Historians/History

What Makes a Rebel Into a Hero?

by Stephen Dando-Collins

The same political process that made a hero out of the rebel Julius Caesar made villains out of his assassins, and burnished the reputations of some other rebels against the Roman Empire. 

Why We Don't Remember Edith Galt Wilson as the "First Woman President"

by Richard Bluttal

While the First Lady ran the executive branch while concealing the extent of Woodrow Wilson's ill health after a stroke, her unofficial stewardship raises too many questions about secrecy and its consequences to be celebrated today. 

Arctic Explorer, Nazi-Fighter, Iconoclast: Peter Freuchen's Case for "Most Interesting Man in the World"

by Reid Mitenbuler

A biographer contents that an unlikely celebrity from the early twentieth century should inspire people today to take risks and embrace a humanism that doesn't depend on loyalty to party or ideology. While this without-a-net kind of public discussion is increasingly rare today, it's what makes people interesting.

Scientists: The Unsung Heroes of the American West

by Elliott West

From animal husbandry to epidemiology, the work of scientists was critical to America's conquest of the west, while the region also provided critical evidence in the debate over Darwin's theory of natural selection. 

Recent Discovery Shows Women Scholars have been Hiding in Plain Sight of History

by Joel Marie Cabrita

Advances in imaging technology have revealed that an 8th century woman named Eadburg inscribed her name on the pages of a manuscript, claiming status as a woman of letters. The revelation also calls for more creative methods to find women scholars and assess their contributions. 

How We Brought the Radical History of Pirates to Life

by David Lester

Visual artist David Lester discusses the creative process of developing a graphic version of the radical history of piracy, a collaboration with historians Marcus Rediker and Paul Buhle. 

"Cut His Head Off if Necessary"—The Flimsy, Politically-Driven "Peace" Nixon Made in Vietnam

by James D. Robenalt

Months after inflicting a brutal bombing campaign on North Vietnam to push them to the negotiating table in Paris, Richard Nixon pressed the South to accept a deal that doomed their survival, in order to claim the mantle of peacemaker for himself. 

With Academic History in Crisis, can Departments Pivot to Reach Interested Audiences?

by Elizabeth Stice

Americans don't actually hate history; they often begin to appreciate it after their undergraduate years and outside of the classroom. Does this point in a possible direction for securing the future of the profession? 

Teach the History Behind "Emancipation" with the Primary Sources

by Alan J. Singer

Antoine Fuqua and Will Smith's "Emancipation" has rediscovered the life of an enslaved man variously called Peter or Gordon, who had been made famous through an 1863 photograph. Here's how history teachers can use the primary records of his life to accompany the film. 

Revisiting Kropotkin 180 Years After His Birth

by Sam Ben-Meir

The rise of automation and the concurrent squeeze of workers in the name of profit offer an opportunity to revisit the ideas of Russian anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin as a forward-looking critique of power. 

How Should Popular Culture Convey History?

by Walter G. Moss

A recent plot point in Netflix's "The Crown" was based on a falsification of historical events. Historians who want to influence public knowledge of history need to be able to match the narrative appeal of television with a commitment to telling the truth. 

Farewell, Brother Staughton

by Carl Mirra

Staughton Lynd was always in the trenches fighting for a better world, and for that he remains a “admirable radical” and, for that matter, a beautiful person.

"Divisive Concepts" Bans Will Undermine Teaching Some of the Values Conservatives Claim to Uphold

by John Marot

The story of Frederick Douglass, to single out one prominent abolitionist, is "divisive" in the sense that students engaging with it will find echoes of values claimed by both left and right. That's why this history must be taught. 

A Hundred Years On, Tutankhamun's Alleged Curse Still Captivates

by Gill Paul

The fevered belief that visitors to Tutankhamun's tomb (and their families) were cursed became a media phenomenon in 1922, but popular culture from the Bible to Victorian serial stories and stage plays had already linked mummies and the supernatural. Today, curses persist alongside conspiracy theories to help ease the randomness of tragedy.

How Ambassador Joseph Grew Tried to Prevent the Pacific War

by Steve Kemper

Caught between Japanese militarism and the State Department's inflexibility, Joseph C. Grew worked for a decade as the U.S. Ambassador to Japan to try to avert a war he saw looming long before Pearl Harbor. 

The Schlesinger Diaries—A Gift to Historians that Keeps Giving

by Rafael Medoff

The late historian's diaries highlight discrepancies between Schlesinger's public defenses of Franklin Roosevelt and his private knowledge of FDR's attitudes toward Jews and positions on the Holocaust. 

The Salem Trials Challenge Us to Resist Moral Panic and Suspicion

by Anna K. Danziger Halperin

The Salem Witch Trials have been a perennial subject of fascination. A new exhibition challenges us to think about the potent mix of moral panic and social suspicion that drove accusations in Salem as a caution for ourselves today. 

Anne Frank's Next Diary Entries

by Bernice Lerner

When I was a teenager, I imagined that Anne Frank was at my mother’s 15th birthday party. After all, they were the same age and they were both in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. How did I arrive at such a phantastic conflation?

Society and Historical Memory: Six Common Ways People Relate to the Past

by Andrew Joseph Pegoda

Although historians are trained to think of the past in particular and disciplined ways, understanding how people en masse understand the past is also vital because these understandings—inaccurate as they often are—are vital and embody important information about their hopes and fears.

The Personal is Critical: How Should Early Americanists Think of David McCullough as a "Gateway" to History?

by Rebecca Brenner Graham

Historians' tributes to David McCullough underscore the need to respect popular "gateways to history" but to also find gateways without gatekeeping.