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memory

“You can’t hold onto anything in this world. That doesn’t mean you can’t squeeze it all so tightly to your heart that it hurts.”

John Fea   |  March 28, 2025

I recently put Will Bardenwerper’s book Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America on my reading list. After reading Timothy Carney’s review of the book at the Washington Free Beacon I moved it to the […]

The Author’s Corner with Rose Miron

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 24, 2025

Rose Miron is Vice President of Research and Education at the Newberry Library. This interview is based on her new book, Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory (University of Minnesota Press, 2024). JF: What led you to […]

This is what authoritarian regimes do

John Fea   |  February 14, 2025

In case you haven’t heard, the Trump White House has removed a searchable database of January 6, 2021 cases from the Department of Justice website. Here is Alec MacGillis at Pro Publica: The removal of the database happened…quietly, but it is worthy […]

The Author’s Corner with Sarah Kornfield

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 21, 2024

Sarah Kornfield is Associate Professor of Communication and Affiliated Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Hope College. This interview is based on her new book, Invoking the Fathers: Dangerous Metaphors and Founding Myths in Congressional Politics (Johns Hopkins University […]

The Author’s Corner with Andrew Sillen

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 11, 2024

Andrew Sillen is a visiting research scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University and a former Professor of Paleoanthropology and the Founding Director of Development at the University of Cape Town as well as the Vice President of […]

The Author’s Corner with Andrew Lipman

Rachel Petroziello   |  October 8, 2024

Andrew Lipman is Associate Professor of History at Barnard College, Columbia University. This interview is based on his new book, Squanto: A Native Odyssey (Yale University Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Squanto? AL: Squanto began as an offshoot of […]

The Author’s Corner with Court Carney

Rachel Petroziello   |  September 17, 2024

Court Carney is Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University. This interview is based on his new book, Reckoning with the Devil: Nathan Bedford Forrest in Myth and Memory (LSU Press, 2024). JF: What led you to write Reckoning […]

The Author’s Corner with Gaines M. Foster

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 19, 2024

Gaines M. Foster is Murphy J. Foster Professor of History Emeritus at Louisiana State University. This interview is based on his new book, The Limits of the Lost Cause: Essays on Civil War Memory (LSU Press, 2024). JF: What led […]

The Author’s Corner with Michael J. Megelsh

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 8, 2024

Michael J. Megelsh is Assistant Professor of History at Blue Mountain Christian University. This interview is based on his new book, Adelbert Ames, the Civil War, and the Creation of Modern America (The Kent State University Press, 2024). JF: What […]

The Author’s Corner with Yael Sternhell

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 20, 2023

Yael Sternhell is Professor in the Department of History and Department of English and American Studies at Tel Aviv University. This interview is based on her new book, War on Record: The Archive and the Afterlife of the Civil War […]

Song of the Day

John Fea   |  September 11, 2023

Remembering our fallen heroes:

The Author’s Corner with Drew Swanson

Rachel Petroziello   |  August 24, 2023

Drew Swanson is Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt Distinguished Professor of Southern History at Georgia Southern University. This interview is based on his new book, A Man of Bad Reputation: The Murder of John Stephens and the Contested Landscape of North […]

Joyce Carol Oates on writing, memory, Twitter, and identity politics

John Fea   |  July 19, 2023

At age 85, writer Joyce Carol Oates has “so many ideas.” Check out David Marchese’s interview with Oates at The New York Times. Here is a taste: How does support for the idea that diverse voices should be given primacy […]

The Author’s Corner with Hajar Yazdiha

Rachel Petroziello   |  July 5, 2023

Hajar Yazdiha is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. This interview is based on her new book, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement  (Princeton University Press, […]

Why do we long for a golden age?

John Fea   |  June 20, 2023

Is the United States in the midst of a moral breakdown? Should we support candidates who want to take us back to a golden age? Why do we want to “Make America Great Again” (Trump) or believe that “America is […]

The Author’s Corner with Benjamin Jenkins

Rachel Petroziello   |  June 19, 2023

Benjamin Jenkins is Associate Professor of History and University Archivist at the University of La Verne. This interview is based on his new book, Octopus’s Garden: How Railroads and Citrus Transformed Southern California (University Press of Kansas, 2023). JF: What […]

The Author’s Corner with Matthew Dennis

Rachel Petroziello   |  May 9, 2023

Matthew Dennis is Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. This interview is based on his new book, American Relics and the Politics of Public Memory (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023). JF: What led you to […]

Get ready for more of the Mandela Effect

Elizabeth Stice   |  April 24, 2023

“The Mandela Effect” is a term to describe a strange cultural phenomenon. Sometimes there is something which a big number of people seem to remember, only it apparently never happened, or it was different than we remember. The classic example […]

The Author’s Corner with Travis A. Rountree

Rachel Petroziello   |  April 13, 2023

Travis A. Rountree is Assistant Professor of English at Western Carolina University. This interview is based on his new book, Hillsville Remembered: Public Memory, Historical Silence, and Appalachia’s Most Notorious Shoot-Out  (University Press of Kentucky, 2023). JF: What led you […]

Abraham Lincoln: Working class hero?

John Fea   |  February 21, 2023

Everyone wants to claim Lincoln. Even socialists. Here is University of Arkansas history professor Matthew Stanley at Jacobin: Would Lincoln’s sincere hatred of the Slave Power have translated after the war to a critique of the Money Power and other […]

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