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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: Smithsonian
    3/1/2021

    Part of Being a Domestic Goddess in 17th-Century Europe Was Making Medicines

    Historians Sharon Strocchia, Stephanie Koscak, and Elaine Leong offer insight into the roles of women in producing and administering medicine in the early modern period, both in domestic and public settings. The subject may receive increased attention through a digitization project of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington. 

  • SOURCE: Slate
    3/3/2021

    How Dr. Seuss Responded to Critics Who Called Out His Racism

    by Rebecca Onion

    If anyone wants to examine the particulars of Dr. Seuss Enterprises' decision to discontinue the publication of six of the late author's books before jumping in to culture war combat, writer Rebecca Onion's interview with children's literature scholar Philip Nel is a good place to start. 

  • SOURCE: NPR
    3/3/2021

    Discovery Of Schoolhouse For Black Children Now Offers A History Lesson

    The discovery of an 18th century schoolhouse on the campus of William & Mary offers a chance for public historians to explain the complexity of Black education in colonial Virginia, which taught reading in the hopes of indoctrinating both free and enslaved children with pro-slavery ideology.

  • SOURCE: Black Perspectives
    3/3/2021

    Online Roundtable: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s ‘Race for Profit’

    Black Perspectives, the blog of the African American Intellectual History Society, will sponsor a virtual roundtable on the award-winning "Race For Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership" with new essays being released beginning March 8. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times

    Should Black Northerners Move Back to the South?

    by Tanisha C. Ford

    Historian Tanisha C. Ford reviews Charles M. Blow's book, which advocates for a Reverse Great Migration to empower both Black Americans and progressive policies. She concludes it's an intriguing idea but oversimplifies the history of migration, disenfranchisement, and activism by Black southerners and their allies.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/26/2021

    The Deep South Has a Rich History of Resistance, as Amazon Is Learning

    Columnist Jamelle Bouie draws on the work of historians Michael W. Fitzgerald, Paul Horton, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Robert Widell, Jr. which shows that Alabamians, and Black Alabamians in particular, have organized to fight both racial oppression and labor exploitation.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    2/26/2021

    America’s Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama

    "The terror campaign of 1870 ended the promise of Alabama’s brief Reconstruction era, allowing the so-called Redeemers to pry Alabama from the hands of reform. This was the critical juncture that led to the way things are."

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/26/2021

    University Finds 18th-Century Schoolhouse Where Black Children Learned to Read

    The discovery of a 260-year-old structure with such a deep connection to a little-known chapter of the history of Colonial Williamsburg, when the population was more than 50 percent Black and teaching slaves to read was legal, is especially significant, said history professor Jody Lynn Allen. 

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    2/25/2021

    Searching for Our Urban Future in the Ruins of the Past

    Annalee Newitz's book on lost cities debunks the idea of sudden, catastrophic collapse. But the death of cities does show that humanity is vulnerable to change that makes centuries-old ways of life untenable. 

  • SOURCE: Mass for Shut-ins: The Gin and Tacos Podcast
    3/2/2021

    The 1976 Swine Flu Fiasco

    David Parsons of the "Nostalgia Trap" history podcast joins Mass For Shut-Ins to discuss the Swine Flue vaccine fiasco and how its history has been abused by today's anti-vax movement.

  • SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
    2/25/2021

    Fired for Tweeting?

    "In a written statement to The Chronicle, Burnett said, “Collin College is a government organization that has unconstitutionally sought to punish me for my speech as a private citizen." 

  • SOURCE: The Metropole
    3/2/2021

    The Mega-Ode

    The Urban History Association accentuates the positive in academic culture as urbanists salute the people who made a difference for them.