Current Events that Relate to History
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Q&ANewly Declassified Documents Reveal the Untold Stories of the Red Scare
In his latest book, journalist and historian Clay Risen explores how the House Un-American Activities Committee and Senator Joseph McCarthy upended the nation.Smithsonian -
Book ReviewThe Rebellions of Murray Kempton
One of his generation’s most prolific journalists, Kempton never turned a blind eye to the inequalities all around him.The Nation -
CommentWhy Are Trans People Such an Easy Political Target? The Answer Involves a Surprising Culprit.
Making a whole group of people this vulnerable does not just happen overnight.Slate -
First PersonOn My Grandfather’s Novel: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s "The Great Gatsby" at 100
Reflections on the literary legacy of a timeless American novel.Literary Hub -
Book ExcerptHow Leonard Bernstein Changed the Canon
In 1966, the conductor arrived in Vienna with a mission: to restore Gustav Mahler’s place in 20th-century music.The Atlantic -
Book ReviewBasic Stuff About Reality
On David Roediger’s “An Ordinary White: My Antiracist Education.”Los Angeles Review of Books -
exhibitInternational Trade
Histories of how money and commodities have flowed across borders, from the slave-based economies of maritime empires to contemporary globalization.
From the HNN Archive
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What Is the Role of the Historian?
Rethinking the job of history — and the American Historical Association — after the veto of the Gaza “scholasticide” resolution. -
“A Party for the White Man”
The scene at the 1964 Republican National Convention, when Barry Goldwater was nominated and black Republicans’ worst fears about their party were confirmed. -
Indifferent to the Fate of Freedom Elsewhere
Jimmy Carter is known for his defense of human rights worldwide. But in 1979, he threatened to deport thousands of Iranian student protesters. -
Ohio’s Little-Known Fascist Member of Congress
How a local prosecutor protected white supremacists and went on to a career in Washington, DC. -
When Good Housekeeping Meant Getting Vaccinated Against Polio
The pages of 1950s lifestyle magazines offer a glimpse of a time when childhood vaccines were anything but controversial. -
The Forebears of JD Vance and the New Right
Revisiting the Agrarian-Distributists and their fabrication of an American past. -
The Burned-Over District
The Northeast caught fire this fall, in a way that recalls its past. History has some lessons about how to manage the region’s fire seasons to come. -
Who Built the Panama Canal?
Finding testimony from the Afro-Caribbean workers who changed the Americas forever.