war — Bunk History

MLK giving his Vietnam speech

“Somehow This Madness Must Cease.”

Revisiting MLK Jr.’s sermon against the Vietnam War.

by Christopher Lydon via Literary Hub on April 8, 2022

Portrait of George Washington on a horse.

Declaring War

Congress hasn't declared it often. The U.S. has fought a lot of war anyway. How?

by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on March 2, 2022

Picture of soldiers from WWI.

There Is More War in the Classroom Than You Think

Hitchcock and Herwig discuss their findings on the teaching of war in higher education.

by William I. Hitchcock, Meghan Herwig via War on the Rocks on September 7, 2021

When the World Tried to Outlaw War

What, if anything, can we learn from the 1928 Paris Peace Pact?

by Stephen Wertheim via The Nation on November 8, 2018

The Unintended Consequences of Veterans' Day

In hindsight: A day created to commemorate peace has been transformed into one that perpetuates war.

by Paul Steege via Hindsights on November 10, 2017

Alleged enemy aliens on way to detention camp, Gloucester, New Jersey, 1918.

The Alien Enemies Act: Annotated

Confused about the oft-mentioned Alien Enemies Act? This explainer, with links to free peer-reviewed scholarship, may help clear things up.

by Liz Tracey via JSTOR Daily on April 25, 2025

Three identical pictures of the explosion of an atomic bomb with different coloring.

How Literature Predicted and Portrayed the Atom Bomb

On Pierrepoint B. Noyes, H.G. Wells, and the “Superweapons” of early science-fiction.

by Dorian Lynskey via Literary Hub on January 28, 2025

Jesus Jones on stage.

Right Here, Right Now: Jesus Jones and the Post-Cold War Moment

For a brief window at the end of the Cold War, British alt-rock band Jesus Jones tapped into global feelings of optimism and hope.

by Dion Georgiou via The Saturday Evening Post on December 24, 2024

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

Martin Luther King Jr. speaking to an anti-Vietnam War rally in 1967.

The Anti-War Political Tradition: An Introduction

Anti-war politics has a rich historical tradition, one that seems to be in desperate need of revival.

by Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins via Foreign Exchanges on September 17, 2024

A photograph of the battlefield at Antietam.

A Remote Reality

Depictions of Antietam couldn’t possible capture the magnitude of the battle’s horror.

by Stephen Budiansky via HNN on September 3, 2024

Hands manipulating the earth like a Rubik's cube.

When the C.I.A. Messes Up

Its agents are often depicted as malevolent puppet masters—or as bumbling idiots. The truth is even less comforting.

by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on June 10, 2024

Pope Francis.

Whatever Happened to the Language of Peace?

Pope Francis is the only world leader who seems prepared to denounce war.

by Sohrab Ahmari via New Statesman on May 8, 2024

War tax alternate fund information form.

Death and Taxes

The long history and contemporary relevance of war tax resistance.

by Tyler McBrien via Protean on April 15, 2024

A People’s Obituary of Henry Kissinger

For decades, Kissinger kept the great wheel of American militarism spinning ever forward.

by Greg Grandin via The Nation on November 30, 2023

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.

by Daniel Schulman via The Atlantic on November 7, 2023

Have We Learned Nothing?

The comparison between last weekend's Hamas attack and 9/11 is apt.

by David Klion via n+1 on October 10, 2023

A 1938 poster from the Women’s Field Army of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.

Should We Abandon the Idea That Cancer Is Something To ‘Fight’?

Is the century-old battle metaphor doing more harm than good to doctors and patients alike?

by Elaine Schattner via Aeon on May 9, 2023

A U.S. Army officer posing after a battle at the Baghdad airport, April 2003.

Blundering Into Baghdad

The right—and wrong—lessons of the Iraq War.

by Hal Brands via Foreign Affairs on February 28, 2023

President Truman in the Oval Office after presenting three Korean War veterans with the Medal of Honor.

When History Becomes Precedent in the OLC

Official decisions about military intervention and executive power are often based on outdated historical interpretations.

by Mary L. Dudziak via Balkinization on January 16, 2023

Painting of a city surrendering to Napoleon.

Uses & Abuses of Military History

On the value of the discipline and its applications.

by Victor Davis Hanson via The New Criterion on December 23, 2022

Illustration of Crazy Horse

How Would Crazy Horse See His Legacy?

Perhaps no Native American is more admired for military acumen than the Lakota leader. But is that how he wanted to be remembered?

by Pekka Hämäläinen via Smithsonian on November 2, 2022

Royal Fusiliers War Memorial, 2011. Photograph by Robert Scarth.

Monuments with Mission Creep

On “all wars” memorials.

by Andrew M. Shanken via Lapham’s Quarterly on October 26, 2022

Black and white image of workmen standing on or outside of a train.

Riding with Du Bois

Railroads—in the Jim Crow South just as in today’s Ukraine—employ physical infrastructure to create racial divisions.

by Manu Karuka via Public Books on October 18, 2022

illustration including "Napalm Girl" photo and photo of the photographer

The View from Here

Fifty years on, Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize–winning photograph, “Napalm Girl,” still has the power to shock. But can a picture change the world?

by Errol Morris via Air Mail on June 4, 2022

Poster with women pledging to "pay not more than top legal prices" and "accept no rationed goods without giving up ration stamps"

Politics and the Price Level

On inflation, institutions, and the governance of the price level.

by Andrew Yamakawa Elrod via Phenomenal World on May 19, 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

Donald Rumsfeld in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2005 (Jim Young-Pool/Getty Images).

Lasting Cruelties

A new book situates the War on Terror as a story of domination which traces back to the founding of the US as a settler-colonial and slaveholding behemoth.

by Lyle Jeremy Rubin via Dissent on March 30, 2022

Artwork of Hannah Arendt looking through the outline of a map of Ukraine.

Why We Should Read Hannah Arendt Now

"The Origins of Totalitarianism" has much to say about a world of rising authoritarianism.

by Anne Applebaum via The Atlantic on March 17, 2022

Illustration of an angel symbolizing peace with her hand on the shoulder of a man symbolizing war, titled "The Messenger"

Ukraine Shows We Need to Learn the History of Peace Movements to Break The Habit of War

When the war in Ukraine finally ends, will we take peace organizations and peace movements more seriously?

by Charles F. Howlett via HNN on March 13, 2022

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