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Plane with an eye in it and a bird's silhouette around.

Did Making the Rules of War Better Make the World Worse?

Why efforts to curb the cruelty of military force may have backfired.
by Dexter Filkins via The New Yorker on September 2, 2021
An American propaganda leaflet dropped ahead of Curtis LeMay’s firebomb campaign over Japan.

Narrative Napalm

Malcolm Gladwell’s apologia for American butchery.
by Noah Kulwin via The Baffler on May 17, 2021

The Pantomime Drama of Victims and Villains Conceals the Real Horrors of War

Innocent, passive, apolitical: after the Holocaust, the standard for ‘true’ victimhood has worked to justify total war.
by Dirk Moses via Aeon on May 10, 2021
Defendant Alfred Krupp von Bohlen testifies at the Krupp Case war crimes trial.

The Other Nuremberg Trials, Seventy-Five Years On

Failures in prosecuting German businesses who profited in Nazi Germany show how far Europe and America were willing to go to protect capitalism.
by Erica X. Eisen via Boston Review on March 22, 2021
Exhibit

Crimes of War

Stories about the civilian victims of past wars, and the extent to which Americans have acknowledged and accounted for atrocities committed in their name.
Artistic rendition of a boy with an explosion.

Can Historians Be Traumatized by History?

Their secondhand experience of past horrors can debilitate them.
by James Robins via The New Republic on February 16, 2021
a pro-Trump protestor climbing scaffolding above a crowd

The Persistence of Hate In American Politics

After Charlottesville, the historian Joan Wallach Scott wanted to find out how societies face up to their past—and why some fail.
by Aryeh Neier via The New Republic on January 27, 2021
A group of South Korean refugees during the Korean War.

The Korean War Atrocities No One Wants to Talk About

For decades they covered up the U.S. massacre of civilians at No Gun Ri and elsewhere. This is why we never learn our lessons.
by Jim Bovard via The American Conservative on June 26, 2020
partner

The Whistleblowers of the My Lai Massacre

Three men who brought the terrors of My Lai to light.
by Howard Jones via HNN on December 17, 2019

Bernie, the Sandinistas, and America's Long Crisis of Impunity

Or, the pros and Contras of relying on political reporters.
by Jonathan M. Katz via Mother Jones on May 30, 2019

When Presidents Intervene on Behalf of War Criminals

Amid reports that Trump may pardon accused or convicted war criminals, it's worth remembering Nixon's response to the My Lai Massacre.
by Mikhaila Fogel via Lawfare on May 27, 2019
Walter Jones

Prosecuting Torture

Walter Jones and the unintended consequences of the War Crimes Act of 1996.
by W. Fitzhugh Brundage via Perspectives on History on March 20, 2019

Obama's Legacy of Impunity for Torture

Obama's desire to “look forward” on torture has enabled Trump to look backward in his appointment of a new CIA director.
by Adam Serwer via The Atlantic on March 14, 2018

In Winston Churchill, Hollywood Rewards a Mass Murderer

Are a few bombastic speeches really enough to wash the bloodstains off Churchill’s racist hands?
by Shashi Tharoor via Washington Post on March 10, 2018

The Ghosts of My Lai

In the hamlet where U.S. troops killed hundreds of civilians, survivors are ready to forgive the most infamous American soldier.
by Shaun Raviv via Smithsonian Magazine on January 6, 2018

Confronting the Legacy of the Civil War: The Forgotten Front

One thing united the warring factions of the civil war: the doctrine of white supremacy and violence against Indians.
by George Black via The Nation on October 26, 2017
Confederate Commander Col. Lawrence Allen and his wife.

The Massacre Men

The Confederacy often used brutal tactics against Union sympathizers, even in Southern towns.
by David Forbes via Scalawag on July 27, 2017

I Don't Care How Good His Paintings Are, He Still Belongs in Prison

George W. Bush committed an international crime that killed hundreds of thousands of people.
by Nathan J. Robinson via Current Affairs on April 19, 2017

Andrew Jackson was A Slaver, Ethnic Cleanser, and Tyrant

Andrew Jackson deserves nothing but contempt from modern America, not a place on our currency.
by Dylan Matthews via Vox on April 20, 2016

The Best Intentions

The Manhattan Project scientists tried to advocate for nuclear de-escalation-instead, they unwittingly abetted the Vietnam War.
by Sarah Bridger via Slate on September 4, 2015

The International Chemical Weapons Taboo

Our horror of chemical agents is one of the great success stories of modern diplomacy.
by Richard Price via Boston Globe on September 8, 2013
Collage of Trump, Maduro, with an outline of Venezuela, oil wells, and a gas pump

The Big Business of War for Oil

The attack on Venezuela and abduction of Maduro surprised everyone, except oil companies. It's not the first time the U.S. was motivated by corporate interests.
by Zeb Larson via Dame Magazine on January 8, 2026
Police outside of the New York Times building.

The Genocides The New York Times Forgot

The paper’s Gaza coverage continues its pattern of downplaying US-backed atrocities in Bangladesh, East Timor, and Guatemala.
by Zachary Jablow via Jewish Currents on December 19, 2025
Donald Trump speaking to U.S. Navy sailors.

Trump: The US Lost Vietnam and Afghanistan Due to Woke

Trump thinks the US was constrained by “political correctness” in Vietnam and Afghanistan. But those wars were characterized by dehumanization and destruction.
by Ben Burgis via Jacobin on October 9, 2025
Efka Pyramiden cigarette papers in a green packaging sleeve made in Nazi Germany.
partner

Papering Over History

Efka—the German rolling paper company—was a Nazi regime favorite. After World War II, it was refashioned as a darling of the pot-infused counterculture.
by Alexandra M. Lord, Robert M. Ehrenreich via JSTOR Daily on September 24, 2025
Soldiers scan the horizon in Vietnam.

My Lai Memorial

Amid bluster about warfighting and lethality, it is important to recall the moral burdens of war.
by Jonathan Clarke via The Hedgehog Review on September 17, 2025
Japanese screen depicting Europeans coming to trade.

The Last Witnesses: Preserving the History of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

In the Embers series, historian M.G. Sheftall shares the stories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s last survivors and reveals why their testimony must endure.
by Kevin Dickinson via Big Think on August 20, 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 E. Rosen, Noah Kulwin, Brendan James via Public Books on April 22, 2025
Hawaiian landscape.

The Hawaiians Who Want Their Nation Back

In 1893, a U.S.-backed coup overthrew the Islands’ sovereign government. What does America owe Hawai‘i now?
by Adrienne LaFrance via The Atlantic on December 11, 2024
Art piece of a hand holding barbed wire.

Do Border

Who can migrate to the US and make their home here? Who gets to drop US-made bombs, and who is expected to suffer them? These are not unrelated questions.
by Daniel Denvir via n+1 on August 22, 2024
Palestinians gather around a statue of Nelson Mandela after South Africa files a landmark case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, Ramallah, Jan. 10, 2024.

1948: Israel, South Africa, and the Question of Genocide

The UN’s failure to dismantle the colonial order foreclosed the application of the Genocide Convention to Israel, South Africa, and the United States.
by Robin D. G. Kelley via Hammer & Hope on March 19, 2024
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