Current Events that Relate to History
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CommentGeorge Floyd and the Writing of the Final Chapter of Richmond's Confederate Monuments
Do we as Americans have the strength to confront our complicated past?Civil War Memory -
CommentHow America Lost Control of the Seas
Thanks to decades of misguided policy choices, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity.The Atlantic -
NewsThese Historians Oversee Unbiased Accounts of U.S. Foreign Policy. Trump Fired Them All.
The volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States have been written since Abraham Lincoln’s time.Washington Post -
BiographyWhat Made Malcolm X Dangerous
He challenged the violence of US power, abroad and at home. His radical internationalism, from Congo to Palestine, speaks to our moment.Jacobin -
Origin StoryBring on the Board Games
The increasing secularism of the nineteenth century helped make board games a commercial and ideological success in the United States.JSTOR Daily -
Book ReviewHokey Cowboy: Is Hayek to Blame?
Hayek suspected that nothing about the vindication of neoliberalism was likely to be straightforward.London Review of Books -
exhibitCollege Costs
Historical perspectives on the money that fuels American higher education, and Americans’ attempts to reckon with the power dynamics that result.
From the HNN Archive
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How to Succeed in Government Without Really Trying
The long history of promising an “efficient” federal government. -
What Is the Role of the Historian?
Rethinking the job of history — and the American Historical Association — after the veto of the Gaza “scholasticide” resolution. -
Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere
Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters. -
An Attempt to Defeat Constitutional Order
After the Civil War, conservatives used terrorism, cold-blooded murder, and economic coercion to fight the new state constitution in South Carolina. -
Whose Side Are College Administrators On?
There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts. -
The Constitution Does Not Speak for Itself
In 1841, John Tyler said he was the president. The Constitution said he wasn’t. What happened next? -
“At Any Future Time”
In 1880, the daughter of a Welsh politician turned to fiction to expose perspectives missing from the official record, upending histories for generations to come. -
Letting the World Scream
In 1984, the U.S. rejected the International Court of Justice’s jurisdiction, revealing its tendency to ignore international rules it sees as unfavorable — even when it helped write them. -
Scared Out of the Community
Between 1929 and 1939 approximately half a million Mexicans left the United States. Many of the departing families included American-born children to whom Mexico, not the United States, was the foreign land. -
When Good Housekeeping Meant Getting Vaccinated Against Polio
The pages of 1950s lifestyle magazines offer a glimpse of a time when childhood vaccines were anything but controversial.