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History News Network

@myhnn.bsky.social
2.8K followers 312 following 565 posts

New perspectives on the many ways in which the past shapes the present. Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly deliveries of our original writing about history: hnn.us/newsletter Powered by @bunkhistory.bsky.social at the University of Richmond.

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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Tom Hanks’ recent TV series slots into a long history of domesticating the horrors of the “Good War.” www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The World War II Stories We Tell Ourselves
Tom Hanks’ recent TV series slots into a long history of domesticating the horrors of the “Good War.”
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Andrew Salvati @asalvati.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
My take on Tom Hanks and the continuing domestication of WW2 has been published by the History News Network. Check it out! www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-...
historynewsnetwork.org
The World War II Stories We Tell Ourselves
Tom Hanks’ recent TV series slots into a long history of domesticating the horrors of the “Good War.”
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
“For all his celebration of ordinary people, Wood hardly ever let them speak in his books. Instead, he focused on elites: what they believed, how they argued, what frightened them, whom they befriended, how the outcome disappointed them.” www.hnn.us/article/a-re...
hnn.us
A Republic of the People, a Constitution of Air
Famous for his books about the founders, Gordon S. Wood’s true legacy may have been about showing how futile their efforts were in the face of pressures from below.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Charting the evolution of the history podcast from 2004–2026. www.bunkhistory.org/resources/a-...
bunkhistory.org
A Brief History of History Podcasting
Charting the evolution of the genre from 2004–2026.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Wood made the Constitution thin in its words and thinner still in its power. In doing so, he was tapping into a long intellectual tradition.” www.hnn.us/article/a-re...
hnn.us
A Republic of the People, a Constitution of Air
Famous for his books about the founders, Gordon S. Wood’s true legacy may have been about showing how futile their efforts were in the face of pressures from below.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Famous for his books about the founders, Gordon S. Wood’s true legacy may have been about showing how futile their efforts were in the face of pressures from below. www.hnn.us/article/a-re...
hnn.us
A Republic of the People, a Constitution of Air
Famous for his books about the founders, Gordon S. Wood’s true legacy may have been about showing how futile their efforts were in the face of pressures from below.
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Reposted by History News Network
Charlotte Meijer @chrmeijer.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"AI flattens the historical record by relying on the most popular sources, eliminating minority voices" www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
The contrast between a clear symbol of autocratic rule — the stern-faced Trump — and the message of personal freedom — “Liberty” — shows a disconnect between the ideals of the U.S. founders and the concerted effort of the current administration to redefine national values. www.hnn.us/article/regi...
hnn.us
Regime Change
A coin featuring the likeness of President Trump doesn’t have many precedents in American history. The ancient Roman opponents of Julius Caesar could explain why.
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Edward T. O'Donnell, Historian-at-Large @inthepastlane.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
How “History” Became Central at the Supreme Court - Originalists and historians use the past to accomplish very different tasks www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/how-...
historynewsnetwork.org
How “History” Became Central at the Supreme Court
Originalists and historians use the past to accomplish very different tasks.
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Phillip Maciak @pjmaciak.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
No matter how you refine your questions, the chatbot will generate responses reflecting what the greatest number of users are likely to want to hear, which tends to be close to what they think they already know." A great, painstaking piece. www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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King Algamemnon @adamrothman.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Sobering, insightful essay on how chatbots mangle historical primary sources. 🗃 www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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Jolyon Thomas @jolyonbt.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
On students, primary sources, and the evident interpretive dangers LLMs pose: www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
As judges have increasingly turned to historical evidence, public debate has also come to treat originalism and the broader judicial use of historical context as though they were synonymous. They are not. www.hnn.us/article/how-...
hnn.us
How “History” Became Central at the Supreme Court
Originalists and historians use the past to accomplish very different tasks.
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Roger Brown @rbjapan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
An insightful essay by Jordan Sand on generative AI generating problems in teaching. www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
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Reposted by History News Network
Mauricio Sellmann Oliveira @mausellmoli.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Georgetown University professor Jordan Sand: "AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine. Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room." www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/ai-i...
I try to teach my students that primary sources allow them to make new discoveries and offer new historical interpretations. AI chatbots present a problem for the teaching of history not only because they hallucinate, nor simply because they threaten to make even conscientious students’ writing less original, but because they thwart the process that might lead students toward original interpretations in the first place. No matter how you refine your questions, the chatbot will generate responses reflecting what the greatest number of users are likely to want to hear, which tends to be close to what they think they already know.
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Emile Chabal @emile-chabal.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Another "try before you buy" opportunity, with the publication online of this excerpt of my book on Hobsbawm and total history writing by @myhnn.bsky.social. www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The Art of Writing History
How Eric Hobsbawm brought revolution to a broad audience.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Primary sources are the necessary building blocks of history — unless you ask a chatbot to write it. www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
03711
History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room. www.hnn.us/article/ai-i...
hnn.us
AI Is an Anti-Primary Source Machine
Real voices from the past are threatened by chatbots designed to amplify — and ultimately become — the loudest voices in the room.
131
Reposted by History News Network
Allison C. Meier @allisoncmeier.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Explored what we can learn from the Revolutionary War dead for @myhnn.bsky.social
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, historians and archaeologists are working to recover the names of those who fought for independence. www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/wher...
historynewsnetwork.org
Where Lies the Revolutionary Soldier?
As the U.S. celebrates its 250th birthday, historians and archaeologists are working to recover the names of those who fought for independence.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Lothrop Stoddard believed that the concept of “natural equality” between people was a threat to America. In the 1920s, it was hardly a fringe idea. www.hnn.us/article/a-da...
hnn.us
A Danger to Civilization
Lothrop Stoddard believed that the concept of “natural equality” between people was a threat to America. In the 1920s, it was hardly a fringe idea.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Where has this myth of repressed Victorian Britain come from? And why has it remained? www.hnn.us/article/myth...
hnn.us
Where Did the Myth of the Victorian Prude Come From?
The actions of a few elites shaped the way we remember an entire generation.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
It took time for the fight against British taxes and tyranny to claim the character of a revolution. www.hnn.us/article/decl...
hnn.us
Declaring “Revolution”
Even after the fighting started, it took years before American Patriots started calling their cause a “revolution.”
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Why do Americans continue to stretch the truth, 19th-century style, about the country’s founders? www.hnn.us/article/youn...
hnn.us
<em>Young Washington</em> Is Old History
A new movie relies on 19th century myths to portray the very British George Washington as a moralistic proto-American ready to pursue independence.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
“For many people, the experience of living through the American Revolution was a deeply distressing, traumatic ordeal, one wracked by inner turmoil, fear, and insecurity. These emotions manifested most palpably in domestic life.” www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The Sweets of Peace and Domestic Happiness
Domestic life was vital to white Americans’ practice of independence after the Revolutionary War.
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Rebecca M. Townsend @rmtownsend.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
www.hnn.us/article/decl...
hnn.us
Declaring “Revolution”
Even after the fighting started, it took years before American Patriots started calling their cause a “revolution.”
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
On the United States’ 150th birthday, Calvin Coolidge said that the country’s work was done. Not everyone agreed. www.hnn.us/article/an-a...
hnn.us
An Appeal for Inaction
On the United States’ 150th birthday, Calvin Coolidge said that the country’s work was done. Not everyone agreed.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
The film doesn’t portray young Washington as the arrogant, highly anglicized British subject that scholars have shown him to be. Instead, he is a moralistic proto-American. The only thing British about Washington is the actor who was cast to play him. www.hnn.us/article/youn...
hnn.us
<em>Young Washington</em> Is Old History
A new movie relies on 19th century myths to portray the very British George Washington as a moralistic proto-American ready to pursue independence.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.—I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.” — John Adams mailchi.mp/historynewsn...
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Beware of attending a historical film with a historian. Read Denver Brunsman on the old history in the new movie, “Young Washington.” www.hnn.us/article/youn...
hnn.us
<em>Young Washington</em> Is Old History
A new movie relies on 19th century myths to portray the very British George Washington as a moralistic proto-American ready to pursue independence.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
We call it the “American Revolution.” But what did the Patriots call their cause 250 years ago? www.hnn.us/article/decl...
hnn.us
Declaring “Revolution”
Even after the fighting started, it took years before American Patriots started calling their cause a “revolution.”
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding. www.hnn.us/article/birt...
hnn.us
Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The Veiled Prophet would be misinterpreted as a Santa Claus character, but its true origins are as a Ku Klux character. He was a direct response to the St. Louis Commune — an interracial show of force by the city’s workers. www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/how-...
historynewsnetwork.org
How White Supremacists Responded to the Great Strike of 1877
St. Louis elites responded to a nationwide labor movement with a movement of their own.
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Devin Thomas O’Shea @devintoshea.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
up now on @myhnn.bsky.social — read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of THE VEILED PROPHET on the 1877 Railroad strike 🧨 www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/how-...
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The women who founded the 1980s-era Parents Music Resource Center portrayed it as being beyond politics. Its actions, funding, and legacy suggest otherwise. www.hnn.us/article/just...
hnn.us
Just Mad Mamas?
The women who founded the 1980s-era Parents Music Resource Center portrayed it as being beyond politics. Its actions, funding, and legacy suggest otherwise.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
This week’s Continuum is dedicated to the career and legacy of Gordon Wood. mailchi.mp/historynewsn...
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Many Americans felt the U.S. had failed to live up to its ideals on its 200th anniversary. They hoped it might improve by the Declaration’s next big celebration. www.hnn.us/article/bice...
hnn.us
The Bicentennial Made American History Look Ridiculous
Many Americans felt the U.S. had failed to live up to its ideals on its 200th anniversary. They hoped it might improve by the Declaration’s next big celebration.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Minus the history leading up to Dred Scott, readers may presume that Taney’s opinion reaffirmed existing precedents, reflecting a popular consensus. Not so! His decision sparked outrage precisely because it was radically new. www.hnn.us/article/birt...
hnn.us
Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding.
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David Waldstreicher @dwaldstreicher.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Van Gosse has the antidote to the 14th amendment nonsense. It was never the beginning of birthright citizenship. (And I might add that saying so gives Roger Taney a posthumous victory.) www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/birt...
historynewsnetwork.org
Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding.
04416
History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding. www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/birt...
historynewsnetwork.org
Birthright Citizenship Existed Before the Fourteenth Amendment
The idea that citizenship extends to everyone born on U.S. soil has precedents stretching back to the Founding.
152
History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
“Imagine for a moment that you are a Russian worker in St. Petersburg in late 1782. Your job is to drive piles into the ground using a towering contraption of weights and pulleys.” www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The Bentham Brothers Build a Panopticon
Attracted by autocracy, two 18th-century Englishmen went to Russia and invented a method to consolidate control over workers.
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Henry Snow @henrys.now · 26/05/2026
well well well, if it isn't the Bentham brothers-- another excerpt from Control Science, this one with HNN! www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The Bentham Brothers Build a Panopticon
Attracted by autocracy, two 18th-century Englishmen went to Russia and invented a method to consolidate control over workers.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Today’s Continuum is inspired by the latest HNN feature, in which Marc Egnal reflects on 50 years of scholarship about the American Revolution, and calls for more attention to the material conditions that influenced the colonies’ break with England. mailchi.mp/historynewsn...
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
“Together, the slave code and patrol law were meant to bring a brutal restoration of enslavers’ law and order to South Carolina and to turn the page, both on these years of sharpened resistance by enslaved people and on lax habits of white policing and vigilance.” www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The Prehistory of the Slave Patrol
As slave rebellions roiled the minds of 18th century Americans, enslavers looked to the state to enact a new type of policing.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
How the residents of Sherman, Texas, came together to patch a hole in historical memory. www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-...
historynewsnetwork.org
The Hard Work of Reckoning with Local History
How the residents of Sherman, Texas, came together to patch a hole in historical memory.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
“As slave rebellions captured enslavers’ imaginations, they embraced another type of policing — one in which government institutions would play a more important role than the deputized enslaver acting on their own.” www.hnn.us/article/the-...
hnn.us
The Prehistory of the Slave Patrol
As slave rebellions roiled the minds of 18th century Americans, enslavers looked to the state to enact a new type of policing.
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Read our latest Continuum: a tour of local history around the country. mailchi.mp/historynewsn...
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Gautham Rao (pronounced: Knicks in 5) @gauthamrao.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Thanks @myhnn.bsky.social for this excerpt from my new book about the origins of slave patrols: "slave patrols were emergency measures...But if the emergency never receded, then it became the norm. So, too, did the slave patrol." www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/the-...
historynewsnetwork.org
The Prehistory of the Slave Patrol
As slave rebellions roiled the minds of 18th century Americans, enslavers looked to the state to enact a new type of policing.
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Bunk @bunkhistory.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Earlier today, we tagged and posted our 15,000th piece of American history content on Bunk. A milestone! Big appreciation to all the great authors represented here: www.bunkhistory.org/resources?so... 🗃️
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History News Network @myhnn.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
A historian stumbles upon an article that provides a fascinating glimpse into how the world thought about witchcraft and sex in 1963. www.hnn.us/article/read...
hnn.us
Reading <em>Playboy</em> for the History
A historian stumbles upon an article that provides a fascinating glimpse into how the world thought about witchcraft and sex in 1963.
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