Confronting the Legacy of the Civil War: The Forgotten Front

One thing united the warring factions of the civil war: the doctrine of white supremacy and violence against Indians.

Activists Splatter Red Paint on Roosevelt Monument at American Museum of Natural History

The early-morning action is the latest in a series of protests demanding the statue’s removal.

How Southern Socialites Rewrote Civil War History

The United Daughters of the Confederacy altered the South’s memory of the Civil War.

University History Departments Have a Race Problem

The alt-right is appropriating medieval studies and classical scholarship. What can academics do to stop them?
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The Tireless Abolitionist Nobody Ever Heard of

He was a well-known figure in early America, but the name of Warner Mifflin has all but faded from the nation's memory.

Trump is the New _______

Nixon? Reagan? Jackson? Historical analogies are simplistic, misleading—and absolutely essential.

Our Silent Civil War: Debate Over Statues Didn't Come out of Thin Air

In history, suppressed memories, stories half-told or lied about, carry greater power for having been suppressed.
The Old House Chamber has been used as National Statuary Hall since July 1864.

A Senator Speaks Out Against Confederate Monuments… in 1910

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

A Senator Speaks Out Against Confederate Monuments… in 1910

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

Is Ron Chernow's Ulysses S. Grant biography "OK"?

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.
A crowd celebrates the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state house.

Beyond Monuments: African Americans Contesting Civil War Memory

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

What Do We Do With Our Dead?

Our mortuary conventions reveal a lot about our relation to the past.
Title card for Burns and Novick's Vietnam War documentary.

Making History Safe Again: What Ken Burns Gets Wrong About Vietnam

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

Uncovering Hidden History on the Road to Clanton

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

Myth of Black Confederates Won't Go Away

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

Was the Declaration of Independence Signed on July 4?

How memory plays tricks with history.
Reagan signing the bill establishing Martin Luther King Day.

The Sanitizing of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks

On the uses and abuses of civil rights heroes.

Confederacy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

John Oliver reflects on the history of Confederate monuments.
"Inspiration of Christopher Columbus" painting, depicting Columbus gazing out at sea.

How Columbus, Of All People, Became a National Symbol

Christopher Columbus was a narcissist.

The History Behind the Movement to Replace Columbus Day

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

Everyone Needs to See The Roots' Schoolhouse Rock-Style Slavery Lesson From 'Black-ish'

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

Recontextualizing the Ocean Blue

Italian Americans and the commemoration of Columbus.

Hanged, Burned, Shot, Drowned, Beaten

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

What’s So Bad About Ken Burns?

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

Pour One Out for Ulysses S. Grant

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

Empty Pedestals

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

The Ken Burns Vietnam War Documentary Glosses Over Devastating Civilian Toll

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

Guardians of White Innocence

The Sons of Confederate Veterans want to convince Americans that Southern heritage isn’t about slavery. Is it a lost cause?
Ripped American flag flying next to the Texas flag.

In Texas, Even the Lies about the Confederacy Are Bigger

Republican House Speaker Joe Straus is calling for the removal of a Confederate plaque about the role of slavery in the Civil War.
Title card for Burns and Novick's Vietnam War documentary.

‘The Vietnam War’: Past All Reason

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