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Protestors confronting Army military police.

When the Military Comes to American Soil

Domestic deployments have generally been quite restrained. Can they still be?
by Joshua Braver via The Atlantic on June 17, 2025
A line of Marines firing from behind a barricade.

Neither Marine nor Maggot

"Full Metal Jacket" and the crisis of masculinity.
by Chris Deutsch via Nursing Clio on June 4, 2025
Soldiers in combat gear stand by an advertisement for "America's Army," a military strategy game from 2002.

Video Games Are a Key Battleground in the Propaganda War

When video games went mainstream, the Pentagon realized their potential as a promotional tool, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on war-based games.
by Marijam Did via Jacobin on October 13, 2024
Uncle Sam gestureing "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil,"

How the US Military Ditched Merit

A military consumed by identity politics threatens the integrity of the republic.
by William Thibeau via Compact on October 9, 2024
Ceremonial flags used in funerals on a chair
partner

The Last 20 Years Have Remade the Nature of Military Service. Here’s How.

Contractors are increasingly doing dangerous work helping our troops — without any of the recognition.
by Kyle Longley via Made By History on November 11, 2021

The History of Military Parades in the U.S.

The Trump Administration has clamored for a military parade. What are the origins of tank-led celebrations?
by Marissa Fessenden via Smithsonian on February 7, 2018

The Military, Minorities, and Social Engineering

Trump’s transgender ban restarts the debate about the relation between military service and social policy.
by Richard S. Slotkin via The Conversation on August 7, 2017

Trump's Argument Against Transgender Soldiers Was Used Against Gays, Women, and Blacks

A brief review of history.
by Philip Bump via Washington Post on July 26, 2017
Two bullets in a bullet case.

Why We Can (Partially) Thank the Military for American Gay Identity

How anti-homosexual policies throughout military history helped shape gay culture today.
by Carson Leigh Brown, Ross Benes via Pacific Standard on April 24, 2017
A group of two women and one child watches a military procession pass.

How the US Military Became a Welfare State

Long in retreat in the US, the welfare state found a haven in an unlikely place – the military, where it thrived for decades.
by Jennifer Mittelstadt via Aeon on September 21, 2015
Lithograph depicting General Washington leading his troops in battle against British troops.

Why George Washington Integrated the Army

The commander-in-chief initially barred black soldiers from joining the ranks, but he came to understand the value—both moral and strategic—of a diverse force.
by Andrew Lawler via The Bulwark on June 16, 2025
Individuals salute and hold their hand over their hearts as they watch a parade. A portrait of George Washington hangs in front.

Trump’s Un-American Parade

What looks like an excess of strength may really be a deficit of liberty.
by T. H. Breen via The Atlantic on June 13, 2025
Visitors pose atop Arch Rock, a geological formation on Mackinac Island.

How America’s Second National Park Lost Its Federal Status—and Gained a New Life as a State Park

Much of Mackinac Island was designated as a national park, but was too expensive for the government to maintain, so it was transferred to the State of Michigan.
by Sarah Kuta via Smithsonian on June 9, 2025
Texas Southern University marching band.

The Storied History of HBCU Marching Bands

Marching bands at historically Black colleges and universities can be seen as both celebratory emblems and complicated arbiters of Black American culture.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on April 24, 2025
Huddie Lesbetter's draft registration card.

Secret Recordings Show President Roosevelt Debating Military Desegregation with Civil Rights Leaders

More than a year before Pearl Harbor, President FDR heard arguments from the civil rights leaders of the era for the desegregation of the military.
by Richard Sisk via Millitary.com on April 15, 2025
Harvester on farmland.

America’s Pernicious Rural Myth

An interview with Steven Conn about his new book, “Lies of the Land: Seeing Rural America for What It Is—and Isn’t.”
by Steven Conn, Jacob Bruggeman via Public Books on April 9, 2025
A drawing of a ship firing cannons at another vessel.

On the Colonial Power Struggle That Would Give Birth to the City of New York

For historian Russell Shorto, it was all about water.
by Russell Shorto via Literary Hub on March 18, 2025
Painting of Casimir Pulaski on a horse in battle.

Discover the Short Life and Long Legacy of Casimir Pulaski

On the first Monday in March, Pulaski Day festivities at Chicago’s Polish Museum of America honored the “Father of American Cavalry,” 280 years after his birth.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian on March 6, 2025
A bulldozer juxtapositioned with destroyed buildings and barren land.

The Shrouded, Sinister History Of The Bulldozer

From India to the Amazon to Israel, bulldozers have left a path of destruction that offers a cautionary tale for how technology can be misused.
by Joe Zadeh via Noema on February 20, 2025
Silhouettes of Energy Secretary Chris Wright, President Donald Trump, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the Oval Office in the dark.

The Making of Emergencies

For centuries, theorists of liberal governance have worried about how emergencies can unfetter executive power. Trump has given those fears new urgency.
by Caroline Elkins via New York Review of Books on February 16, 2025
A Guatemalan police officer standing in front of a memorial to Guatemalan civilians murdered during the country's civil war that depicts their photographs.

By Rejecting Evidence of Genocide in Gaza, the US Is Following a Familiar Pattern

For decades, Washington has denied, downplayed and rationalized atrocities by its allies.
by Stephen Zunes via New Lines on February 14, 2025
An illustration of space, with two silhouettes of heads overlapping.

The Fraught U.S.-Soviet Search for Alien Life

During the Cold War, American and Soviet scientists embarked on an unprecedented quest to contact extraterrestrials.
by Sophie Pinkham via The New Yorker on February 6, 2025
1999 Yugoslavian stamp depicting a NATO jet launching a missile at an oil refinery.

Stamps Capture Unchanging Face of U.S. Violence Abroad

Countries have also used their postal systems to fight back against aggression.
by Matin Modarressi via Foreign Policy in Focus on January 6, 2025
Soldiers and a tank, a Defense department seal, and Pete Hegseth.

Bring Back the War Department

If you want a clear strategy for winning wars, don’t play a semantic game with the name of the department that’s charged with the strategy’s execution.
by Elliot Ackerman via The Atlantic on December 5, 2024
Painting of the Sand Creek Massacre by Robert Lindneux, c. 1935.

Happy Native American Heritage Month From the Army That Brought You the Trail of Tears

After 170 years of armed attacks, forced relocations, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Native Americans, the U.S. military wants to celebrate.
by Nick Turse via The Intercept on November 28, 2024
Supreme Court justices William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Owen J. Roberts at the White House.

FDR’s Compliant Justices

The Supreme Court’s deference to FDR during World War II resulted in unjustifiable ethical breaches.
by Jed S. Rakoff via New York Review of Books on November 14, 2024

You Had to Be There

Whose side is the war correspondent on?
by Zoë Hu via The Baffler on November 5, 2024
A black and white photo of an American soldier on patrol in Kabul, Afghanistan, 2005.

God’s Directive

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, evangelical American missionaries followed military tanks into Afghanistan and Iraq to convert Muslims.
by Rozina Ali via New York Review of Books on October 31, 2024

Call of Duty: Pentagon Ops

Inside the weird synergies that launched the videogaming industry—and made the Pentagon fantasies in Call of Duty its stock in trade.
by Jesse Robertson via The Nation on October 24, 2024
Map of the US Air Force Atlantic Missile Range stations in 1957

Making the American Orbit

The U.S. military operated a Grand Turk missile tracking station for 30 years, with limited local benefits, highlighting American expansionism's impact.
by Andrew J. Ross via Perspectives on History on October 8, 2024
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