Note: Historians Roger Peace and Jeremy Kuzmarov have produced a 64,000-word, illustrated and extensively documented essay on “Afghanistan, Iraq, and the ‘War on Terror'” as an addition to the United States Foreign Policy History & Resource Guide 2022, a website co-sponsored by the Peace History Society and Historians for Peace and Democracy.
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By George Beebe and Anatol Lieven, Responsible Statecraft, posted August 19
Faults US pre-war policy for failing to make a serious attempt to avert the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Anatol Lieven is a historian of Russia and its neighbors and George Beebe is a former longtime CIA analyst, and both are active with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
By Stephanie Coontz, HubPages, posted August 18
“When we “whitewash” the past, we not only deny wrongs that still need to be righted, but we fail to honor the men and women –black, brown, and white — whose struggles for justice and equality prove beyond doubt that no group of Americans is “irredeemably sexist and racist.” The author is a professor emerita of history at Evergreen State College.
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment blog, posted August 18
The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
By Mary Dudziak, Responsible Statecraft, posted August 15
“The idea of “over the horizon” war [through drone warfare, without American “boots on the ground”] is a signal to Americans that war happens someplace else. It won’t hurt them. It doesn’t need to bother them.” The author teaches in the law school of Emory University and is a past president of the Society for the History of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR).
By Elisabeth Griffith, Literary Hub, posted August 10
An adapted excerpt from the author's newly published Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality: 1920-2020 (Pegasus Books). She also wrote a biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and has taught history at the college and high school levels.
By Greg Mitchell, Substack, posted August 9
On the decision to go ahead with the Nagasaki bombing three days after the destruction of Hiroshima had established the power of the atomic bomb. Among the author's books is The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (New Press, 2020)
By the National Security Archive, posted August 8
Documents from 1945 concerning the effects of the atomic bombings, especiallyh radiation sickness, with an introductory essay by William Burr.
By William Trollinger, Righting America, posted August 4
Kathleen Wellman teaches history at Southern Methodist University and is the author of Hijacking America: How the Christian Right Teaches History and Why It Matters (Oxford U. Press, 2021).
By Paul Robinson, Russia.Post, posted August 4
The first of a three-part historical analysis of Russian liberalism, which “has always had a narrow social base and has gravitated toward Westernism.” The author teaches in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.
By Stephen M. Walt, Foreign Policy, posted July 26
Applies to the Ukraine war the concept of the “security dilemma,” which “describes how the actions that one state takes to make itself more secure … tend to make other states less secure and lead them to respond in kind.” The author teaches international relations at Harvard University.
By Taras Bilous, Jacobin, posted July 26
“Although Washington has done a lot to undermine international law (we, like socialists anywhere in the world, will never forget the criminal invasion of Iraq, for instance), by supporting Ukrainian resistance to the invasion they are doing the right thing.” The author is a historian and editor of Commons: Journal of Social Criticism.
By Stephen Kinzer, Boston Globe, posted July 22
“War in Ukraine has galvanized the US-led NATO. It has also, however, led a growing number of countries to conclude that they have no stake in a European conflict or a confrontation with Russia.” The author is a longtime journalist and now a Senior Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs.
By John Woodford, Against the Current, July-August issue
A lengthy review essay of the second volume of historian Jeff Perry's monumental biography of the West Indian-American socialist and internationalist Hubert Harrison (1883-1927).
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg, Roger Peace, and an anonymous reader for flagging some of the articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.