Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Lawrence Wittner, Z Blogs, posted September 20
Compares the ancient Greek myth to the current worldwide lack of effective policies regarding three major threats to human life — nuclear-weapon buildups, climate change, and disease pandemics — despite warnings that go back decades. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
By Juan Cole, Common Dreams, posted September 19
A short article on the extent of US bombing in Afghanistan in the last years of the war. “The incident underlines the dangers of conducting counterterrorism remotely with missile and drone strikes.” The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
By Randa Tawil, Washington Post, posted September 16
Compares the scapegoating of immigrants by the Republican governors of Texas and Florida with the policies of the major 19th-century colonial powers toward the spread of contagious diseases such as cholera. “Ignoring science to maintain business interests while blaming migrants and marginalized populations for the spread of disease is nothing new.” The author teaches at Texas Christian University.
By Eric Foner, Portside.org, posted September 16 (originally in London Review of Books)
Review essay on Scott Ellsworth's 2021 book The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City's Search for Justice. The essay covers both the massacre itself, on its 100th anniversary, and the decades-long suppression of its memory. The author teaches history at Columbia University.
By Farah Stockman, New York Times, posted September 13
On the US war in Afghanistan, reliant to a great extent on the bribing of warlords. “Instead of a nation, what we really built were more than 500 military bases — and the personal fortunes of the people who supplied them. That had always been the deal.” The author is an editorial board member of the New York Times and a former Pulitzer Prize winner.
“The Winner in Afghanistan: China”
By Alfred McCoy, TomDispatch.com, posted September 12
The author teaches history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His latest book (to be published in October by Dispatch Books) is To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change.
By Laura Weinstein, History News Network, posted September 12
On the workings of Ireland's former constitutional ban on abortions, repealed by popular referendum in 2018, and its similarity to the new Texas abortion law. The author has a PhD in Irish history and works at Macauley Honors College in Queens College, CUNY.
By Walden Bello, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted September 10
A historical analysis of why US “nation building” succeeded in the Philippines and in postwar Japan and failed in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The author is a professor at the University of the Philippines and a former member of the Philippine House of Representatives.
By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Monthly Review, posted September 1
A lengthy historical critique of nation-of-immigrants rhetoric, which “continues to mask the settler-colonial violence that established and maintained the United States and turns immigrants into settlers.” Among the author's books is An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2014).
By Ross Douthat, New York Times, posted August 31
“[I]f the only aspect of this catastrophe that our leaders remember is what went wrong in August 2021, then we'll have learned nothing except to always double down on failure, and the next disaster will be worse.” The author is a conservative columnist for the New York Times.
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg, Jerise Fogel, and an anonymous reader for flagging articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.