Researching Violence

In “True Crime Meets History,” R.E. Fulton observes that “the people at the heart of histories of violence remain hard to conjure.” Conjuring the stories and humanity of victims of violence is the kind of difficult, emotional labor that Ruth Lawlor describes in “Working with Death.” Read together, Fulton’s and Lawlor’s articles grapple with important questions about privacy, dignity, and the nature of understanding that are applicable to historians working in many fields.

Photo: Timon Studler/Unsplash

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January 2021 Perspectives on History cover, two blurry figures are backlit in a tunnel

Staff

Ashley E. Bowen, editor
Laura Ansley, managing editor
Karen Lou, editorial assistant
Alexandra F. Levy, web and social media coordinator
Liz Townsend, manager, data administration and integrity

Other Articles

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January 15, 2021

Member Spotlight, Perspectives Daily

AHA Member Spotlight: Keisha A. Brown
Spotlight on a dark background

January 29, 2021

Member Spotlight, Perspectives Daily

AHA Member Spotlight: R. Isabela Morales
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December 23, 2020

In Memoriam

Ellis W. Hawley (1929–2020)

News

A supporter of President Donald Trump carries a Confederate battle flag on the second floor of the US Capitol near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021. A portrait of abolitionist senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, who was savagely beaten on the Senate floor after delivering a speech criticizing slavery in 1856, hangs above the couch. A portrait of John C. Calhoun hangs to the left.

January 11, 2021

News, Perspectives Daily

A Starting Point
History graduate programs had to make hard decisions in the summer and autumn of 2020 about how many students to admit—or if they would accept applications at all.

December 14, 2020

News

Pressing Pause
Are virtual events the new fireside chat?

January 6, 2021

News, Perspectives Daily

Welcome to the New Fireside Chat
A representative poster from January 6, featuring a mishmash of Trump, the 1995 film Braveheart, and anticommunism.

January 12, 2021

News, Perspectives Daily

Vikings, Crusaders, Confederates
Vice President Charles Curtis (1860–1936) casts a vote in the US Senate in 1929.

January 19, 2021

News, Perspectives Daily

Why is Charles Curtis’s Legacy So Complicated?
Archives are more than a simple collection of documents or records. They require professional training to catalog, describe, and maintain.

January 22, 2021

News, Perspectives Daily

Please Stop Calling Things Archives