Nell reviews two books in The Washington Post: "New biographies reflect great changes in the writing of Black history." October 3, 2024. “Night Flyer,” about Harriet Tubman, and “Nat Turner, Black Prophet” stress the importance of religion to their subjects and illustrate how history is being crafted right now.
This year offers two spectacular books that stress the importance of religion to Tubman and Turner, and that illustrate — one visually and contextually, one rhetorically — how far Black biography has traveled in the past quarter-century.
- “Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People,” written by Tiya Miles
- “Nat Turner, Black Prophet: A Visionary History” written by Anthony E. Kaye with Gregory P. Downs
Nell has an essay in The New Republic magazine: Liberalism Has the Ideas–but Does It Have the Will to Impose Them? (in a special section on liberalism introduced by Michael Tomasky) June 20, 2024.
I Just Keep Talking—A Life in Essays by Nell Irvin Painter. Nell’s newest book (published April 23, 2024, by Doubleday) is a comprehensive new collection of essays spanning art, politics, and the legacy of racism that shapes American history as we know it.
I Just Keep Talking assembles her writing for the first time into a single volume, displaying the breadth and depth of Painter’s decades-long historical inquiry and the evolution of Black political thought—and includes a dazzling new introduction and coda. Along with Painter’s writing, this collection features her original artwork, threaded throughout the book as counterpoint.
See this link for more information, including reviews and praise from noted authors on I Just Keep Talking.
Jacket art: Self-Portrait 11 (2010) by Nell Irvin Painter;
Jacket design by John Fontana; doubleday.com, 4/2024
Click here for a larger image of I Just Keep Talking’s dust cover.
Nell's 1996 book on Sojourner Truth: Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol — now has a new 2nd edition! Published April 23, 2024, by W. W. Norton. See the two following posts in which Nell discussed Sojourner Truth, and this book: Cynthia Greenlee's article for the Smithsonian Magazine; and the Smithsonian Magazine podcast There's More to That where Nell and Cynthia Greenlee are interviewed about Sojourner Truth. Also see our Books Authored page on this website with details on this book.
Links for Purchasing Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol — New 2nd edition, April 23, 2024
Nell's 1987 book Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919 — A Grassroots History of the Progressive Era—now has a new 3rd edition! Published April 23, 2024, by W. W. Norton.
Nell will be featured in the PBS multipart series The Progressive Era with Bill Moyers, which coincides with the release of the updated edition of this acclaimed work.
An "enthralling" (Michael Kazin, Washington Post) account of America’s shift from a rural and agrarian society to an urban and industrial society.
Also see our Books Authored page on this website with more details on this book.
Links for Purchasing Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919 — New 3rd edition, April 23, 2024
2024-25 Berlin Prize Fellow — Nell is selected as a Fall 2024 Berlin Prize Fellow.
(see our page on this site American Academy in Berlin Fall 2024)
BERLIN—May 6, 2024—The American Academy in Berlin announced the Berlin Prize recipients for the 2024-25 academic year. The Berlin Prize is awarded annually to US-based scholars, writers, composers, and artists who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields, from the humanities and social sciences to journalism, public policy, fiction, the visual arts, and music composition. Chosen by an independent selection committee, the 2024-25 class of fellows will pursue a wide array of scholarly and artistic projects.
Nell's project will be My Elsewheres, in which she undertakes a personal exploration of place and identity. Reflecting on her life abroad—in her youth in France and Ghana, and in her writing, in Germany—Painter’s book examines how these experiences shaped her self-understanding, perspectives on race and history, and the value of narrative storytelling.
The Berlin Prize provides recipients the time and resources to advance important scholarly and artistic projects, free from the constraints of other professional obligations. Fellows work throughout the semester with Berlin peers and institutions in the Academy’s well-established network, forging meaningful connections that lead to lasting transatlantic relationships. During their stays, fellows engage German audiences through lectures, readings, and performances.
The Washington Post reviews I Just Keep Talking: "Nell Irvin Painter’s understanding of America is beautiful and bracing. We should listen." From the review: “I Just Keep Talking” brings together wide-ranging and pointed essays by the author of “The History of White People.” …We’re lucky that she continues to talk. What she has to say can help us more fully understand ourselves — but only if we’re willing to listen." Review by Robin Givhan, June 12, 2024.
The New York Times reviews I Just Keep Talking (Nell’s newest book published April 23, 2024 by Doubleday) — "She Wrote ‘The History of White People.’ She Has a Lot More to Say."
The Nation reviews I Just Keep Talking: (published April 2024 by Doubleday) "Chronicles of Freedom: The radical histories of Nell Irvin Painter." From the review: “I Just Keep Talking provides a grand and capacious vision not just of Painter’s life and times but of Black history and culture, too…Compiling visual art, autobiographical writings, historical essays, and journalistic pieces completed between 1981 and 2022, the collection marks the contours of Painter’s personal and professional development." Review by Elias Rodriques, May 7, 2024; May 2024 issue.
State of the Arts NJ video segment focusing on Nell and her new book I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays (Doubleday, 2024). Produced by Ilene Dube for State of the Arts. State of the Arts is a cornerstone program of NJ PBS — this New York and Mid-Atlantic Emmy Award-winning series features documentary shorts about artists from the creative and cultural worlds of New Jersey. May 2024. Video, 8:26 min.
Political Junkie podcast. Claire Potter interviews Nell Painter in "Episode 53: Nobody Else Has My Eyes." Nell returns to the show with a new collection of her work, I Just Keep Talking: A Life in Essays (Doubleday, 2024). April 26, 2024. Audio; written transcript.
Claire Potter says of the book "This curated collection of essays is beautifully illustrated with the questions, visual observations, and imaginative renderings that scholarship alone cannot properly address. The book is autobiographical, it is scholarly, and it is beautiful: Painter has truly taken the practice of history to a new level."
Sojourner Truth, 2022. Art by Nell Painter.
Quote from end of the podcast transcript:
Claire Potter: So this is how I end every podcast is by asking my guest, why should we read this book now?
Nell: And you should read this book now because this book will give you a way of seeing your, our world through my eyes and nobody else has my eyes.
I am a black person of a certain age, so I have lived through a lot, and I have done a lot of research, and I think having the past in mind gives me and readers a way of understanding the world around us now, our society, and maybe even our economy, but certainly our politics, in a way you couldn't see if you were not looking through my eyes.
New Jersey Monthly magazine article "Nell Irvin Painter on Art, Aging and Telling the Truth" by Kate Tuttle, appears in the April 2024 issue. Online in njmonthly.com, April 23, 2024. Print/web.
Nell discusses her newly published book I Just Keep Talking, living in New Jersey, aging, her art, family, and her other books.
Print magazine—Design Matters podcast. Debbie Millman interviews Nell Painter in Season 19 of Design Matters podcast, April 15, 2024. Nell joins Debbie Millman to discuss her legendary career as a distinguished historian, award-winning author, and artist; including Nell's new book I Just Keep Talking. Debbie Millman says of it "it’s a fantastic book." Audio; written transcript.
Nell is interviewed by Cynthia Greenlee for the Smithsonian Magazine, History — March 2024 article "The Remarkable Untold Story of Sojourner Truth," with photographs by Maddie McGarvey. "Feminist, Preacher. Abolitionist. Civil rights pioneer. Now the full story of the American icon’s life and faith is finally coming to light."
Nell discusses her new book in progress Sojourner Truth Was a New Yorker and She Didn’t Say That with Cynthia Greenlee for this Smithsonian Magazine, article. See more about Nell's new book on this website, and more from the article here.
A close-up of Sojourner Truth sculpture by Woodrow Nash. photo by Maddie McGarvey.
(From Smithsonian Magazine, "The Remarkable Untold Story of Sojourner Truth," March 2024)
Smithsonian podcast interviews Nell and Cynthia Greenlee: "How to Separate Fact From Myth in the Extraordinary Story of Sojourner Truth" on There's More to That: Two historians tell us why the pioneering 19th-century feminist, suffragist and abolitionist’s legacy has so frequently been misrepresented.
— Apple Podcast link for the Feb. 22, 2024 episode of There's More to That
— Smithsonian Magazine web page for episode with description, transcript, and audio player
Stop Messaging Me, a Black Journalist, About White Irish “Slaves”—A wide-ranging conversation about how white people became “white.” Nell is interviewed by Garrison Hayes for Mother Jones magazine. October 22, 2023. Video and text.
This interview includes the fluidity and historical contexts of racial identities in general, the cyclical nature of historical erasure in American education, and even Dr. Painter’s perspective on the capitalization of Black and “White.”
Shepherd.com recommends Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol. Nell's 1996 biography of Sojourner Truth is recommended by other authors on the website Shepherd.com. Three authors picked Sojourner Truth as one of their favorite books, and describe why they recommend it. (Also see our page for Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol under authored books on this website.)
“DeSantis’ Dearth of Understanding of America’s Past Fails Everyone in the Present.” Madam Chairman of the MacDowell Board, Fellow, and author Nell Painter identifies the recent efforts to censor history as a repetition of the past in a new essay for Why MacDowell Now? series on macdowell.org.
Nell Painter: Art Can Prevail Over DeSantis’s Campaign Against History. “Here we are again,” she writes, “face to face with powerful attempts to push Black Americans – our experiences, our struggles, and our thoughts – out of the American consciousness.”
But, she continues, “the struggle to be heard and seen will also continue. Art will play its part in this process, for art’s reach is not so easily censored. MacDowell artists, like all artists, remain part of this story.”
"The US: Whose country, 'tis of thee? – Nationalism Reimagined." Nell is interviewed in a podcast by World Review from the New Statesman. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. (November 8, 2022; Nell's segment starts at 19:00 min. in)
This podcast series looks at nationalism in its different forms around the world, and alternative approaches to creating a sense of nationhood. At the 19:00 min. mark in this episode Nell explains why she’s thinking about the local and the global, not the national.
The U.S. And The Holocaust – Excerpts with Dr. Painter. Nell's interview for this Ken Burns series is featured in a 10-minute-plus excerpt (hosted on Nell's page on UTA Speakers). (full series premiered September 18, 2022; streaming on PBS.org)
The U.S. and the Holocaust, a new three-part, six-hour series directed and produced by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, explores America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the 20th century. The U.S. and the Holocaust features interviews with some of the country’s leading scholars on the period, including Nell Irvin Painter.
Nell discusses her book, The History of White People with John Piche of The Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library's 1619 Project discussion group. In this interview, "History of White People with Nell Irvin Painter," Nell begins with discussing just what it means to be "white" and how ideas of whiteness developed using Ancient Greek and Roman sources. Ralph Waldo Emerson's influence is explored before delving into eugenics, anti-Semitism, and Irish Immigration. (October 17, 2022 )
Nell spoke at the Schomburg Center event "Uncovered: Sojourner Truth's Quest for Liberty and Justice," at the Schomburg Center Langston Hughes Auditorium. The event featured 4 speakers, who revisit the story of Sojourner Truth’s inspiring life, tell the exciting story of how the long-lost court records from her fight to liberate her son from slavery were recovered in 2022, and discuss the important role of archives in the preservation of documents and the teaching of history to future generations.
The event was sponsored by the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center For Research In Black Culture, the Historical Society of the New York Courts, the New York State Archives, and the New York State Unified Court System. (The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture located in Harlem, New York is a research unit of The New York Public Library system.) Nell is one of four speakers, and her introduction occurs at 26:30 min. into the recording. (October 4, 2022 )
Nell’s interview on WBUR, Boston’s NPR news station (on radio show Here & Now): "Sojourner Truth court documents found 194 years after legal battle to free enslaved son." Historian Nell Irvin Painter is calling a new find in the New York state archives dramatic and moving. The documents accidentally uncovered by archivist Jim Folts detail abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth’s legal battle — and victory — to free her 9-year-old enslaved son. Folts and Irvin Painter join Here & Now’s Robin Young to talk about the unexpected find and its significance. (June 20, 2022)
Nell’s essay “From 1872 to 1876 in the Space of One Year” appears in The Hoosac Institute on-line Journal 10 (Jan 2022).
The Department of African American Studies, Princeton University interviews Nell in “The Extraordinary Women of AAS Featuring Nell Painter” March 28, 2022 (video). "The Department of African American Studies sat down with the exceptional Nell Irvin Painter, Faculty Emerita, to reflect on her professional journey, achievements, and future endeavors.
Nell appears in a new Showtime docuseries “everything's gonna be all white” (Episode 1). Showtime describes the series as “A deep dive into America's past and present through the experiences of people of color.” (March 2022)
Here is an 6:37 min. excerpt (thanks to Sonya Denyse from UTA): Dr. Nell Irvin Painter on Showtime's documentary, “everything's gonna be all white.”
- Stream from this site
- Stream from Nell’s page on UTA (Nell’s talent agency for speaking engagements)
- Download mp4 video file (920MB)
Nell’s on-line interview with TSL: TSL Time to Talk: In Conversation with Nell Irvin Painter 2/18/2. (Time & Space Limited is a creative space in Hudson, NY). Topics include Sojourner Truth, Nell's art, new books, Faith Ringgold, Harriet Tubman. (February 18, 2022)
Nell’s appearance on MSNBC "The Last Word": Lawrence O'Donell interviews Nell about Sojourner Truth, in segment "Recovered docs show how Sojourner Truth won son’s freedom from white man." (February 2, 2022)
Nell’s essay in Politico "How Will the History Books Remember 2021? American democracy cleaved along racial lines" by Nell Irvin Painter, December 29, 2021 (Politico Magazine – History Dept.)
The Second Edition of Southern History Across the Color Line is now available on the UNC Press website and on Amazon.
Published by University of North Carolina Press (2nd edition April 2021).
"This edition features refreshed essays and a new preface that sheds light on the development of Painter’s thought and our continued struggles with racism in the twenty-first century."
See more reviews and excerpts of the First Edition (published 2002) on this web site.
Nell’s op-ed piece in The New York Times: "It Shouldn’t Be This Close. But There’s Good News, Too. In the long lines of voters, I see hope." by Nell Irvin Painter, November 5, 2020 (The New York Times–Opinion)
Nell's video on NBC: Think—Opinion, Analysis, Essays “The complex history and an uncertain future of American whiteness” by Nell Irvin Painter, August 3, 2020. “A summer of protest has launched myriad conversations on Blackness in America. But whiteness also has its own history in the U.S., one that Nell Painter, author of “The History of White People,” says deserves just as much scrutiny.”
Nell's opinion piece in The Washington Post: “Why 'White' should be capitalized, too” by Nell Irvin Painter, July 22, 2020. “Let’s talk about that lowercase 'white.' ” [This piece appeared in The Washington Post print edition on July 23, 2020.]
Here is Nell's unedited longer version (as a pdf), before it was cut to fit into The Post's opinion section.
Nell's opinion piece in NBC online news (nbcnews.com) (Think/Thought Experiment): “White identity in America is ideology, not biology. The history of 'whiteness' proves it.” by Nell Irvin Painter, June 27, 2020. “The idea of one big white race did not just spring to life full-blown and unchanging, which is what most people assume — and white supremacists rely on.”
Nell has an essay in the Paris Review (Arts & Culture): “On Horseback” by Nell Painter, June 19, 2020. A personal essay on black horseback riders in Black Lives Matter protests, the history of black cowboys, and her own personal history of horseback riding as a girl with her father in California.
Nell's piece in The New Yorker (Cultural Comment): “Seeing Police Brutality Then and Now” by Nell Irvin Painter, June 18, 2020. “We still haven’t fully recognized the art made by twentieth-century black artists.”
Nell participates in an on-line web chat: Hyphenings — Blind Date No. 5 — Nell Irvin Painter and Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, “Negotiating identities” May 26, 2020. Nell is webchatting with Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed (Algeria/France), Dr. in social sciences (theology sociology neuropsychology) and imam (gender minorities liberation). Their topics include: identity tools, summer people, race and racism, white supremacy, stereotypes, religion, beauty, norms, homosexuality, inclusive mosques, community, imams, faith, science, activist frontlines, engaged art vs. art for art’s sake, Marseille, (in)visibility, (de)colonization. Hyphenings is an international video project connecting writers, thinkers, and artists. In the “blind date” series, guests are not told anything about each other, just invited into a video chat and the curators record what happens.
Nell is interviewed as part of a podcast on NPR's "Invisabilia" series: "White v. White?", March 27, 2020. The podcast's subject is "A city council candidate says he's black. But his opponent accuses him of being a white man pretending to be black." Nell discusses race as a social construct, the meanings which change over time.
Nell presents the Keynote Lecture at the Duke University Libraries Exhibits “Women in the Book Arts Symposium: Keynote Lecture by Dr. Nell Irvin Painter,” from the Grolier Club, New York, NY, January 21, 2020. This symposium explored women’s contributions to printing, publishing, and the book arts, as well as the contributions of women collectors and book dealers.
Nell's op-ed piece in The New York Times: "A Racist Attack Shows How Whiteness Evolves" by Nell Irvin Painter, October 26, 2019 (The New York Times - Opinion) (here is a downloadable pdf)
Nell Irvin Painter reviews three new books about white identity politics and its implications for the United States: Nell Irvin Painter, “What is White America? The Identity Politics of the Majority,” in Foreign Affairs, November-December 2019: pp. 177-183.
(downloadable pdf)
(Here is also a link to Nell’s foreignaffairs.com article, which is behind the publication's “paywall,” but accessible with a free one-article-a-month account.)
Nell's second op-ed piece in The Guardian (August 2019), “How we think about the term ‘enslaved’ matters” – 400 years ago, the first Africans who came to America were not ‘enslaved’, they were indentured – and this makes a crucial difference when we think about the meanings of our past. (14 Aug 2019)
Nell's July 2019 op-ed piece in The Guardian, "Trump revives the idea of a ‘white man’s country’, America’s original sin" – It can’t be left to black Americans alone to resist the president’s racism. Citizens of all colours need to resist, and embrace activism. (20 July 2019)
Nell reviews "Stony the Road," by Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The New York Times, April 27, 2019 Sunday Book Review print issue: "In ‘Stony the Road,’ Henry Louis Gates Jr. Captures the History and Images of the Fraught Years After the Civil War" (posted April 18, 2019).
The French edition of The History of White People—Histoire des Blancs, was released January 31, 2019! Here is more information, including French-language interviews and reviews.
Nell receives the American Historical Association 2018 Award for Scholarly Distinction.
Nell reviews Toni Morrison’s book “The Origin of Others” in The New Republic: “Long Divisions: The history of racism and exclusion in the United States is the history of whiteness.”, by Nell Irvin Painter, October 11, 2017.
https://newrepublic.com/article/144972/long-divisions
Nell's interview on Canadian radio: "There is no such thing as the 'white race' — or any other race, says historian". CBC Radio, The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright, Sunday September 17, 2017. Audio and text.
Video of Nell's interview with Carol Jenkins on CUNY Television's Black America series on April 26, 2017, "Black America - Through a Painter's Eye with Nell Painter": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_b6qwX9f0c&t=6s
New York Times op-ed piece "What Whiteness Means in the Trump Era" by Nell Irvin Painter, November 12, 2016 (The New York Times - Opinion):
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/opinion/what-whiteness-means-in-the-trump-era.html
A New York Times op-ed piece: "What is Whiteness?" by Nell Irvin Painter, June 20, 2015 (The New York Times Sunday Review - Opinion): http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/opinion/sunday/what-is-whiteness.html?_r=0
A piece by Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The Blue Period: An Origin Story," in The Atlantic.com, 1 April 2014: http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2014/04/the-blue-period-an-origin-story/359968/
This begins with Nell's 26 minute "Big Think" interview.
Nell's Jefferson Memorial Lecture at the University of California, Berkeley, November 7, 2013 (video, also audio only): http://gradlectures.berkeley.edu/lecture/caucasian/
Video of Nell's interview with Harry Kreisler, "Reflections of an Historian," in the Conversations with History series at the University of California, Berkeley, November 7, 2013: https://conversations.berkeley.edu/painter_2013
The Japanese edition of The History of White People.
As a Fulbright Scholar in the United Kingdom in October 2011, Nell lectured at the University of Edinburgh and Newcastle University.
Nell received a Centennial Medal from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in May 2011: http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/05/centennial-medalists/
Nell Painter’s videos discussing her book The History of White People:
This C-SPAN search page includes links to several videos:
https://www.c-span.org/search/?searchtype=All&query=Nell+Painter
Videos include:
2010 National Book Festival:
Nell Irvin Painter, "The History of White People"
https://www.c-span.org/video/?295631-1/2010-national-book-festival
(Nell's talk begins at 1:40:25 into the video.)
ABC News with Dianne Sawyer:
Diane Sawyer and author Nell Irvin Painter
discuss what it means to be "white."
(Video no longer posted on ABC News site, but is posted on YouTube by ABC News: https://youtu.be/1sEv-HrLQFo)
The story link on ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/history-white-people-author-nell-painter-talks-diane/story?id=10260769/
Big Think Interview With Nell Irvin Painter:
https://bigthink.com/videos/big-think-interview-with-nell-irvin-painter
About Nell Irvin Painter
Nell Irvin Painter, a leading historian of the United States, is the Edwards Professor of American History, Emerita, Princeton University. In addition to her earned doctorate in history from Harvard University, she has received honorary doctorates from Wesleyan, Dartmouth, SUNY-New Paltz, and Yale.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Nell Painter has also held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Antiquarian Society. She has served as president of the Organization of American Historians and the Southern Historical Association. Those presidential addresses have been published in the Journal of American History (“Ralph Waldo Emerson's Saxons” in March 2009) and the Journal of Southern History (“Was Marie White?” February 2008). The City of Boston declared Thursday, 4 October 2007 Nell Irvin Painter Day in honor of her Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center in 2006.
A prolific and award-winning scholar, her most recent books are The History of White People (W. W. Norton, 2010, paperback, March 2011), Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2006), and Southern History Across the Color Line (University of North Carolina Press, 2002). A second edition of Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-1919 and a Korean translation of Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol appeared in 2008. Her other books are also still in print. For a complete list of her book and article publications and other honors and activities, please consult the Historian C.V. on this website.
As a public intellectual, Professor Painter is frequently called upon for lectures and interviews on television and film. In January 2008 she appeared live for a three-hour “In Depth” program on C-SPAN Book TV. To see the program on the internet, go to the web page for “In Depth.”; or click this link: https://www.c-span.org/video/?201000-1/depth-nell-irvin-painter
She has also appeared on Bill Moyers’s “Progressive America.” New Jersey Network’s “State of the Arts” documented her work as both a scholar and an art student.
Here is information on Nell Irvin Painter’s 2010 book, The History of White People:
The book can be ordered from W. W. Norton and from online booksellers.