Memory

Alone in his stand, Weldon Heyburn despised that Robert E. Lee would be memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.

Alone in his stand, Weldon Heyburn despised that Robert E. Lee would be memorialized with a statue in the U.S. Capitol

On October 15th, a tweet by Bunk contributing editor Kevin Levin touched off this fascinating exchange between several historians on the subject of popular history. Among the topics it covered were novelty, craft, context... and the musical Hamilton.

Black resistance to Lost Cause mythology has been a constant of the past 150 years.

Our mortuary conventions reveal a lot about our relation to the past.

Vietnam was not a "tragic misunderstanding" but a campaign of "imperial aggression."

Documentary filmmaker Lance Warren interrogates the silence around lynching in the American South.

Two South Carolina lawmakers dust off a familiar trope in an attempt to fight back against Confederate monument removals.

How memory plays tricks with history.

On the uses and abuses of civil rights heroes.

John Oliver reflects on the history of Confederate monuments.

Christopher Columbus was a narcissist.

Though the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day was celebrated in the early 1990s, the idea took shape many years earlier.

"I'm Just a Slave" is a necessary song about Juneteenth.

Italian Americans and the commemoration of Columbus.

In a region where symbols of the Confederacy are ubiquitous, an unprecedented memorial takes shape.

The modern historical profession's purpose has changed drastically in the past century.

His presidency was known for corruption, scandal, and booze. In a new book, Ron Chernow attempts to rehabilitate it.

What should be done with civic monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders?

The PBS series by Burns focuses on soldiers' stories, with scant attention to the immense number of Vietnamese civilians who suffered and died.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans want to convince Americans that Southern heritage isn’t about slavery. Is it a lost cause?

According to Lost Cause mythology, Lee was a benevolent slave owner who fought for states’ rights. His slaves said otherwise.

Republican House Speaker Joe Straus is calling for the removal of a Confederate plaque about the role of slavery in the Civil War.

The new series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick is mesmerizing. But it doesn’t answer key questions about the Vietnam War.

Watching Ken Burns' latest epic with a historian who has written extensively about the war.

How the scholarship has changed.

Historians have the uncomfortable role of shattering people’s memories.

The Vietnam War pictures that moved them most.

Claims that the Confederacy didn't fight to uphold slavery are disputed by Confederate generals themselves.

In promoting healing instead of a search for truth, “The Vietnam War” offers misleading comforts.