Historians in the News

Historian Don Yacovone: Florida's Restrictions Echo the Demands to Teach Pro-Slavery Argument

Jamelle Bouie's newsletter puts the current Florida controversy in light of a previous era's political demands about the teaching of history to justify one group's domination of another. 

Two New Books Take the 1990s as a Pivotal Decade

by Henry M.J. Tonks

Books by Lily Geismer and Nicole Hemmer look at the changes that took place within the Democratic and Republican parties (respectively) during a decade that was supposed to be the end of history. 

What Does Clarence Thomas Think Clarence Thomas is Doing?

A panel of scholars and journalists examine a paradox: how Clarence Thomas went from embracing the tenets of Black Nationalism to an administrative and judicial career that most characterize as hostile to the rights of Black Americans. 

Museum Celebrates Sweet Smell of... Failure

The Museum of Failure is a global traveling exhibition that celebrates the signal marketplace flops of capitalism, from the infamous Edsel and New Coke to the obscure, highlighting the vagaries of consumer taste and historical contingency. 

Cleopatra's Daughter and Other Key Figures of the Multicultural Roman Empire

by Mary Beard

Jane Draycott relates the stories of figures like King Juba II of Mauretania in north Africa, who was reared in Rome as a captive and installed by Augustus to lead a puppet buffer state, which shed important light on the diversity within the empire and the multiple ways that Rome exercised power over its vast dominions. 

To Understand America's Failure on Housing Desegregation, Look at the Capital City

by Kaila Philo

With federal support, the private housing market was built around racial segregation. To understand how federal fair housing law and policy adopted since the 1960s failed to undermine it, it's not necessary to venture too far from Capitol Hill. 

New Hampshire Honored its Native "Rebel Girl"—Until Locals Realized She was a Red

Two weeks after the state installed a commemorative marker near Concord, New Hampshire, the state legislature removed the monument, with Republican members calling the honoring of the labor organizer "a slap in the face" because of her association with the Communist party. 

Fred Siegel, Urban Historian and Liberal Turned Law-and-Order Conservative, Dies at 78

Siegel's work lamented what he saw as the failure of liberal regimes to safeguard urban quality of life and lambasted the indulgence of rioting. Those views led him to support Rudolph Giuliani's mayoral administration and remain relevant to discussions of social disorder in cities today. 

Texas Mall Shooting Raises Question: What Makes a Person of Color Embrace Far-Right Extremism?

NPR's Leila Fadel talks to Daniel Martinez HoSang, a professor at Yale University, about what attracts people of color to far-right violent movements rife with bigotry.

In Texas, Those Who Don't Know History... Want to Control the State's Narrative of the Past

The growing effort to diminish the power of academic historians on the Texas State Historical Association is being driven by many of the people involved in the "1836 Project" effort to distribute literature praising the white settlers of Texas as mythic heroes. 

Quinn Slobodian: Can Democracy be Safe from the Market?

A new history of capitalist policy initiatives focuses on the "zone," a territory of radical deregulation where capital is free from constraint by democracy. A reviewer asks whether there can be a zone where democracy is insulated against the market. 

Given to Antisemitic Rhetoric in Private, Why Did Harry Truman Champion Israel?

Despite expressing many negative stereotypes about Zionists and Jews in general, and facing pressure from George Marshall and other advisors, Truman recognized the new state of Israel. 

"Call" and "Meeting" are the Big Blocks on Ben Sasse's Schedule as U of Florida President

Many students and faculty are questioning where the University of Florida's high-profile new president stands on the changes pushed on higher education in the state. His public calendar won't offer too many clues. 

Chad Williams on W.E.B. DuBois and the First World War

Michelle Moyd and David W. Blight comment on Chad Williams's discussion of DuBois's unfinished manuscript about the deep questions of race, democracy, and world affairs raised by the first World War. 

North Carolina Introduces its own History Bill; Historians Call Foul

State legislators say they are ensuring that students at North Carolina colleges are taught core concepts in American history. Historians Jay Smith and William Sturkey argue that, since the legislature would determine the content of a mandatory course it amounts to indoctrination and token coverage of Black history. 

Alex Haley Fabricated Quotes Portraying MLK as Implacable Critic of Malcolm X, Biographer Finds

by Gillian Brockell

Jonathan Eig tracked down a secretary's transcript of writer Alex Haley's interview with Martin Luther King and found that Haley seriously misrepresented King's response to Malcolm's militant approach to the Black freedom struggle, contributing to longstanding misunderstanding of King's views and relationship to other political factions. 

A Conversation with the Editors of a Collection of DuBois's Internationalist Thought

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins

Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts strive to demonstrate that DuBois's influential writings on African American life and American racism are inseparable from his global critiques of racism and imperialism, and his insistence on connecting racism with labor exploitation. 

Daniel Boyarin's Argument for a Non-Zionist Jewish Nationalism

by Joshua Abramson Cohen

Boyarin's latest work makes provocative arguments that there is a real collective identity of the Jewish people as a nation, but that it is independent of the Israeli state and territory. 

Colleen Shogan Confirmed as First Woman Archivist of the United States

"Shogan recently served as director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History and senior vice president of the White House Historical Association."

Forum: Is "Equal Opportunity" the Wrong Goal?

by Christine Sypnowich

A political philosopher introduces a forum on inequality and justice by arguing that the focus on opportunity at the expense of equalizing outcomes will inevitably allow significant inequality to continue.