Historian of the United States House of Representatives

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Historian of the U.S. House of Representatives is an official appointed by that legislative body to study and document its past. The current Historian is Robert V. Remini, appointed on April 28, 2005.

The post was created in 1983 and its first holder was University of Maryland, College Park historian Ray Smock. In a move that was seen by many as politically motivated, Smock was fired by House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1995 when the Republican Party took control of the House.

Gingrich appointed Christina Jeffrey, a political scientist from Kennesaw State University, to the post in January 1995. However, a controversy arose over comments Jeffrey had made in 1986, while evaluating a program called Facing History and Ourselves[1] for the US Department of Education. She wrote "The program gives no evidence of balance or objectivity. The Nazi point of view, however unpopular, is still a point of view and is not presented, nor is that of the Ku Klux Klan." Democrats and Jewish groups expressed outrage at the comments, but Jeffrey stated that the allegations against her were "slanderous and outrageous." Nonetheless, Gingrich dismissed Jeffrey a few days after she took up the post. After meeting with her several months after her dismissal, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, wrote that the ADL was "satisfied that any characterization of you as anti-Semitic or sympathetic to Nazism is entirely unfounded and unfair."[2]

The post was vacant for the next decade until House Speaker Dennis Hastert appointed Remini, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of numerous works on President Andrew Jackson, in 2005. Shortly after his appointment, Remini hired fellow UIC Professor Fred Beuttler as Deputy Historian of the House.

  1. Ray Smock, 1983 - 1995
  2. Christina Jeffrey, 1995
  3. Robert V. Remini, 2005 - present

  1. ^ Facing History and Ourselves
  2. ^ Abraham H. Foxman, National Director (1995-08-22). "letter to Christina Jeffrey". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.
United States Congress
House of Representatives, Senate110th Congress
Members House: Current, Former, Districts (by area) | Senate: Current (by seniority, by age), Former (expelled/censured), Classes
Leaders House: Speaker, Party leaders, Party whips, Dem. caucus, Rep. conference, Dean | Senate: President pro tempore (list), Party leaders, Assistant party leaders, Dem. Caucus (Chair, Secretary, Policy comm. chair), Rep. Conference (Chair, Vice-Chair, Policy comm. chair), Dean
Groups African Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Hispanic Americans, Caucuses, Committees, Demographics, Senate Women
Agencies, Employees & Offices Architect of the Capitol, Capitol guide service (board), Capitol police (board), Chiefs of Staff, GAO, Government Printing Office, Law Revision Counsel, Librarian of Congress, Poet laureate | House: Chaplain, Chief Administrative Officer, Clerk, Doorkeeper, Emergency Planning, Preparedness, and Operations, Historian, Page (board), Parliamentarian, Postmaster, Reading clerk, Recording Studio, Sergeant at Arms | Senate: Chaplain, Curator, Historian, Librarian, Page, Parliamentarian, Secretary, Sergeant at Arms
Politics & Procedure Act of Congress (list), Caucuses, Committees, Hearings, Joint session, Oversight, Party Divisions, Rider | House: Committees, History, Jefferson's Manual, Procedures | Senate: Committees, Filibuster, History, Traditions, VPs' tie-breaking votes
Buildings Capitol Complex, Capitol, Botanic Garden | Office buildings– House: Cannon, Ford, Longworth, O'Neill, Rayburn, Senate: Dirksen, Hart, Russell
Research Biographical directory, Congressional Quarterly, Congressional Record, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, The Hill, Roll Call, THOMAS
Misc Mace of the House, Power of enforcement, Scandals, Softball League
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.