

  

• 
  May 23, 2021
  

  Director Lynn Novick and Senior Producer Sarah Botstein on the Hemingway Documentary (UPDATED 5/24)

  by Robin Lindley

  Director Lynn Novick and Senior Producer Sarah Botstein discuss the research and production process for the new Ernest Hemingway documentary, which they worked with Ken Burns to complete. 

  

• 
  Apr 16, 2021
  

  Law, Politics, Public Health and Deadly Epidemics: A Conversation with John Fabian Witt on “American Contagions”

  by Robin Lindley

  Legal historian John Fabian Witt studies the evolution of public health regulation in the US, and says recent Supreme Court decisions to empower religious exceptions to COVID precautions are an unprecedented rejection of public health as duty of the state. He discusses this and more with HNN. 

  

• 
  Mar 26, 2021
  

  Inequality, Labor Unrest, and Police Brutality in Early 20th Century Spokane, Washington: Jess Walter on His New Historical Novel "The Cold Millions"

  by Robin Lindley

  "Growing up, the fairness and egalitarianism of labor was as close as my family had to a religion. I saw this early period of labor as a kind of origin story."

  

• 
  Mar 5, 2021
  

  Legendary Director Agnieszka Holland and Screenwriter Andrea Chapula on the Ukrainian Famine and Their Film "Mr. Jones"

  by Robin Lindley

  An interview with the team behind "Mr. Jones," the cinematic telling of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones's revelations of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33. Agnieszka Holland and Andrea Chalupa discuss bringing history to the screen in a climate of denial. 

  

• 
  Feb 12, 2021
  

  Understanding John F. Kennedy: A Conversation with Acclaimed Historian and JFK Biographer Professor Fredrik Logevall

  by Robin Lindley

  Robin Lindley interviews Fredrik Logevall about the research and writing of the first volume of his praised biography of John F. Kennedy. 

  

• 
  Feb 6, 2021
  

  The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.— A Conversation with Professor Peniel E. Joseph

  by Robin Lindley

  "One of the fascinating things about King’s life is when he evolves and speaks truth to power. He's still talking about nonviolence, but he's speaking in bold radical terms about the need to end militarism and materialism and racism."

  

• 
  Nov 15, 2020
  

  How John Hersey Exposed the Human Face of Nuclear War: Lesley Blume on Her New Book "Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-Up and The Reporter Who Revealed It to The World"

  by Robin Lindley

  HNN interviews Lesley M.M. Blume about her new book on John Hersey and the government's effort to control the public perceptions of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

  

• 
  Oct 21, 2020
  

  Bergen-Belsen Through the Eyes of a Teenaged Inmate: A Conversation with Bernice Lerner

  by Robin Lindley

  Robin Lindley interviews Dr. Bernice Lerner, whose book "All the Horrors of War" connects the stories of Dr. Glyn Hughes, the British military doctor tasked with the health of liberated prisoners at Bergen-Belsen, and her own mother, who was among the liberated survivors.