The autobiography of Lucy West

Lucy Brewer and the Making of a Female Marine

An account of the first female to serve in the U.S. Navy.
Riot police clash with demonstrators in Medellín, Colombia, last week.
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The U.S. War on Drugs Helped Unleash the Violence in Colombia Today

Efforts to combat narcotics and communism militarized the country's security forces.
Mochitsura Hashimoto, center, former Japanese sub commander, testifies at the Dec. 13, 1945, session of the Navy court-martial in Washington, trying Capt. Charles B. McVay III.

How a WWII Japanese Sub Commander Helped Exonerate a U.S. Navy Captain

After the sinking of the USS Indianapolis in 1945, Mochitsura Hashimoto, a Japanese sub commander, pushed to exonerate Navy Capt. Charles McVay.
Toussaint Louverture proclaiming the Constitution of the Republic of Haiti

Contagious Constitutions

In her new book, Colley shows how written constitutions developed both as a way to further justify rulers and to turn rebellions into legitimate governments.
Gold-spangled Polish chickens.

Fancy Fowl

How an evil sea captain and a beloved queen made the world crave KFC.
Colorful vaccination graphic

Long, Strange TRIPS: The Grubby History of How Vaccines Became Intellectual Property

Not long ago, life-saving medical know-how was viewed as belonging to everyone. What happened?
A next-of-kin response card asking for the return of the remains of Pvt. James Argiroplos, who was killed near Hébuterne in France during World War I.

After WWI, U.S. Families Were Asked if They Wanted Their Dead Brought Home. Forty Thousand Said Yes.

In May 1921, President Harding paid tribute to a ship carrying 5,000 fallen Americans returned for burial.
Demonstrators holding signs and Palestinian flag

‘We Know Occupation’: The Long History of Black Americans’ Solidarity with Palestinians

Why the Black Lives Matter movement might help shift the conversation about a conflict thousands of miles away.
Redacted declassified Top Secret memorandum written by Oliver North on Jack Terrel, terrorist suspect.

Iran-Contra and Domestic Counter-Intelligence Networks

Oliver North and his cronies in the Contra support operations put in motion a clandestine counter-intelligence apparatus to disrupt the flow of information.
An American propaganda leaflet dropped ahead of Curtis LeMay’s firebomb campaign over Japan.

Narrative Napalm

Malcolm Gladwell’s apologia for American butchery.
Wooden cross in the Eli Jackson Methodist Church cemetery in San Juan, Texas.

When Slaves Fled to Mexico

A new book tells the forgotten story of fugitive slaves who found freedom south of the border.
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The U.S. Role in the El Mozote Massacre Echoes in Today’s Immigration

An ongoing trial is bringing atrocities to light.

The Pantomime Drama of Victims and Villains Conceals the Real Horrors of War

Innocent, passive, apolitical: after the Holocaust, the standard for ‘true’ victimhood has worked to justify total war.
Black and white photo of people and dogs posing in front of crates that say "U.S. Army dog"

Topper’s GI Benefits, Good Homes, and Vivisection Fears: The Treatment of World War II War Dogs

A story about dogs used to fight in World War II and what became of them.
Muhammad Ali speaking on The Dick Cavett Show.

Muhammad Ali Explains Why He Refused to Fight in Vietnam

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother… for big powerful America.”
Vietnamese immigrants parading the flag of the Republic of Vietnam during the Tet festival at a North American Little Saigon.

The South Vietnamese Flag and Shifting Representations of the Vietnamese American Experience

The sight of the flag on January 6, 2021 has aroused curiosity and criticism. Missing, however, is the multiplicity of its symbolism to Vietnamese Americans.

Liberal Nationalism is Back. It Must Start to Think Globally.

Globalism is out. Nationalism is in. Progressives who think they can jump aboard are dangerously naive.
Jefferson Wiggins.

History Forgot About These Black Soldiers of WWII. Now, a Group Is Remembering Their Work.

Mieke Kierkels and Chris Dickon have been collaborating on several projects to remember the sacrifices of African American soldiers during World War II.
Iroquois Leaders

One of the Most Important American Documents You’ve Never Heard Of

Colonial lessons in civility from the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee.
US military boarding a plan

History's Warning for the U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan

History suggests that a more discreet American presence in Afghanistan will be a provocation rather than a source of security.
Nuclear explosion
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Why the Cold War Race for Nuclear Weapons Is Still a Threat

The Cold War may be over, but an arms race continues, even as safeguards once in place have fallen away.
Le Marron Incconu, a statue of an enslaved man with a conch shell, dedicated to the abolishment of slavery.

Slave Rebellions and Mutinies Shaped the Age of Revolution

Several recent books offer a more complete, bottom-up picture of the role sailors and Black political actors played in making the Atlantic world.
U.S. soldiers in combat during the Korean War
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How the Korean War Changed the Way the U.S. Goes to Battle

In the Cold War, North Korean Communists invaded South Korea. President Truman’s decision to intervene had consequences that shape the world today.
John F. Kennedy on a TV screen.

The Book That Stopped an Outbreak of Nuclear War

A new history of the Cuban missile crisis emphasizes how close the world came to destruction—and how severe a threat the weapons still pose.
Street protest in Hamburg, Germany

The Black Refugee Tradition

Undocumented Black migrants struggle to have their asylum rights recognized in the United States. Groups have been asking President Biden to stop deportations.
Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez (left), "Empire's Mistress" book cover with image of Isabel Cooper (right)

The General, the Mistress, and the Love Stories That Blind Us

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez discusses her new book on Isabel Cooper, a Filipina American actress and Douglas MacArthur’s lover.
High Schoolers in Arkansas painting a nuclear test

The Long Road to Nuclear Justice for the Marshallese People

U.S. nuclear weapons testing displaced residents of the Marshall Islands. They're still fighting for justice for the devastation of their homeland and health.
Peanuts, bagged and ready for transport, are stacked in pyramids at Kano, Northern Region, Nigeria, 1955.

After Slavery: How the End of Atlantic Slavery Paved a Path to Colonialism

Abolition in Africa brought longed-for freedoms, but also political turmoil, economic collapse and rising enslavement.
Maxim and Ivy Litvinov

The People’s Ambassadress: The Forgotten Diplomacy of Ivy Litvinov

How Ivy Litvinov, the English-born wife of a Soviet ambassador, seduced America with wit, tea and soft diplomacy.
Coup leaders Admiral Massera and General Videla dressed in uniform

Argentina’s Military Coup of 1976: What the U.S. Knew

Declassified documents show the State Department had ample forewarning that a coup was being plotted, and that human rights violations would be committed.