Amon Msane speaks at a press conference outside the 3M plant in Freehold, New Jersey, surrounded by leaders of OCAW Local 8-760. Stanley Fischer (beard, sunglasses) stands beside Msane, 1986. (Courtesy of Stanley Fischer)

When South African Unionists Struck for US Workers

In 1986, black workers in apartheid South Africa walked off the job in support of New Jersey unionists; marking a rare moment of international labor solidarity.
John Trumbull painting of the death of American General Richard Montgomery at the Battle of Quebec.

How the Thirteen Colonies Tried—and Failed—to Convince Canada to Side With Them In the Revolution

After peaceful attempts at alliance-building stalled, the Continental Army launched an ill-fated invasion of Quebec in June 1775.
George Kennan; American soldiers and helicopters in Vietnam.

Conservative Realism and Vietnam

We were warned.
Picture of Yalta revealed behind torn paper

The Post-World War II System Was Always Fragile

Franklin Roosevelt warned that even in peacetime, America’s obligations to the world would continue.
Women pilots in front of a plane.

How a Group of Fearless American Women Defied Convention to Defeat the Nazis

On the “Atta-Girls,” the pilots who chased adventure during the Second World War.
Two Vietnamese women mourn their relatives on April 29, 1975, at Bien Hoa military cemetery.

US Defeat in Vietnam Was the Right Outcome for an Unjust War

The US invasion of Vietnam was catastrophic for the Vietnamese people, resulting in millions of deaths. Fifty years ago, the US-backed regime finally collapsed.
Rachel Cockerell’s “Melting Point" tells the story of an exiled people and their effort to find a place to call home.

When Jews Sought the Promised Land in Texas

While some Jewish exiles dreamed of a homeland in Palestine, the Jewish Territorial Organization fixed its hopes on Galveston.
An eagle grabbing the earth, focused on Latin America, in its talons.

What America Means to Latin Americans

In a new book, the Pulitzer Prize winner Greg Grandin tells the history of the hemisphere from south of the border.
Cover of "America, América" by Greg Grandin.

The Dialectic Lurking Behind the Brutality

Greg Grandin’s new book tells the story of US expansionism and its complex relationship with the rest of the New World.
John F. Kennedy and George McGovern discuss Food for Peace.
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How Foreign Aid Can Benefit Both the U.S. and the World

Food for Peace exemplifies the value of internationalism and humanitarian endeavors in American foreign policy.
Lithograph depicting the Congress of Vienna, 1815.

The Conservative Historian Every Socialist Should Read

A lifetime spent studying the disastrous lead-up to World War I gave Paul Schroeder reason to be horrified at the recklessness of US foreign policy.
The “Visscher Map of the New World” including North and South America, 1658.

The Impossibly Intertwined History of the Americas

A conversation with Greg Grandin about his groundbreaking new book "America, América: A New History of the New World."
Arthur Zimmerman and his intercepted telegram.

Worse Than Signalgate

Accidentally sharing attack plans in a group chat is bad. Causing a rising superpower to declare war on you because of a Western Union telegram is worse.
A torn border fence is bent into the shape of the Americas.

What America Can Learn From the Americas

Greg Grandin’s sweeping history of the new world shows how immutably intertwined the United States is with Latin America.
Declassified and redacted White House top secret documents.

JFK Files: Revelations from the Covert Operations High Command

Special Group and PFIAB meeting minutes provide dramatic view of CIA operations.
Floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Regime Change in the West?

Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures.
A Ford truck is loaded with ivory tusks in Essex, Connecticut.
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The Blood on the Keyboard

The history of ivory-topped piano keys and the invisible human suffering caused by our cultural commodities.
A group of Mexican nationals boarding a bus for repatriation to Mexico from the United States.
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Scared Out of the Community

In the 1930s, approximately half a million Mexicans left the United States. Many families had American-born children to whom Mexico was a foreign land.
Black and white Washington DC.

Between Existential Fear and Isolationist Exhaustion: The United States on the Eve of the Cold War

Dean Acheson, President Truman’s prim, patrician undersecretary of state, was sitting in his office on February 21, 1947, when he received a visitor.
Gail "Hal" Halvorsen interacts with children in West Berlin
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How a Cold War Airlift Saved Berlin With Food, Medicine and Chocolate

A Soviet blockade around Berlin cut the city off from the West. But in 1948 U.S. and British pilots began to fly food, fuel and medicine to the Allied sectors.
Martin Galvin, of Noraid, standing in front of a crowd of protesting supporters, holding a copy of "The Irish People" newspaper with the headline "Martin Galvin safe after building capture."

There’s a Hidden History of US Support for Irish Republicans

The solidarity group Noraid raised millions of dollars to support the Irish republican movement during the Troubles.
Shield with the words "For European Recovery Supplied by the United States of America."

Soft Power

What it means, why it matters, and where it started.
Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, Battle of San Juan, Cuba, 1898.

How It Became Wrong for Nations to Conquer Others

It’s only a century since US diplomats first persuaded the world that it’s wrong for countries to annex their neighbours.
Frank Wisner's photo covered with official seals.

The Making of a Cold War Spy

The life and work of Frank Wisner, one of the CIA’s founding officers, offers us a portrait of American intelligence’s excesses.
A woman with a rifle, superimposed on an American flag.

From Philly to Derry: On the Americans Who Armed the IRA During The Troubles

Vincent Conlon’s secret life in the United States as an operative and gun-running Irish rebel.
Working-class Irish family.

What Made the Irish Famine So Deadly

The Great Hunger was a modern event, shaped by the belief that the poor are the authors of their own misery and that the market must be obeyed at all costs.
Children peering through the fence around the white community near Johannesburg, South Africa in 1973.

American Conservatism's Home Grown Defenses of Apartheid

A long and ugly history.

The Meaning of Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 campaign pioneered a new form of online activism — one that served empire more than the people it claimed to help.
Volunteers at a camp for internally displaced people in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, carry wheat flour donated by USAID in 2021.

USAID’s History Shows Decades of Good Work on Behalf of America’s Global Interests

USAID started in the 1960s as a way to offset the spread of communism. Since then, it has had various other soft-power benefits for the US.
Floyd’s rowboat used for gathering passengers offshore at Jaffa. Barque et Bateliers de Jaffa.

An American Dragoman in Palestine—and in Print

Floyd’s unusual visibility gives rare insight into how the largely-invisible dragomen shaped travelers’ understandings of the Bible and the Holy Land.