George Kennan.

George Kennan’s False Moves

The great grand strategist of the Cold War believed he failed in his most important task.
Seashore in the Fog, detail, Caspar David Freiderich, c. 1807.

By Stratagem and Hard Fighting

The historical record reveals the real circumstances that led to the improbable capture of eleven British ships.
Two Choctaw men

Choctaw Confederates

Some Native Americans chose to fight for the Southern cause.
Protestors on the streets during the Algerian War.

The Counterinsurgent Imagination

A new book examines military manuals as a genre to understand what armed counter-revolutionaries think of as the right way to do what they do.
Painting depicting the U.S. Army and American Indians signing the Treaty of Greenville, 1785.

How the (First) West Was Won: Federalist Treaties that Reshaped the Frontier

Treaties with Britain, the Confederated tribes, and Spain revealed that America was still dependent on the greater geopolitics of the Atlantic World.
A painting of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.

The Treaty of Ghent: Annotated

The Treaty of Ghent ended the War of 1812, an oft overlooked conflict that continues to shape the politics and culture(s) of North America.
Collage of George Kennan and the Pentagon.

The Ghosts of Kennan

Lessons from the start of the Cold War.
U.S. soldiers providing sniper coverage for a meeting in Kandahar, January 2013

The High Cost of American Heavy-Handedness 

Great-power competition demands persuasion, not coercion.
Police officer Lane Anderson removes a Patriotic Front sticker from a stoplight outside the Liberian Restaurant in downtown Fargo, N.D.
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The Shared U.S.-Liberia History Now Shaping a North Dakota Community

Liberians in West Fargo trying to dodge racism are deeply woven into American history.
Illustration of U.S. bomber droping brick to form a wall (representing sanctions).

The Folly of Sanctions

Sanctions were conceived as an alternative to war. But they may have made the world more violent.
"Nasby in Exile" cover with print of a man in a top hat smoking a pipe.

Nasby in Exile

The story of David Ross Locke's travels to Western Europe.
Adolf Hitler with high-ranking Nazi officers during Operation Barbarossa, the failed offensive against the Soviet Union, 7 August 1941.

Geopolitics is a Loser’s Buzzword with a Contagious Idea

The concept of geopolitics comes from German and Russian attempts to explain defeat and reverse loss of influence.
Tyler Adams at a press conference.

What We Ask of Black American Athletes

The captain of the U.S. soccer team is the latest in a long line of sports stars who have had to wrestle with a complex legacy on the world stage.
Diaga Müller at the Onkel Toms Hütte U-Bahn station in Berlin.

A Berlin Subway Stop is Called ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Some Black Germans Want Change.

Black Germans have used activism and scholarship to shed light on what they describe as Germany’s racist fascination with the American South.
Illustrated person in prison garb running away from a burning prison.

Cold War Flames on US Soil: The Oakdale Prison Riot

In the 1980s, Cold War tensions led to thousands of Cubans languishing in American prisons, unable to be released or repatriated. Uprisings followed.
Sculpture of Olaudah Equiano, the Queen’s House, London

Olaudah Equiano’s Transnational Insights

A brief look into Equiano's life reveals that many Black figures were considerably more transnational in their movements and critiques than commonly assumed.
Dorothea and Gladys Cromwell serving French troops outside the Cantine des Deux Drapeaux in Châlons-sur-Marne.

Strange, Inglorious, Humble Things

The Cromwell twins fled the constrictions of high society for the freedoms of the literary world. Ravenous for greater purpose, the twins then went to war.
Black and white photo of Geronimo

How Grief and Revenge Made Geronimo Into a Legendary War Chief

Before Geronimo met any white Americans or came to think of them as enemies of the Apaches, he spent years fighting Mexicans.
Linotype operators of the Chicago Defender

Reading Langston Hughes’s Wartime Reporting From the Spanish Civil War

Several years before the United States officially entered World War II, Black Americans were tracking the international spread of fascism.
Demonstrators in front of the U.S. capital, supporting Ukraine.

Small Nations, Big Feelings

In the 1930s, Americans fell in love with Czechoslovakia and Spain; today, it’s Ukraine. What happens when one finds a “second mother country”?
A digital composite images shows troops landing at Anzac Cove in Turkey during the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.

Ukraine’s War Is Like World War I, Not World War II

The West is using the wrong analogy for Russia’s invasion—and worsening the outcome.
Painting of Jedidiah Morse with the Illuminati pyramid symbol over one eye.

Why the Founding Generation Fell So Hard for the Illuminati Story

They looked at France and said: “Make it make sense.”
U.S. Air Force plane dropping bombs
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After 50 Years, the Truth About the Vietnam Peace Agreement Remains Elusive

The Pentagon's official history says that a heavy bombardment by B-52s in 1972 pushed the North Vietnamese to return to negotiated peace. What are the facts?
Spanish Siege of Pensacola (March 9-May 8, 1781), engraving by Vernier from 1st edition of Jean B.G. Roux de Rochelle's Etats-Unis d'Amerique in 1837.

The American Revolution's Forgotten Spanish Hero

How Bernardo de Galvez turned the tide against British supremacy on the continent.
Black and white photo of Fidel Castro giving a speech in front of the Cuban flag.

The 1962 Missile Crisis Was a Turning Point for the Cuban Revolution

The missile crisis led Cuba’s leaders to distrust their Soviet ally—an attitude that ultimately helped their revolutionary system to outlast the USSR’s.
Then-Sen. John F. Kennedy (left) met with Democratic Party rival Adlai Stevenson on the porch of Kennedy’s house in 1960.

How JFK Sacrificed Adlai Stevenson and the Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis

The standoff 60 years ago has newfound relevance for handling the Ukraine crisis today.
A still from "Ulitza Sezam" with the cast and puppet characters sitting around a table.

When the Muppets Moved to Moscow

A new book details the tangled tale of "Ulitsa Sezam," a "Sesame Street" spinoff that aired until visions of Russia's democratic future faltered.
A girl sits on a cot as she floats it across a flooded street in Baluchistan province on Oct. 4.
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A History of U.S. Interference Worsened Pakistan’s Devastating Floods

Development aid targeted for water as an economic and technical matter had environmental and financial consequences.
Illustration of a figure sitting and playing a guitar, in front of an image of a cross

Arise!: Global Radicalism in the Era of the Mexican Revolution

Describing the experiences of radicals who lived in, traveled to, or found themselves in Mexico between 1910 and 1920.
Man carrying bundle of sugarcane over his head walking on plank in Guyana sugarcane fields

The Capitalist Transformations of the Countryside

Centuries of capitalism saw the global countryside ruthlessly converted into cheap commodities. But at what cost?