Historians in the News

4 months late, UK’s Telegraph publishes an obituary for Gabriel Kolko

Gabriel Kolko was a Marxist historian who denounced America for imperialism but eventually accepted that socialism had failed.

A.J. Langguth dies at 81; foreign correspondent and historian of wars

Langguth spent seven years researching and writing "Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975" (2000), which won acclaim for telling the Vietnamese side of the story as well as it did the American side.

Marcus Rediker says it was pirates, slaves, and motley crews who shaped the modern world, not the big heroes we hear so much about

Unsung heroes of the seas—how pirates, slaves, and motley crews shaped the modern world.

Pro-Israel website chides Middle East Studies professors, claiming they’re apologists for Hamas

"Reaction by Middle East studies professors to Israel's recent effort to destroy Hamas's terrorist infrastructure epitomizes their perennial pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, and anti-American biases."

UCLA Economist, Known as Railroad Historian, Dies at 89

He was among the best and most prolific railroad and transportation historians of his generation.

David Rosand, an Art History Scholar Whose Heart Was in Venice, Dies at 75

He taught his first class at Columbia in 1964 and his last in 2013, with very few breaks in that run.

NYT interviews Rick Perlstein about his book

"I don’t read many popular histories like the ones I write."

OAH issues a statement in support of the AP standards

"The Organization of American Historians supports the Revised Framework for the Advanced Placement and U.S. History Course and Exam."

Daniel Pipes says in interview that the absence of anti-Israel protests in Muslim countries is highly significant

"I don't know of a single Jewish Israeli who wants the warfare to go on!"

A historian who studies China has discovered an overlooked angle in the debate about the Middle East. Could he have figured out a key reason for Iraq’s failure to defeat ISIS?

by HNN Staff

The overlooked factor in Iraq's failure may have been the absence of an air force. 

American Historical Association backs revision of the AP course in history

The AHA remains confident that the College Board’s Advanced Placement US History Framework will help teachers achieve these goals without introducing partisanship, dictating content, or ignoring important aspects of US history.

Middle East Scholars and Librarians Call for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

"We, the undersigned scholars and librarians working on the Middle East, hold that silence about the latest humanitarian catastrophe caused by Israel’s new military assault on the Gaza Strip – the third and most devastating in six years –constitutes complicity."

Cornel West and the Insular World of the Obama-Hating Left

"Tom Frank, an anti-Obama leftist, interviews Cornel West, another anti-Obama leftist, in a conversation so deeply marinated in shared assumptions that, at one point, both interviewer and interviewee agree that nobody disagrees with them."

Fox to turn Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “No Ordinary Time” into a 10 hour series on FDR and Eleanor

“[The late Alan Pakula] loved this project — this era, the people, the drama – as do I, and I am so glad that it will now be brought to life through his wife Hannah Pakula and this remarkable circle of talented people.”

Martin Kramer says Columbia University professors claim Israelis are the new Nazis

"Based in the claim that Israel now behaves toward the Palestinians as Nazi Germany behaved toward the Jews, it originated in post-World War II Soviet propaganda, and from there spread to the Soviets’ Arab clients.”

Denying Historians: China’s Archives Increasingly Off-Bounds

“How’s your archival access been lately?”

Is this the way to teach history? Mark Carnes thinks so.

Called “Reacting to the Past,” the program immerses students -- largely self-directed -- into historical events such as the drafting of the U.S. Constitution or the trial of the Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei.

A Map To The Roots Of Ferguson's Civic Unrest

Historian Colin Gordon says what we need to understand about Ferguson is that it’s got northern-style segregation.

A prominent historian of science dies and no one takes notice

by Barry Mehler

The first obituary of Daniel E. Gasman, who died in 2012

A pro-Hamas Left emerges among historians, complains Jeffrey Herf

by Jeffrey Herf

In the pursuit of political goals and an anti-Israel message, Historians Against the War has abandoned the standards of its profession and adopted a stance that objectively supports Hamas’s war aims.