Featured Articles
Street View
In the late 1980s, documentary photographer Joseph Rodriguez immersed himself in New York’s Spanish Harlem community and captured intimate moments…
Inside Higher Ed: College-in-Prison Programs Flourish, but for How Long?
The very first credit-bearing course toward a bachelor’s degree that Tyrone Harvey Muhammad took—Islamic Architecture—ignited a new passion. “It…
Advocacy Briefs: AHA Statements Make an Impact
In the past few months, the AHA has released statements both on the importance of historical thinking in the public…
Introduction
We’ve all been there. Our syllabus specifies that a percentage of the course grade will be based on participation.…
Points of Interest
One of the most widely used strategies to increase participation in class discussions is an activity called Think/Pair/Share. The technique…
Never Too Far Away
Student engagement is a particularly difficult challenge in history courses offered through Utah State University (USU)’s interactive video conferencing (IVC)…
A Dot Matrix
Napoleon admired the dangerous chances soldiers took for bits of ribbon. I get students to take risks for dots on…
Are We Giving Students Something Worthwhile to Talk About?
I struggled for years to stimulate classroom discussion in undergraduate courses, and mostly was unsuccessful. I alternately blamed the students…
Townhouse Notes: One Take on Class Participation
My lifelong aversion to being graded on anything didn’t serve me in my teaching career. It wasn’t simply that grading…
Discussion and Debate: What Works in Undergraduate Teaching
My first presidential column is a contribution to this month’s examination of undergraduate teaching techniques; I applaud the innovative ideas…
Otis L. Graham Jr. (1935–2017)
Historian of Modern America One of his generation’s most distinctive historians of modern America, Otis L. Graham Jr. died on…
On “Declining Enrollments in History Courses: A Follow-Up Report”
To the editor: I received the October issue of Perspectives on History and noted the article on declining enrollments in history courses…
On Mental Health in the November 2017 Perspectives
To the editor: Congratulations and many thanks to Mark Grimsley and to Lauren N. Haslem and Jennifer L. Foray for…
On “A Mind of One’s Own: Promoting Mental Health among Grad Students”
To the editor: I read “A Mind of One’s Own: Promoting Mental Health among Grad Students” (November 2017) with interest.…
AHA Member Spotlight: Michael Helms
Michael Helms is a full-time information technology professional and a part-time student at North Carolina State University, where he is…
A Vaccine for National Healing? Historians on The Vietnam War
Released in September 2017, The Vietnam War, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s 10-part, 18-hour documentary series, has been widely acclaimed…
Past Tense: History and Its Abuses in Washington
As I walk to work in the morning, the first thing I see as I head toward the AHA office…
AHA Member Spotlight: Sharika Crawford
Sharika Crawford is an associate professor of history at the United States Naval Academy. She lives in Annapolis, Maryland, and…
Actions by the AHA Council, June 2017 to January 2018
Through e-mail conversation from June 29, 2017, to December 5, 2017, and at meetings on January 4 and 7, 2018,…
What Makes a Great Proposal for the AHA Annual Meeting?
Chairing a conference program committee is a humbling experience, both because of the fine people in it, and because of…
AHA Member Spotlight: John M. Lawlor, Jr.
John M Lawlor Jr. is professor emeritus at Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pennsylvania. He lives in Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania,…
Changing the Narrative: “The State and Future of the Humanities in the United States”
“Are the humanities in crisis?” For the past decade, this question, and answers to it, has been posed in numerous…
AHA Member Spotlight: Don Lankiewicz
Don Lankiewicz is an educational publishing consultant and affiliated faculty member at Emerson College in Boston. He lives in Needham,…
Postcards from AHA18
“The weather’s been, uh . . . wonderful!” What would you write on a postcard sent from AHA18? What memories…
Conversations Over Cardboard: Poster Sessions at AHA18
The poster sessions at the AHA annual meeting have evolved from a small beginning in 2006 to a far more…
Writing on the Wall
If you have any doubts about the vibrancy of historical curiosity among our undergraduate majors nationwide, be sure to check…
New Perspectives on Histories of the Slave Trade
Intertwined. Overlapping. Interconnected. The complicated entanglement of slave trading, geographies, and ethnicities was the focus of the Thursday night plenary,…
If We Fund it, Will You Come? The NEH at AHA18
When the American Historical Association gathers for its annual meeting in Washington, DC, the staff of the National Endowment for…
Subway Stories
If your Metro train to the AHA conference hotels seems to be taking longer than expected, or if the platform…
Tweeting at AHA18? Here Are Some Helpful Guidelines
It’s almost meeting time! Starting tomorrow, historians from around the world will gather in Washington, DC, to share research, trade…