{"id":45314,"date":"2025-03-14T22:36:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T22:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=45314"},"modified":"2025-03-14T22:36:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T22:36:59","slug":"aha-oah-joint-statement-on-federal-censorship-of-american-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=45314","title":{"rendered":"AHA\u2013OAH Joint Statement on Federal Censorship of American History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) have released a joint statement condemning \u201crecent efforts to censor historical content on federal government websites, at many public museums, and across a wide swath of government resources that include essential data.\u201d \u201cOur <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/resource\/statement-on-standards-of-professional-conduct\/\">professional ethics<\/a> require that \u2018all historians believe in honoring the integrity of the historical record,\u2019\u201d the statement reads. \u201cWe expect our nation\u2019s leadership to adhere to this same basic standard and we will continue to monitor, protest, and place in the historical record any censorship of American historical facts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To date, 17 organizations have signed on to the statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is only one aspect of the AHA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/why-history-matters\/aha-advocacy\/\">advocacy<\/a> on behalf of historians employed by the federal government. Among other efforts, we are engaging with federal historians on how best to support them and their agencies, closely monitoring legislation and executive orders and tracking job losses for historians, and coordinating with partner organizations like the OAH on critical advocacy to support historians and history education at the federal and state levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>March 13, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Joint Statement on Federal Censorship of American History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) condemn recent efforts to censor historical content on federal government websites, at many public museums, and across a wide swath of government resources that include essential data. New policies that purge words, phrases, and content that some officials deem suspect on ideological grounds constitute a systemic campaign to distort, manipulate, and erase significant parts of the historical record. Recent directives insidiously prioritize narrow ideology over historical research, historical accuracy, and the actual experiences of Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the institution chartered by the US Congress for \u201cthe promotion of historical studies\u201d and \u201cin the interest of American history, and of history in America,\u201d the American Historical Association must speak out when the nation\u2019s leadership wreaks havoc with that history. So, too, must the OAH, as the organization committed to promoting \u201cexcellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history.\u201d It is bad enough to forget the past; it is even worse to intentionally deny the public access to what we remember, have documented, and have expended public resources to disseminate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this writing, the full range of historical distortions and deletions is yet to be discerned. Federal entities and institutions subject to federal oversight and funding are hastily implementing revisions to their resources in an attempt to comply with the \u201cDear Colleague\u201d letter issued by the Department of Education\u2019s Office of Civil Rights and executive orders such as \u201cDefending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.\u201d These changes range from scrubbing words and acronyms from websites to papering over interpretive panels in museums. Some alterations, such as those related to topics like the Tuskegee Airmen and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, have been hurriedly reversed in response to public outcry. Others remain. The scrubbing of words and acronyms from the Stonewall National Monument webpage, for instance, distorts the site\u2019s history by denying the roles of transgender and queer people in movements for rights and liberation. This distortion of history renders the past unrecognizable to the people who lived it and useless to those who seek to learn from the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It remains unclear whether federal agencies are preserving the original versions of these materials for future reference or research. Articles written by historians for the National Park Service, for example, have been altered, and in some instances deleted, because they examine history with references to gender or sexuality. These revisions were made without the authors\u2019 knowledge or consent, and without public acknowledgment that the original articles had been revised. The AHA\u2019s <em>Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct<\/em> is clear: \u201cHonoring the historical record also means leaving a clear trail for subsequent historians to follow. Any changes to a primary source or published secondary work, whether digital or print, should be noted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Words matter. Precision matters. Context matters. Expertise matters. Democracy matters. We can neither deny what happened nor invent things that did not happen. Recent executive orders and other federal directives alter the public record in ways that are contrary to historical evidence. They result in deceitful narratives of the past that violate the professional standards of our discipline. When government entities, or scholars themselves, censor the use of particular words, they in effect censor historical evidence. Censorship and distortion erase people and institutions from history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The AHA\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/resource\/statement-on-standards-of-professional-conduct\/\"><em>Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct<\/em><\/a> makes clear that historians can neither misrepresent their sources nor omit evidence because it \u201cruns counter\u201d to their interpretations. The OAH and AHA condemn the rejection of these professional standards. Classifying collective historical scholarship as \u201ctoxic indoctrination\u201d or \u201cdiscriminatory equity ideology\u201d dismisses the knowledge generated by the deep research of generations of historians. It violates the training, expertise, and purposes of historians as well as their responsibility to public audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our professional ethics require that \u201call historians believe in honoring the integrity of the historical record.\u201d We expect our nation\u2019s leadership to adhere to this same basic standard and we will continue to monitor, protest, and place in the historical record any censorship of American historical facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following organizations have signed on to this statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>American Academy of Religion<br>American Studies Association<br>Association of University Presses<br>College Art Association<br>Conference on Asian History<br>Education for All<br>French Colonial Historical Society<br>Labor and Working-Class History Association<br>National Council for the Social Studies<br>National Council on Public History<br>Network of Concerned Historians<br>North American Conference on British Studies<br>PEN America<br>Society for US Intellectual History<br>Society of Architectural Historians<br>Western History Association<br>World History Association<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/news\/aha-oah-joint-statement-on-federal-censorship-of-american-history\">https:\/\/www.historians.org\/news\/aha-oah-joint-statement-on-federal-censorship-of-american-history<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-novosti","category-rasprave"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/AHA.png?fit=240%2C120&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54786,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54786","url_meta":{"origin":45314,"position":0},"title":"National Council on Public History (NCPH): Statement in Response to White House \u201cSaving America\u2019s Story\u201d Report","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"24. srpnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"NCPH Statement in Response to the White House \u201cSaving America\u2019s Story\u201d Report and in Support of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History Published July 9, 2026 The National Council on Public History (NCPH) rejects the findings of the \u201cSaving America\u2019s Story\u201d report on the Smithsonian National Museum of American\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Statement-Release.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Statement-Release.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Statement-Release.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Statement-Release.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Statement-Release.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54066,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54066","url_meta":{"origin":45314,"position":1},"title":"CALL FOR CHAPTERS: YUGOSLAV WOMEN HISTORIANS: GENDER, KNOWLEDGE, AND PROFESSION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"12. lipnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Type: Edited Volume Language: English Publisher: Institute for Recent History of Serbia Editors: Dr. Nata\u0161a Mili\u0107evi\u0107, Senior Research Associate, Institute for Recent History of Serbia\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Prof. Dr. Michael Antolovi\u0107, Faculty of Education in Sombor, University of Novi Sad Contact: jugoslovenske.istoricarke@yahoo.com Timeline: October 15, 2026: Abstract submission deadline June 30, 2027:\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CPF-Gender.png?fit=1200%2C460&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CPF-Gender.png?fit=1200%2C460&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CPF-Gender.png?fit=1200%2C460&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CPF-Gender.png?fit=1200%2C460&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CPF-Gender.png?fit=1200%2C460&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53394,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53394","url_meta":{"origin":45314,"position":2},"title":"Enzo Traverso, &#8220;Singular Pasts: The &#8220;I&#8221; in Historiography&#8221;","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"15. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Translated by Adam Schoene Columbia University Press Pub Date: November 2022 Today, history is increasingly written in the first person. A growing number of historical works include an autobiographical dimension, as if writing about the past required exploring the inner life of the author. Neither traditional history nor autobiography, this\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Knjige&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Knjige","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=8"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Traverso.avif","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":54410,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54410","url_meta":{"origin":45314,"position":3},"title":"CfA: Teaching World History in the Postmodern Classroom","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"1. srpnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"World History Bulletin, a publication of the World History Association (WHA), is seeking contributions from educators, university faculty, curriculum specialists, public historians, graduate students, and educational researchers for its upcoming issue on \u201cTeaching World History in the Postmodern Classroom.\u201d Teaching World History in the Postmodern Classroom Guest edited by Heather\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52834,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52834","url_meta":{"origin":45314,"position":4},"title":"&#8220;Spatial Worlds of Medieval Central Europe: Real, Imagined, and Conceptual&#8221;, Budapest, 19\u201321 May 2027","author":"Filip \u0160imunjak","date":"6. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Following successful conferences in Budapest (2014), Olomouc (2016), Zagreb (2018), Gda\u0144sk (2021), Bratislava (2023), and Munich (2025), the Seventh Biennial Conference of MECERN (http:\/\/mecern.eu\/) will focus on spatial worlds in medieval history, especially in Central Europe. The concepts of space, place, and the environment are central to our understanding of\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Mecern-Logo.jpg?fit=450%2C270&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52679,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52679","url_meta":{"origin":45314,"position":5},"title":"CfP: CHOSEN NATION(S): HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS OF EXCEPTIONALISM, BUDAPEST, 10TH\u201311TH JUNE 2026 (DEADLINE: 1ST MAY 2026)","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"27. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ludovika University of Public Service (NKE) and the Jewish Theological Seminary \u2013 University of Jewish Studies (OR-ZSE) are pleased to announce a joint academic conference on \u201cChosen Nation(s): Historical and Cultural Interpretations of Exceptionalism\u201d, to be held in Budapest, Hungary. Chosen Nation(s): Historical and Cultural Interpretations of Exceptionalism Keynote\u2026","rel":"","context":"U &quot;Novosti&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/hsozkult.png?fit=1006%2C241&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45315,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45314\/revisions\/45315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}