Historians/History

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• 9/19/2021
  

  For Constitution Day, Let's Toast the Losers of the Convention

  by Richard Hall

  "On Constitution Day, I say drink a toast to the losers. Let us study their criticisms of our imperfect system."

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• 9/12/2021
  

  Untold Stories from the Largest Boat Lift in History

  by Jessica DuLong

  On September 11, 2001, nearly half a million civilians in Lower Manhattan escaped by water when mariners conducted a spontaneous rescue. This was the largest waterborne evacuation in history, but has gone largely untold.

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• 9/8/2021
  

  The Specter of Emancipation and the Road to Revolution: A Rejoinder to Richard Brown et. al.

  by Woody Holton

  Woody Holton responds to a recent open letter of criticism by six Revolutionary-era historians of his interpretation of the significance of slavery as a motivation for colonial independence. 

• 
• 9/5/2021
  

  Three Badasses of the Revolutionary Era That Your Textbooks Never Told You About

  by Woody Holton

  University of South Carolina historian Woody Holton, author of Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, due out in October, wants to introduce you to three badass American Revolutionaries your textbooks never told you about.

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• 9/5/2021
  

  The Generosity of James Loewen

  by Guy Lancaster

  James Loewen didn't put ideals of prestige over his "deadly earnest desire to find and expose manifestations of American racism that had, for so long, gone unnoticed and unexplored by most scholars." His generosity went hand in hand with his widespread impact.

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  Richard J. Evans on Fascism, Today's Right, and Historical Truth

  by Aaron J. Leonard

  "Honest historians know they have to abandon their arguments when the evidence turns out to disprove them; dishonest historians and conspiracy theorists bend the evidence to fit the argument."

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  Climate, Peace, and Health Require International Solidarity. Is it Possible to Build It?

  by Lawrence Wittner

  "Although there are no guarantees that social movements and enhanced global governance will transform our divided, problem-ridden world, they should provide us with at least a measure of hope that, someday, human solidarity will prevail."

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  The Truth About James Loewen

  by Ann Banks

  HNN blogger Ann Banks writes that a small exchange typified the late James Loewen's insistence on telling the truth about history.

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  New Discoveries Chip Away at Myths about Viking Shipbuilding

  by Nancy Marie Brown

  Recent archaeological work, and field-testing of replica boats, is overturning the common image of the Viking warship. 

• 
• 8/29/2021
  

  Bigler's Gambit: How the California Gold Fields Gave Rise to Global Anti-Chinese Politics

  by Mae Ngai

  The Chinese Question and Chinese exclusion policies that circumnavigated the Anglo-American world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries grew in local soils, and shifted and evolved as it crossed the Pacific world and supported the consolidation of British and American power over global emigration and trade."

• 
• 8/20/2021
  

  HNN Honors James W. Loewen, 1942-2021

  by HNN Staff

  HNN honors the life and work of James W. Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and numerous other books, and an HNN contributor. He passed at the age of 79 on August 19. 

• 
• 8/15/2021
  

  Prologue to Annihilation: An Interview with Stephen Norwood

  by Eunice G. Pollack

  Stephen Norwood's new book focuses on the response of British and American Jews to rising antisemitism in the early 1930s, a period less frequently studied by Holocaust historians than the years after Kristalnacht.

• 
• 8/8/2021
  

  What Can We Learn from Historians vs. Malcolm Gladwell?

  by Gregory A. Daddis

  As the discipline's claims to authority are under attack, it would be a mistake for historians to sacrifice rigorous pursuit of truth to be "interesting."

• 
• SOURCE: YouTube
  8/3/2021
  

  Ringer Eddie "The King" Feigner Strikes Out 6 HOF'ers in 1967 Celebrity Softball Game

  Hear Vin Scully and Jerry Lewis announce a celebrities vs. big leaguers softball game, watch barstorming softball legend Eddie "The King" Feigner strike out six hall-of-famers in a row. 

• 
• 8/1/2021
  

  Time to Revisit the History of School Integration in the North

  by Zoë Burkholder

  The history of school integration in the North shows that Black northerners have viewed quality education and democracy as core goals, while disagreeing about which educational policies serve those goals best.

• 
• 8/1/2021
  

  Lessons on Love from Sullivan Ballou's Civil War Letters

  by Fred Zilian

  Historians dispute the authorship of love letters sent by Rhode Island lawyer and Union Major Sullivan Ballou to his beloved, but risk missing the larger point about love, sacrifice and duty. 

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• Amateurism, Sneaker Money, and the Forgotten Protest of the 1968 Games

  by Harry Blutstein

  Tommie Smith and John Carlos are remembered for their gloved-fist protest of American racism at the 1968 Mexico City Games. But they also demonstrated against the hypocritical and exploitative rules of amateurism and opened the door to endorsement payments for Olympians.

• 
• 7/25/2021
  

  The Difference a Day Makes: Robespierre's 9 Thermidor

  by Colin Jones

  The eventful 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) is seen as a pivotal day for French Revolution. Colin Jones digs deep into the archival documentation of the day and argues that the day's significance is real but misunderstood. 

• 
• 7/11/2021
  

  Reflecting on the 80th Anniversary of the Nazi Invasion of Russia

  by Rick Halperin

  The Nazi invasion of Russia unleashed unprecedented brutality against civilians along the eastern front; those horrors should reinforce a commitment to human rights.

• 
• 7/11/2021
  

  Why Does Speculation Persist in the Age of Predictive Data?

  by Gayle Rogers

  "During this pandemic, all of us have studied many data points to assess our risks and predict how safe our futures will be under X or Y scenarios. Even when there has been no shortage of data, even when the data have overwhelmed us, the future has never been made certain and clear for us by them. Instead, we have had to become speculators to some degree."