With support from the University of Richmond

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.

Roundup Top 10!

Thanksgiving is a good time to lose our illusions about U.S. history

by Nick Alexnadrov

We misread the past each November, when we consider our country’s earliest phase. We like to think tolerance, a love of liberty and a democratic impulse motivated English colonists. But history tells a different story.

Queer Like Pete

by Jim Downs

Buttigieg is getting slammed for being a type of gay man America doesn’t understand.

How to Talk About the Truth and Trump at Thanksgiving

by Ibram X. Kendi

If we are serious about bringing Americans together, the work has to start with our own families.

Trump's Toadies Should Take Note: Watergate Says Everyone Goes Down

by Kevin M. Kruse

The lesson Nixon imparts to today’s POTUS loyalists is that courts of law and of public opinion will judge them harshly.

Contrary to conservative claims, the ERA would help families — but it’s not enough

by Alison Lefkovitz

Decades after its introduction, the Equal Rights Amendment is still urgently needed, and passing it .may soon be possible.

The apocalyptic myth that helps explain evangelical support for Trump

by Thomas Lecaque

Implicit is a vision of the president as a triumphantly apocalyptic figure, one who evokes the medieval legend of the Last World Emperor.

A 1970 Law Led to the Mass Sterilization of Native American Women. That History Still Matters

by Brianna Theobald

The fight against involuntary sterilization was one of many intertwined injustices rooted in a much longer history of U.S. colonialism. And that history continues to this day.

It’s Easy to Dismiss Debutante Balls, But Their History Can Help Us Understand Women’s Lives

by Kristen Richardson

The debutante ritual flourished roughly from 1780 to 1914—beginning with the first debutante ball in London and ending with the outbreak of World War I.

Après Moi, le Déluge...

by Tom Engelhardt

The Age of Trump, the End of What?

 

 

Trump’s xenophobia is an American tradition — but it doesn’t have to be

by Erika Lee

Some have always pushed to keep out immigrants, but people have always fought back, too.