Historians Committee for Open Debate

The Historians Committee for Open Debate is an organization of leading historians around the world engaged in activities to promote historical knowledge and understanding in contemporary public discourse. The Committee is co-chaired by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, and affiliated with the Nuclear Age History & Humanity Center at Tufts University.

The Committee began as an ad hoc group of historians and scholars (The Historians Committee for Open Debate on Hiroshima) organized in January 1995 to address concerns over the character of public discourse surrounding the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum's exhibit on the Enola Gay and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As a standing organization, the Committee seeks to promote historical knowledge and foster collaboration between historians on an ad hoc basis on a broad range of contemporary issues and debates.

Use of the historians.org website, is free and open to all interested historians and scholars. Committees are formed on an ad hoc basis on issues of concern to interested individuals.