With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

HNN Hot Topics: John F. Kennedy

Lee Harvey Oswald Inside the Soviet Union [INTERVIEW]
by David Austin Walsh

Journalist Peter Savodnik discusses his new book, The Interloper.

NOVEMBER 22, 2013


Is There More to the JFK Assassination?
by Larry J. Sabato

Just consider a few of the commission's flaws.

NOVEMBER 22, 2013


Kennedy's Legacy of Inspiration
by Robert Dallek

Fifty years after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he remains an object of almost universal admiration.

NOVEMBER 22, 2013


Still Blaming Conservatives for Lee Harvey Oswald
by Daniel Pipes

Lee Harvey Oswald was a Marxist, so why does Dallas's conservative culture still get blamed for JFK's assassination?

NOVEMBER 20, 2013


The Single Best JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theory
by Jon Wiener

Joe Kennedy did it. Because, why not, right?

NOVEMBER 20, 2013


A New Film Life of President John F. Kennedy [INTERVIEW]
by Robin Lindley

Director Susan Bellows on the PBS documentary "JFK."

NOVEMBER 19, 2013


The City With a Death Wish in Its Eye
by James McAuley

Dallas's role in Kennedy's murder.

NOVEMBER 19, 2013


Was JFK Really a Conservative?
by Ronald Radosh

Where was John F. Kennedy on the ideological spectrum?

NOVEMBER 18, 2013


Would We Still Have Had "The Sixties" If Kennedy Had Lived?
by James T. Patterson

Remember, the turmoil of the 1960s stemmed from forces unrelated to JFK's assassination.

NOVEMBER 18, 2013


Why Lee Harvey Oswald Pulled the Trigger
by Steven M. Gillon

The Warren Commission painted him as a disaffected sociopath. But Oswald actually had a political reason to kill JFK: to impress Castro.

NOVEMBER 18, 2013


Does PBS's "JFK" Whitewash Kennedy's Flaws?
by Sheldon M. Stern

The new PBS documentary fails to rise above the imagery crafted by Arthur Schlesinger and Theodore Sorensen in the 1960s.

NOVEMBER 17, 2013


The Wisdom in Leaving Dealey Plaza to Visitors' Imaginations
by Max Holland and John McAdams

What's wrong with the new effort to commemorate the Kennedy assassination in Dallas.

NOVEMBER 15, 2013


Textbooks Put JFK's Camelot Under Siege

The John F. Kennedy taught in textbooks today is a Kennedy with warts and all.

NOVEMBER 12, 2013


JFK Was an Unapologetic Liberal
by David Greenberg

His underrated career as ideological warrior.

NOVEMBER 12, 2013


JFK Holds Complex Place in Black History

The slain president remains an African American icon, despite dragging his feet on civil rights.

NOVEMBER 12, 2013


How Jackie Kennedy Invented the Camelot Legend After JFK’s Death
by James Piereson

While the nation was still grieving JFK’s assassination, she used an influential magazine profile to rewrite her husband’s legacy and spawn Camelot.

NOVEMBER 12, 2013


JFK Assassination: CIA and New York Times are Still Lying to Us
by David Talbot

So why has "The Search for JFK" been unfairly forgotten?

NOVEMBER 6, 2013


This Book Was the First to Spill JFK's Secrets.
by John B. Judis

So why has "The Search for JFK" been unfairly forgotten?

OCTOBER 31, 2013


The Man with the President’s Ear, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and JFK
by Ted Widmer

No historian has ever been as close to power as Arthur Schlesinger Jr. was to President Kennedy.

OCTOBER 28, 2013


Rethinking the JFK Legacy
by Steven M. Gillon

There is a wide gap between the way historians view JFK and how the public perceives him.

OCTOBER 28, 2013


Channelling George Washington: What if John F. Kennedy Had Lived?
by Thomas Fleming

Had JFK lived, could he have beaten second-termitis?

OCTOBER 28, 2013


JFK vs. the Military
by Robert Dallek

During the Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy struggled as much with the Pentagon as he did with the Kremlin.

SEPTEMBER 12, 2013


Kennedy’s Finest Moment
by Peniel E. Joseph

June 11, 1963, may not be a widely recognized date these days, but it might have been the single most important day in civil rights history.

JUNE 11, 2013


The Cuban Missile Crisis ExComm Meetings: Getting it Right After 50 Years
by Sheldon M. Stern

It is just over thirty years since, as historian at the JFK Library, I listened for the first time to the then classified recordings of the Cuban missile crisis White House meetings of the Executive Committee of the National Security Council (ExComm).

OCTOBER 14, 2013


Kennedy, the Elusive President
by Jill Abramson

Was Kennedy really a great president?

OCTOBER 23, 2013


Does Mimi Alford's New Memoir Finally Mean the Death Knell for the Camelot Myth of JFK?
by Vaughn Davis Bornet

The confirmation of the philandering JFK.

MARCH 5, 2012


Who Really Won the 1960 Election?
by David Stebenne

November 8, 2010 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the presidential election of 1960, which still very much interests those who care about disputed elections.

NOVEMBER 14, 2010


Did the 1960 Presidential Debates Really Matter?
by James L. Baughman

Probably not, but they have been election rituals ever since.

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013


1963: 11 Seconds in Dallas
by Max Holland and Johann Rush

Within hours of John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, the Kodak film exposed by Abraham Zapruder became the most important home movie ever made.

NOVEMBER 23, 2007


The Kennedy Brothers and Civil Rights
by Sheldon M. Stern

In The Bystander: John F. Kennedy and the Struggle for Black Equality, Basic Books, 2006, Nick Bryant concludes that JFK was too cautious and hesitant on civil rights.

MAY 27, 2007


Errors Still Afflict the Transcripts of the Kennedy Presidential Recordings
by Sheldon M. Stern

Everything has a history including the writing of history itself.

FEBRUARY 21, 2005


The Cuban Missile Crisis Myth You Probably Believe
by Sheldon M. Stern

Debunking the Trollope Ploy narrative propagated by RFK.

OCTOBER 24, 2004


Why the History Channel Had to Apologize for the Documentary that Blamed LBJ for JFK's Murder
by Stanley I. Kutler

LBJ's family and friends heatedly protested the program.

APRIL 7, 2004


Why We Are Still Preoccupied with the Kennedy Might-Have-Beens
by William C. Kashatus

After forty years, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy continues to ignite countless conspiracy theories, rising from the strange circumstances and seemingly inexplicable actions surrounding it.

NOVEMBER 16, 2003