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Our mission is to stand up for peace and diplomacy internationally, and for democracy and human rights at home.  To these ends, we are dedicated to fostering education on campuses and in communities, encouraging activism, and facilitating networking with organizations working for peace and justice.

Organize a Virtual Forum on Issues Related to the Election!

Over the next five weeks, Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD) is encouraging members and supporters around the country to organize virtual talks or panels – delivered via Zoom or Skype—on key issues in this election regarding both domestic and foreign policy.

We have created a speakers list of more than thirty prominent historians and activists, who are willing to participate without honoraria in these virtual events—we call these Issues Forums.  The speakers list is below with the name and affiliation of each speaker, links to information about each speaker, topics and areas on which each is willing to present, and a contact email address.

Because time is so short, we are asking you, as a prospective Issues Forum organizer, to contact speakers on the list directly by email to discuss the event you have in mind, its date and time, and its logistics. We (the H-PAD Steering Committee) would, though, appreciate a note when an Issue Forum is set up, and a brief sum-up after one occurs.

Times are difficult now, and the struggle is intense. Please consider scheduling an Issues Forum in your locale! Or–an additional idea–set up a speaker as part of a regular distance or hybrid class, and then invite others to join the class presentation.

To raise questions or make suggestions, please contact us at Carolyn.Eisenberg@hofstra.edu (Rusti) or at skotna@sage.edu (Andor).

H-PAD Steering Committee Newsletter #6, September 15, 2020. Special Issue! Mobilize Now to Defeat Trumpism at the Polls and through Collective Action! (also available as a pdf for downloading and/or printing)

Please join H-PAD’s new project the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights, a nonpartisan national effort to enlist faculty at all levels as public allies to students seeking to vote.  Please read our “Open Letter to College and University Faculty” explaining why this network is urgently needed to challenge voter suppression amid the new crisis of COVID-19. Well over 100 academics in 21 states have now taken our Pledge for Student Voting Rights.

Statement of the Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD) on the Current Struggle

H-PAD condemns the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police.
We stand with many, many others to demand justice for George Floyd, his family, and his community. We stand with many others to demand that the historic and structural racism of the U.S. police and justice systems–that has led to the arbitrary, violent abuse of many African Americans and other people of color for many, many years—be abolished.
We stand with and applaud the multi-faceted, diverse uprising, led by Black activists often associated with Black Lives Matter, that has exploded across the U.S. and countries abroad in protest of the murder of Floyd and too many others, and the racism that produced these. And we stand against attempts of reactionary and establishment forces to suppress that protest movement through police and military action, to delegitimize it, to demean portions of it, and to undermine and split it through the use of racism, radical-baiting, and saboteurs/agents provocateurs.
We call on historians, historically-minded activists, and progressive intellectuals to increase their involvement in this movement in all ways possible, especially through offering analyses, mounting educational efforts, engaging the mass and the new media, producing historical understandings, and through participation in direct political action. We also call for all of us to channel the resources and contacts we have made through our professional and political activities into the movement.  And we call on all to join the crucial fundraising efforts for bail and legal defense for the many movement activists who have been and are being detained for protest activities.
We are in the midst of two massive, interrelated crises of great historical proportions: the continued abuse and murder of people of color by the U.S. police system, and the astounding mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic by those authorities concerned with their own power and wealth, not the health and survival of working people and people of color. The good news is that the movement that is growing is pressing hard to resolving these crises on terms favorable to all the people of this country.  H-PAD is committed to participating in and building this movement.
In subsequent communications, we plan to send information, provide resources, and offer ideas on networking and organizing.
Steering Committee, Historians for Peace and Democracy

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Supporters receive regular updates and action items as part of our network.

We have created five new Working Groups:

“Liberating History” video series

H-PAD is very excited to announce a series of short videos, titled Liberating History. New episodes will be posted on this page when they’re ready.

Episode 1: “Trump Administration Policy in the Middle East: A Cruel Continuity.” Watch historian Irene Gendzier explain the historical roots of Trump’s policies toward Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel/Palestine, and the rest of the region.

Episode 2: “The Structure of Punishment: Crack and the Rise of Mass Incarceration.” Historian Donna Murch traces the historical origins of the U.S. “war on drugs” and the system of mass incarceration that accompanies it, focusing on the racist and hypocritical policing of Black crack cocaine users.

Other H-PAD activities

Check out Jim O’Brien’s biweekly selection of insightful news and journal articles in the H-PAD blog section.
Podcasts of our H-PAD panel “Two More Years of Trump: What Is to Be Done?” at the 2019 American Historical Association are now available.
In the fall of 2018, H-PAD sent out seven “Voting Rights Alerts” (see blog posts) to help prepare for the midterm elections on November 6, and advocate for students’ right to vote.

H-PAD is developing a Public History Campaign, finding ways to agitate for peace and justice with useful, accessible, accurate materials.  Our Public History campaign has three components:

  • Investing in a much larger social media presence, including webinars, videos, and podcasts;
  • Producing many more “Broadsides for the Trump Era” and distributing them widely, via web ads;
  • Building partnerships with progressive and left organizations and publications to distribute our public, political, and popular history.
You can contribute to the Public History Campaign by signing up as an H-PAD Campus Contact or Community Contact, becoming a liaison for possible events and speakers.  Please sign up here.  You can also help by making a financial contribution.  To build our “Public History” campaign, we need to pay for professional help in creating new media, advertising space on the web, and the distribution of our materials to everyone who needs them.
This open resource history website, sponsored by H-PAD and the Peace History Society, continues to build a solid foundation for critical thinking on U.S. foreign policy.  Written for students and the general public, the latest essays are “Cold War interventionism, 1945-1990” and “The post-Cold War era, 1989-2001” (see blog here).  Excellent for online coursework.