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.

---

• 
• SOURCE: National History Center and Woodrow Wilson Center
  12/3/2020
  

  Washington History Seminar: Mira Siegelberg on "Statelessness: A Modern History" (Monday, Dec. 7)

  The Washington History Seminar and the Woodrow Wilson Center host Mira Siegelberg for a discussion of her book "Statelessness: A Modern History" on Monday, Dec. 7 at 4:00 PM.

• 
• SOURCE: Lexington Courier-Journal
  12/2/2020
  

  Beloved University of Kentucky History Professor Dies from COVID-19 Months into Retirement

  Professor Bruce Holle of the University of Kentucky was a "student magnet" during his 45-year career. He passed away due to complications of COVID-19 on November 30. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  12/2/2020
  

  David Hackett, Historian and Holocaust Expert, Dies at 80

  Professor Hackett was noted for translating "The Buchenwald Report," made by German-speaking US military officers who described in detail their findings at the liberated concentration camp, preserving a key document for the fight against Holocaust denialism. He died of complications of the coronavirus. 

• 
• SOURCE: Cornell Chronicle
  12/1/2020
  

  American History Scholar Richard Polenberg Dies at 83

  Colleagues remember Richard "Dick" Polenberg as a generous and compassionate colleague and mentor as well as an inspiring teacher and accomplished scholar of modern American history.

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  

  What Does African American Studies Need to Thrive?

  A recent eruption of dissention in UCLA's African American Studies department arguably reflects the strains caused by poor institutional support by the university, an issue faced by Black Studies departments on many campuses.

• 
• SOURCE: NPR
  12/1/2020
  

  From Cholera To Seat Belts: History Of Americans Reacting To Public Health Messages

  Public Health historian David Rosner argues that strains of religiosity and individualism in American culture have made it difficult to win acceptance for many public health and safety measures in the past. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jackson Clarion-Ledger
  12/2/2020
  

  The Story of a 1970s Mississippi Textbook that Changed how Students Learned about their Past

  Contemporary historians look back on the long struggle to unseat the "Lost Cause" myth and other white supremacist ideas from the state's history curriculum that began with the introduction of "Mississippi: Conflict and Change" to state high schools in 1980.

• 
• SOURCE: Capital Radio
  11/30/2020
  

  Can Trump Change A Key Census Count? Supreme Court Hears His Claim

  Margo Anderson says that the Trump administration's plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census is unprecedented in the history of the count. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/1/2020
  

  A Massive New Effort to Name Millions Sold into Bondage during the Transatlantic Slave Trade

  Historians Daryle Williams, Walter Hawthorne, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall and David Eltis, along with Henry Louis Gates, are part of an interdisciplinary collaboration to create access to biographical and genealogical information about individual people enslaved in the United States. 

• 
• SOURCE: Newsday
  11/29/2020
  

  Social Media 'Misinformation' Endangers Democracy, Historians Say

  Historians Peniel Joseph and Karl Jacoby, along with media scholar Howard Schnieder, assess the way that strategic misinformation on social media has exploited racial divisions in Trump's efforts to overturn the election results. 

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  11/24/2020
  

  The Ugliest Presidential Election in History: Fraud, Voter Intimidation and a Backroom Deal

  Any comparison between the disputed election of 1876 and today must put the role of racist terrorism against black voters by figures like South Carolina's "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman at the center of analysis, contents Ronald G. Shafer. 

• 
• SOURCE: Skipped History
  11/3/2020
  

  Do Daniel Patrick Moynihan's Issues with his Father Help Explain Mass Incarceration?

  by Ben Tumin

  Ben Tumin's "Skipped History" video series tackles the legacy of the Moynihan Report through the work of historians Elizabeth Hinton and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  12/1/2020
  

  Race, Violence, and Resistance in Puerto Rico (Review)

  by Don S. Polite, Jr.

  A review of Marisol LeBrón's "Policing Life and Death" which connects the turn to austerity governance in Puerto Rico with increasingly punitive and racially discriminatory policing practices. 

• 
• SOURCE: In These Times
  12/1/2020
  

  The Great Black Radical You've Never Heard Of

  by Peter Cole

  The author of a new book on an understudied Black labor radical presents context for an exerpt of an interview Ben Fletcher gave to the New York Amsterdam News, a rare surviving case of the organizer telling his own story.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  12/2/2020
  

  The Gadfly of American Plutocracy (Review)

  by Simon Torracinta

  A new biography of the social theorist examines how his approach to understanding a past gilded age can offer lessons for our present one. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/25/2020
  

  Grave Is Found at Site of Historic Black Church in Colonial Williamsburg

  The excavation may have discovered the remains of a Baptist congregation dating to the late 18th century, and may prompt a rethinking of the place of African American history in the open museum of Colonial Williamsburg.

• 
• SOURCE: Salon
  12/2/2020
  

  Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Trump's Coup Is Not Over; His Enablers Aren't Done

  Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat speaks with Salon's Dean Obeidallah and argues that the danger of a collapse of democracy is not over. 

• 
• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  11/23/2020
  

  A History of Felines, as Narrated and Illustrated by a Cat

  A new book presents a history of significant cats and the human-feline relationship, with a substantial assist from the author's cat. 

• 
• SOURCE: Public Books
  11/30/2020
  

  Atlantic Slavery: An Eternal War (Review)

  by Julia Gaffield

  Historian of Haiti Julia Gaffield reviews two new books examining the Atlantic Slave Trade through the lenses of war against slave rebellion and disease. 

• 
• SOURCE: Contingent
  11/28/2020
  

  2020 Contingent Magazine Booklist

  Contingent Magazine recommends books written by non-tenure track faculty and historians and scholars in non-academic positions.