Historians in the News

This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in each source note. Quotation marks are not used.

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• SOURCE: Council on Foreign Relations
  7/1/2020
  

  Living in History: Richard Haass, Margaret MacMillan, and Annette Gordon-Reed

  Richard Haass: History is not a cookbook. It doesn't give you exact recipes to understand the present or predictive future. But what it does is give you context, it gives you comparisons, it gives you perspective.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/26/2020
  

  Beyond ‘White Fragility’: If you Want to Let Freedom Ring, Hammer on Economic Injustice.

  by Jamelle Bouie

  The histories of Reconstruction by W.E.B. Du Bois and Eric Foner, as well as the later speeches and writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrate that the cause of racial justice has never been separable from closing the vast economic gulf between owners and workers in America. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Magazine
  7/30/2020
  

  The Best Histories of U.S. Policing, According to Experts

  A panel of experts including historians Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Simon Balto, Max Felker-Kantor, Carl Suddler, Stuart Schrader and Melanie Newport assemble a reading list for understanding policing and its relationship to racism and social class in the US. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  7/1/2020
  

  How Mount Rushmore Became Mount Rushmore

  Historian Gene A. Smith and Oglala Lakota activist Nick Tilsen offer contest for the creation of the monument, its relationship to tribal lands, and the legacies of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt from an indigenous point of view. 

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  6/30/2020
  

  Princeton University Removes Woodrow Wilson From School Name (Audio)

  Julian Zelizer discusses Princeton's decision to rename its school of Public Policy. 

• 
• SOURCE: KCET
  6/30/2020
  

  Tongva to Zumba: 'East of East' Celebrates Radical History of El Monte

  “East of East” draws on scholarship in disciplines such as history, cultural studies and urban geography. However, its strength lies in its ability to amplify the voices and expressions of those generally excluded from official archival histories to provide a “new archive” of the region’s historical and contemporary significance. 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  6/26/2020
  

  The Asian American Response to Black Lives Matter Is Part of a Long, Complicated History

  “Asian Americans owe so much of their presence in this country to the Black struggle for freedom — from birthright citizenship to the ability to tell our stories in education and the culture to the civil rights we enjoy,” says author Jeff Chang.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  6/30/2020
  

  The Surprisingly Deep—and Often Troubling—History of ‘Social Distancing’

  Doctoral student Lily Scherlis traced the evolution of the term in a “social history of social distancing,” from the earliest reference she could find in English—in the 1831 translation of Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne’s memoirs of his friendship with Napoleon—to the Social Distance Scale that sociologist Emory Bogardus created in the aftermath of the Red Summer of 1919.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  6/30/2020
  

  Southern Neighborhoods Have Been Named ‘Plantations’ For Decades. That Could Be Changing.

  In recent years, even as activists have decried Confederate monuments and flags, developers have continued using “plantation” in neighborhood names to evoke elegance. But now plantation place names and the word itself are under new scrutiny.

• 
• SOURCE: Yale News
  6/29/2020
  

  To Nichole Nelson Ph.D. ’20, Policy is ‘History in Action’

  The American Council of Learned Societies has named Nichole Nelson one of 22 new Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows for 2020.

• 
• SOURCE: History.com
  6/29/2020
  

  Slavery Persisted in New England Until the 19th Century

  Historians Margaret Ellen Newell and Christy Clark-Pujara show that slavery was both practiced in many northern colonies and states and was integral to their economic development. 

• 
• SOURCE: Baltimore Sun
  6/29/2020
  

  Confederate Monuments Are Coming Down. Now, What Do We Do About Memorials to Slaveholders like Washington and Jefferson?

  Historians Paul Finkelman, Martha S. Jones, and Kirk Savage discuss the legacies of such monuments and suggest how to reckon with the damage they, and the figures they represent, have caused.

• 
• SOURCE: Greater Greater Washington
  6/30/2020
  

  Is DC Statehood Possible and If So, How?

  On July 16, historian Derek Musgrove and ex-Post columnist Bob Levey will discuss how statehood became the top strategy to gain full citizenship for DC.

• 
• SOURCE: WTOP
  6/28/2020
  

  Parents, Historians Urge DC’s Mayor Bowser To Initiate Wilson High Name Change

  Honoring a person like Wilson sends a poor message when in general, society should be honoring the ideals of diversity, respect, equality and inclusion said Judith Ingram, co-founder of the D.C. History and Justice Collective.

• 
• SOURCE: National Geographic
  6/29/2020
  

  As Monuments Fall, How Does The World Reckon With A Racist Past?

  Historian Kevin Gaines discusses the growing movement to challenge memorialization of racists in public places and suggests its cross-racial nature makes it harder to ignore. 

• 
• SOURCE: WAPT
  6/28/2020
  

  Millsaps History Professor Explains History Behind Mississippi State Flag

  Professor Stephanie Rolph says that lawmakers in 1894 chose the design to appease Confederate veterans.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  6/29/2020
  

  The Western Origins of the “Southern Strategy”

  by Bruce Bartlett

  The growing importance of racially conservative white Republicans in the western states after World War II helped present southern whites with a viable alternative to the Democratic Party. 

• 
• SOURCE: JStor Daily
  6/29/2020
  

  Abolitionist “Wide Awakes” Were Woke Before “Woke”

  What the "Wide Awakes" helped create was focus in muddled political times, a whipping up of the enthusiasm of other voters: “By the end of 1860, the nation was wide awake.”

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  6/29/2020
  

  Naomi Oreskes: Feminist Science is Better Science

  Historian Andrew Needham interviews Naomi Oreskes about her new book Why Trust Science and the crisis of expertise in American society. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Intercept
  6/27/2020
  

  Scholar Robin D.G. Kelley on how Today’s Abolitionist Movement can Fundamentally Change the Country

  "Part of defunding the police is a recognition that the police, as constituted, make life more dangerous for vulnerable populations even as it creates a sense of false safety for white people."