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Beyond

On Americans’ connections to the larger world.

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Human figures colored either blue or green.

Mortality Wars

Estimating life and death in Iraq and Gaza.
by Shaan Sachdev via The Drift on July 8, 2024
NATO leaders in the 1950s sitting together at a conference.

Ill-Suited to Reality: NATO’s Delusions

It has suddenly become popular to cast NATO as the first benign military alliance in history, without concealed politics.
by Tom Stevenson via London Review of Books on July 25, 2024
Cover of "Aiding Ireland" featuring potato plant.

Aiding Ireland: The Politics Of How Donors Learned To Give To Far-Off Strangers

A new book argues that Irish famine philanthropy “went viral” in the nineteenth century because relief has been, and continues to be, politically potent.
by Anelise Hanson Shrout via HistPhil on June 13, 2024
Banner showing the logo of Chiquita.

Chiquita Must Pay for Its Crimes in Latin America

70 years since President Árbenz was ousted for standing up to Chiquita, the firm might finally be held to account for its ties to a far-right paramilitary group in Colombia.
by Klas Lundström via Jacobin on July 10, 2024

Exhibits

Exhibit

The Lives of War Veterans

The experiences of veterans of American wars, from the Civil War to Afghanistan, and our collective obligation to those who have served.

Landing of Columbus.
Exhibit

Imperial Ambitions

Five hundred years of empire building in North America and beyond its borders.

Exhibit

Crimes of War

Stories about the civilian victims of past wars, and the extent to which Americans have acknowledged and accounted for atrocities committed in their name.

Painting of the Sand Creek Massacre by Robert Lindneux, c. 1935.

Happy Native American Heritage Month From the Army That Brought You the Trail of Tears

After 170 years of armed attacks, forced relocations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Native Americans, the U.S. military wants to celebrate.
by Nick Turse via The Intercept on November 28, 2024
Photo contact sheet from Ronald Reagan speech on Nicaragua in 1986.

Letting the World Scream

The U.S., Nicaragua, and the International Court of Justice in the 1980s.
by Sean T. Byrnes via History News Network on November 26, 2024

The Second Abolition

Robin Blackburn’s sweeping history of slavery and freedom in the 19th century.
by Manisha Sinha via The Nation on November 19, 2024

Globalism, Sovereignty, and Resistance

Quinn Slobodian and Jennifer Mittelstadt discuss their research on the meanings of “globalism” and “sovereignty” throughout history.
by Jennifer Mittelstadt, Quinn Slobodian via History & Political Economy Project on November 18, 2024

Today’s Echoes of the First ‘America First’

Charles Lindbergh’s ideology prefigured Donald Trump’s—and was rightly disgraced.
by Casey Michel via The Bulwark on November 13, 2024
Photo of Kamala Harris speaking at a moderated conversation with Liz Cheney.
partner

Why People Should Stop Comparing the U.S. to Weimar Germany

Those who draw a line from today to that infamous historical moment when democracy slid into authoritarianism are missing a key difference.
by Christine Adams via Made By History on November 5, 2024
Haitian gang members carrying assault rifles, standing in the center of a stylized rifle sight.

Haiti’s Agents Of Fear

Haitians are caught between the grip of violent gangs and the messy legacies of foreign intervention.
by Matthew J. Smith via Noema on October 29, 2024
Art piece of W.E.B. DuBois and people with outstretched arms.

Solidarity and Gaza

Black people see what is happening to Palestinians, and many feel the tug of the familiar in their heart.
by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on October 29, 2024
Netanyahu, Trump, Orban, Modi.

The Reactionary Bind

In assessing the rise of the global anti-democracy movement, the United States must look inward as well as outward.
by Kim Phillips-Fein via Democracy Journal on October 21, 2024
Andrew Jackson meets a Creek military officer.

The Forgotten War that Made America

The overlooked Creek War set the tone for America to come.
by Sean Durns via The American Conservative on October 17, 2024
Screenshot of soldiers and an explosion.

Noam Chomsky on How America Sanitizes the Horror of Its Wars

On the origins of America's hegemonic foreign policy.
by Noam Chomsky via Literary Hub on October 16, 2024
Korean War U.S Army helicopter and soldiers about to board.

The Korean War and Mismanaging Protracted Conflict

History can make the U.S. better prepared for the specter of protracted large-scale ground combat, which has grown more real in the wake of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
by Andrew J. Forney via Texas National Security Review on October 14, 2024
Jimmy Carter and Shah Pahlavi.

The US’s Long History of Destabilizing Iran

Kamala Harris called Iran a “destabilizing, dangerous force.” The appropriate context for this is the US’s own decades-long history of destabilizing Iran.
by Seraj Assi via Jacobin on October 9, 2024
Map of the US Air Force Atlantic Missile Range stations in 1957

Making the American Orbit

The U.S. military operated a Grand Turk missile tracking station for 30 years, with limited local benefits, highlighting American expansionism's impact.
by Andrew J. Ross via Perspectives on History on October 8, 2024
Essay entitled "America," full of editorial markings.

America Is Not America Yet

On American history and the history of the word “America.”
by Alexander Aviña via The Dial on October 3, 2024
Letter from Wong Gin Fu to Wong Kim

Sadness of the Paper Son: The Travails of Asian Immigration to the U.S.

Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act, about 300,000 Chinese gained admission to the U.S. between 1882 and 1943. How did they do it?
by Ryan Reft via Tropics of Meta on October 3, 2024
Bill Clinton meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in the White House.
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How Qatar Became a Major Middle East Power Broker

The history behind the country's role as a key American ally that also maintains warm relations with Iran and others.
by Allen Fromherz via Made By History on September 30, 2024
Protesters march againts the US-backed government of El Salvador in 1985.

How US Trade Unionists Opposed the Dirty War in El Salvador

Progressive forces in US labor took a stand in solidarity with trade unionists facing murderous repression in El Salvador.
by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on September 26, 2024
Person wearing Trump 2020 hat in front of protesters with signs being in opposition of funding the war in Ukraine.
partner

Will Foreign Policy Decide the Election?

While it is rare for foreign policy differences between the political parties to affect electoral outcomes, it has happened before.
by Lindsay M. Chervinsky via Made By History on September 19, 2024
Hideki Tojo in a courtroom testifying at the Tokyo Trial, guarded by American soldiers.

The Hypocrisies of International Justice

A recent history revisits the Tokyo trial.
by Colin Jones via The Nation on September 18, 2024
Donald Trump

Racism Against Haitians Didn’t Begin in Springfield, Ohio

In the early 19th century, US elites demonized the self-liberated slaves of the Haitian Revolution as dangerous practitioners of barbaric rituals.
by Ayendy Bonifacio via Jacobin on September 18, 2024
Black American soldiers pose with German women and mixed race children.

A Black Woman’s Activism in Postwar (West) Germany

Why one journalist worked with Black American families to adopt mixed-race German children after World War II.
by Silke Hackenesch via Black Perspectives on September 18, 2024

‘They’re Eating Pets’ – Another Example of US Politicians Smearing Haiti and Haitian Immigrants

Trump’s baseless claims about migrants in Ohio reflect a long history of prejudice against Haitians. In Washington, those falsehoods have driven policy.
by Nathan H. Dize via The Conversation on September 17, 2024
A pile of guns and rifle magazines on top of bullets.

More Guns, More Money: How America Turned Weapons Into a Consumer Commodity

How an American arms dealer and a surplus of guns in Europe after World War II popularized gun ownership.
by Andrew C. McKevitt via Literary Hub on September 12, 2024
Vietnamese refugees preparing to evacuate a village during an American air raid.

The End of a Village

Jonathan Schell’s account of the US military’s destruction of the village of Ben Suc in Vietnam laid bare the problem with many American interventions.
by Wallace Shawn via New York Review of Books on September 12, 2024
Charles Gates Dawes.
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History Shows How Dangerous 'America First' Really Is

In the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. tried America First. This philosophy helped lead to World War II.
by Cyrus Veeser via Made By History on September 10, 2024
The signing of the Alaska Purchase Agreement on March 30, 1867.

Russia’s First Secret Influence Campaign: Convincing the U.S. to Buy Alaska

Russia has been peddling influence for a long time, using a playbook that it still uses today.
by Casey Michel via Politico Magazine on September 8, 2024
Soldiers honoring Robert Imbrie's casket in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1924.

A Century Ago, a Mob Brutally Attacked an American Diplomat in Persia

The July 1924 killing of Robert Imbrie fueled the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty and set the stage for a CIA-backed 1953 coup and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
by Francine Uenuma via Smithsonian on September 5, 2024
Physicists posing in front of a 60-inch cyclotron at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1944.

How Professors Helped Win World War II

College professors were vital in the fight to win WWII, lending their time and research to building bombs to creating effective wartime propaganda.
by Will Mari via The Saturday Evening Post on September 4, 2024
Richard Nixon gestures toward George Meany during a speech at the 1971 AFL-CIO convention.

How the “AFL-CIA” Undermined Labor Movements Abroad

During the Cold War, the AFL-CIO actively participated in efforts to suppress left-wing labor movements abroad.
by Jeff Schuhrke, Cal Turner, Sara Van Horne via Jacobin on September 2, 2024
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