History in Focus

To kick off 2026, we have a conversation with the American Historical Association's new executive director, Sarah Weicksel. We get into Sarah's path to her current position and her vision for what this next chapter of the AHA could be in the midst of the challenging times we're living in.

Historian Elizabeth Hinton explores W.E.B. Du Bois's 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction. We also hear from Eric Foner, Chad Williams, Sue Mobley, and Kendra Field. The AHR chose not to review Black Reconstruction when it was first published. A review by Hinton appears in the December 2022 issue.

What if historians could own up to their mistakes? Or learn to see their mistakes not as weaknesses to be hidden but as a necessary part of the process of growth and discovery? That is what a recent special edition of the History Unclassified section of the journal explores. That edition, "Mistakes I Have Made," includes reflections from nine contributors as well as from section editors Kate Brown and Emily Callaci. We speak, in turn, with all of them in this episode.

Historian Alexis Dudden and graphic artist Kim Inthavong discuss their collaborative work on history, memory, and activism in Okinawa, Japan. Their piece, "Okinawa: Territory as Monument," appeared in the History Lab section of the September 2022 issue of the AHR. Inthavong's graphic panels illustrating Okinawans' present-day struggle over US military presence in the islands can be previewed below.

We kick of season 4 with a miniseries titled "State of the Field for Busy Teachers." In four brief episodes we offer teachers—or really anyone crunched for time—a rapid review of a field of historical scholarship, including how the field has evolved, where it is now, and where one might go to learn more. This first installment features historian Jennifer Hart on the state of the field of African History.

This next installment in our series "State of the Field for Busy Teachers" features historian Ned Blackhawk on the state of the field of Native American History.

This next installment in our series "State of the Field for Busy Teachers" features historian Don Romesburg on the state of the field of LGBTQ+ History.

This final installment in our series "State of the Field for Busy Teachers" features historian Walter Greason on the state of the field of Graphic History.

In this final episode of season 3, we talk with Kate Carpenter, creator and host of the podcast Drafting the Past, which explores the craft of writing history, and researcher of the history of storm chasing in the U.S. We examine the many angles on history writing that Kate explores in her podcast, question what a closer look at this aspect of historians' work illuminates about the discipline and about the work of history more broadly, and delve into the fascinating history of storm chasing on the Great Plains.

A Martian lands on Earth, heads to the nearest university's History Department, and asks the question, "What is Asia?" What kind of response would they get? We explore this question with historian Nile Green, who outlines a forum titled "Big Asia: Rethinking a Region" that appears in the June 2025 issue of the AHR.