Recently Published

BBC Whitewashes U.S. Refusal to Bomb Auschwitz

by Rafael Medoff

The new BBC documentary about the question of bombing Auschwitz deserves an award—for creative fiction. Through omissions, distortions, and “re-enactments” of conversations with imaginary dialogue inserted for effect, the BBC has made a shambles of the historical record concerning this important issue.

Modeling Grief: the Death of Children in Historical Perspective

by Maria E. Doerfler

As students of the history of emotions have argued, even the deepest and most primal feelings require models for experiencing one's own suffering and for responding appropriately to others’. The relative lack of such models in contemporary American society contrasts sharply with other eras' approach to voicing bereavement.

A Museum For The People: Anacostia Community Museum

by Laura Gonzalez

A "Museum For The People" symposium was organized by the Anacostia Community Museum to discuss how museums and community orgs can create inclusive spaces for dialogue, action, collaboration, and reflection. 

History & Law: GW History Professor Jennifer Wells Discusses How Her Study of Law Has Informed her Career in History

by Mark Detlor

"I’m more much analytical as a result of law and try to immediately make an assertion and back it up with evidence when I write; I think it’s a very effective way of writing but I’m not sure that I would have mastered it had I not gone to law school."

The History of Presidential Misconduct Beyond Watergate and Iran-Contra

by HNN Staff

At the AHA, James Banner, Kathryn Olmstead, Kevin Kruse, and Jeremi Suri discussed how they revived a long forgotten report on presidential misconduct. 

The History Behind the Border and Immigrant Detention Centers

by HNN Staff

Families are separated at the border and people are indefinitely detained in overcrowded facilties. How a panel at this year's AHA conference examined the history of immigration. 

What Will the Museums of the Future Be Like?

Help the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History by taking this brief survey to share what you’d like to see from *your* National Museum.

George Orwell, 70 Years Later

by John Rodden

Would the visionary author of Nineteen Eighty-Four have ever imagined that George Orwell might become the most important writer since Shakespeare and the most influential writer who ever lived? 

Pardon Me?: The History of the Washington Territorial Government and the Self-Pardon

by Michael Schein

The question of self-pardons by an executive isn't a theoretical one. It was resolved – in the negative – by events in the Washington territory in 1856.

Jimmy Carter and The Myth That Gave the Iowa Caucuses Their Political Power

by Wallace Hettle

Carter focused on the state and did well in the caucuses, which set him, an unknown, on the path to the nomination. Presidential hopefuls have flocked to the state ever since. However, Carter’s story is not quite that simple. 

What Dreams of Canada Tell Us About Race in America

by April Rosenblum

At a time when American casualties in Vietnam were disproportionately African American, most of those who successfully made it to Canada to resist the draft were white.

Strange Obsession: President Trump's Obama Complex

by Robert Brent Toplin

While Trump’s dislike of Obama is complex and multifaceted, his behavior at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner may reveal an important source of the hostility.

Remembering Dennis Showalter, Grandmaster of Military History

by Paul A. Thomsen

On the evening of December 30, 2019, Dennis Showalter, a noted scholar of German, American, and military history, fought his last battle and rode off on a pale horse.

A Courageous Catholic Voice Against Antisemitism

by Stephen H. Norwood and Rafael Medoff

As the harassment and beatings of Jews in the streets of Boston reached epidemic levels in 1943, one hundred Jewish boys and girls, ages 12 to 16, sent a poignant petition to the mayor. 

Poles Apart: Putin, Poland and the Nazi-Soviet Pact

by Geoffrey Roberts

As the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II approaches, two of that war’s main victims – Poland and Russia – are once again embroiled in a highly emotional dispute about its origins. At the heart of the matter is the perennial controversy about the Nazi-Soviet pact of 23 August 1939. 

Ross Douthat's Prescription for Academia Won't Solve the Real Problem

by Ed Simon

Humanities departments have shrunk, tenure track jobs have disappeared, and the academy has increasingly come to rely upon an exploited underclass of contingent, part-time faculty. The argument of who exactly is responsible for this state of affairs rages on, but New York Times columnist Ross Douthat insists he knows the answer.

The World is Losing another Historic Generation

by Robert Mark Spaulding

We cannot prevent the passing away of China’s last generation from the pre-communist era, but we can do our part in helping to preserve the ancient culture they knew, so that it does not vanish completely with them. 

Four Speeches by Dr. King That Can Still Guide Us Today

by Alan Singer

Martin Luther King, Jr. challenged the war in Vietnam, U.S. imperialism, and laws that victimized working people and the poor, not just racial discrimination.

The Politics of an Inauguration Unlike Any Other

by Michael A. Genovese

Joe Biden's inauguration will be unlike any other, but he will need to draw on inaugural traditions of declaring purpose and invoking solidarity if he is to begin to repair national division.

Confronting "Who We Are"

by Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson

The Capitol riots should prompt consideration of how racism is sustained by mainstream institutions and operates through everyday patterns of thought and action, as much as in open eruptions of violence.