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A painting of a desolated, ruined street.
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Defeating Death Only with Death

On civilians’ opinion of killing civilians by air during World War II.
by Cormac Ó Gráda via HNN on September 10, 2024
Men and women working in a factory during World War 2.

Dispelling the WWII Productivity Myth

Generally speaking, emergencies tend to reduce productivity, at least in the short and medium terms.
by Alberto Mingardi via Law & Liberty on July 30, 2024
Japanese prime minister and minister of war Hideki Tojo on trial in 1947.

Japan’s Incomplete Reckoning With World War II Crimes

Gary Bass’s new book asks why the tribunal in Tokyo after World War II was so ineffective.
by Aryeh Neier via The New Republic on December 7, 2023
Soldier in foliage drawing

How Prisoners Contributed During World War II

Prisoners not only supported the war effort in surprising ways during World War II, they fought and died in it.
by Morgan Godvin, David Dressler, Frank T. Flynn, Gordon Hawkins via JSTOR Daily on May 26, 2023
Actor Tom Hanks and President George W. Bush stand on stage at the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. on May 29, 2004.

Destructive Myths

Romanticized stories about the Second World War are at the heart of American exceptionalism.
by Jeff Faux via Dissent on August 30, 2022

We Remember World War II Wrong

In the middle of the biggest international crisis ever since, it’s time to admit what the war was—and wasn’t.
by Adam Tooze via Foreign Policy on May 7, 2020
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Here Comes the D-Day Myth Again

The Allied invasion of France was an important step in the war against the Nazis. But it was by no means a turning point.
by Kevin Kennedy via HNN on June 6, 2019

The Light of Battle Was in Their Eyes

The correspondence of Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower and George C. Marshall leading up to D-Day.
by Meredith Hindley via Humanities on June 5, 2019

'I Love America': Fundamentalist Responses to World War II

The fundamentalist movement took the war as an opportunity to rebrand.
by Anderson Rouse via Process: A Blog for American History on March 12, 2019

Brothers in Arms

The secrets and service of a World War II family, 76 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
by Dan Lamothe via Washington Post on December 6, 2017

The Real Refugees of Casablanca

When it came to gathering refugees, the waiting room of the US consulate was probably the closest thing to Rick’s Café Américain.
by Meredith Hindley via Longreads on November 23, 2017

How My Grandfathers Proved Their Loyalty to America

The stories of two American soldiers – one part German, the other born in Japan – challenge our romantic view of the "Greatest Generation."
by Willy Blackmore via Pacific Standard on June 30, 2016
An illustration of blurry Korean people in the ruins of a city after a nuclear bombing.

The Atomic Bombs’ Forgotten Korean Victims

Survivors of the nuclear blasts in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still fighting for recognition.
by E. Tammy Kim via The New Yorker on June 16, 2025
Still from "Monuments Men" of warehouse of items confiscated by Nazis.

Secrets in the Stacks

A new book demonstrates that the skills taught and honed in the humanities are of vital importance to the defense of democracy.
by Richard Ovenden via Public Books on May 22, 2025
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.
by Becky Aikman via Literary Hub on May 8, 2025
Japanese American National Museum Volunteer Barbara Keimi stamps the Ireichō

The Japanese American National Museum Is a Site of Remembrance and Belonging

The Japanese American National Museum embraces the Japanese-American experience in all its permutations.
by Seph Rodney via Hyperallergic on April 2, 2025

The US Used the Alien Enemies Act to Detain Their Families. Now, They are Watching History Repeat

During World War II, the law justified the imprisonment of thousands like Heidi Gurcke Donald.
by Isabela Dias via Mother Jones on March 18, 2025
French Gen. Jean de Rochambeau and American Gen. George Washington giving the last orders in October 1781 for the battle at Yorktown.

How Allies Have Helped the US Gain Independence, Defend Freedom and Keep the Peace

Why should a country want or need allies? President Donald Trump and his followers seem to disdain the idea. So did George Washington.
by Donald Heflin via The Conversation on February 20, 2025
A bulldozer juxtapositioned with destroyed buildings and barren land.

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology can be misused.
by Joe Zadeh via Noema on February 20, 2025
Meeting of delegates to approve the Charter of the United Nations, San Francisco, 1945.

Origins of the UN: The US and USSR

The genesis of the United Nations came from the nations united as Allies against the Axis powers, but who really pushed the institution into being?
by Stephen Wertheim, Matthew Wills, Geoffrey Roberts via JSTOR Daily on February 9, 2025

The Naval Scientist Who Wanted To Know How Football Players Would Survive Nuclear War

It wouldn’t take much, the fan explained, just some radioactive material inside the players, who would then undergo a physical examination.
by Chris Roberts via Defector on January 24, 2025
Person using a magnifying glass to examine aerial photographs of naval vessels.

When America’s Top Spies Were Academics and Librarians

How scholars achieved some of the most consequential intelligence victories of the twentieth century.
by Greg Barnhisel via The New Republic on January 16, 2025
A Chinese American woman riveter at work.

Could “Rosie the Riveter” Be Chinese American?

Despite having their citizenship withheld before the war, Chinese American women in the Bay Area made significant contributions to the wartime labor force.
by H. M. A. Leow, Xiaojian Zhao via JSTOR Daily on November 9, 2024
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.
by Colin Jones via The Nation on September 18, 2024
Pamela Harriman posing in an expensively decorated bedroom beside a four poster bed.

How a Mid-Century Paramour Became a Democratic Power Broker

Churchill weaponized her powers of seduction—but Pamela Harriman came into her own when she brought her glamour to Washington.
by Margaret Talbot via The New Yorker on September 16, 2024
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.
by Andrew C. McKevitt via Literary Hub on September 12, 2024
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.
by Will Mari via The Saturday Evening Post on September 4, 2024
Map showing the forecast over the UK and part of France on D-Day.

A War Meteorologist’s Riveting Account of How the Allies Averted a D-Day Disaster

The D-Day landings turned the tide of the war, but their success rested on the uncertain calculations of Allied meteorologists.
by Marco Alessi, Anthony Wilks via Aeon on July 17, 2024
A soldier walking an old woman through a destroyed city.

D-Day’s Forgotten Victims Speak Out

Eighty years after D-Day, few know one of its darkest stories: the thousands of civilians killed by a carpet-bombing campaign of little military purpose.
by Ed Vulliamy via New York Review of Books on June 10, 2024
Richard Slotkin.

“A Theory of America”: Mythmaking with Richard Slotkin

"I was always working on a theory of America."
by Kathleen Belew, Richard S. Slotkin via Public Books on April 19, 2024
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