History Guild supports the Australian Historical Association’s Statement in Response to the Trump Administration’s Attempts to Curtail Academic Freedom.

The Australian Historical Association stands in solidarity with our colleagues in the United States of America, where President Donald Trump is attempting far-reaching political interference in the work of historians and museum sector professionals. In his executive order signed on March 27, entitled ‘Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History’, President Trump alleged a ‘concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth’. The order requires Vice President JD Vance (as member of the Smithsonian’s board of regents) to work with Congress and the office of management and budget to block programmes at the Smithsonian that ‘degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy’. The AHA deplores the Trump administration’s attempts to impose a single version of American history. We share the concerns of our American colleagues that the Trump administration represents a threat to American historians’ freedom to produce ethical, excellent, and evidence-based research and to present the results of this research to the public through exhibitions, websites and other materials.

Australian Historical Association

Articles you may also like

Siege battery at Wacken during the siege of Strasbourg in 1870.

The History of Gunpowder: From Elixir of Life to the Revolution of Warfare

Reading time: 6 minutes
One of the most famous materials in history, gunpowder is largely responsible for European dominance in the 20th Century, the fall of Constantinople’s impregnable walls, and much more.
Yet this devasting and destructive powder did not materialise into rifles and cannons in Europe in the 14th and 15th Centuries. Rather, it was discovered initially in China, several hundred years prior, by alchemists searching for, ironically, the elixir of life.
So how did gunpowder go from a powder for immortality in 9th Century China, to the fiery fuel of guns in Europe and the Middle East over 500 years later?

Read More

How Slavery Built Modern Britain – Podcast

Padraic Scanlan talks about how Britain rose to global power on the backs of enslaved workers. Modern Britain has inherited the legacies and contradictions of a liberal empire built on slavery. Modern capitalism and liberalism emphasise ‘freedom’ – for individuals and for markets – but are built on human bondage. This podcast adds to our […]

Read More