Historians/History

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• 10/17/2021
  

  “Some of Our Superpatriots are Simply Going Crazy”: America's Response to the Fall of France

  by Michael S. Neiberg

  The fall of France in 1940 disrupted Americans' understandings of their stable and secure place in the world. One response was intense nativism and paranoia about spies and subversives that resonate with today's pandemic response.

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• 10/10/2021
  

  Tracing World War 2's Impact on Sicily's Cultural Heritage Sites and Museums

  by Antonino Crisà

  World War II profoundly affected museums and antiquities in Sicily; a new research project is examining this underappreciated destructive consequence of war.

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• 10/10/2021
  

  Reviving the Conflict Between Columbus and Taíno Chieftain Caonabó Through Historical Fiction

  by Andrew Rowen

  By resisting the conquest of Columbus, Taíno peoples made the story of conquest their story too. A novelist explains how he worked to recover both sides of the conflict, including the values and worldview of Native and European antagonists, through historical fiction. 

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• 10/10/2021
  

  Recovering Women's Reproductive Lives, One Mutilated Record at a Time

  by Catherine Prendergast

  "Far too often, archives resemble graveyards with marked tombs for men in which a few bones of women are scattered. It’s time to dig up all of the bones and ask them what story they tell."

• 
• 10/3/2021
  

  Latitude: The Pioneering International Mission to Measure the Earth

  by Nicholas Crane

  The scientists and technicians of the Geodetic Mission to the Equator did more than measure a degree of latitude; they showed how a disparate group of human beings from different countries and backgrounds could pool their collective resources and solve problems.

• 
• 9/26/2021
  

  The Japanese Surrender in 1945 is Still Poorly Understood

  by Jeremy Kuzmarov and Roger Peace

  American diplomats and military leadership in 1945 believed Japan was close to a negotiated surrender without the use of the atomic bomb, a history that has since been replaced by the myth that the bomb saved lives. 

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• 9/26/2021
  

  Group of Historians Recognized for Best SCOTUS Brief of the Year

  by Ronald A. Smith

  A group of six historians has been recognized by the Education Law Association for the best Supreme Court brief of the year. Their historical deconstruction of the myth of amateurism in college athletics influenced a unanimous decision that the NCAA cannot bar college athletes from profiting from the commercial use of their names, images, or likenesses.

• 
• 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."

• 
• 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.

• 
• 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."