Books, Selves, and Libraries of the Mind
Cover shows detail from The Bookworm, circa 1850, by Carl Spitzweg (1808–85). The digital image is part of a collection of images compiled by The Yorck Project and distributed by Directmedia Publishing GmbH, and is reproduced here courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. See William Cronon’s essay for more details.
Staff
Fundraising Begins for the Jerry Bentley Prize in World History
The American Historical Association invites donations to endow a Jerry Bentley Prize in World History, which will honor Jerry Bentley's…
Perspectives on the Presidential Debates
Throughout the month of October 2012, Perspectives Online featured a series of “AHA Roundtables” on the presidential and vice-presidential debates.…
The Emancipation Proclamation and America: A Report on the Discussion Sponsored by the NEH
September 22, 2012, marked the 150th anniversary of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation—an act that had set in motion the end…
Recollecting My Library … and My Self
In 1931, Walter Benjamin wrote a brief essay entitled “Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting.” In it, he…
Atina Grossman to Speak at the CWH Breakfast in New Orleans
The annual networking breakfast organized by the AHA's Committee on Women Historians provides an exciting and unique opportunity to meet…
Some Highlights of the 127th Annual Meeting
The 127th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association will be held January 3–6, 2013, in New Orleans at the…
Preparing for the 2013 Annual Meeting: Some Reminders
The print version of the Program for the 127th Annual Meeting of the AHA, to be held January 3–6, 2013,…
The Presidential Sessions
Among the privileges I've most enjoyed in serving as AHA president has been the opportunity to work with this year's…
Visiting New Orleans with Children
New Orleans has lots of activities for children, despite its reputation as a playground for adults. Many of New Orleans’s…
Film Festival: Celebrating the Work of John Sayles
Writer-director John Sayles has very a unique place in the history American film: not only did he play a vital…
Join Your Fellow Historians at the 106th Annual Jackson Day Race!
Historians attending the 127th annual meeting are invited to participate in the 106th Annual Jackson Day Race on Sunday, January…
Training Doctoral Students with the AHA’s Archives Wiki
Over the past two decades, our understanding of "historical thinking" has been greatly enriched by cognitive science research that has…
Student-Created Websites as Useful Forums for Reporting on Historical Research
To help students learn history while developing skills relevant to the job market and public life, I created an assignment…
Using Skype to Teach History Transnationally: An Experiment
Think globally, act locally" has been popular mantra of environmental activists since the early days of the movement, and one…
Researching and Writing a Historical Biography for the Elementary Classroom
Can elementary teachers get these materials too?" This question, asked by a fifth-grade teacher during a Teaching American History workshop,…
Looking Back at the Longue Duree of Women’s History
Shortly after Elena Kagan was nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court, law professor and public intellectual Patricia Williams…
Teaching Chicana History: Reflecting on the Pedagogic Potential of Emotions
Reflecting on the teaching of Women's History—and in my case, Chicana History—is an extension of how seriously I take the…
Teaching the History of Women in the Middle East and North Africa
Why are Middle Eastern women forced to wear the veil? Why are they so oppressed?" asks a student in response…
Teaching Women’s History: Accuracy, Objectivity, and Critical Thinking
In her 2010 bestseller, Sarah Palin wrote that American women gained the right to vote at the federal level with…
Trending on AHA’s Social Media
The AHA's social media spaces (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) feature the latest news in the history profession. The debate on…
Advocacy beyond Capitol Hill
One assumption many people have about the National Coalition for History is that its work only focuses on Capitol Hill…
Forming a Field from Fragments of Empires: The Decolonization Seminars and Their Alumni Help Create New Subdiscipline
In the November 2011 issue ofPerspectives on History, Lori Watt, who was a participant in the third international seminar on…
SHAFR Seeks Proposals for Editor of Diplomatic History
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), an affiliate of the AHA, is issuing a Call for Proposals…
On the September Issue
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
On the Tuning Project
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
Social Studies and the FAIR Act
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
On Subversives: An Author’s Perspective
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
On Political Facts and Historical Thinking
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
On Letters to the Editor
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
On Funding for Conference Travel
Editor's Note: Perspectives on Historywelcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to…
James J. Lorence (1937–2012)
James J. Lorence, professor emeritus of history at University of Wisconsin-Marathon County (UWMC), died on June 19, 2012 in Wausau,…
J.M.W. Bean (1928–2012)
Historian of English Feudalism John Malcolm William Bean, professor emeritus of history at Columbia University, died peacefully in a hospital…
Robert K. Webb (1922–2012)
Historian of Britain, Editor of the American Historical Review Robert Kiefer Webb, professor emeritus of history at the University of…
Eric Hobsbawm (1917–2012)
Inimitable, Polymathic Modern Historian Eric Hobsbawm's achievement as a historian was to "de-provincialize" the story of the rise of the…
Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the AHA Newsletter at the Annual Meeting
Watch this space on Monday for news about the December issue of Perspectives on History, soon to be in the…
History Jobs Update: November 30, 2012
In an effort to keep our readers informed about the different academic positions trending on the job market, we are…
Teaching and Learning History: Teagle Foundation to Support a New AHA Initiative
What are the best practices for teaching history to undergrads? How can history departments better work with teaching and learning…
Session of the Week: Climate and the Atlantic World: Hurricanes, El Niño, La Niña, and Drought in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
In an effort to highlight the diverse range of scholarship at the upcoming annual meeting, we’re highlighting different sessions here…
AHA Member Spotlight: Courtney Thomas
Courtney Thomas AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To…
A Vital Resource: The Humanities Indicators
Have you ever pondered job prospects for humanities majors, or wondered about trends in the number of visits to historic…
UNESCO World Heritage Sites and Global Context: Building a Broader History of Humanity
Mankind: A Global Teach-In The History Channel recently sponsored a global teach-in in the hopes of confronting the tendency of…
Accreditors Consider Academic Freedom in Evaluating Higher Education Institutions
The Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the American Association of University Professors have offered an intriguing suggestion regarding the…
AHA Member Spotlight: Theodore M. Porter
Theodore M. Porter AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment.…
Now Available: A Perspectives on History Forum on Teaching Women’s History
We are pleased to make available, in the “ungated” section of Perspectives Online, a series of articles on women’s history…
Reaction to the AHA’s Versatile PhD Annoucement
As someone who recently graduated from a history program and took a “nonacademic” position, I was particularly pleased to see…
History Jobs Update: November 16, 2012
In an effort to keep our readers informed about the different academic positions trending on the job market, we are…
Historians React to Proposal from Florida Task Force on State Higher Education Reform
Should it cost more for a degree in history than the sciences? A preliminary proposal from a task force, commissioned…
Spielberg, Lincoln, and Historians
Image courtesy of Touchstone Pictures / Photofest. Spielberg’s Lincoln has already engendered the kind of informed, critical engagement that I…
AHA Member Spotlight: Paul Murphy
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
The Real Widows of the 19th Century Revealed
An Inside the Vaults Video of a Volunteer Team Cataloging Widows’ Pension Files The legacy of the Civil War is…
Versatile PhD: The Newest AHA Member Benefit
The AHA is happy to announce that we will be offering a free, premium-content subscription to Versatile PhD as a…
Announcing the Latest Robert H. Smith Seminar: The Supreme Court in the Age of Holmes and Brandeis
As the U.S. Supreme Court returns for the fall, it is therefore fitting to highlight the latest Robert H. Smith…
History Jobs Update: November 9, 2012
In an effort to keep our readers informed about the different academic positions trending on the job market, we are…
Obama and His Historians: A Suggestion
As a historian, not to mention as the executive director of the AHA, I was pleased to read in the…
Session of the Week: Changing the Narrative: Linda K. Kerber and Evolving Histories of Women and the State
In an effort to highlight the diverse range of scholarship at the upcoming annual meeting, we are highlighting different sessions…
AHA Member Spotlight: Daisy V. Domínguez
Photo by Charles Diaz AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of…
Now Available: History and the Digital Image, a Forum in Perspectives on History
A series of articles on how historians are using digital images and imagery has emerged from the members-only section of…
The AHA Needs Your Input
Today we are excited to start the next phase in the AHA website redesign project, but we will need considerable…
Placement Information on History Department Websites
As an example of the kinds of public information on placement of history PhDs recently recommended by the AHA’s Professional…
This Month in Perspectives on History
In the November issue of Perspectives on History, President William Cronon discusses what our libraries say about ourselves, and Executive…
The AHA in New Orleans: Sessions with a Local Flavor, Part 3—New Orleans and the Wider World
During the annual meeting, we come together to learn from each other, but also from the cities in which we…
History Jobs Update: November 2, 2012
In an effort to keep our readers informed about the different academic positions trending on the job market, we are…