Historians/History

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• 5/26/2021
  

  75 Years of CARE Demonstrate Americans' Potential for Compassion

  by William Lambers

  CARE, along with a group of charities, calls for world leaders to dedicate at least one day’s worth of military spending toward food aid.  There should be less resources for heavy armaments and more for programs like infant feeding. 

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• 5/16/2021
  

  FDR's Indispensable Right-Hand Woman Portrayed Unfairly – Again

  by Kathryn Smith

  A new PBS series on the Norwegian Royal Family's contact with FDR at the outset of World War II takes some liberties with the facts, but is particularly unfair to Marguerite LeHand, who was Roosevelt's de facto chief of staff for years. 

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• 5/16/2021
  

  Reverberations of the Photography of Jazz

  by Jeffrey Mifflin

  The photographs of William Gottlieb and other observers of jazz's golden age deserve more attention for capturing and creating the aesthetics of the music. 

• 
• 5/9/20201
  

  Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith

  by Philip Jenkins

  Temporary climate catastrophes have been an understudied contributor to changes in religious doctrine and practice throughout history. These episodes may preview spiritual and communal upheavals as climate change progresses.

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• 5/9/2021
  

  Mudlarking: Searching for Lost Treasure – and History – on the Banks of the Thames

  by Jason Sandy and Nick Stevens

  The Thames River's silty bottom and tidal patterns make its banks a repository of historical artifacts. Today's "mudlarks" have turned the old tradition of scavenging the banks for subsistence into a public archaeology project. 

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• 5/2/2021
  

  The 1940s Fight Against the Equal Rights Amendment Was Bipartisan and Crossed Ideological Lines

  by Rebecca De Wolf

  Discussion of the ERA often focuses on the way the New Right stopped ratification by the states in the 1970s. But earlier opposition to the proposed amendment involved a bipartisan and ideologically diverse coalition in Congress. 

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• 5/2/2021
  

  Locating the Present in the Past: a World History Teaching Challenge

  by Peter N. Stearns

  I have always believed that the primary goal of world history teaching was to help students place the world around them today in context of the past.

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• 5/2/2021
  

  Elijah Lovejoy Faced Down Violent Mobs to Champion Abolition and the Free Press

  by Ken Ellingwood

  In 1837, Elijah Lovejoy was killed by a pro-slavery mob in Illinois, and the press he used to publish his abolitionist newsletter was thrown into the Mississippi River. Lovejoy's championing of both abolition and the free press should inspire us today. 

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• 5/2/2021
  

  Another Bite at the Apple: Isaac Newton's Time as a Man of Politics and Economics

  by Patricia Fara

  Isaac Newton's life has been retold according to the values of successive historians. Until now, most have shied away from Newton's second career at the Royal Mint, during which he was part of the growth of a British prosperity that was rooted in colonialism and slavery. 

• 
• 4/25/2021
  

  Lights, Camera... Survey! Americans Give History a Screen Test

  by Pete Burkholder

  Americans access knowledge about the past through screens and especially moving images. What does this mean for the practice and teaching of history? New survey research suggests potential and pitfalls. 

• 
• 4/25/2021
  

  The "Doughboys" Made their Biggest Contribution Fighting Postwar Hunger

  by William Lambers

  At the anniversary of American entry into the first World War, we should remember the role of American troops in distributing food as part of the American Relief Administration. 

• 
• 4/18/2021
  

  Who Won the American Revolution?

  by Guy Chet

  Almost since the smoke cleared after the Battle of Lexington, Americans have debated the relative merits of the militias and the Continental Army in fighting the British. The relative esteem of each group has followed changes in the politics of the nation. 

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• 4/18/2021
  

  What Do John Dewey's Century-Old Thoughts on Anti-Asian Bigotry Teach Us?

  by Charles F. Howlett

  A century ago, the American philosopher and educator took a sabattical to China and concluded that, if encouraged to learn about other cultures, White Americans could be brought to acceptance of Asian Americans and other immigrants as equal participants in democracy. COVID-inspired bigotry shows this dream remains unrealized.

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• 4/18/2021
  

  History Found Dixie Kiefer, one of the Greatest Heroes of World War II in the Pacific

  by Don Keith with David Rocco

  Dixie Kiefer, dubbed "The Indestructible Man" by Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, was at the center of crucial events in the Pacific in World War II. 

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• 4/18/2021
  

  The Real Patriots Invaded the Nation’s Capital Fifty Years Ago

  by Elise Lemire

  On this Patriots’ Day, fifty years after a battalion of Vietnam veterans brought their anguish and their outrage to the Capitol Building, we are reminded of the idealistic threads connecting the militiamen of Lexington and Concord and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. 

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• 4/18/2021
  

  Don't Erase Women's Leadership in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement

  by Robert Cohen

  Historians have yet to fully examine the role of women in leadership and at the grass roots of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Even some of the best and most insightful accounts of the FSM treat it as a movement of men and ignore the key roles of Jackie Goldberg, Bettina Aptheker and others. 

• 
• 4/11/2021
  

  Gordon Liddy and the Greek Connection to Watergate

  by James H. Barron

  The recent death of Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy has sparked renewed interest in the intricacies of the affair. The author argues that the material the "Plumbers" sought in the burglary related to a Greek journalist's efforts to expose illegal contributions by the Greek dictatorship to the 1968 election campaign of Richard Nixon. 

• 
• 4/11/2021
  

  60 Years Later: The Enduring Legacy of the Bay of Pigs Fiasco

  by Stephen F. Knott

  The failed invasion of Cuba by CIA-trained operatives at the Bay of Pigs set the Kennedy administration on a path of increasingly abusive covert operations against the communist regime, with consequences for US-Cuban relations and American foreign policy that still reverberate. 

• 
• 4/4/2021
  

  Richard Minear Reflects on Teaching History, Including Teaching Vietnamese History during the Vietnam War

  by Erik Moshe

  "We should teach a habit of mind, not a list of facts. This may have changed since my student days, but I'm not sure. Students can take our courses without really getting a sense of what it means to think historically."

• 
• 4/4/2021
  

  Hidden Stories of Jewish Resistance in Poland

  by Judy Batalion

  I was fascinated by the widespread resistance efforts of Polish Jews, but equally by their absence from current understandings of the war. Of all the legions of Holocaust tales, what had happened to this one?