Roundup: Talking About History

Quirks of Memory Everyone Should Know

by Jeremy Dean

Why we remember and why we forget.

Returning to Our Cruelest War

by Michael C. C. Adams

Why one of America's foremost Civil War historians is returning to the topic.

When President Lincoln Wrote Catty Letters to the Editor

by Matthew Pinsker

New historical research has uncovered a cheekier side to our sixteenth president.

Tales of an Indiscriminate Tool Adopter

by Michelle Moravec

How to do a twelve-week digital humanities on the cheap.

Lessons of World War I

by Victor Davis Hanson

Much of what we think we know is false; what really happened matters desperately to us today.

Reviving Midwest History

by Michael Dirda

A new book by Jon Lauck argues for reconsidering the history of America's heartland.

Totalitarian Troubadour

by John Fund

We shouldn’t forget that Pete Seeger was Communism’s pied piper.

In Defense of Pete Seeger, American Communist

by Bhaskar Sunkara

Like his party associates, Seeger was consistently on the right side of history.

Pete Seeger's All-American Communism

by David Graham

The folksinger's romance with Stalinism remains disturbing, but it can't be separated from the rest of his work—nor from U.S. history.

The Horrors "12 Years a Slave" Couldn't Tell

by Adam Rothman

What a Civil War soldier’€™s diary tells us about Solomon Northup’s ordeal.

Nelson Mandela Was A Committed Communist

by Ronald Radosh

South African journalist Rian Malan has new revelations about Mandela's relationship with the Communist Party.

The Racially Fraught History of the American Beard

by Sean Trainor

“Washes and razors for foofoos," scoffed Walt Whitman. But the story of nineteenth-century facial hair is more tangled than modern nostalgists may realize. 

Generations a Slave: Unlawful Bondage and Charles Carroll of Carrollton

by Julita Braxton

A half century before, in the courts of the neighboring Upper South state of Maryland, Charles Mahoney successfully challenged the legality of his enslavement.

New York Times Room for Debate: Turning Away From Painful Chapters

What happens when we ignore ugly truths about the past -- when families bury their dark secrets, and nations try to forget their sins?

Why Presidents Stopped Talking About Poverty

by Jeff Shesol

LBJ was the last president to talk about poverty in a substantive way.

1914 All Over Again?

by Susanne Spröer

There are parallels between 1914 and 2014, but the differences are far more important.

Facing 2014 with Trepidation

by Adam Gopnik

The last time '13 turned into '14, it didn't work out too well.

Ten Books Any Student of American History Must Read

by John B. Judis

These are the books that have influenced one writer's view of American history.

On the 76th Anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre

by Stephen D. Smith

Sirens sound around this Chinese city as the last few eyewitnesses of a massacre gather.

Insisting Jesus Was White Is Bad History and Bad Theology

by Jonathan Merritt

In trying to police his depiction, Megyn Kelly is wrong on both the facts and the essential universality of the Christian message.