From the AHA
A History of the Persian Language at the Exhibit A Thousand Years of the Persian Book
“These are trend-setting books,” Hirad Dinavari, curator of A Thousand Years of the Persian Book, told me as he pointed…
Historians Weigh in on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
Guided by the conviction that history and historical thinking can help illuminate just about any contemporary discussion, Perspectives on History…
Birth Control and Hobby Lobby
As Americans contemplate the implications of the recent judgment in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby,most considerations focus on two aspects of…
Cultural Divisions Take Center Stage
A historian whose work has been primarily engaged with New Deal-Fair Deal liberalism will likely view the Hobby Lobby decision…
“We Hold These Truths to Be Self-Evident, That All Corporations Are Created Equal.”
What is a person? Is a corporation a person? And if a corporation is a person, is it afforded religious…
Property v. Liberty: The Supreme Court’s Radical Break with Its Historical Treatment of Corporations
In their briefs to the Supreme Court, counsel for Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corporation cited the…
National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency
On May 20, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency did not…
CIA’s Draft History of the Bay of Pigs: The Inside Story
In late 1984, not long before he retired from the CIA, Jack Pfeiffer filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)…
Black Holes in the Predecisional Universe: Agencies Gain a New Justification for Secrecy
The National Security Archive was disappointed, but not surprised, that in a two-to-one decision the DC Circuit Court of Appeals,…
Cuban Memory Wars
Two days after the calamitous Bay of Pigs invasion ended in Cuban exile defeat, a group of well-known Cuban journalists…
Teaching Undergraduates: A Conversation in Brooklyn
On May 20, 130 historians, administrators, and public historians gathered at St. Francis College in Brooklyn for a one-day conference,…
Flashback Friday: President Johnson and a Basket Of Puppies
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. President Lyndon B. Johnson shows puppies…
AHA Member Spotlight: Sam White
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
The Buddha Born and Reborn in Western Imagination
In the middle of the 19th century, European scholars believed that “The Buddha was born in history, not in myth.…
Flashback Friday: G.O.P. National Convention (1916) Featuring Uncle Sam, Mini Uncle Sam & Chin-Chin
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Title: G.O.P. Mascot. Date: [between ca. 1915…
AHA Member Spotlight: Michael B. Kahan
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
At the Venice Biennale: A History of Globalization and Modernism in New Zealand’s Architecture Pavilion
This blog post is one of a three-part series on the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale. The other two are on…
Flashback Friday: Goooaaaaaaaaaaaal!
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Photo Description: Tommies play football with a…
2014-15 NASA Fellowship Awarded
Each year the Fellowship in Aerospace History—supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and administered by the AHA—funds…
AHA Member Spotlight: Stephen A. Berrey
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Overseeing Intelligence: Historians Brief Congress on Its Past Relationship with the Intelligence Community
With Washington currently abuzz about the revelations regarding electronic surveillance by the NSA, the conflict between the Senate Select Committee…
Action Items by the AHA Council
Conducted via AHA Communities Site from January 10–May 15, 2014 and at the Council Meeting on June 2-3, 2014 Through email…
History and Modernity in the Arabian Peninsula
This blog post is second in a three-part series about the Venice Architecture Biennale. Last week AHA Today featured the…
Historians Named among the 2014 American Academy in Berlin Fellows, ACLS Public Fellows, and the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies
The American Academy in Berlin recently announced its 2014–15 class of fellows. American Academy fellows take residence at the Hans…
Flashback Friday: A Helping Hand
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. 7 January 2010, The Guardian, Flooding in…
Historians and the Potential Consequences of the “Right to be Forgotten” Ruling
The Court of Justice of the European Union recently made international headlines by backing “the right to be forgotten” and…
AHA Member Spotlight: Lucy Chester
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
MY AHA Temporarily Down
Update: MY AHA is back up and running. Thanks for our readers patience during our brief maintenance period. MY AHA,…
At the 2014 Venice Biennale: China’s Encounter with Modernity, 1914-2014
“Historical events do not occur in a spatial vacuum; they take place in buildings and landscapes, and are in turn…
AHA Member Spotlight: Daniel Vivian
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Magnificent Century: Historical Turkish Soap Opera Finds a Global Audience
The reign of the Ottoman sultan Suleiman I and his love life were the inspirations for the Turkish TV soap…
Historians Continue Conversation about Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
In the summer issue of Perspectives on History, published online, historians wrote about the historical context of the Supreme Court…
Flashback Friday: Mind over Matter in a World of Dull Space Foods
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Astronauts Thomas P. Stafford (left)…
Historians Named among 2013 National Humanities Medalists
On July 22, President Obama and the National Endowment for the Humanities announced the winners of the 2013 National Humanities…
Interfolio ByCommittee for AHA Members
Are you part of a search committee for a faculty position or fellowship? AHA members now have access to a…
Now in Perspectives: Historical Reflections on the American-German Spy Scandal
The online summer issue of Perspectives on History has now includes an article by Keith R. Allen, a research scholar…
AHA Member Spotlight: Sandy Hyatt
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
New at Perspectives Online: Revising Nixon in DC
Perspectives on History is pleased to continue its online summer issue with a review of a recent panel on the Nixon legacy in…
Flashback Friday: Can Cancan!
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Title: Kaisers Geburtstag. Soldiers Celebrating Contributed on…
Tuning and Teaching History as an Ethical Way of Being in the World
This might be crazy, but imagine a first meeting of the academic year where no one talked about budgets, assessment,…
House Committee Supports the Humanities (after a little nudge)
The Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives has voted to restore the $8 million cut to the National Endowment…
AHA Member Spotlight: Kimberley Reilly
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
The NEH Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants
The NEH Office of Digital Humanities (ODH) is offering Start-Up Grants again this year. These small grants (maximum award of…
Teaching Undergraduates: A Conversation in Brooklyn
The following piece is an excerpt taken from a summer 2014 Perspectives on History article of the same title, written…
AHA Member Spotlight: Yuen-Gen Liang
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Creator of the Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection Receives American Diplomacy Award
On June 18 the American Foreign Service Association gave the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award to Charles Stuart Kennedy…
The AHA Responds to the Relocation of the National Archives for Black Women’s History
On June 12, 2014, AHA President Jan Goldstein and Executive Director Jim Grossman sent a letter to Jonathan Jarvis, the…
AHA Roundtable: Historians Weigh in on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby
Guided by the conviction that history and historical thinking can help illuminate just about any contemporary discussion, Perspectives on History has, for…
Writing the “Rough Draft”: Veteran Journalists Discuss the Passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building has been the site of some of the most famous…
New Position at the AHA: Programs Manager
The American Historical Association has announced a national search for a Programs Manager. This historian will coordinate the AHA’s overall…
Flashback Friday: Supersonic Cowboy Joe
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Title: Pilot Joe Walker and the X-1A.…
AHA Member Spotlight: Ellen Griffith Spears
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Flashback Friday: The Shell of the White House During 1950 Renovation
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Title: The Shell of the White…
AHA Statement of Support for Revised Framework for Advanced Placement U.S. History
The release of a new “framework” for the Advanced Placement examination in United States History has provoked controversy over the nature…
Action Needed: Support the Durbin Bill to Expand Student Loan Forgiveness Program to Adjunct Faculty
On July 31, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) introduced a bill to expand the Student Loan Forgiveness program to adjunct…
Help Us Update Our Taxonomy of the Discipline
AHA members cultivate all possible fields of the historical discipline. We study every country and region of the world from…
Flashback Friday: WPA Dinosaur Park
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Title: Model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex,…
Hiring: Associate Editor, Web Content and Social Media
The American Historical Association is seeking qualified applicants for the position of associate editor, web content and social media. The…
AHA Member Spotlight: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Repairs in Progress
The AHA website will temporarily be down today, beginning at 4PM EST. We’re busy working on some new updates and…
Two AHA Members Win Prizes from William and Mary Quarterly for Distinguished Articles
The William and Mary Quarterly recently announced the winners of three of its prizes, the Douglass Adair Memorial Award, the…
Flashback Friday: Carrying the Banner
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Title: Newsboys and newsgirl. Getting afternoon…
AHA Member Spotlight: Ryan E. Messenger
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
AHA Roundtable on National Security Archive v. Central Intelligence Agency
On May 20, 2014, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency did…
Flashback Friday: Everything Is Bigger In Texas
Each week we scour the web for interesting and historic documents that catch our eye. Humor Postcard, Potato; Humor Postcard, Corn,…