Aggregated news feed for history lovers.
In September 2012 in Stockton, California, the gurdwara, a house of worship for people of the Sikh faith, commemorated its one-hundred-year anniversary with the opening of the Sikh History Museum, Library, and Heritage Center. On display in the museum was the...
by Susan Ronald There’s a chapter in my new book, Hitler’s Aristocrats, titled “Men on White Horses” which I feared might be cut by my commissioning editor. Why? Well, strictly speaking, these men were not fascists in the meaning of … Read the article The post Men on...
by The History Reader Women’s History Month is a time for us to take a moment to appreciate all the incredible achievements of women across the globe. This month, we’re highlighting five remarkable books coming out this year about a … Read the article The post 5 Books...
This piece is a response to our recent Call for Submissions: Histories of Labor in the U.S. For our submission guidelines, click here. The sweat and struggles of Gilded Age women helped make the United States the largest industrial economy in the world. Leonora Barry...
by Nick Tabor It’s hard to believe that when Zora Neale Hurston started on her book Barracoon, which would turn out to be one of the greatest achievements of her illustrious career, she was still an undergraduate student. She had … Read the article The post What...
This piece is a response to our recent Call for Submissions: Histories of Labor in the U.S. For our submission guidelines, click here. Many Americans might be surprised to learn what voters in New York already know: the Empire State has a multiparty political system....
by John Lisle The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle reveals the untold story of the OSS Research and Development Branch and its role in World War II. Their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and … Read the article The...
by Tom Clavin When one thinks of America’s early naval heroes, John Paul Jones and Oliver Hazard Perry usually come to mind. But another was Stephen Decatur, who achieved not just national, but international fame for his actions in 1804. … Read the article The post To...
During WWII, Frank Murphy flew twenty-one daylight combat missions with the Mighty Eighth. The odds of returning safely were three to one against. Below is an excerpt from his memoir, Luck of the Draw, in which Frank recounts the harrowing … Read the article The post...
In the September 2022 special issue of the Journal of American History, Kevin Kennyâs article, âMobility and Sovereignty: The Nineteenth-Century Origins of Immigration Restriction,â powerfully connects slavery, Indian removal, and state policies regulating...
by Nick Tabor Nick Tabor’s Africatown charts the fraught history of America from those who were brought here as slaves but nevertheless established a home for themselves and their descendants, a community which often thrived despite persistent racism and environmental...
by Tom Clavin This year is the bicentennial of the Texas Rangers, who played a significant role in the bigger picture of what in the 1800s was viewed as law and order on the frontier. The initial Rangers “call to … Read the article The post A Connecticut Yankee In...
An anti-abortion activist smashes a pro-choice poster at a rally on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The January 20, 1993 rally was in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Photo courtesy of UW-Madison libraries and Kendra Johnson at the...
Grandpa âdarkly boasted of having killed âmoân mah fair share of them damn rebelsâ while en route to enlist in the Union Army,â Richard Wright recalled.  âGrannyâs conversationsâ¦[about]Grandpaâs life,â gave the novelist further details of the...
by Mary Calvi “Love at first sight,” a Harvard College student writes in his private journals. “I have never… gone to sleep or waked up without thinking of her; and I doubt if an hour has passed that I have … Read the article The post The Lost Love Letters of Teddy...
In honor of Black History Month, we at the Journal of American History are pleased to re-release the JAH African American History Index. First published in 2019, the index includes every article of African American history we have ever printed, from our inception...
by Tom Clavin This month, 234 years ago, the first Electoral College voted to elect George Washington as president of the United States. Yes, the first presidential election was (or more accurately, began) in February, not November, and it was … Read the article The...
by Anastasia Hastings Novelist Anastasia Hastings, author of the recently released mystery Of Manners and Murder, delves into the history of Agony Aunts, a unique profession dating back to the 17th century. Read more below. In America, we call them … Read the article...