This is a fascinating story about the life of one of the 20th century’s great economic and social historians and the memory of his brother. Here is Madoc Cairns at The New Statesman: When they told Frank Thompson they would...
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...
Over at Jacobin, historian William Hogeland discusses his ongoing work on “workers” and “elites” in the late eighteenth century. Here is a taste of his interview with Astra Taylor: ASTRA TAYLOR: Can you talk about what your narrative of America’s...
If you have been reading Current this week you may have noticed that we featured an interview with historian Christopher Shannon and a review of his new book American Pilgrimage: A Historical Journey Through Catholic Life in a New World....
Before the whole James Sweet presentism thing went down, American historians were on Twitter arguing about David McCullouugh. Over at History News Network, Rebecca Brenner Graham calls our attention to the debate that took place in the immediate wake of...
University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew is teaching her students how different kinds of historians might respond to this age old question: Here are some the answers she has received:...
Did Marcus Whitman “save” Oregon? In this episode we talk with Sarah Koenig, author of Providence and the Invention of American History. She tells the story of a Protestant missionary to the Pacific Northwest and how his story provides a...
Here is Harvard historian David Armitage: It is with deep sorrow that I share news of the death of Bernard Bailyn (1922-2020) earlier today. Truly a giant: a fine friend, inspirational colleague and unmatched historian of early America and the...
Watch Christian speaker and author Os Guinness deliver a speech titled 1776 vs. 1789: the Roots of the Present Crisis. It is part of an event hosted by the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Someone sent it to me...
Thomas Richards Jr. teaches history at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. This interview is based on his new book, Breakaway Americas: The Unmanifest Future of the Jacksonian United States (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). JF: What led you to write Breakaway Americas? TR: This book...
Is capitalism racist? If you answer yes, you are one of the cool kids in the historical profession right now. Scholars working on the connections between capitalism and slavery have produced some interesting, helpful, provocative, and controversial work. Much of...
Theologian and church historian Donald W. Dayton has died. While I was a student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School pursuing an M.A. in American church history, I read a lot of Dayton. As a young evangelical, I was passionate about...
Gregory Downs is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. This interview is based on his new book, The Second American Revolution: The Civil War-Era Struggle over Cuba and the Rebirth of the American Republic (University of North Carolina...
When we last left the debate on the 1619 Project, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz leveled more criticism of the project in a piece at The Atlantic. Social media historians (and some non-historians who are advancing informed and not-so-informed opinions)...
Recently, Baylor University history professor Andrea Turpin asked her Twitter followers a question about her upcoming graduate-level historiography class: Historians: I am teaching graduate historiography in the fall and would love to know: What is something you wish you had...
Hayden White, the author of Metahistory and the champion of narrative history, died in 2018. The Chronicle of Higher Education has published a transcript of a radio interview he did in 2008 with Stanford literature professor Robert Pogue Harrison. Here is a taste of...
We are thrilled to have Megan Jones, a history teacher at The Pingry School in Martinsville, New Jersey, writing for us this weekend from the annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago. Here is her first dispatch. –JF...
Over at Perspectives on History, Colgate University historian Monica Mercado “takes stock” of gender history at this weekend’s annual meeting of the American Historical Association. Here is a taste: More than 30 years after Joan Scott first argued for gender as...
Jon Lauck of the University of South Dakota is one of the growing number of scholars trying to bring back the history of Midwest. Check out his books: From Warm Center to Ragged Edge: The Erosion of Midwestern Literary and...
Last weekend Politico published historian Geoffrey Kabaservice‘s piece “Liberals Don’t Know Much About Conservative History.” Kabaservice writes: The end-of-century victories of Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich, however, forced historians to realize that conservatism could no longer be dismissed as a mere road...
