What we do:
Defend our discipline
We mobilize historians, teachers, and historically-minded activists to challenge the permanent campaign of “fake news” and phony history that has driven the right’s ascent. We will defend the discipline of history against attempts to reduce it to simple affirmations of “American greatness,” and document how prior eras of reaction and repression were successfully combated.
Publish teaching resources
We have developed history and resource guides on numerous topics for classroom use, including U.S. foreign policy, Palestine & Israel, the Iraq War, and conscientious objection and peace movements. We have also produced a series of short videos, titled Liberating History, for classroom use.
Build solidarity on-campus
We see our campuses as key sites for both repression and resistance. We will fight for the right to education, free speech and academic freedom for all members of campus communities, and for the human and civil rights of our students, especially the undocumented, Muslims, people of color, women and LGBTQ+ people.
Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza
Below is the text of a Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza which we urge all current AHA members to sign, so as to place it on the agenda of the Business Meeting set for January 10, 2026, during the Association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.
This resolution was developed in partnership with the Palestinian Historians Group and Historians for Palestine. As you will see, it extends the resolution we passed last January, and reflects the strong global consensus that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide. It also incorporates the specific needs articulated by the Emergency Committee formed by the presidents of Gaza’s three leading universities.
Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza
Whereas the U.N. Special Committee on Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People; leading international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders, Al-Haq, and B’Tselem; and the International Association of Genocide Scholars and prominent genocide scholars and historians have concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza;
Whereas Israeli actions have been enabled by U.S. military and diplomatic support, including over $30 billion in funding since October 7, 2023;
Whereas U.N. experts have raised alarm over the “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system, an action known as ‘scholasticide.’” This includes razing Gaza’s 12 universities; destroying over 90 percent of its schools and most archives, libraries, and museums; and killing, starving, and displacing thousands of students, faculty, and staff;
Whereas academics in Gaza have declared their refusal to allow this “continuous Nakba” to “extinguish the flame of knowledge and resilience,” and Gaza university presidents have called for “immediate international mobilization to support and protect Gaza’s higher education institutions,” stating: “We are more than buildings—we are academic communities, comprised of students, faculty, and staff, still alive and determined to carry forward our mission”;
Whereas Gaza’s nonprofit universities have established a unified Emergency Committee that has articulated concrete priorities for international support;
Be it resolved that the AHA, which supports the right of all peoples to freely teach and learn about their past, condemns Israeli scholasticide in Gaza and calls for a permanent ceasefire; echoing the call of AHA members at the Association’s business meeting on January 5, 2025;
Be it resolved that the AHA, in cooperation with universities in Gaza and their representative bodies, will support efforts to ensure the current survival, and future rebuilding, of Palestinian higher education by forming a committee to pursue these objectives.
Resolution Opposing Attacks on Core Principles of Education
Below is the text of a new Resolution Opposing Attacks on Core Principles of Education, which we urge all current AHA members to sign, so as to place it on the agenda of the Business Meeting set for January 10, 2026, during the Association’s Annual Meeting in Chicago.
This is the second resolution for which we are requesting signers. The Radical Caucus of the Modern Language Association drew up its text, which they are submitting at the MLA’s Annual Meeting. We enthusiastically agreed to submit it to our membership as well. Both of our groups think that it will have a greater impact if other scholarly organizations pass the exact same resolution. In addition to signing the resolution, we also ask you to share it with people in other fields and encourage them to submit similar resolutions to their disciplinary associations to demonstrate solidarity and build intra-professional unity in the face of unprecedented and escalating attacks.
Resolution Opposing Attacks on Core Principles of Education
WHEREAS escalating attacks on academic freedom, free speech, faculty governance, and equity are irreparably damaging education in the United States;
WHEREAS these attacks weaponize allegations of antisemitism and racism to undermine struggles against those real problems, justify massive cutbacks, and silence protest against the U.S.-sponsored Israeli genocide in Gaza;
WHEREAS untenured and adjunct faculty and international students are especially vulnerable to doxxing, firing, and deportation;
BE IT RESOLVED that the AHA condemns these attacks and their specious justifications, and urges all United States educational institutions to join in this opposition.
Active Since October 2023
The Israel-Palestine Working Group
Ceasefire Now!
The Israel Palestine Working Group of H-PAD has been working since October 2023 to promote a ceasefire and humanitarian aid to Gaza. We also oppose U.S. military aid to Israel, which only serves to prolong the war and increase the suffering of Palestinians and the destruction of Gaza.
- H-PAD Statement on Escalation of Violence in Israel and Palestine (joint statement with other organizations, October 15, 2023)
- Statement from H-PAD Co-chairs on Escalation of Israeli Violence in Gaza (October 12, 2023)
Recommended Reading
- H-PAD Recommended Reading on Palestine and Israel (October 17, 2023)
We have collected a sampling of some of the best English-language analysis from progressive and anti-imperialist voices that have appeared since October 7th.
We know that no amount of analysis or contextualization can soothe the pain that many people on every side are feeling. But we believe these voices can help inform our efforts to demand an immediate ceasefire to prevent the further escalation of the U.S.-backed Israeli war in Gaza, while also addressing the root causes of the violence, supporting non-terrorist means of resistance to the occupation, and forging a future in which Palestinians and Jews can both live with dignity and security.
Ongoing Action
We have written letters to elected legislators, to the editors of the Chicago Tribune, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and published articles in The Nation and El Espectador (Bogota, Colombia).
We have also produced a series of short videos on various aspects of the crisis. You can view them on youtube or our other social media channels, and are designed to be shared.
We hope you will join us in our work! If you think you can contribute, please contact Margaret Power at cochairs@historiansforpeace.org.
Statement, January 6, 2024
In Defense of the Right to Learn
A Resolution Passed by members of the American Historical Association at the Annual Meeting, January 6, 2024
The American Historical Association (AHA) will continue to vigorously:
- uphold accuracy in history teaching;
- intervene where appropriate and encourage members to organize against attacks on history and the work of historians;
- defend academic freedom and job security for history teachers at every level;
- write editorials and letters-to-the-editor defending teachers, librarians, and school board members; and
- testify before legislative bodies and school boards about the right to learn.
The Association welcomes support from its members for such activities.
January 3-6, 2025 in New York City
H-PAD at the AHA
In January of 2024 H-PAD held a radical history mini-conference within the larger AHA annual meeting in San Francisco. We sponsored 17 radical history sessions, held a vigil for the people of Gaza, and we proposed a resolution at the AHA business meeting calling on historians to oppose the suppression of academic freedom and honest education; it was approved unanimously.
We will be doing this again at the AHA Annual Meeting for 2025 in New York City.
Last Updated December 2023
Culture Wars Against Education Archive
Historians for Peace and Democracy has compiled an archive of materials on the past and present of the culture wars and responses to them. We hope this archive will help teachers and students on all levels educate themselves about the current crisis and find constructive ways to respond to it. The archive provides a variety of resources that will be useful as well for journalists, commentators, politicians, and the general public. Contents will be updated regularly.
Get Involved in H-PAD
How Historians Can Support Our Efforts
Support educators
Join Historians on Call
Historians-on-Call connects historians with local struggles and opportunities to support educators. To date, more than 90 historians have signed up from Arizona, California, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and other states.
If you are a professional historian, we invite you to join Historians on Call. Visit our Current Activities page to learn more.
Become a member
Join H-PAD as an Active or Supporting Member
Consider becoming a member of Historians for Peace and Democracy. We have two types of membership to reflect our members’ different capacities: “Supporting members” receive communications from us about our activities and possible actions they might consider taking, while “Active members” are asked to indicate areas on which they would be interested in working. These currently include Historians on Call, the Culture Wars against Education Archive, the Legislative Action Working group, and the Israel-Palestine Working Group.
See our Current Activities for more information…
Contribute
Make a Donation
We have no member dues at this time. Instead, we rely on donations so that our network can continue to grow. Please consider committing to make a small monthly donation–our monthly “sustainers” make what we do possible.
Every dollar that you contribute goes directly to amplifying the voices of historians who support pro-democracy and anti-militarist movements at home and abroad.
Thank you for contributing to our work
Contact H-PAD
To donate by check, make it out to Historians for Peace & Democracy and mail it to:
Historians for Peace and Democracy
PO Box 108
Canal Street Station
New York NY 10013
United States of America
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