The Common Core State Standards and the National Council for the Social Studies (C3 Framework) have recently prompted renewed emphasis on literacy, particularly in history, therefore it is important to analyze and compare what exactly the teacher educators of leading journals are saying about historical literacy. This study examines the literacy messages for the history classroom in The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy and Theory (JAAL) and Research in Social Education (TRSE) from 2010-2015. An emergent, qualitative content analysis was used to analyze data from these journals. Results from this study indicates definitions on historical literacy vary between journals, both journals focused on elements of historical literacy over the whole concept, and historical literacy is addressed differently for distinctive intended participants. Implications from this study concerning teacher educators and history teachers are examined and possibilities for further research are also discussed.