Living Ghosts
With the right light, walls cast long shadows. The wounds which the Wall gouged through Berlin from 1961 to 1989 linger in the social fabric, haunting residents long after the physical structure disappeared from the landscape. If objects have lives—at least metaphorically speaking—they just as surely have afterlives, living on after the destruction of their original physical form in memory and memorials. The Berlin Wall lives through remnants and memorials; in the forgetful memory of the city it once divided, and in the divide between Russia and the West that has not even begun to heal after three decades. How much longer will its shade linger?
Photo: Hubert Gajewski/Flickr/CC BY-NC 2.0
Staff
An Uncertain Trend
In 2022, the AHA conducted its seventh annual survey of undergraduate enrollment in history courses. The survey is one part…
Advocacy Briefs
Over the winter, the AHA wrote a letter to Marymount University opposing the proposed elimination of its history major, as…
Townhouse Notes
Those who keep abreast of social media, and particularly those who have been preparing courses for the spring term, have…
When Ghosts Come Knocking
In May 1519, the Venetian Senate received reports of a ghost in the lagoon town of Chioggia, which had disturbed…
Robert L. Tignor (1932–2022)
A pathbreaking historian of modern Africa, the Middle East, and the world, and beloved mentor to generations of students, Robert L.…
Marion Thompson Wright (1902–62)
Photo courtesy Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University Archives, Howard University, Washington, DC Marion Thompson Wright’s sudden death at the age…
Not Just Native Sovereignty
On November 9, 2022, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Haaland v. Brackeen; a decision is expected in 2023.…
AHA Member Spotlight: Carmen Kordick Coury
Carmen Kordick Coury is an associate professor of history and director of Latin American and Caribbean studies at Southern Connecticut…
Photographing the AHA Annual Meeting
Marc Monaghan is a documentary photographer based in Chicago. His work focuses on the daily life of the people of…
AHA Member Spotlight: Meng Zhang
Meng Zhang is an assistant professor of history at Vanderbilt University. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and has been a…
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev died on August 30, 2022. Gorbachev bears more responsibility than any other one person for the fact…
Want to Write for the AHA?
A key skill for historians—whether they work in academia, public history, archives, publishing, or beyond—is the ability to communicate with…
AHA Member Spotlight: Edward L. Holt
Edward L. Holt is an assistant professor and interim department chair at Grambling State University. He lives in Ruston, Louisiana,…