The Latest 
-
The Mississippi Flag and the Shadow of Lynching
David T.Z. Mindich
Lynching helped to raise the odious flag in 1894. But in 2020, hundreds of thousands of marchers protesting the lynching of George Floyd brought the flag down.
-
Did the Atomic Bomb End the Pacific War? – Part I
Paul Ham
Many people, including historians, believe that the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused Japan's unconditional surrender, saved a million American lives, and was the least morally repellent way to end World War II. Paul Ham contends that none of this is true.
-
Learning from Lincoln: Meeting Crisis with Action
William L. Barney
The United States is at a crossroads. The path chosen will determine whether contemporary America resumes its role as a beacon of hope and progress to the rest of the world or joins the Confederate slaveholders of the past among history’s losers.
-
Free Speech and Civic Virtue between "Fake News" and "Wokeness"
Campbell F. Scribner
Left critics of the recent "Harper's Magazine" open letter on free speech and open debate make some claims that are narrowly meritorious. But they don't address the value of speech as a way of building the collective citizenship necessary for democracy. In this respect, the signers are correct.
-
Better Than Silence: The Need for Memorials to the Manhattan Project
Stephen Kiernan
Creating the bomb was both a milestone achievement, and a profound expansion of the limits of warfare. This complexity deserves a permanent public memorial.
-
Conventional Culture in the Third Reich
Moritz Föllmer
Although Nazi aesthetics are generally associated with the monumental architecture of Albert Speer and the propaganda films of Leni Riefenstahl, Germans generally encountered conventionality in art, music and cinema. This helped to normalize the acts of the Third Reich and to allow ordinary Germans to dissociate themselves from Nazism after 1945.
-
The Battle of The Atlantic has Lessons for Fighting COVID-19
Marc Wortman
Pleasure-seekers and shoreline business owners on the east coast of the United States rejected voluntary calls to dim their lights in 1942. German U-Boat crews devastated shipping and commerce until compulsory blackouts were enforced.
-
30 Years Later: Saddam Hussein's Fateful Decision to Invade Kuwait
Guy Laron
It was clear from the outset that this was a desperate gamble that put Iraq on a collision course with Washington. But Saddam believed he had no other choice but to stop Kuwait from dumping oil into a slack market.
-
Who’s Our Roy Cohn?
Andrew Feffer
Two documentaries on the notorious lawyer and fixer portray Roy Cohn as a figure of evil, but don't examine the social and political context of power in New York City.
-
From Historical Injustice to Contemporary Police Brutality, and Costs of Monuments to the Unworthy
Billy J. Stratton
Silas Soule and Joseph Cramer, two Civil War-era heroes who rebelled and refused to join a brutal attack against Native peoples represent the moral courage we would do well to honor.
-
What's in an Un-Naming? Berkeley's Kroeber Hall
Tony Platt
Alfred Kroeber built the University of California's anthropology department into a world leader literally with the bones of the Native peoples of California. It's time to honor them.
-
Constitutional Textualism, Slavery and Undocumented Immigrants
Alan J. Singer
Just reading the Constitutional text, without context, does not help us understand what Antonin Scalia called “the fairly understood meaning of those words.”
-
The History of the Boycott Shows a Real Cancel Culture
Mark Holan
Authors, academics, musicians, and others bothered by their work being “cancelled” might consider the original boycott for some needed perspective.
-
Yes, Even George Washington Can Be Redeemed
Richard Lim
While we cannot ignore Washingon's participation in slavery, we shouldn’t discount his remarkable transformation into someone who wished for its abolition and took steps personally to make things right, becoming the only major founder to free his slaves.
-
Blog
What Does it Mean to be Progressive in 2020?
Steve Hochstadt
The political conspiracy theories of the right assume that Democratic voters actively support evil. The conspiracy theories of the “Never Biden” element of the left assume that we are j...
-
Blog
Prepare for Massive Turnover on the Supreme Court in the Next Four Years
Ronald L. Feinman
Age, health, and political calculations about securing an ideologically sympathetic replacement could prompt as many as six Supreme Court Justices to leave the court in the next four-year president...
-
The Roundup Top Ten for July 31, 2020
The top op-eds by historians or about history from around the web this week.
-
Let Us Now Remove Famous Men
Calvin Schermerhorn
Should the statues remain up, doing the quiet work of reinforcing white supremacy while we get to work dismantling the interlocking components of structural racism? Or are the statues part of a 400-year history of violence against African-descended people that needs urgent attention and rectification?
-
What's in a Name?: Decolonizing Sports Mascots
Paul C. Rosier
Decolonizing sports history requires a deeper analysis of how false historical narratives that ‘blamed the victim’ became embedded in public venues in everyday life that shaped generations of Americans’ perceptions of Native people
-
Lincoln, Cass, and Daniel Chester French: Homely Politicians Divided by Politics, United through Art
Harold Holzer
In the age before the glare of television and instantaneous photography were relentlessly aimed at our leaders, politicians could succeed even if they looked like Lewis Cass. Or Abraham Lincoln.
-
One of the Chicago 7 Reflects on Dissident Politics Then and Now
Lee Weiner
A veteran of dissident politics in the 1960s warns that while today's broad coalition of activists for a more just and democratic America are on the right track, they must learn from the mistakes of an older generation and find ways to keep united despite difference.
-
Mankato’s Hanging Monument Excluded Indigenous Perspectives when it was Erected and when it was Removed
John Legg
Both while it stood and when its presence became inconvenient, the Hanging Monument shows how memorials control historical narratives and elevate particular interpretations of the past.
-
What the Faithless Electors Decision Says about SCOTUS and Originalism
Ray Raphael
The outcome of the "faithless electors" case shows that judicial "originalists" use that principle pragmatically and selectively.
-
Two Contagions, One Opportunity to Reboot our Approach
Steve Pyne
Outbursts of megafires resemble emerging diseases because they are typically the outcome of broken biotas – a ruinous interaction between people and nature that unhinges the old checks and balances.
-
"You Sold Me to Your Mother-in-Law...": An Ongoing Quest to Reconnect a Family
Ken Lawrence
David Jackson had been forcibly separated from members of his family with no word of their subsequent fates for more than two decades, yet he had not given up hope of finding them. Can today’s historians shed light on his quest?
-
Will the Crisis Year of 2020 Turn Out Like 1968?
James Thornton Harris
Trump’s attempt to use Nixon’s outdated playbook will fail. Our nation is younger, more diverse and better educated now. We know better.
-
Who Opened the Door to Trumpism? David Frum's "Trumpocalypse" Reviewed
David O'Connor
Through his long analysis of Trump’s follies, Frum never develops his contention that twenty-first-century conservatism helped open the door for Trump. Without a full accounting, his political mea culpa is hollow and fails to offer guidance on how to avoid mistakes in the future.
-
Weighing the Evidence when a President is Accused of Antisemitism
Rafael Medoff
In weighing the evidence that has so far been produced concerning Trump, one must consider the standards that historians have applied with regard to the other three presidents who have been accused of antisemitism—Richard Nixon, Harry Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt.
-
Can Martin Luther King’s Spiritual Vision Kindle a New Progressivism?
Walter G. Moss
Advocates for a broader social democratic political agenda should consider the spiritual roots of Martin Luther King's activism, which have historically engaged a broad range of political views to reform movements.
-
Blog
Don’t Tear Down the Wrong Monuments; Don’t Attack Every Holiday
Jim Loewen
When COVID concerns allow, visit the Gettysburg and Vicksburg battlefields, and come to your own conclusion about how the National Park S...
-
Roundup Top Ten for July 24, 2020
HNN's weekly roundup of the best op-eds by historians and about history from around the web.
-
The Hate-Mongers: Characterizing Racism in Comics
Patrick L. Hamilton and Allan W. Austin
The Hate-Monger, a supervillain introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, called attention to the destructive power of bigotry, but today readers should resist the idea that defeating any one person, no matter who or how powerful they might be, can eliminate racism.
-
"No Longer Just Lincoln and a Slave": Consider Mary McLeod Bethune's Lincoln Park Statue
Jenny Woodley
Thinking of the Mary McLeod Bethune memorial in Washington's Lincoln Park in tandem with the controversial Emancipation memorial suggests ways in which commemorative spaces can operate as places of dialogue.
-
SCOTUS's Thuraissigiam Decision is a Threat to all Undocumented Immigrants
Elliott Young
As Justice Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, a recent decision could “permit Congress to constitutionally eliminate all procedural protections for any noncitizen the Government deems unlawfully admitted and summarily deport them no matter how many decades they have lived here, how settled and integrated they are in their communities, or how many members of their family are U. S. citizens or residents.”
-
Monumental Folly
Pete Daniel
Change is on the front foot, and this is no time to allow wealth and ignorance to gain ground. Achiever exhibits and sculpture gardens seem pathetic sideshows to the powerful history of the country.
-
A Historian's Reflections on American Dissent
Ralph Young
At a time like this one longs for a Gandhi or a King to come along and show us the way. Or a Lincoln or a Roosevelt who took up the challenge of leading the United States through existential crises. But I don't see that happening. Not in 2020. Not on the federal level.
-
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Black Action Movement and the Way Forward
Martin Halpern
Activists in today’s struggles against institutionalized racism and for black lives can benefit from studying a local victory of fifty years ago. In the spring of 1970, the Black Action Movement (BAM) at the University of Michigan led a thirteen-day strike that won a commitment to change by the university administration.
-
Trump Made it Manifestly Clear: The Discussion of National Destiny is Ongoing
G.W. Gibson
We can take heart that our country and our discipline have come a long way from the nadir and Frederick Jackson Turner. Somewhere between Teddy Roosevelt and Colin Kaepernick, we have managed to pick up a few yards as Americans and as American Historians.
-
Barry Zorthian's War: The Pentagon and the Press in Vietnam
Ron Steinman
A 1970 speech by Barry Zorthian, the Pentagon's chief public information officer in Vietnam, shows a thoughtful approach to balancing the rights of journalists with the need of the military to control information. That approach is missing in the era of "fake news" and open hostility by the administration for the press.
-
Who Was Our Worst President? Think About it When a Grim 75th Anniversary Arrives
Paul W. Lovinger
The anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should inspire consideration of the global fallout from Harry Truman's presidential decisions.
-
Make Digital History a National Common Ground
Stewart D. McLaurin
No one should be at a disadvantage because they can’t visit D.C., or other historical landmarks like Presidential homes and libraries. We can take advantage of our increased dependence on online learning to inspire students, no matter where they live.
-
Thinking About Racism Beyond Statues and Symbols
Dolores Janiewski
In his life and his death Floyd experienced the coercive structures that constrain, punish and eventually kill altogether too many Americans. More than Confederate statues, these need to be torn down.
-
Blog
The Three Political Prodigy Governors of the 20th Century
Ronald L. Feinman
Three very young men sought to jump from a governor's mansion to high national office. Philip LaFollette and Harold Stassen failed, but in part due to a series of lucky events Bill Clinton succ...
-
Blog
What Will Happen on November 4?
Steve Hochstadt
What Trump will do if he loses is the wrong question. What matters is what his supporters will do.
-
The Roundup Top Ten for July 17, 2020
The top opinion essays by historians and about history from around the web this week.
News
- John Hume, Nobel Laureate for Work in Northern Ireland, Dies at 83
- Statue of White Woman Holding Hatchet and Scalps Sparks Backlash in New England
- 'We Always Knew What It Stood For': Small Texas Town Torn Over Its Confederate Statue
- UNC Tenured Faculty Tell Students to Stay Home Amid COVID Concerns: 'It Is Not Safe for You to Come to Campus'
- Counting Down with #19Suffrage Stories: 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki: Women Survivors of the Atomic Bombs
- How White Supremacy Infected Christianity and the Republican Party
- Reaganland Is the Riveting Conclusion to a Story That Still Isn’t Over (Review)
- Returning From War, Returning to Racism
- Remembering Our Friend and Colleague, Professor David H. Bensman
Trending Now
