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Claude McKay speaking at the Kremlin, as printed in the December 1923 issue of the Crisis.

The Proletarian Poet

A new book on Claude McKay is part of an effort to place the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance within the Black radical tradition.
Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers speaking before the appearance of former president Donald Trump at a Save America Rally on Jan 15th in Florence, Arizona.
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The Bond That Explains Why Some on the Christian Right Support Putin’s War

Russia has become an ally in a global movement.

When America Tried to Deport Its Radicals

A hundred years ago, the Palmer Raids imperilled thousands of immigrants. Then a wily official got in the way.

Happy Captive Nations Week!

We're supposed to celebrate one of the weirdest artifacts of the Cold War.
Farm for sale in Kansas, 1938.
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The Early History of “Selling America to Americans”

Using film and advertising to sell capitalism and nationalism to immigrants in the early 20th century.
Brigadier General Smedley Butler.

Genesis of the Modern American Right

During the Great Depression, financial elites translated European fascism into an American form that joined high capital with lower middle-class populism.
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.
Noam Chomsky.

How George Orwell Paved Noam Chomsky’s Path to Anarchism

On the profound impact of Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia" on Noam Chomsky's early embrace of left-libertarian and anarchist ideologies.
A collage of images of Henry Ford and newspaper articles about him.

America’s Most Dangerous Anti-Jewish Propagandist

Making sense of anti-Semitism today requires examining Henry Ford’s outsize part in its origins.
Black and white photo of Bessie Beatty

Woman on a Mission

For pioneering journalist Bessie Beatty, women’s suffrage and the plight of labor were linked inextricably.
Whole Wheat Shell Pasta on Grey, by artist Rachel Doom, 2019.

Wielding Wheat

A new history makes a case for the world-ordering power of wheat.
Artwork of mountain peaks and landscape.

Not Belonging to the World

Hannah Arendt holds firm during the McCarthy era.
Maxim and Ivy Litvinov

The People’s Ambassadress: The Forgotten Diplomacy of Ivy Litvinov

How Ivy Litvinov, the English-born wife of a Soviet ambassador, seduced America with wit, tea and soft diplomacy.
The Trump family at a public event

Why is the Nationalist Right Hallucinating a ‘Communist Enemy’?

Reactionary leaders are invoking communism as a way of attacking the left, says author and activist Richard Seymour.

Blood & Fire: The Bombing of Wall Street, 100 Years Later

When a converted ice cream wagon blew up in Wall Street, it was the loudest burst in a war between the Federal government and American Anarchists.
A colorized photo of migrant children in 1942.

How to Interpret Historical Analogies

They’re good for kickstarting political debate but analogies with the past are often ahistorical and should be treated with care.

When the Seattle General Strike and the 1918 Flu Collided

The first major general strike in the United States coincided with the last major pandemic. Here’s the full story.
Rebecca West.

Whittaker Chambers Through the Eyes of Rebecca West

West understood more clearly than anyone the allure of Communism for educated Westerners.

A Hundred Years After the Armistice

If you think the First World War began senselessly, consider how it ended.
Portrait of young Bundists seated and standing

My Great-Grandfather the Bundist

Family paintings led me to a revolutionary society my mother’s grandfather was a member of and whose story was interwoven with Eastern European Jews.

Infiltrating the Left

The FBI has long tried to destroy socialist organizations, but its actions aren't limited to surveillance.
A woman driving a tractor with a man, with mechanized farming in the background, drawn in the Soviet style.

The American Housewives who Sought Freedom in Soviet Russia

A forgotten chapter in the history of feminism: why American women chose to flee the West for ‘freedom’ in Soviet Russia.

Your Child Care Conundrum Is an Anti-Communist Plot

Red-baiters deserve at least part of the blame for the shortage of affordable, high-quality pre-K.
Angry mob in Manhattan
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The Day Wall Street Exploded

On the spectacular act of terrorism that took place in Manhattan a century ago.

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