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Today’s Echoes of the First ‘America First’

Charles Lindbergh’s ideology prefigured Donald Trump’s—and was rightly disgraced.
by Casey Michel via The Bulwark on November 13, 2024
Charles Lindbergh addressing a rally of the America First Committee in 1941.

Stop Saying "Isolationist"

It's misleading, invidious, and it obscures what's actually bad and scary about right-wing nationalist foreign policy.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on July 19, 2024
The sun setting over dozens of B-52 bombers waiting in the Arizona desert to be scrapped at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center, Tucson, 1998

Who’s Afraid of Isolationism?

For decades, America’s governing elite caricatured sensible restraint in order to pursue geopolitical dominance and endless wars. At last the folly may be over.
by Stephen Wertheim via New York Review of Books on February 3, 2022
A protest sign against involvement in WWII
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A Brief History of the "Isolationist" Strawman

The word “isolationist” has been used by the U.S. foreign policy establishment to narrow the range of acceptable public opinion on America’s role in the world.
by Brandan P. Buck via HNN on August 29, 2021

Trump’s Nineteenth-Century Grand Strategy

The themes of his UN General Assembly speech have deep roots in U.S. history.
by Charles A. Kupchan via Foreign Affairs on September 28, 2018
Laborers in El Salvador receive food allotments as part of a program sponsored by U.S.A.I.D., in 1983.

Growing Up U.S.A.I.D.

As a child in postings around the world, the author witnessed the agency’s complex relationship with American empire—and with autocrats everywhere.
by Jon Lee Anderson via The New Yorker on February 25, 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
Father Charles Coughlin delivers a radio speech (Fotosearch/Getty Images).

Ultra Violence

Rachel Maddow’s podcast tells of American Nazis in the 1940s. But the era’s real and lasting authoritarian danger came from the growth of a national security state.
by Nelson Lichtenstein via Dissent on May 23, 2023
Robet Kagan resting his head in his hands in a contemplative position, with a dark red background

Robert Kagan and Interventionism’s Big Reboot

He fell from favor after the disaster of the Iraq War. But he was always biding his time.
by Samuel Moyn via The New Republic on February 14, 2023
Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill on the HMS Prince of Wales during the Atlantic Conference, Newfoundland, Canada, August 1941.

The Limits of Press Power

To what extent did newspapers influence public opinion in the US and Britain before and during World War II?
by Geoffrey Wheatcroft via New York Review of Books on October 22, 2022
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
US military pilots operating Predator drones from the ground control station.

The Forgotten Crime of War Itself

A new book argues that efforts to humanize war with smarter weaponry have obscured the task of making peace the first goal of foreign policy.
by Jackson Lears via New York Review of Books on March 31, 2022
Richard Wright

When Richard Wright Broke With the Communists

His posthumously released novel, “The Man Who Lived Underground,” was written during a crisis of political faith.
by Colin Asher via The New Republic on April 19, 2021

The American Empire and Existential Enemies

Since its emergence in the middle of the twentieth century, the American Empire has been fueled by the search for an enemy.
by Daniel Bessner via Foreign Exchanges on September 7, 2020

Immigration Enforcement and the U.S.-Mexico Border

A microsyllabus on the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, refugees, and deportation.
by Adam Goodman, Maddalena Marinari, Evan Tarapata, María Cristina García via The Abusable Past on September 11, 2019

Charles Beard: Punished for Seeking Peace

His reputation was savaged because he had the temerity to question the 'Good War' narrative.
by Andrew J. Bacevich via The American Conservative on March 21, 2019

Inside Every Foreigner

A review of Robert Dallek's book, "Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life."
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on February 21, 2019

A Love Letter to an Extinct Creature: The Liberal Republican

“The Improbable Wendell Willkie” offers a look at how American politics might have been.
by Benjamin C. Waterhouse via Washington Post on November 21, 2018
Charles Lindbergh addresses the America First Committee in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1941.

Loaded Phrases

The long, entwined history of America First and the American dream.
by Kevin M. Kruse via The Nation on November 21, 2018
Woodrow Wilson speaking to Congress.
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We’re Still Haunted by Our Failure to Grapple with the Dark Side of World War I

Changes wrought by the war still shape America today.
by Christopher McKnight Nichols via Made By History on November 11, 2018

How "America First" Ruined the "American Dream"

Author Sarah Churchwell on the entangled history of America’s most loaded phrases.
by Sarah Churchwell, Sean Illing via Vox on October 22, 2018

The Suffocation of Democracy

Trump is not Hitler and Trumpism is not Nazism. Still, we are witnessing a story that's unlikely to have a happy ending.
by Christopher R. Browning via New York Review of Books on October 5, 2018
Woodrow Wilson speaking to Congress.
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Trump's National Security Justification for Tariffs Is Not as Strange as It Sounds

Our concept of national security is so broad it can encompass virtually anything.
by Andrew Preston via Made By History on August 17, 2018

Paens to the 'Postwar Order' Won't Save Us

A critique of a recent open letter by members of the foreign policy intelligentsia.
by Stephen Wertheim via War on the Rocks on August 6, 2018
Trump with eyes closed and head bowed as evangelist Paula White leads a prayer at the White House.

The Christian Nationalism of Donald Trump

The debate among American Christians over globalism and nationalism is nothing new — rather, it has been going on for decades.
by Gene Zubovich via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on July 17, 2018

The Lesson of the Great War

A century after the guns fell silent, the United States risks replicating the errors of the past.
by Eliot A. Cohen via The Atlantic on July 9, 2018

The Origins of the 'Globalist' Slur

The anti-Semitic seeds of its use were firmly planted 75 years ago.
by Ben Zimmer via The Atlantic on March 14, 2018
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The Bannon Style of American Politics

It's not as new as it seems.
by Matthew Dallek via Made By History on October 24, 2017

The War to End All Wars

The ardent but flawed movement against World War I.
by Geoffrey Wheatcroft via The Nation on October 5, 2017
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NAFTA Policy Reveals a Distinction Between Trump, Ross Perot, and Patrick Buchanan

Trump has echoed the NAFTA policy of his politically upstart forbearers—mostly.
by Paul Adler via HNN on May 7, 2017
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