History News Network puts current events into historical perspective.

The nation’s leading capitalist emerges as a surprise candidate for president. His political views range from unknown to repulsive to incoherent, but he vaults to the top of early opinion polls ...

The desire to achieve a particular cosmetic look binds Lady Gaga to the Egyptian pharaohs, even though they seem worlds apart.

Donald Yacovone is an Associate at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies, Harvard University and an Athenæum member. Oompa-Loompa illustration by Joseph Schindelman ...

The war in Tennessee : Confederates massacre Union soldiers after they surrender at Fort Pillow, April 12th, 1864. April 12 is the 154th anniversary of the Civil War battle and massacre at Fort ...

In "Democracy for Realists," Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels offer a powerful challenge to popular assumptions about democracy.

Robin Lindley ([email protected]) is a Seattle writer and features editor for the History News Network. His interviews with scholars, writers and artists have appeared in HNN, Crosscut ...

Comparing Kennedy's death to Lincoln's gives you a host of weird coincidences.

Mr. Stern taught African American history at the college level for a decade before becoming historian at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum (1977–1999)—where he designed the museum’s ...

He was accused of treason. Only the hunger for reconciliation saved him. Seven weeks after Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Judge John C. Underwood demanded justice, while ...

Plantation or slave labor camp? Let’s face it: a new generation of scholarship has changed the way we understand American history, particularly slavery, capitalism, and the Civil War. Our ...

Is it Muslim or Moslem?When Baby Boomers were children it was Moslem. The American Heritage Dictionary (1992) noted,"Moslem is the form predominantly preferred in journalism and popular usage ...