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historical profession

American Historical Association Council vetoes a resolution condemning Gaza scholasticide

John Fea   |  January 19, 2025

We covered this resolution on January 8 and January 9 (Pamela Paul op-ed). Here is the original resolution: Whereas the US government has underwritten the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in Gaza with over $12.5 billion in military aid between […]

Jim Grossman reflects on his leadership of the American Historical Association

John Fea   |  January 10, 2025

After fifteen years at the helm of the most important historical association in the world, Jim Grossman is stepping aside. Here is Ryan Quinn at Inside Higher Ed: A chapter of history is closing: Jim Grossman is retiring after 15 […]

Historians are “killing history”

John Fea   |  October 25, 2024

Katherine Epstein teaches history at Rutgers University-Camden and she has some very good thoughts about her (and my) discipline. Here is a taste of her piece at Liberties, “Historians Killing History“: The indifference to scholarly standards should be evident to […]

Responding to the critics of my piece “Kid Gloves” (1619 Project)

John Fea   |  July 16, 2023

It looks like my feature we published on Friday at Current received some attention on Twitter. I’m glad people are reading it and, for the most part, taking it seriously. For the record, here is everything I have written at […]

Are historians attacking the right without asking about the left?

John Fea   |  July 8, 2023

Johann Neem, professor of history at Western Washington University and the editor of the Journal of the Early Republic, thinks so. And he is absolutely right Here is a taste of his review of Kevin Kruse’s and Julian Zelizer’s edited […]

What would C. Vann Woodward say?

John Fea   |  April 6, 2023

James Cobb, the Spalding Distinguished professor of history emeritus at the University of Georgia, is the author of C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian. It is the most satisfying work of American history I have read thus far in 2023. You […]

Episode 108: “The Life and Legacy of C. Vann Woodward”

John Fea   |  January 30, 2023

In this episode we explore the life, ideas, and writings of one of the 20th-century most influential American historians–C. Vann Woodward, author of The Strange Career of Jim Crow. Our guest is James Cobb, author if C. Vann Woodward: America’s Historian. In […]

History in crisis

John Fea   |  January 3, 2023

Historian Jon Lauck‘s editorial at Middle West Review has been making the rounds on social media. The piece is behind a paywall, but here are the first couple of paragraphs: You can see it in the empty chairs. History conferences […]

Kevin Kruse returns to Twitter

John Fea   |  October 8, 2022

Get up to speed here and here. The Princeton historian is back after Cornell and Princeton cleared him of plagiarism charges. I will let him explain:

Larry Schweikart: activist historian

John Fea   |  September 17, 2022

Back in 2002 I met Larry Schweikart. He was a professor of history at the University of Dayton. I was interviewing for a job in the history department at the University of Dayton. He may have even been on the […]

Joan Scott and David Bell debate history, presentism and power

John Fea   |  August 26, 2022

In the wake of AHA president’s James Sweet’s “controversial” column in Historical Perspectives, David Bell of Princeton and Joan Scott of the Institute of Advanced Study have responded at The Chronicle of Higher Education. (See our coverage here and here […]

American Historical Association Annual Meeting Omicron update

John Fea   |  December 24, 2021

Here is the latest on the AHA meeting in New Orleans. I received this in my inbox yesterday: The AHA is carefully monitoring the news about the Omicron variant, particularly in the New Orleans area, as COVID-19 numbers spiral around […]