Historians in the News

How Well Do Today’s Students Know History?

C. Wyatt Evans, professor at Drew University’s Caspersen graduate school, weighs in.

You have no idea how hardcore Harriet Tubman really was

The former slave risked her life countless times, and even performed an ad hoc dental surgery on herself while on the road for the Underground Railroad, knocking her front tooth out with a pistol, says biographer Catherine Clinton.

N.J. high school history teacher reportedly forced to resign over anti-Trump video

The Middletown High School South teacher was reportedly forced to resign after he showed his class a video by John Oliver.

Mark Carnes remembers the powerful influence John Garraty had on him

In an interview he discusses what it was like to edit the American National Biography.

John Y. Cole Named Library of Congress Historian

It’s a new position dedicated to serving as the top technical expert and adviser on the history of the Library of Congress

Irish slaves? Librarian demolishes myth peddled by racists who claim PC historians have covered up “white slavery"

Irish scholar Liam Hogan has been tracking and debunking this reincarnated meme since he first saw it in 2013.

Library of America receives major grant of $550,000 from the NEH to mark the centennial of America's entry into World War I in 2017

Organized to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the nation’s entry into the war in 1917, the project will bring members of the veteran community together with the general public in libraries and museums around the country to explore the transformative impact of the First World War.

Berkeley historian T.J. Stiles wins Pulitzer for ‘Custer’s Trials’

It’s Stiles’ second Pulitzer; he won the award in 2010 for his biography “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt.” That book, also published by Alfred A. Knopf, won the National Book Award in 2009.

Conference to mark the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

The Future of the African American Past, a landmark conference featuring leading historians bringing fresh insights to long-standing questions about the field of African American history, will be held in Washington, DC, on May 19-21, 2016.

Report: Number of history PhD’s is at a record, while the number of students majoring in history is falling

by Robert B. Townsend

More bad news: Progress in attracting women to the discipline has largely stalled—and among undergraduates actually reversed.

Judith Stein says neoliberalism broke the American working class

How? Through bad trade policies.

Mary Beard hailed in the NYT for her campaign against Internet trolling

The acclaimed Cambridge classicist takes on everything from Internet stalkers to women’s rights.

Poland: Prosecutor probes Holocaust historian who said Poles killed more Jews than Germans

Jan Tomasz Gross, a Jewish Polish-born history professor based at Princeton University, was interrogated for hours.

Alfred L. Brophy says the field of legal history has changed dramatically in the last couple of decades

In an interview he says legal historians now focus on how outsiders have remade the law.

Thomas Fleming Wins Coveted Writer’s Award

The New York American Revolution Round Table named Fleming’s "The Great Divide, The Conflict Between Washington and Jefferson that Still Divides America" the best book of 2015.

Croatian Historian Condemns Minister’s WWII Rhetoric

Natasa Matausic, a historian who specialises in Croatia’s World War II history, said the country’s new culture minister Zlatko Hasanbegovic should apologise for past statements praising fascist fighters.

Report: Historians in 107 countries were subject to censorship or persecution in 2016

by Antoon De Baets

The report contains 123 pages of news about the domain where history and human rights intersect, especially involving the censorship of history and the persecution of historians, archivists, and archaeologists around the globe, as reported by various human rights organizations.

Petition calls for dismissal of UCLA historian Gabriel Piterberg

He was accused of sexual assault against two students.

Historians trying to draw attention to the neglected worst engineering disaster of the 20th century

It was the collapse of a damn near LA in 1928 that left 500 dead

History Professor Asks Class to Imagine a ‘Good World’ As a ‘World Without Whiteness’

“And how do we get to that good world is the question? A world without conflict. And to me, my interpretation of these words is it would be a world for the U.S. without whiteness, in terms of the power structure.” — James Harrison, Portland Community College