Historians in the News

Walter Lippmann's "Public Opinion" at 100

Concern about what happens to democracy when a society buried in information gives up on the truth and embraces alternate realities is nothing new. What does the work of Walter Lippmann tell us today? 

Natasha Lightfoot on the British Commonwealth's Future after Elizabeth

Will other former British colonies follow the recent example of Barbados and dissociate from the postcolonial Commonwealth? 

DeSantis's Martha's Vineyard Stunt Echoes "Reverse Freedom Rides" of Civil Rights Era

The segregationist White Citizens Councils hoped to use the media to dunk on northern liberals by sending poor African Americans north with false promises of jobs, housing and services. 

Inside Riotville: How the Military and the Police Prepared for Domestic Rebellion

by Bench Ansfield

“Riotsville” was the name the Army gave to the training grounds it built, beginning in 1967, to school police departments and military personnel in the art of domestic counterinsurgency. Sierra Pettengill's new documentary tells its story. 

Isaac Chotiner Interviews Deborah Lipstadt

Is partnership with repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia a good strategy to reduce antisemitism in the Middle East? 

Is Biden Really the Most Pro-Union President?

Labor historian Erik Loomis says Biden is spending limited political capital to support workers and strikers, and that the bar for pro-labor presidencies is set extremely low. 

Minor League Baseball Union Part of a Long History of Organizing

Along with baristas and warehouse workers, minor leaguers are organizing to fight back against poor pay and a lack of respect on the job, says labor historian Peter Rachleff. 

Review: The Architecture of Despair

A Belgian poet took on a morbid project: a book about 13 buildings that, as matters of fact or fable, drove their architects to suicide. 

The Slave Dwelling Project Pushes History of Slave Rebellions to the Public

Joseph McGill Jr. links the history of the Stono Rebellion and subsequent slave uprisings to the current effort to suppress so-called Critical Race Theory in schools. 

For Many Scholars, Queen's Legacy Inseparable from Colonialism

Vanderbilt's Moses Ochonu and Wisconsin's Mou Banerjee argue that the Queen's passing calls attention to unfinished business of acknowledging the violence of the British Empire—violence the Queen's image helped to conceal. 

49 Years Later, Nixon's Knowledge of Pinochet Coup Remains Secret

It is beyond time for the Biden Administration to declassify presidential records related to American operations in Chile around the overthrow of democratically elected President Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973.  

Review: Scientific Thought and Windows on Reality

by Philip Kitcher

The fierce debates over vaccines, masking, and other COVID mitigations have unsettled the security of "science" as a source of authoritative knowledge. A new book discusses the long debates about how scientific knowledge is produced, and how it becomes "The Science." 

Queen Elizabeth's Leadership and the Future of the Monarchy

Historian Arianne Chernock says that much of the late Queen's perception as a successful monarch can be attributed to her embrace of the British value of stoicism and, less positively, of stereotypically feminine qualities. 

Gwendolyn Midlo Hall Kept the Identities of Enslaved from Archival Oblivion

After retiring from a career as a Latin Americanist, Hall documented the identities of thousands of people brought to Louisiana in slavery in the 18th century, an achievement others had thought neither possible nor necessary. 

Prosecution Results in Return of 70 Antiquities to Italy and Egypt

Art crime expert Erin Thompson wonders why museums, including the Met, have not been proactive about initiating the process of returning looted antiquities. `

Clover Lawns Replacing Grass in Reversal of Suburban Historical Pattern

Clover lawns are trendy on social media. Historian Ted Steinberg says this is a reversal of a half century of industrial marketing and cultural values that have made the grass lawn a suburban goal. Environmentalists hope it continues. 

Andrew Roberts Blows Up on MSNBC Over Queen's Link to Colonialism

The British historian and host Ali Velshi butted heads over the mentioning of colonialism and its part in the late Queen's legacy. 

Steven Shapin on the Trust Inherent in Science

The historian of science has examined the social relationships of credibility that must prevail for scientific expertise to exist, and also critiqued the evolving conventions of wine-tasting terminology from "Old BS" to "New BS." 

Peniel Joseph: Jan. 6 Ended the "Third Reconstruction" that Began with Obama

The battle between multiracial democracy and defensive white supremacy is out in the open much as it was after the Civil War and during the Civil Rights era; it's unclear which side will win, but the lines are drawn. 

CRS Scholar: 22nd Amendment's Roots in Partisanship, Civil Rights Opposition

Stephen W. Stathis of the Congressional Research Service traces the partisan politics behind presidential term limits, from Ulysses Grant to the passage of the 22nd Amendment as Harry Truman sought to continue the New Deal program.