Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“Trump’s Squeeze of Venezuela Goes Beyond the Monroe Doctrine”
By Alan McPherson, Portside, posted November 4 (from The Conversation)
Runs through two centuries of US policy in Latin America, concluding that the current military buildup aimed at Venezuela “is in key respects both unprecedented and shocking. It could also damage U.S. relations with the rest of the hemisphere for a generation to come.” The author teaches history at Temple University, specializing in US relations with Latin America.
“When Zohran Mamdani Campaigned in Arabic He Was Speaking an Old American Language”
By Juan Cole, ScheerPost, posted November 3
Finds evidence of Arabic-speaking newcomers to the New World, both among the early Spanish settlers and later among enslaved Africans from Muslim areas of West Africa, augmented from the 1880s on by immigrants from what are now Lebanon and Syria. The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
“Dockworker Strikes in Solidarity with Gaza Have a Long Legacy”
By Peter Cole, Informed Comment, posted November 2
On the recent blocking by dockworkers in Genoa of ships bound for Israel, against a historical background of dockworker solidarity actions worldwide, most notably against South African apartheid. The author teaches history at Western Illinois University. Among his books is Dockworker Power: Race and Activism in Durban and the San Francisco Bay Area (U. of Illinois Press, 2018).
“The Underground Railroad’s Stealth Sailors”
By Eric Foner, New York Review of Books, October 23 issue
A review essay on Marcus Rediker’s new book Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea (Viking, 2025). On the trade routes and frequent solidarity among maritime workers that brought a significant number of American slaves to freedom in the North. The author is an emeritus professor of US history at Columbia University and a leading scholar of the Civil War era.
“The Red Scare Is American Past and Present”
By Benjamin Balthaser, Jacobin, posted October 19
On the far-reaching scope of the “Second Red Scare” of the late 1940s through the ’50s, often oversimplified by the label “McCarthyism.” Comparisons are made with the Trump administration’s policies. The author teaches multiethnic US literature at Indiana University, South Bend.
“The President Who Re-Segregated the Federal Government”
By Joel Zapata, Made by History – Time, posted October 14
Finds a precedent for the Trump administration’s anti-“DEI” policies in the actions of Woodrow Wilson, elected president in 1912, who reversed decades of progress under equal-opportunity civil service rules by firing many Black federal employees and subjecting those who remained to racially segregated conditions. The author teaches history at Oregon State University.
“Memo to Future Historians: This Is Fascism, and Many of Us See It”
By Michael Tomasky, Reader Supported News, posted October 11 (from The New Republic).
A succinct cataloging of Trump administration actions, with special attention to Chicago, that raise alarm bells. “Historians sometimes say that when societies are descending into fascism, it can be hard for people to notice it in real time. Well, historians of the future, I’m here to tell you: We are noticing.” The author is the editor of The New Republic.
“Albert Einstein and the Problem of War”
By Lawrence S. Wittner, Z magazine, posted October 10
Chronicles Einstein’s antiwar efforts over many decades, from the impending onset of World War I to his post-World War II criticisms of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. “Today, as we face a violent, nuclear-armed world, Einstein’s warnings about unrestrained nationalism and his proposals to control it are increasingly relevant.” The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY Albany.
By Omer Bartov, Prospect, posted October 8
A long, complex article likening post-World War II revisionism in Europe regarding German atrocities during the war to present-day acceptance in Israeli society of genocide in Gaza. The author, a former soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, is a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University.
“Our Fragile Freedoms: Essays by Eric Foner”
By Patrick Young, The Reconstruction Era blog, posted October 7
A review essay on Eric Foner’s new book, a collection of sixty essays on slavery and the Civil War era entitled Our Fragile Freedoms (Norton, 2025). “All the essays were written for the educated mass public,” and the review highlights a number of striking facts that will be new to most readers. The author is an immigration attorney and a special professor at Hofstra University School of Law.
By Alex De Waal, Jewish Currents, posted October 6
Provides a range of examples of the effects of deliberately caused famine. “Even if food is surged into Gaza today, the history of weaponized mass starvation shows that the social aftershocks will reverberate for generations.” The author is a research professor at the Fletcher School, Tufts University; among his books is Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine (Polity Books, 2018).
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles that are included in the above list, and to Roger Peace (creator of the U.S. Foreign Policy History & Resource Guide) for valuable consulting. Suggestions for inclusion in these occasional lists can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.