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: The Daily Beast
  7/21/19
  

  Kruse and Zelizer: Trump Is a Symptom of an Age That’s Been a Long Time Coming

  What does history’s magic 8-ball say about how we wound up with Donald Trump? Two historians try to supply the context.

• 
• SOURCE: UVA Today
  7/22/19
  

  Reginald Butler, Former African American Studies Director at UVA, Dies

  He came to UVA in 1991, and became the second director of the Woodson Institute, especially supporting the study of local African American history using early digital technology.

• 
• SOURCE: Duke Today
  7/22/19
  

  Duke Professor Emeritus John Herd Thompson Dies at 72

  While at Duke, he served as chair of the history department and as director of the Canadian Studies program. He was known for his love of Canada, baseball and jazz, and for his devotion to his students.

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  7/15/19
  

  ‘The Code’ Review: How Green Was the Valley

  by Randall Stross

  As late as the early 1970s, Northern California seemed a long-shot candidate for the center of the computerized universe. A review of Margaret O’Mara's The Code. 

• 
• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  7/22/19
  

  Academics Respond to Wall Street Journal Op Ed Calling Academia "Sweet Racket"

  When a misleading op-ed in The Wall Street Journal irks academics, it's time for a fact check on faculty work and pay.

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  7/18/19
  

  Tom Engelhardt Writes Personal and Historical Essay: Turning 75 in the Age of Trump

  by Tom Engelhardt

  "As I turn 75, there’s no simpler way to put it than this: I’m an old man on a new planet -- and, in case it isn’t instantly obvious, that’s not good news on either score."

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  Accessed 7/18/19
  

  Historian Drew Gilpin Faust Pens Personal and Historical Essay: "Race, History, and Memories of a Virginia Girlhood"

  by Drew Gilpin Faust

  She looks back at the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in her home state.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Magazine
  7/16/19
  

  WBUR Is Belatedly Giving Credit to a Female Historian for a Segment

  The station apologized for having two men discuss researcher Sarah Milov's work without crediting her.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  7/16/19
  

  Behind the men on the moon, there were thousands of women

  As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission this week, let’s remember something else: the thousands of women from Cambridge to California who helped make possible the trip to the moon. 

• 
• SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
  7/14/19
  

  Professor Rebecca Gordon Pens Essay Revealing Her Abortion and Examines Ongoing History of Roe v. Wade

  by Rebecca Gordon

  "We’ve been going backwards on abortion access for decades. Since 1976, the Hyde Amendment has denied abortion services to women who get their health care through the federal Medicaid program, or indeed to anyone whose health insurance is federally funded."

• 
• SOURCE: China Rising Radio Sinoland
  7/2/19
  

  Podcast Discusses History of the CIA

  An examination of Douglas Valetine's The CIA As Organized Crime.

• 
• SOURCE: Fstoppers
  7/14/19
  

  Watching 'Chernobyl': How Important Are Visuals for Understanding History?

  For those struggling to put the facts and visuals together, documentary photography accompanied with words can be a godsend. 

• 
• SOURCE: Popular Mechanics
  7/12/19
  

  The Surprising Things Arctic Ice Can Tell Us About Human History

  In a new study, scientists say that particles of lead trapped in ice in the north pole tell the story of commercial and industrial processes dating back to the Middle Ages.

• 
• SOURCE: AP
  https://www.apnews.com/33adc66aee4c40cea19d6049bb6
  

  'History on a stick’ signs disappearing too fast to keep up

  Hurricanes, thievery and wrecks are taking out North Carolina's popular historical highway markers faster than the state can keep up.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  7/11/19
  

  Colin Palmer, Historian of the African Diaspora, Is Dead at 75

  Colin A. Palmer, a historian who broadened the understanding of the African diaspora, showing that the American slave trade was only one part of a phenomenon that spanned centuries and influenced cultures worldwide, died on June 20 in Kingston, Jamaica. He was 75.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  7/9/19
  

  What and Whom Are Jewish Museums For?

  What is the role of a Jewish museum? Is it for the Jewish community, or those non-Jews around it? And must its leader be Jewish?

• 
• SOURCE: Business Insider
  7/14/19
  

  Robert Caro has a crucial piece of advice on interviewing: 'Shut up!'

  "Interviews: silence is the weapon, silence and people's need to fill it — as long as the person isn't you, the interviewer," Caro writes.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  7/15/19
  

  Angered by This Roosevelt Statue? A Museum Wants Visitors to Weigh In

  Conversation about monuments has reached a fever pitch, and the city was split on this one. The American Museum of Natural History is opening an exhibition on it.

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  7/14/19
  

  A female historian wrote a book. Two male historians went on NPR to talk about it. They never mentioned her name. It’s Sarah Milov.

  They have tenure. She does not.

• 
• SOURCE: The Japan Times
  7/14/2019
  

  1969 moon landing was a giant leap for moviemakers, too

  The space race was always going to be won by filmmakers and science-fiction writers.