arms trade

How an American arms dealer and a surplus of guns in Europe after World War II popularized gun ownership.

International arms dealer Samuel Cummings blanketed the Western Hemisphere with guns.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq was no turning point. It was a slow-burning tale of how Britain and the US armed a nation, and then betrayed it.

A closer look at the geopolitics of weapons sales through the Cold War, and beyond.

How 18th-century British arms sales, the slave trade, and the Revolutionary War contributed to the mess we have today.

The early history of American arms trading is missing from most of the scholarship on guns.

The U.S. has long supplied the world with AR-15 rifles. But only when we see its grim effects at home do politicians call for restricting its sale.

The solidarity group Noraid raised millions of dollars to support the Irish republican movement during the Troubles.

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

Estimating life and death in Iraq and Gaza.

Behind the Oklahoma City bombing and even the January 6th attack was a military-style assault in Texas that galvanized the far right.

There are more than 400 million guns in Americans' hands.

From the Nye Committee to Joe Kent, the fight against war profiteering is a constant struggle.

Oliver North and his cronies in the Contra support operations put in motion a clandestine counter-intelligence apparatus to disrupt the flow of information.

Failures in prosecuting German businesses who profited in Nazi Germany show how far Europe and America were willing to go to protect capitalism.

Reagan's commitment to deregulation, aggressive military spending, and diminished oversight created a cocktail of corruption that was worse than Watergate.

Iran and surplus imperialism.

In a span of less than 12 hours a German college professor set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol & assaulted J.P. Morgan Jr. at his home on Long Island.

The Iran-Contra affair exposed how government officials can ignore democratic norms and practices.

For decades, Washington has denied, downplayed and rationalized atrocities by its allies.

Black people see what is happening to Palestinians, and many feel the tug of the familiar in their heart.

Kamala Harris called Iran a “destabilizing, dangerous force.” The appropriate context for this is the US’s own decades-long history of destabilizing Iran.

Union workers in the US weapons industry present a paradox for anti-war labor activists, but a history of “conversion” campaigns offers a route.

“Gun Country” chronicles the transformation of guns from tangible weapons to ideological ammunition during the Cold War.

Suspicions have long swirled around unscrupulous campaign manager William Casey. We believe the evidence is now overwhelming.

Are alarmist narratives about a “new civil war” obscuring the real battle in US politics: the fight for democracy?

Noam Chomsky discusses the hypocrisies of US empire and why if we really wanted to build a decent society, we’d immediately slash the massive military budget.

Marine insurance itself was a business that flourished during periods of war and uncertainty. It had a complex relationship with the British state.

On the relationships formed and marriages made by the fur trade.

Somewhere in Jamaica survive the original cannabis strains that were not burned by American agents or bred to be more profitable.