Links to Recent Articles of Interest
By Robert Malley and Stephen Wertheim, New York Times, posted March 5
A quick review of US policy toward Iran during recent administrations, finding a consistent assumption, questionable but never questioned, that Iran has presented a threat to US security. Robert Malley was the special US envoy for Iran from 2021 to 2023; Stephen Wertheim is a foreign policy historian and an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Iran Is Fighting a Techno-Guerrilla War as the US and Israel Fight a Conventional One”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment, posted March 4
Argues that the assassination of civilian leaders is not only a war crime but, in the present instance, also of limited effectiveness, as a method of crushing resistance. The author teaches Middle East history at the University of Michigan.
“The Dry and the Wet Burn Together”
By Eskander Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, London Review of Books, posted March 3
A critique of the US-Israeli attack, even on its own terms. “Wars of choice rarely confine themselves to their intended targets. They consume not only the combatants but the assumptions that animate them.” The author is an interdisciplinary scholar who teaches international relations of the Middle East at the University of St. Andrews.
Interview with Ervand Abrahamian, New Left Review, posted February 27
Predating the actual start of the current war, this interview goes deeply into the history of the Islamic Republic and its relations with Israel and the US. Ervand Abrahamian is an Iranian-American professor of Middle East history at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center and has written multiple books on recent Iranian history.
“Forget MAGA, Welcome to MEGA: Make Empire Great Again”
By Mehdi Hasan, The Guardian, posted February 17
On Marco Rubio’s speech to the Munich security conference in February, widely praised as depicting a more moderate US policy but actually a glorification of centuries of Western aggression around the world – “a full-throated endorsement of empire.” The author is a British-American journalist and broadcaster.
By Kevin Kruse, Campaign Trails, posted February 12
On the importance of photographs to the fight against racial segregation in the 1950s and 1960s, and their parallel with the photographers who documented ICE and Border Patrol actions in Minneapolis this winter. The author teaches US history at Princeton University.
“From Guantanamo to Minneapolis”
By Jana K. Lipman, New Lines Magazine, posted February 9
“The use of unlawful imprisonment during the ‘war on terror’ set the stage for the US government’s detentions and deportations today.” The author teaches history at Tulane University, specializing in US foreign policy, immigration, and labor history. She wrote Guantanamo: A Working-Class History Between Empire and Revolution (2008).
By Peter E. Gordon, New York Review of Books, posted February 7
Invoking the memory of Jewish persecution to denounce the assault on immigrants today is not an offense but a moral imperative.” The author teaches history at Harvard University, specializing in modern European intellectual history.
By Dan Friedman and Amanda Moore, Mother Jones, March-April issue
A long report on the multiple ways in which Trump supporters are using the nation’s 250th “birthday” to stamp a highly partisan view of its past. “It seems worth asking whether America250 will celebrate the ideals of the country’s founders – or those of the monarch they rebelled against.” Dan Friedman is a senior reporter for Mother Jones and Amanda Moore is a freelance journalist covering the far right.
“Historians Must Reclaim the American Historical Association”
By Stacy D. Farenthold, Inside Higher Education, posted February 5
On the “Palestinian Exception” in human rights discourse and the AHA Council’s vetoing of resolutions passed by the association’s annual business meeting in January. The author teaches history and Middle East/South Asia Studies at the University of California, Davis and is a member of Historians for Palestine.
By Lawrence Wittner, Peace and Health Blog, posted February 5
On the danger signs that recently led the editors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to move the hands of their “Doomsday clock” to the closest to midnight it has ever been. The author is a professor emeritus of history at SUNY and has written widely about nuclear weaponry.
“What ICE Should Have Learned from the Fugitive Slave Act”
By Jelani Cobb, Portside, posted January 30 (from The New Yorker)
Likens the response of Minnesotans to ICE tactics to the repulsion in northern communities, leading often to active resistance, leading to resistance, to the kidnapping of escaped slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The author is a historian who is Dean of the Columbia Journalism School and a staff writer for The New Yorker.
“Why Israeli Counterterrorism Tactics Are Showing Up in Minnesota”
By Connor Echols, Responsible Statecraft, posted January 29
Details two decades of cooperation between US immigration officials and the Israeli government. “The result has been an increasing mind meld between security agencies in Israel and the United States.” The author is a reporter for Responsible Statecraft, published by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles included in the above list and to Roger Peace for valuable feedback on articles being considered. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.