About AHA & Membership

AHA Headquarters Office

About the AHA

Mission

The American Historical Association provides leadership for the discipline and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life. The Association defends academic freedom, develops professional standards, supports innovative scholarship and teaching, and helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians.

About the AHA

The American Historical Association promotes historical work and the importance of historical thinking in public life. Incorporated by Congress in 1889, its mission to enhance the work of historians also encompasses professional standards and ethics, innovative scholarship and teaching, academic freedom, and international collaboration. As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (over 11,000 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions, and represents every historical era and geographical area.

Leadership

Promoting new approaches to history education and scholarship and setting professional standards for the discipline

Advocacy

A vocal public presence promoting the value of history and historical thinking

Promoting the value of history education
Providing historical perspectives on contemporary issues
Supporting historians and emphasizing the value of history in contemporary policy and civic life
      • Through Teaching History with Integrity, the AHA leads or participates in several initiatives to provide resources and support for history educators facing intensifying controversies about the teaching of the American past
      • Watch our videos with historians describing how exploring America's past honestly in the classroom benefits the nation's students, and how the freedom to learn also strengthens our shared democracy: Historians Speak and Confronting a Nation’s Past
      • Find the latest AHA Advocacy work on behalf of historians

Community

A platform for historians from all specializations and professions to discuss, disagree, and learn


Teaching History with Integrity: Historians Speak