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History News Network

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Roundup Top 10!

The New Zealand Shooting and the Great-Man Theory of Misery

by Jelani Cobb

Most of the men who committed these recent acts of terror composed manifestos. A sense of history turning on the fulcrum of a single man’s actions is a theme within them.

Nazis Have Always Been Trolls

by Adam Serwer

Historically, they rely on murderous insincerity and the unwillingness of liberal societies to see them for what they are.

The first time the U.S. considered drafting women — 75 years ago

by Pamela D. Toler

As legislative debate about drafting women in 1945 shows, if the military need is great enough, women will be drafted no matter how uncomfortable lawmakers are with the prospect.

Poor criminal defendants need better legal counsel to achieve a just society

by Connie Hassett-Walker

Why we must fulfill the promise of a famous Supreme Court decision to truly achieve criminal justice reform.

Native children benefit from knowing their heritage. Why attack a system that helps them?

by Bob Ferguson and Fawn Sharp

For 40 years, the Indian Child Welfare Act has protected the best interests of Native children and helped preserve the integrity of tribal nations across the United States.

The Story of the Dionne Quintuplets Is a Cautionary Tale for the Age of ‘Kidfluencers’

by Shelley Wood

The pitfalls and payoffs of advertising directly to children have consumed psychologists, pediatricians, marketers and anxious parents for the better part of a century.

Citizenship in the Age of Trump

by Karen J. Greenberg

Death By a Thousand Cuts

When bad actors twist history, historians take to Twitter. That’s a good thing.

by Waitman Wade Beorn

Engaging with the public isn’t pedantry; it’s direct engagement.

Americans don’t believe in meritocracy — they believe in fake-it-ocracy

by Niall Ferguson

This illegal “side door” into college came into existence because the back door of a fat donation — like the $2.5 million paid by Jared Kushner’s father to Harvard — isn’t 100 percent reliable.


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Who’s the snowflake? We tenured professors, that’s who

by Anita Bernstein

Our freedom to say what we want is not only tolerated but celebrated.