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: Independent
  11/19/2020
  

  Female Pirate Lovers Whose Story was Ignored by Male Historians Immortalized with Statue

  A new memorial recognizes the relationship of pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read and secures their place in the history of piracy.

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• SOURCE: New York Review of Books
  11/19/2020
  

  The Devil Had Nothing to Do With It

  by Greil Marcus

  The music writer looks at three recent books on the Mississippi blues singer and guitarist Robert Johnson, looking to pull his story out of the realm of myth. 

• 
• SOURCE: CNN
  11/18/2020
  

  Hong Kong's New Rules have Created Confusion in the Classroom. Some Parents are Pulling their Children Out

  While pro-Beijing lawmakers stress the need to promote national unity through civics education, educators, historians and parents in Hong Kong expect censorship and indoctrination under new restrictions. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Nation
  11/17/2020
  

  Whitewashing the Great Depression (Review)

  Three new books describe the role of administrator Roy Stryker of the Farm Security Administration in filtering the photographic work of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Russell Lee to emphasize the depression's burden on rural whites. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/19/2020
  

  What Did Europe Smell Like Centuries Ago? Historians Set Out to Recreate Lost Scents

  An ambitious project seeks to make museums a more immersive experience by using big data to mine primary sources for references to scent and use chemistry and perfumerie to recreate the mix of odors characteristic of a time and place. 

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• SOURCE: Smithsonian
  11/17/2020
  

  A Bold Anthology Shows How R-I-G-H-T and W-R-I-T-E Come Together in Black Poetry

  The incoming director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture has published an anthology of Black American poetry that speaks to the ways that the arts and poets in particular have articulated and spread the cause of liberation. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/16/2020
  

  Enslaved, Terrorized, Disenfranchised: Black Americans Still Found Ways to Change America (Review)

  by Kerri Greenidge

  A professor of African diaspora studies reviews two recent books about the antebellum period as part of a scholarly trend to recognize not only that slaves worked to achieve their own freedom but that the acts of fugitive slaves shaped the path to war, emancipation and abolition. 

• 
• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  11/17/2020
  

  The Outrage Peddlers Are Here to Stay

  Campus Reform seeks to "stoke outrage at ‘liberal’ professors, with the political intent of creating a viral sensation that circulates through a highly partisan right-wing media ecosystem, and into the broader public discussion,” says Isaac Camola, a political science professor who has been active in organizing professors who are targeted by outrage campaigns.

• 
• SOURCE: American Historical Association
  11/19/2020
  

  Virtual Assignment Charrette: Get Feedback on Your Virtual Assignments and Assessments

  The AHA's virtual meeting will include a workshop for virtual history assignments and assessments; applicants can receive in-depth feedback on design and execution. 

• 
• SOURCE: Rolling Stone
  11/19/2020
  

  The Untouchables: An Investigation into the Violence of the Chicago Police

  by Paul Solotaroff

  Historian Simon Balto is among experts who place the Chicago Police Department's treatment of the city's Black communities in historical perspective. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/18/2020
  

  The Thanksgiving Myth Gets a Deeper Look This Year

  “There was an event that happened in 1621,” Wampanoag historian Linda Coombs said. “But the whole story about what occurred on that first Thanksgiving was a myth created to make white people feel comfortable.” Native activists hope to disrupt the stories of Thanksgiving by questioning public history and by recovering indigenous food practices.

• 
• SOURCE: Atlas Obscura
  11/17/2020
  

  How to Recreate Your Lost Family Recipes, According to Historians and Chefs

  Chefs and historians of food cultures are working to build public understanding of the history of immigration and the African diaspora through knowledge of cooking and eating practices.

• 
• SOURCE: Irish Times
  11/16/2020
  

  Bloody Sunday, 1920: Too Many Historians Spoil the Doc

  A documentary on a 1920 massacre of Irish sporting spectators in retaliation for the killing of British intelligence officers suffers from having too many talking heads in too short a running time, says a reviewer. 

• 
• SOURCE: Voice of America
  11/17/2020
  

  German Historians on Frontlines of Politics

  German historians have faced lawsuits for writing about World War II-era crimes by the Wehrmacht, part of a growing culture war in which right-wing Germans seek to deny or diminish the Holocaust and Nazi war crimes.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Historical Society
  11/18/2020
  

  NYHS Fellowships for 2021-22 Deadlines Begin in January

  The New York Historical Society reminds potential candidates that the deadline for most of its fellowships for the 2021-22 academic year is January 15. 

• 
• SOURCE: Jerusalem Post
  11/15/2020
  

  Dozens Of Academics Oppose New Controversial Yad Vashem Chair

  Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt is among the academics criticizing the appointment of a right-wing politician to head the Israeli Holocaust memorial and educational center, arguing that his remarks toward Palestinians and Arab Israelis are disqualifying. 

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Challenging a Leader’s Legacy

  If the new Showtime documentary wishes to undermine the legacy of Ronald Reagan, one reviewer suggests it ultimately makes the 40th President more sympathetic and appealing. 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  11/12/2020
  

  What We Can Learn About Nazi Psychology From the Wives of Hitler’s Top Officials

  A new book, excerpted here, assess everyday life under Nazism by attention to the lives of the wives of leading Nazis. 

• 
• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  11/12/2020
  

  The Professor and the Politician

  by Corey Robin

  A new book on Max Weber's political thought suggests that prior interpretations of Weber's lectures have dismissed the possibility of collective action. 

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  11/17/2020
  

  Online Book Talk with Author Garrett Felber on The Nation of Islam and Mass Incercaration (11/20)

  Garrett Felber's book takes a new look at the Nation of Islam and reveals a multifaceted freedom struggle that focused as much on policing and prisons as on school desegregation and voting rights.