antiwar protest — Bunk History

University of California, Los Angeles students protest against Israel's war in Gaza.

Why Do Student Protest Movements Fail?

The uncompromising idealism of student protesters is rooted in social and economic isolation and detachment.

by Paul Baumann via Commonweal on September 27, 2024

Charles Francis Phillips and Owen Cattell, two Columbia University students, seated.

In 1917, Columbia’s Clampdown Remade the Antiwar Movement

When police raided Columbia University in May, commentators drew parallels to the 1968. But the school’s hostility to the antiwar movement traces back to 1917.

by Dan La Botz via Jacobin on July 11, 2024

Campus police struggle with anti-war demonstrators in Berkeley, California 1967.

The Protests That Anticipated the Gaza Solidarity Encampments

With the Dow sit-ins of the 1960s, students drew attention to links between the campus, war, and imperialism.

by Adam Tomasi via Made By History on May 10, 2024

Police beat protesters at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

The Plot to Wreck the Democratic Convention

May not amount to much, actually. Chicago 2024 is not Chicago 1968.

by David Frum via The Atlantic on April 29, 2024

War tax alternate fund information form.

Death and Taxes

The long history and contemporary relevance of war tax resistance.

by Tyler McBrien via Protean on April 15, 2024

A Buddhist monk stands next to a banner with a picture of monk Thich Quang Duc who set fire to himself to protest the Vietnam War.

Why Would Anyone Kill Themselves to Stop A War?

In the past 3 months, two people in the US have taken or risked taking their own lives in an attempt to change US policies on Palestine and call for a cease-fire.

by Ann Wright via Common Dreams on February 26, 2024

The Almanac Singers playing various instruments, including guitars, a banjo, and an accordion.

"Which Side Are You On, Boys..."

Watching the Ken Burns series on the U.S. and the Holocaust and thinking about American folk music.

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on October 3, 2022

Chicago Vietnam antiwar march

How the Asian American Movement Learned a Lesson in Liberation from the Black Panthers

In 1968, Chicago grabbed the eyes of the world when fifteen thousand Vietnam antiwar protesters vowed to shut down the National Democratic Convention.

by Nobuko Miyamoto via Densho: Japanese American Incarceration and Japanese Internment on July 12, 2021

U.S. infantry in World War I

Songs of the Bad War

Some of the earliest and most powerful anti-war songs of the Sixties era don’t mention Vietnam, but rather World War I.

by Michael Brendan Dougherty via National Review on June 11, 2021

An Embattled President. A Mass Movement. A Military Used Against Citizens. We’ve Been Here Before.

The inside story of Mayday 1971 and the largest mass arrest in US history.

by Lawrence Roberts via Mother Jones on July 29, 2020

Eugene V. Debs campaigning to crowd

When America's Most Prominent Socialist Was Jailed for Speaking Out Against World War I

After winning 6 percent of the vote in the 1912 presidential election, Eugene Debs ran afoul of the nation's new anti-sedition laws.

by Erick Trickey via Smithsonian on June 15, 2018

People in a large boat in an amusement park

How a Group of '70s Radicals Tried (and Failed) to Invade Disneyland

The Yippies' takeover did not quite go to plan.

by Kristin Hunt via Atlas Obscura on July 19, 2017

The Odds Against Antiwar Warriors

A review of Michael Kazin's "War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918."

by Andrew J. Bacevich via The American Conservative on March 30, 2017

When W. E. B. Du Bois was Un-American

W. E. B. Du Bois may be our keenest critic of Trumpism today.

by Andrew Lanham via Boston Review on January 13, 2017

A Chorus of Defiance

Fifty years after the Vietnam War’s end, lessons from the peace movement on mobilizing resistance.

by David Cortright via Boston Review on April 24, 2025

Catholic activists burn draft files to protest the Vietnam War in Catonsville, Maryland, 1968.

Resistance Reexamined

The complex, sometimes romanticized, but ultimately prophetic Catholic peace movement has critical lessons for today's America amid a genocidal war in Gaza.

by Arvin Alaigh via Commonweal on April 23, 2025

Edward Said.

Said’s Specter

Columbia is at war with its intellectual heritage.

by Timothy Brennan via The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 14, 2025

Stack of Newspapers.

A Brief History of America’s Campaign Against Dissident Newsmaking

On underground presses and state violence.

by Aaron Boehmer via Literary Hub on March 26, 2025

People attending a teach-in.

A Way to Honor the Teach-in Movement at 60

It’s time for another national teach-in movement.

by Robert Cohen via Inside Higher Ed on March 21, 2025

A UC Berkeley student picket supports a strike protesting demonstrators’ arrests, 1964.

Whose Side Are College Administrators On?

There’s a long history of politicians targeting student protesters — and of campus leaders abetting those efforts.

by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via HNN on March 19, 2025

Bob Dylan playing the electric guitar in 1965.

'A Complete Unknown' Misses a Key Part of 1960s History

The Bob Dylan film forefronts a conflict between acoustic and electric music, while ignoring how the Vietnam War divided folk musicians.

by Nina Silber via Made By History on December 25, 2024

Portrait of Morris Hillquit.

When Socialists Run for NYC Mayor, Good Things Can Happen

Socialist legislator Zohran Mamdani is running for New York City mayor against a corrupt, unpopular mayor. Morris Hillquit did the same thing a century ago.

by Charlie Dulik via Jacobin on December 19, 2024

Protest encampment at University of California Berkeley.

The Free Speech Movement at Sixty and Today’s Unfree Universities

Can speech be free when billionaires buy influence on campus?

by Robert Cohen via Academe on December 4, 2024

Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to an anti-Vietnam War rally in 1967.

The Anti-War Political Tradition: An Introduction

Anti-war politics has a rich historical tradition, one that seems to be in desperate need of revival.

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via Foreign Exchanges on September 17, 2024

Still from the film Medium Cool, 1969.

That Ain't Cool

Capturing the 1968 DNC.

by Sammy Feldblum via The Baffler on August 20, 2024

Hubert Humphrey.

Votes for Humphrey [Biden]

On (not) voting.

by Michael Brenes via Warfare And Welfare on June 11, 2024

Joe Biden speaking in January.

No, the 2024 Election Won’t Be Anything Like 1968

The election will be a challenge for Joe Biden. But looking to the past won’t help him—or us—understand what lies ahead.

by Walter Shapiro via The New Republic on May 9, 2024

Richard Nixon and Billy Graham at the podium at the University of Tennessee.

The Leaders of Tomorrow

What happened in 1970 after Richard Nixon was told, “I doubt that there would be any problem of student demonstrations in Tennessee.”

by Katherine J. Ballantyne via HNN on May 8, 2024

NYPD officers in riot gear march onto Columbia University campus, where pro-Palestinian students were barricaded inside a building and set up an encampment, on April 30, 2024.

Columbia’s Violence Against Protesters Has a Long History

An overlooked history of selective policing at Columbia has undermined the safety of those within as well as beyond campus walls.

by T. M. Song via The Nation on May 3, 2024

Police arresting a protestor at U.T.-Austin.

College Administrators are Falling Into a Tried and True Trap Laid by the Right

Throughout the 60s and 70s, conservative activists led a counterattack against campus demonstrators by demanding action from college presidents, courts, and police.

by Lauren Lassabe Shepherd via The Conversation on April 26, 2024

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