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Lithograph depicting the Congress of Vienna, 1815.

The Conservative Historian Every Socialist Should Read

A lifetime spent studying the disastrous lead-up to World War I gave Paul Schroeder reason to be horrified at the recklessness of US foreign policy.
by Mathias Fuelling via Jacobin on April 22, 2025
View of New Amsterdam from the 1620s.

The Dutch Roots of American Liberty

New York would never be the Puritans' austere city on a hill, yet it became America’s vibrant heart of capitalism.
by John O. McGinnis via Law & Liberty on April 10, 2025
Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders, Battle of San Juan, Cuba, 1898.

How It Became Wrong for Nations to Conquer Others

It’s only a century since US diplomats first persuaded the world that it’s wrong for countries to annex their neighbours.
by Kerry Goettlich via Aeon on March 13, 2025
A view of an Inuit town in Greenland surrounded by snowy hills.

Greenland: Polar Politics

Though it may seem like a new topic of concern, the glaciated landscape of Greenland has floated in and out of American politics for decades.
by Rob Crossan via JSTOR Daily on February 10, 2025
Political cartoon of a column with the United States, Chile, and China; United Kingdom falling.

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Redux

The author of the 20th century’s most influential history book anticipates the coming world order.
by Paul Kennedy via New Statesman on September 20, 2023
Austin West, a Choctaw student, visits Kindred Spirits, a monument to the Choctaw in County Cork.

The Unlikely, Enduring Friendship Between Ireland and the Choctaw Nation

One act of generosity during the Great Famine forged a bond that transcends generations.
by Richard Grant via Smithsonian on September 7, 2023
IMPERATOR Steam ship.

The Students Who Went to Sea

"The Floating University: Experience, Empire, and the Politics of Knowledge"
by William H. Whyte via Literary Review on July 7, 2023
President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands at the Group of 20 summit.
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Diplomacy Defused Cold War Crises. It Can Help Again Today.

The type of quiet, personal, informed diplomacy advocated by George Kennan can reduce tensions with China and Russia.
by Frank Costigliola via Made By History on February 10, 2023
Adolf Hitler with high-ranking Nazi officers during Operation Barbarossa, the failed offensive against the Soviet Union, 7 August 1941.

Geopolitics is a Loser’s Buzzword with a Contagious Idea

The concept of geopolitics comes from German and Russian attempts to explain defeat and reverse loss of influence.
by Harold James via Aeon on December 1, 2022
A tank on a city street.

U.S. Deliberation During Hungary’s 1956 Uprising Offers Lessons on Restraint

As the war in Ukraine worsens, there’s little debate about Western policy choices. This is a mistake.
by Branko Marcetic via Current Affairs on June 1, 2022

What History Can Tell Us About the Fallout From Restricting Immigration

U.S. immigration policies are inextricably linked to American foreign relations.
by David C. Atkinson via TIME on February 3, 2017
Drawing of Native Americans on a boat

Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America

Michael A. McDonnell’s book is a wonderfully researched microhistory of the Michilimackinac area from the mid-17th to the early 19th century.
by Adam Nadeau via Borealia: Early Canadian History on June 27, 2016
Israeli nuclear power plant.

How Israel Deceived the United States About Its Nuclear Weapons Program

Israel is attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, but Tehran’s secret path was blazed by the Israelis.
by Glenn Kessler via Washington Post on June 23, 2025
A man pushes a bicycle as he walks amid rubble in the devastated area around Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, April 3, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

Gaza and the Undoing of Zionism

A historian reviews new books by Peter Beinart, Avi Shlaim and Pankaj Mishra on the project that animates Israel’s violence.
by Yakov M. Rabkin via New Lines on June 20, 2025
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters.
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Trump May be Repeating Reagan's Deep Sea Mining Mistake

Undermining international oceans governance could damage American interests.
by Sonya Schoenberger via Made By History on June 17, 2025
F. D. R. looks intently across a table at Brazilian President Getulio Vargas during a meal.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Christy Thornton and Greg Grandin discuss his new book, “America, América,” and the intertwined histories of the U.S. and Latin America.
by Greg Grandin, Christy Thornton via The Baffler on May 30, 2025
Bars evoking the border wall superimposed on a photo of a river.

The New Politics Of Territorial Expansion

“Never again” and the “responsibility to protect” now license forcible territorial annexation.
by Nils Gilman, Dirk Moses, Zachariah Mampilly via Noema on May 29, 2025
Zbigniew Brzezinski

The Coldest Cold Warrior

How a sharp-elbowed Polish academic with an unpronounceable name helped defeat the Soviet Union.
by Eric Edelman via The Bulwark on May 23, 2025
A drawing of John Adams.

John Adams Is Bald and Toothless

A brief history of the Alien and Sedition Acts.
by Michael Liss via 3 Quarks Daily on May 19, 2025
Picture of Yalta revealed behind torn paper

The Post-World War II System Was Always Fragile

Franklin Roosevelt warned that even in peacetime, America’s obligations to the world would continue.
by Julian E. Zelizer via Foreign Policy on May 12, 2025
The U.S.-Canada border, as seen in this satellite map, mostly runs along the 49th parallel — and wasn't chosen at random.

Trump Calls the U.S.-Canada Border an "Artificial Line." That's not Entirely True.

Just because it's man-made doesn't mean it's not legitimate.
by Rachel Treisman via NPR on May 9, 2025
Cardinals walking through the Vatican.
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Why Papal Conclaves Have Drawn the Attention of Spies

Intelligence agencies have long gathered information to help their governments get a sense of who the next pope might be.
by Yvonnick Denoël via Made By History on May 7, 2025
Cover of "America, América" by Greg Grandin.

The Dialectic Lurking Behind the Brutality

Greg Grandin’s new book tells the story of US expansionism and its complex relationship with the rest of the New World.
by Ieva Jusionyte via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 23, 2025
A group of Asian men standing with towels around their necks

“Endless Bad Infinity”

A conversation with the creators of a podcast series on the feedback loop of American empire.
by Charlotte Rosen, Noah Kulwin, Brendan James via Public Books on April 22, 2025
The “Visscher Map of the New World” including North and South America, 1658.

The Impossibly Intertwined History of the Americas

A conversation with Greg Grandin about his groundbreaking new book "America, América: A New History of the New World."
by Greg Grandin, Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via The Nation on April 21, 2025
A political cartoon of Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland emptying the U.S. treasury.

Radical Tariffs Aren’t New, But They Have Been Disastrous

An American story.
by Scott Reynolds Nelson via Perspectives on History on April 14, 2025
Arthur Zimmerman and his intercepted telegram.

Worse Than Signalgate

Accidentally sharing attack plans in a group chat is bad. Causing a rising superpower to declare war on you because of a Western Union telegram is worse.
by Timothy W. Ryback via The Atlantic on April 11, 2025
A torn border fence is bent into the shape of the Americas.

What America Can Learn From the Americas

Greg Grandin’s sweeping history of the new world shows how immutably intertwined the United States is with Latin America.
by Patrick Iber via The New Republic on April 7, 2025
Floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Regime Change in the West?

Where amid this turmoil does neoliberalism stand? In emergency conditions it has been forced to take measures.
by Perry Anderson via London Review of Books on March 25, 2025
Drawing of the fight between two congressional representatives titled "Congressional pugilists," 1798.

Alien Enemies, Alien Friends, and the Concept of “Allegiance”

With controversy raging over the Alien Enemies Act, how should we understand the concept it invoked?
by Robert Natelson via Law & Liberty on March 24, 2025
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