As commemorations of the United States’ 250th anniversary kicked off around the country, AHA members lent their expertise to help Americans embrace the full, nuanced history of the US, and to understand how history is being used in the current political climate. Yoni Appelbaum (The Atlantic) wrote about the struggle to define a “coherent national story” among Americans who have increasingly complicated feelings about the country’s history. Johann Neem (Western Washington Univ.) is featured in the article. David Blight (Yale Univ.) and Annette Gordon-Reed (Harvard Univ.) were guests on The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart, where they discussed the culture war around US history and the importance of challenging national myths.
Alastair Su (Westmont Coll.) was awarded the American Association for the History of Medicine’s 2026 J. Worth Estes Prize for his article “The Opiated Ocean: Drugs, Addiction, and Disease in La Trata Amarilla,” which appeared in the June 2025 issue of the American Historical Review.