Doing History in the Digital Age
As more historians take on digital projects, new issues surface regarding methodology, dissemination, even ethics. In this issue, Perspectives explores what it means to do history in the digital age. Illustration by Zoila Torres, after a Farm Security Administration photograph by Jack Delano/Library of Congress. In the image, a young person sells copies of the Chicago Defender, one of the nation’s leading African American newspapers, in 1942.
Staff
Featured Articles
From the AHA
Updates on the AHA’s Advocacy Efforts
As the largest professional organization of historians, the AHA serves as a trusted voice for history education, the professional work…
Doing Right Online: Archivists Shape an Ethics for the Digital Age
At a time when the CIA invests in companies that develop surveillance technologies for social media, archivists like Bergis Jules…
Office of the Historian Releases New FRUS Volumes: Historical Advisory Committee Cautiously Optimistic
In September 2016, lawmakers in Washington accused Russia of “making a serious and concerted effort to influence the US election.”…
Contrary to Popular Belief: Recovering the Grassroots History of American Atheism
In the 1920s, the small town came in for ruthless ridicule from the likes of Sinclair Lewis and H. L.…
Townhouse Notes November 2016
However widespread historians’ personal experience with mental health care, whether for themselves or people close to them, some in the…
An African Diaspora Curriculum
The College Board is encouraging innovation in its Advanced Placement (AP) courses, as the long-prominent curriculum continues to evolve. One…
Fighting for History: Behind the Scenes at the NCH
Fall is the season when we solicit annual contributions to the National Coalition for History (NCH), and 2017 will be…
William H. McNeill (1917-2016)
World Historian; Former AHA President and 50-Year Member William H. McNeill, a former president of the AHA and a pioneer…
AHA Member Spotlight: Charles Hubbard
Charles Hubbard is a social science research assistant affiliated with Portland State University’s Department of Economics. He lives in Beaverton,…
Owning Our Graduate Education: Preparing for Career Diversity
Jessica and Tiffany While attending the AHA’s 2016 annual meeting, Jessica and I—PhD candidates in history at Binghamton University in…
AHA Member Spotlight: Amy Forss
Amy Forss is the chair of the history program at Metropolitan Community College. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska, and has…
History, Economics, and Food
Applying for college is stressful enough without having to pick a major. That is why after writing a personal statement,…
AHA Statement in Aftermath of 2016 Election
An unusually bitter and divisive election has been followed by continuing evidence of polarization to the point of harassment seldom…
Seminar from the Institute for Constitutional History: Democratic Constitutionalism
The Institute for Constitutional History is pleased to announce another seminar for advanced graduate students and junior faculty: Democratic Constitutionalism. INSTRUCTORS:…
Letter of Support for National Monument to Reconstruction
The AHA Council approved a letter to US Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, requesting a timely recommendation to the…
Denver’s Asian Americans
An Asian American attorney contacted me recently to ask whether I knew that Denver once had a Chinatown. He expressed…
AHA Member Spotlight: David Baker
David Baker is an independent historian who recently begun a history-themed podcast. He lives in Pittsburg, California, and has been…
Letter of Concern to Polish Government Regarding Treatment of Historian Jan Gross
AHA president Pat Manning sent a letter to Polish President Andrzej Duda expressing concern over the government’s treatment and potential…
Humanizing Data: Making Sense of Research on Tuberculosis
Introduction Over the course of the summer, our team of eight undergraduate researchers collected data and engaged in historical research…
AHA Member Spotlight: Yovanna Pineda
Yovanna Pineda is an associate professor at the University of Central Florida. She lives in Orlando, Florida, and has been…
Historians in Training: Interning at an Academic Journal
Last year I spent some time in Paris conducting archival research for my dissertation and working as an assistant editor…
Growing Pains and Growing Pleasures in Digital History: Announcing the November Issue of Perspectives
It’s fair to say that historians have assimilated the so-called digital turn in at least some aspects of their work.…
The “Animal Turn” in History
Over the past few years, the humanities have been confronting a paradigm shift. After the cultural and linguistic turns of…
AHA Member Spotlight: Heather Wacha
Heather Wacha is a CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in Data Curation for Medieval Studies at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. She lives…
Election Cake
Most Americans today do not think about cake when considering this year’s election. But perhaps we should. Had we been…