With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

HNN

Directions on Writing Historians

HOW TO LOCATE A HISTORIAN

From time to time, you'll be asked to locate historians. To obtain contact information, you should try the web first or the following two leading history associations in the United States: The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH).

You can use editor-in-chief Rick Shenkman's account to access their membership lists.

  • AHA: (American Historical Association) http://www.theaha.org/members/. After you open this page, click on Login to the Individual Member Section. The user name is: Shenkman. The password is: 48426.
  • OAH (Organization of American Historians) http://www.oah.org/members/mbrinfo.html . After you open this page, go to Membership Services, then go to OAH Online Membership Directory. Mr. Shenkman's subscriber number is: 47078.

    • DIRECTIONS ON WRITING HISTORIANS ABOUT HNN

    Use a professional tone. Tell them we are writing because we want to give them a national forum in which to educate Americans about the issues they care about.

    This link provides HNN's guidelines for submissions. Please include it in all of your correspondence with historians.

    SAMPLE FORM LETTER

    Professor X,

    I am an intern for George Mason University's HISTORY NEWS NETWORK, a website that gives historians a national platform for articles about current events and historical trends. (300,000 unique visitors/month.)

    We would like to invite you to write an op ed for our website. Your expertise in the area of _______ studies is what has prompted this request.

    Our editors, Rick Shenkman and David A. Walsh, are interested in an article that addresses the question of ________.

    Submission guidelines are outlined here:
    http://hnn.us/articles/41637.html

    We would be happy to feature your most recent book jacket along with the article and provide a link to Amazon or whatever site you wish.

    History News Network (HNN) was created in June 2001. HNN is the only website on the Internet wholly devoted to the task of putting events in the news into historical perspective every day. The site is updated daily in response to breaking news. HNN is funded by George Mason University. The magazine features articles by historians on both the left and the right. HNN is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. 13,000 readers subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Every month the site attracts nearly 300,000 unique visitors and receives more than 6,000,000 hits. Our board includes Pauline Maier, Gil Troy, Walter Nugent, Joyce Appleby, Tom Fleming, Gerald Posner, among others.

    Given the timeliness of the subject we would like the article within two weeks.

    Just send me the article and I'll forward it on to our editor.

    Many thanks for your time.

    Best,

    [Your Name]