Historians/History

• 
• 3-3-14
  

  Nina Simone: The Antidote to the "We Shall Overcome" Myth of the Civil Rights Movement

  by Ruth Feldstein

  In Concert celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this month. That'll learn ya.

• 
• 2-25-14
  

  Once Upon a Time Governments Paid Slave Reparations ... to Slaveowners

  by Greg Grandin

  And why not? The early modern world knew just how much was built on the backs of slave labor. Would that we were able to acknowledge that today.

• 
• 2-24-14
  

  The Unmaking of a President: Rethinking Watergate at Forty [VIDEO]

  It has been forty years since the Watergate scandal and Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency. To mark the occasion, the AHA Annual Meeting in January hosted a dedicated Watergate panel.

• 
• 2-24-14
  

  How JFK Slammed the Door on Che Guevara's Offer to Improve U.S.-Cuban Relations

  by Jack Colhoun

  Che's backdoor "cigar diplomacy" was returned in kind by the Kennedy brothers with Operation Mongoose, the plan to overthrow Castro.

• 
• 2-24-14
  

  In Defense of the American Studies Association

  by Alan Wald

  The ASA's support of the BDS movement seeks to enhance the academic freedom of Palestinians.

• 
• 2-17-14
  

  Why Do Conservative Southerners Loudly Insist That Kids Be Taught Lies about the Civil War?

  by Adam Laats

  Texas activist Bill Ames is proposing new revisions to the state's school curriculum, including teaching that slavery was not the leading cause of the Civil War.

• 
• 2-17-14
  

  Presenting History Camp, The Unconference for Local Historians

  by Lee Wright

  Building on the barcamp model (also used as the basis for THATcamp), the History Camp conference takes place March 8 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• 
• 2-17-14
  

  Remembering H. Wayne Morgan, Pioneer of Gilded Age Studies

  by Lewis L. Gould

  Morgan, who passed away in January, almost single-handedly rescued the study of the late nineteenth century from history's proverbial ash heap.

• 
• 2-17-14
  

  What the Left and Right Still Get Wrong About Ronald Reagan

  by James Graham Wilson

  Newly-discovered documents show both sides missed important aspects of Reagan's legacy.

• 
• 2-12-14
  

  Grover Cleveland, Lover? Read the Love Letter He Wrote to His 21-Year-Old Bride

  by The Shapell Manuscript Foundation

  Read the never-before-publishd love letter Cleveland wrote to Frances Folsom.

• 
• 2-10-14
  

  Pete Seeger: The Red Warbler

  by Ronald Radosh

  A great folk singer who contributed much to the American story, he was fatally flawed by the leftism he imbibed with his mother’s milk.

• 
• 2-10-14
  

  Do We Ever Actually Learn Anything from History?

  by William J. Astore

  The problem is our decision makers have no respect for the lessons of history.

• 
• 2-5-14
  

  "There Was No Barrier Between [Seeger] and All of His Friends and Supporters"

  by Robin Lindley

  Pete Seeger's friend, historian Michael Honey, says Seeger was the rare celebrity who picked up his own phone.

• 
• 1-27-14
  

  Why I Despise @HistoryInPics

  by Sarah Werner

  @HistoryInPics and similar Twitter streams post “old” pictures and little tidbits of captions for them. That's it. No attribution, no link, no context, and a casual relationship to the truth.

• 
• 1-20-14
  

  Doris Kearns Goodwin Tackles the “Irrepressible Conflict” of 1912

  by Sheldon M. Stern

  William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt used to be the closest of intimates... until the election of 1912.

• 
• 1-20-14
  

  It Looks Like Mark Hanna’s Biographer Invented Quotes

  by Kristie Miller and Robert H. McGinnis

  "Does a dog hesitate for a marriage license?"

• 
• 1-20-14
  

  We Need to Include Reparations in the Story of Solomon Northup

  by Roy E. Finkenbine

  The protagonist of "12 Years a Slave" was also a leader in the slavery reparations movement.

• 
• 1-20-14
  

  The Forgotten Healers of World War I [INTERVIEW]

  by Robin Lindley

  Historian Emily Mayhew on the development of the British Army's medical corps in World War I.

• 
• 1-13-14
  

  Revisiting the FBI's War on the American Left

  by Jeremy Kuzmarov

  Betty Medsger's new book "The Burglary" again shines light on the controversial (and illegal) FBI program COINTELPRO.

• 
• 1-13-14
  

  What Really Caused the Reichstag Fire

  by Benjamin Carter Hett

  Historians have accepted the Nazi version of the story for years. But there's considerable evidence pointing to a Nazi conspiracy.