Historians in the News

The NBA Embraced Blackness in the 1970s—Moral Panic Ensued

Theresa Runstedtler looks at the NBA's key transitional decade as a time when Black players didn't simply change the style of play but demanded fair treatment for the value created by their skilled labor, following the ethos of civil rights and Black Power. 

Why "History Months" Need to Write Groups Back In to the Story

by E.J. Dionne

  Do efforts to write marginalized figures into the national narrative  "mean that history has been “politicized”? The answer is 'yes' only in the sense that political change always affects how we see history," says the Washington Post columnist. 

Historian and Social Psychologist Discuss How to Confront Difficult Aspects of History

Hasan Kwame Jeffries and Dolly Chugh have an interdisciplinary discussion of why difficult and conflictual elements of history must be taught, and how to enable students and teachers to do it productively. 

Florida Faculty Concerned by Potential Ban on Majors

U of Florida history department chair Jon Sensbach "said the legislation would take state control of higher education to a new level in American history."

New Exhibition Seeks to Put Complexity in the Alamo Story

A new exhibition center on the Alamo grounds has the space to display more artifacts, and a commitment to telling a more historically accurate and inclusive story of what happened in 1836. 

Marc Stein on "Sodomites and Gender Transgressors" in Old New York

The historian discusses a digital database he's been developing to make primary sources and their analysis more widely available for the study of queer communities in American history. 

Academic Workers Looking to History for Organizing Strategies in Antiunion States

The United Public Workers of America were pioneers in organizing academic workers across professional and occupational lines, until being red-baited. 

Quintard Taylor's Black Past Project Fights Erasure of History

The Seattle Times editorial board praises the web-based library, now 16 years old, founded by a University of Washington professor. 

Review: The Unfinished Business of "Double V"

by Eric Foner

Eric Foner considers recent books on racism in the military in World War II and in Vietnam. 

Edsall: Is Trump Trapping the GOP in Conspiratorial Madness?

Ron DeSantis can bolster his standing with the right by governing. Donald Trump, still the leader of the party, must invoke conspiracies and cartoonishly evil enemies. Historian Jeffrey Herf helps Thomas Edsall understand if there's an off-ramp. 

One Reason to Confirm National Archivist Fast? Sending Out Veterans' Benefits

While controversies around classified materials and Trump administration records dog Colleen Shogan's nomination, she recently pledged to make a priority of granting veterans access to the records they need to claim legally entitled benefits. 

Conversations in Black Studies

Komozi Woodard, Jeanne Theoharis and Robyn Spencer-Antoine discuss the 10th anniversary of an important monthly discussion series hosted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York. 

Nine Historians Awarded Dan David Prize

In 2021 the David Dan Prize adopted an explicit focus on supporting and honoring contributions to historical understanding. Nine scholars have received awards of $300,000 to advance their work. 

Philosopher Lewis Gordon's Impact on Black Jewish History

Gordon said for him, “Black consciousness links to all oppression and that’s exactly the kind of Jewishness I was raised in. It was always explained as connected to the ethical, the political dimensions of what it was to be Jewish."

Portraits of 19th C. Black Charlottesville Show Life, Joy

The University of Virginia has begun to acknowledge the labors of enslaved people who built the campus. John Edwin Mason is curating an exhibition of photographs commissioned by Black Charlottesvillians showing how they saw themselves. 

Review: The Right-Wing Abuse of Adam Smith

by Kim Phillips-Fein

Glory M. Liu's account of Adam Smith's reception in America explains how American politicians read selectively in Smith's capacious writings on political economy and public morality to construct a self-interested view of the market as a natural phenomenon, writes historian Kim Phillips-Fein. 

Howard Lamar, Historian of American West and Yale's President, Dies at 99

The historian was praised by colleagues and former students for his scholarship, mentorship and personal warmth. 

How (Some) of the Hip Hop Generation Learned Black History

Historian Pero Dagbovie traces shifts in hip hop's political messages and says that, to some extent the glorification of materialism replaced a focus on Black history and politics as the genre developed. 

Natalye Pass Harpin on the Lives of Black Germans under Nazism

Nazi policy toward the nation's Black residents was strongly influenced by American Jim Crow laws and illustrates the dangers of militantly racial ideas of nationhood. 

Black History Month Traces to a Key Meeting in a Chicago YMCA

Chicago historian Shermann Thomas, aka "Dilla," makes the Wabash Avenue YMCA where educator Carter Woodson was inspired to launch Negro Achievement Week a centerpiece of his guided tours of Black Chicago's history.