Guide, Warning, Mirror? History in the Present
Part of 139th AHA Annual MeetingPresented by Burton, Antoinette M., & Burton, Antoinette M.
Friday 9 January 2026·3:30 pm
This late-breaking session brings historians from different geographies and time periods together in a roundtable to debate the potentialities of history in the present. Scholars of the Third Reich have suggested that the Nazi past is a guide to what’s happening now. But is it a guide, a warning, a mirror – or what methods does it offer for discerning the contemporary and its futures? The goal here is not answers but usable, even teachable, models for grappling with how historical ways of thinking and knowing can serve us as we reckon with our own expertise and strive to put it to use in the world right now.
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Related Sessions at 139th AHA Annual Meeting
"a Right to Bear Arms? a Roundtable on the Contested Role of History and Historians in Current Second Amendment Debates”Tucker, Jennifer, & Tucker, Jennifer
“Closing the Open Door?: Revisiting Tariffs, Empires, and Great-Power Industrial Policy”Heiss, Mary Ann, & Malcomson, Scott
“Women in the Military Since 1976: The History and Legacy of Women’s Integration into the Wider Military, 50 Years Later”Patterson, Sarah Elizabeth, & Cook, Christine
(Re)Organized Religion: A Case for Recentering Institutions in Religious HistoryMaffly-Kipp, Laurie, De Stradis, Susanna, & Greene, Alison
(Un)Freedom: Imperial Geographies of Labor, Displacement, and ControlMintzker, Yair, & Mugge, Miqueias H.