Haitian gang members carrying assault rifles, standing in the center of a stylized rifle sight.

Haiti’s Agents Of Fear

Haitians are caught between the grip of violent gangs and the messy legacies of foreign intervention.
Art piece of W.E.B. DuBois and people with outstretched arms.

Solidarity and Gaza

Black people see what is happening to Palestinians, and many feel the tug of the familiar in their heart.
Andrew Jackson meets a Creek military officer.

The Forgotten War that Made America

The overlooked Creek War set the tone for America to come.
Screenshot of soldiers and an explosion.

Noam Chomsky on How America Sanitizes the Horror of Its Wars

On the origins of America's hegemonic foreign policy.
Jimmy Carter and Shah Pahlavi.

The US’s Long History of Destabilizing Iran

Kamala Harris called Iran a “destabilizing, dangerous force.” The appropriate context for this is the US’s own decades-long history of destabilizing Iran.
Map of the US Air Force Atlantic Missile Range stations in 1957

Making the American Orbit

The U.S. military operated a Grand Turk missile tracking station for 30 years, with limited local benefits, highlighting American expansionism's impact.
Essay entitled "America," full of editorial markings.

America Is Not America Yet

On American history and the history of the word “America.”
Letter from Wong Gin Fu to Wong Kim

Sadness of the Paper Son: The Travails of Asian Immigration to the U.S.

Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act, about 300,000 Chinese gained admission to the U.S. between 1882 and 1943. How did they do it?
Bill Clinton meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in the White House.
partner

How Qatar Became a Major Middle East Power Broker

The history behind the country's role as a key American ally that also maintains warm relations with Iran and others.
Protesters march againts the US-backed government of El Salvador in 1985.

How US Trade Unionists Opposed the Dirty War in El Salvador

Progressive forces in US labor took a stand in solidarity with trade unionists facing murderous repression in El Salvador.
Person wearing Trump 2020 hat in front of protesters with signs being in opposition of funding the war in Ukraine.
partner

Will Foreign Policy Decide the Election?

While it is rare for foreign policy differences between the political parties to affect electoral outcomes, it has happened before.
Hideki Tojo in a courtroom testifying at the Tokyo Trial, guarded by American soldiers.

The Hypocrisies of International Justice

A recent history revisits the Tokyo trial.
Donald Trump

Racism Against Haitians Didn’t Begin in Springfield, Ohio

In the early 19th century, US elites demonized the self-liberated slaves of the Haitian Revolution as dangerous practitioners of barbaric rituals.
Black American soldiers pose with German women and mixed race children.

A Black Woman’s Activism in Postwar (West) Germany

Why one journalist worked with Black American families to adopt mixed-race German children after World War II.

‘They’re Eating Pets’ – Another Example of US Politicians Smearing Haiti and Haitian Immigrants

Trump’s baseless claims about migrants in Ohio reflect a long history of prejudice against Haitians. In Washington, those falsehoods have driven policy.
A pile of guns and rifle magazines on top of bullets.

More Guns, More Money: How America Turned Weapons Into a Consumer Commodity

How an American arms dealer and a surplus of guns in Europe after World War II popularized gun ownership.
Vietnamese refugees preparing to evacuate a village during an American air raid.

The End of a Village

Jonathan Schell’s account of the US military’s destruction of the village of Ben Suc in Vietnam laid bare the problem with many American interventions.
Charles Gates Dawes.
partner

History Shows How Dangerous 'America First' Really Is

In the 1920s and 1930s, the U.S. tried America First. This philosophy helped lead to World War II.
The signing of the Alaska Purchase Agreement on March 30, 1867.

Russia’s First Secret Influence Campaign: Convincing the U.S. to Buy Alaska

Russia has been peddling influence for a long time, using a playbook that it still uses today.
Soldiers honoring Robert Imbrie's casket in Washington, D.C. on September 29, 1924.

A Century Ago, a Mob Brutally Attacked an American Diplomat in Persia

The July 1924 killing of Robert Imbrie fueled the rise of the Pahlavi dynasty and set the stage for a CIA-backed 1953 coup and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
Physicists posing in front of a 60-inch cyclotron at  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1944.

How Professors Helped Win World War II

College professors were vital in the fight to win WWII, lending their time and research to building bombs to creating effective wartime propaganda.
Richard Nixon gestures toward George Meany during a speech at the 1971 AFL-CIO convention.

How the “AFL-CIA” Undermined Labor Movements Abroad

During the Cold War, the AFL-CIO actively participated in efforts to suppress left-wing labor movements abroad.
The bombing of Baghdad during the US invasion of Iraq, March 21, 2003.

A Terrible Mistake

The long history of confusions, misconceptions, and miscalculations in the relationship between the US and Iraq, from 1979 to 2003.
Tigers, painted by Charles Towne, ca. 1800.

Whatever Happened to Martin Van Buren’s Presidential Tigers?

It's a great story. The only problem is that the whole thing is probably made up.
Art piece of a hand holding barbed wire.

Do Border

Who can migrate to the US and make their home here? Who gets to drop US-made bombs, and who is expected to suffer them? These are not unrelated questions.
Francisco Franco and Ronald Reagan in Madrid, 1972.

The Autocratic Allure

Why the far right embraces foreign tyrants.
Palm trees on an island made of cash.

The American Con Man Who Pioneered Offshore Finance

How a now-obscure financier turned the Bahamas into a tax haven—and created a cornerstone of global plutocracy.
Chart of wholesale prices in the UK, showing inflation peaking in 1920.

Dollar Dominance and Modern Monetary Macro in the 1920s

How the U.S. created a new kind of managed and political monetary system in the wake of World War I.
Iranian leaders.

Who Benefits From Sanctions?

According to authors of a new book on how Iran has coped with economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., no one does.
Chinese immigrants and American immigration officers at Ellis Island.
partner

The Perils of Vilifying Chinese Migrants

As Chinese migrants arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, politicians are reviving old anti-Chinese rhetoric that has done lasting harm.