The American Historical Association has released a statement condemning the evisceration of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as the current administration\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency has terminated hundreds of grants and put 75% of staff on leave. \u201cThe NEH and the grants it administers nourish our democracy through research, education, preservation, institutional capacity building, and public programming in the humanities for the benefit of the American people,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cThis frontal attack on the nation\u2019s public culture is unpatriotic, anti-American, and unjustified.\u201d<\/p>\n
To date, 26 organizations have signed on to this statement.<\/p>\n
We encourage our members to contact<\/a> your congressional representatives today through the National Humanities Alliance\u2019s<\/a> action alert, and urge them to save the NEH. The NHA is also collecting information about current grants that have been canceled since March 31, 2025. If you or your organization has been affected by the NEH\u2019s grant terminations, please complete this form<\/a>.<\/p>\n Historians Defend the National Endowment for the Humanities and American Public Culture<\/b><\/p>\n Approved by AHA Council, April 4, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n The American Historical Association condemns the evisceration of the National Endowment for the Humanities.<\/p>\n On April 3, 2025, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), using a nongovernmental microsoft.com email address, notified hundreds of recipients that grants awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) have been terminated. These grantees include state humanities councils, museums, teachers, researchers, and organizations that serve the public, including the American Historical Association. Later that night, letters were sent from a DOGE microsoft.com email address notifying roughly 75 percent of NEH staff that they have been placed on administrative leave. This frontal attack on the nation\u2019s public culture is unpatriotic, anti-American, and unjustified.<\/p>\n The NEH and the grants it administers nourish our democracy through research, education, preservation, institutional capacity building, and public programming in the humanities for the benefit of the American people. These grants support work ranging from professional development workshops for teachers to the preservation of historic sites, research initiatives, and a wide array of programs for politically and demographically diverse audiences. Despite these significant contributions to public culture, DOGE justifies the termination of these programs by declaring their destruction to be \u201can urgent priority for the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n The grant termination notices refer to a reallocation of funds to \u201ca new direction in furtherance of the President\u2019s agenda.\u201d The specific reallocations remain unknown, but that agenda, as several executive orders have made clear, prioritizes narrow political ideology over historical research, historical accuracy, and the actual historical experiences of Americans.<\/p>\n The NEH was established in 1965 by an act of Congress. The legislation affirmed that \u201cthe arts and the humanities belong to all the people of the United States.\u201d The AHA recognizes that the chair of the NEH always has been a political appointment made by the president. The overall agency and its grantmaking programs, however, include a wide range of topics, perspectives, and approaches. The agency was never intended to be, nor has it been, focused solely on a single president\u2019s narrow\u2014and in this case, deeply ideological\u2014agenda.<\/p>\n Under the guise of \u201csafeguarding\u201d the federal government, DOGE has terminated grants and diminished staffing to a level that renders it impossible for the agency to perform its mission responsibly and with integrity. These actions imperil both the education of the American public and the preservation of our history.<\/p>\n The following organizations have signed on to this statement:<\/p>\n American Society for Theatre Research The American Historical Association has released a statement condemning the evisceration of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":95063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"The AHA has released a statement condemning the evisceration of the National Endowment for the Humanities.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"aha-topic":[],"month":[555],"geographic-taxonomy":[],"post-type":[10,897,588],"thematic-taxonomy":[],"year":[875],"class_list":{"0":"post-95034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"month-april","8":"post-type-advocacy","9":"post-type-federal-government","10":"post-type-funding-for-history","11":"year-875","16":"year-2025","17":"has-featured-image"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95034"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97006,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95034\/revisions\/97006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"aha-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/aha-topic?post=95034"},{"taxonomy":"month","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/month?post=95034"},{"taxonomy":"geographic-taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/geographic-taxonomy?post=95034"},{"taxonomy":"post-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-type?post=95034"},{"taxonomy":"thematic-taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematic-taxonomy?post=95034"},{"taxonomy":"year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.historians.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/year?post=95034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
\nAssociation for Computers and the Humanities
\nAssociation for Documentary Editing
\nAssociation for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
\nAssociation of Ancient Historians
\nAssociation of University Presses
\nBerkshire Conference of Women Historians
\nCentral European History Society
\nConference of Latin American History
\nConference on Asian History
\nFrench Colonial Historical Society
\nGerman Studies Association
\nHistorians for Peace and Democracy
\nImmigration and Ethnic History Society
\nLabor and Working Class History Association
\nLGBTQ+ History Association
\nMedieval Academy of America
\nMormon History Association
\nNew England Historical Association
\nPhi Alpha Theta Executive Committee
\nPolish American Historical Association
\nSociety for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
\nSociety for US Intellectual History
\nSociety of Architectural Historians
\nWestern History Association
\nWestern Society for French History<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"