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The Rise and Fall of Liberal Historiography

How historians changed their approach, from the 1960s to the present.
by Gabriel Winant via HNN on February 11, 2025
A graphic celebrating the American Bicentennial, with the original flag crossing the modern flag, and Independence Hall next to the Capitol building.

The Revolution at 250: A Conversation

What are the most important insights historians have offered about the American Revolution in the decades since the Bicentennial?
by Kathleen DuVal, Leslie M. Harris, Serena Zabin, T. H. Breen, Michael D. Hattem via Journal of the Early Republic on December 15, 2024
Reagan and supporters at a campaign rally in 1984.

Reagan Resurgent?

Commentary on America’s 40th president often misses how the Gipper blended principles and pragmatism for a truly conservative statesmanship.
by Anthony Eames via Law & Liberty on December 4, 2024
Cover of Ned Blackhawk's book; a pole with feathers attached is next to the title, "The Rediscovery of America"

The Promise and Perils of Synthetic Native History

Over the past year, two prominent historians have invited readers to rethink the master narrative of US history.
by Gregory D. Smithers via H-Net on January 11, 2024
Exhibit

The History of History

How historians and educators have written and taught about different eras of the American past.
Greek philosopher sitting at a desk and looking at a laptop.

History, Fast and Slow

Two new books model radically different ways of studying the past.
by Jacob Mikanowski via The Chronicle of Higher Education on September 13, 2023
Drawing of George Washington Williams

George Washington Williams’ "History of the Negro Race in America" (1882–83)

A work of millennial scope by a self-taught African-American historian.
by Dorothy Berry via The Public Domain Review on September 12, 2023
Andrea Casali: The Personification of History Writing on the Back of Time, early 1760s

Ego-Histories

The more that historians make their own experiences an explicit part of their work, the harder it will become to let the sources speak clearly.
by David A. Bell via New York Review of Books on June 1, 2023
The image displays two duplicate portraits of Adam Smith. One is upside down.

The Mysteries of Adam Smith

How to understand Adam Smith’s politics.
by Glory M. Liu via The Nation on September 3, 2022
Drinking fountain on the county courthouse lawn, labeled "colored," in black and white.

Racism as Theory: A Historiography of White Supremacy Ideology

An overview of historical scholarship and socio-cultural developments in America to explain how racism became institutionalized against Black Americans.
by Bala James Baptiste via Black Perspectives on April 1, 2022
Watercolor painting of enslaved people walking barefoot on a forced march, with white men on horseback at the front and back of the line.

Reparative Semantics: On Slavery and the Language of History

Scholarly accounts of slavery have been changing, but these correctives sometimes say more about historians than the historical subjects they're writing about.
by Nicholas T. Rinehart via Commonplace on January 4, 2022
Statue of Stonewall Jackson, on its side in slings and propped up by tires, in front of its graffiti-covered pedestal.

What the 1619 Project Got Wrong

It erases the fact that, for the first 70 years of its existence, the US was roiled by intense, escalating conflict over slavery – a conflict only resolved by civil war.
by James Oakes via Catalyst on December 17, 2021
Red binder pulled from row of blue binders

Serendipity in the Archives

Or, a lost freedom story I found while looking for something else.
by Marcus Rediker via Public Seminar on August 25, 2021

Why the History of the Vast Early America Matters Today

There is no American history without the histories of Indigenous and enslaved peoples. And this past has consequences today.
by Karin Wulf via Aeon on July 15, 2021
Painting of the Continental Congress

The Pursuit of Happiness: New Approaches to the American Revolutionary Past

A new way to think about the American Revolution.
by Kevin Diestelow via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on June 28, 2021
107th U.S. Colored Troops posing for a picture

People, Not “Voices” or “Bodies,” Make History

We need to do far more than “give voice to the voiceless" to win justice.
by Dale Kretz via Jacobin on June 18, 2021
Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Against the Consensus Approach to History

How not to learn about the American past.
by William Hogeland via The New Republic on January 25, 2021
"Join or Die" snake political cartoon.

The Iron Cage of Erasure: American Indian Sovereignty in Jill Lepore’s 'These Truths'

Lepore’s framework insists that the “self-evident” truths of the nation’s founding were anything but.
by Ned Blackhawk via Diplomatic History on December 29, 2020
Artistic photo with american flags

Richard Hofstadter’s Discontents

Why did the historian come to fear the very movements he once would have celebrated?
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on October 6, 2020
A library reading room with two stories of open stacks, walkways and ornate railings.

Andrew Dickson White and America’s Unfinished (French) Revolution

How the Civil War-era historian effectively invented a distinctly American tradition of historiography.
by Gregory S. Brown via Age of Revolutions on September 14, 2020
Lithograph depicting police attacking African Americans in New Orleans, 1874

On Riots and Resistance

Exploring freedpeople’s struggle against police brutality during Reconstruction.
by Robert D. Bland via Muster on August 11, 2020

1619 and All That

The Editor of the American Historical Review weighs in on recent historiographical debates around the New York Times' 1619 Project.
by Alex Lichtenstein via American Historical Review on February 3, 2020

The Battle to Rewrite Texas History

Supporters of traditional narratives are fighting to keep their grip on the public imagination.
by Christopher Hooks via Texas Monthly on September 18, 2019

Pushing the Dual Emancipation Thesis Beyond its Troublesome Origins

"Masterless Men" shows how poor whites benefited from slavery's end, but does not diminish the experiences of the enslaved.
by Adrienne Petty via Black Perspectives on March 8, 2018

Donald Trump and the 'Paranoid Style' in American (Intellectual) Politics

Revisiting Holfstadter's "paranoid style" in the era of Trump.
by Leo P. Ribuffo via The International Security Studies Forum on June 13, 2017

Why There Was a Civil War

Some issues aren’t amenable to deal making; some principles don’t lend themselves to compromise.
by Yoni Appelbaum via The Atlantic on May 1, 2017

Why Haiti Should be at the Centre of the Age of Revolution

Haiti, not the US or France, was where the assertion of human rights reached its climax in the Age of Revolution.
by Laurent Dubois via Aeon on November 7, 2016
Portrait of Edward Gibbon

Bonfire of the Humanities

Historians are losing their audience, and searching for the next trend won’t win it back.
by Samuel Moyn via The Nation on January 21, 2015
Illustration of angry communist with caption "Primer for Free Men."

I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill

History books are rewritten to focus on the underdog. Surely that is a victory for the common people...or is it?
by Stephen Duncombe via The Baffler on January 13, 2013
Ronald Reagan.

Conservatism: A State of the Field

Does recognizing the importance of conservatism in the twentieth century make us see the arc of American history in a new way?
by Kim Phillips-Fein via Journal of American History on December 1, 2011
Slave auction in the United States.

How a Group of 19th-Century Historians Helped Relativize the Violent Legacy of Slavery

On the scholarship and intellectual legacies of Ulrich Bonnell Phillips, William Dunning and other academics.
by Scott Spillman via Literary Hub on March 10, 2025
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